EDVIEW 360
Podcast Series

The Major Phonics Dimensions and Details of Instructional Content

Dr. Patricia Vadasy
Author, researcher, literacy expert, and senior research scientist at Oregon Research Institute
Dr. Patricia Vadasy
Dr. Patricia Vadasy

Patricia Vadasy, Ph.D., is a senior research scientist at the Oregon Research Institute. She has a background in early reading acquisition, instructional design, and school-based intervention research. Dr. Vadasy led the development and the research behind Voyager Sopris Learning’s Sound Partners program.

Between 1998 and 2011, Dr. Vadasy directed a series of randomized control trials on supplemental phonics instruction in beginning word reading skills. These school-based research studies were conducted in public schools serving large numbers of minority and low-income students and dual-language learners. She also examined the long-term effects of kindergarten and first grade Sound Partners tutoring at two years post intervention, at the end of grade 2 and 3, respectively.

Dr. Vadasy earned her master of public health degree in maternal and child health and her Ph.D. in education at the University of Washington. She currently co-directs projects funded by the National Institute of Minority Health and Health Disparities on bilingual academic STEM vocabulary learning for English learners and their parents, and a bilingual mobile app for parents of preschoolers who have a sibling with special needs. 

Dr. Vadasy lives in Seattle.

Learn more about Dr. Patricia Vadasy
Release Date: Friday, November 15, 2024

Join us for this fascinating and informative conversation with Dr. Patricia Vadasy, researcher and literacy expert, as we explore phonics instruction, and the research behind it. We will consider the critical nature of alphabet knowledge in teaching young learners how to read and spell words. Throughout her career, Dr. Vadasy has worked to develop effective approaches to early phonics instruction. More recently, she published her research about instructional details that enhance phonics instruction, and effective approaches and details of preschool alphabet instruction. Her school-based intervention research has been funded since 1998 with grants from the U. S. Department of Education, Institute of Education Sciences. 

For classroom teachers and administrators who are determined to give early learners the best possible foundation to become successful readers, this conversation will give you the facts behind phonics instruction, the strategies, and impetus to move forward knowing your instruction is the best it can be.

Dr. Vadasy will review and discuss:

  • The National Reading Panel findings about effective features of phonics instruction, including explicit, systematic, and synthetic phonics instruction
  • How the research informs effective phonics instruction, including applying taught letter-sound correspondences and application to beginning decoding
  • Individual differences in learning these skills and where students struggle
  • The benefits of practice in reading words in isolation and in sentence and story contexts
  • Providing student support in the classroom and in supplemental instruction
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