In this episode, Jacob Chastain sits down with Jennifer Serravallo to discuss Whole Book Comprehension and why knowledge building, sustained reading, and deep comprehension deserve a renewed place in today’s classrooms.
Together, they explore how literacy instruction has shifted over the past decade, why whole-book reading has become less common, and whether today’s emphasis on knowledge-rich instruction is something new—or a return to what we’ve always known works.
Jennifer also shares practical strategies for making whole-book teaching fit into real classrooms, how it connects with shorter texts and excerpts, and ways teachers and PLCs can begin strengthening comprehension instruction this school year.
Whether you’re a classroom teacher, coach, or school leader, this conversation will challenge the way you think about reading—and give you practical ideas you can use right away.
Jennifer Serravallo is the author ofThe New York Times‘ bestselling The Reading Strategies Book 2.0 and The Writing Strategies Book. These and some of her other titles have been translated into Spanish, French, Italian, and Chinese. Her popular books and resources help teachers make goal-directed, responsive, explicit strategy instruction doable in every classroom. Her newest titles are The Reading Strategies Book 2.0; Teaching Writing in Small Groups; A Teacher’s Guide to Reading Conferences, and the assessment and teaching resource Complete Comprehension for Fiction and Nonfiction.
