Let's Talk, Teacher to Teacher With Dr. Gina Pepin
Welcome to the Let’s Talk, Teacher to Teacher podcast. My name is Dr. Gina Pepin - and I am so happy to meet you. I am a mom, teacher, professor, supervisor for teacher candidates, a reading specialist and a whole lot more! I am the 2023-2024 Region 1 Michigan Teacher of the Year and State Finalist - and also served in this role as part of the very first group of Regional Teachers/State Finalists of the Year in 2018-2019. But what I want you to know the most about me is… I have a great passion for early literacy and teacher preparation and the thing I am most proud of is of course our children… but my once in a lifetime chance to become a co-author, along with the extremely talented children’s author - Eric Litwin ! Together… we wrote: The Power of Joyful Reading: Help Your Young Readers Soar to Success. You can learn more about me - my experiences, how to hire me to speak at your workshops, schools, teacher programs etc… at www.ginapepin.com I offer you practical make and takes - easy tips along with real life shared stories - so that you can easily create joyful shared reading experiences and other amazing strategies and approaches in your learning space/s right away. I am here to help you make powerful changes - Let’s do this together. Check out the Ride and Read program I designed along with 100s of FREE resources at www.ginapepin.com and https://www.instagram.com/drginapepin/
Episodes
Join Dr. Gina Pepin on Let’s Talk Teacher to Teacher as she explores the real reasons why some students struggle with reading. This episode dives into the Multi-Tiered System of Supports (MTSS), highlighting the importance of early observation, effective screening tools, and family input. Learn how visual processing challenges can be easily overlooked and discover practical strategies at each tier—from classroom inter...
In this episode of Table Talk Readers, Dr. Gina Pepin invites families to transform mealtime into a playful learning experience with family-ready placemats. Discover how these creative placemats can help build early reading skills—like concepts of print, the alphabetic principle, and word recognition—right at the kitchen table. Packed with practical ideas for DIY placemats, fun games, and ways to weave reading and lan...
Join Dr. Gina Pepin in Precious Print as she reveals the power of labeling your home to build early reading skills. Alongside coauthor Eric Litwin, Dr. Gina explains how children learn best when they see, touch, and talk about words in their daily world. Discover handy tips for using labeled objects, engaging in word-rich conversations, and make reading a seamless part of family life. Check out the “Ride and Read: Adv...
In this episode of Let’s Talk Teacher to Teacher, Dr. Gina Pepin explores the benefits of moving writing off the desk and onto the wall! Discover how using vertical spaces—like easels, chalkboards, whiteboards, windows, mirrors, brick walls, and craft paper—can spark creativity, improve motor skills, and make writing irresistible for students. Dr. Gina shares practical tips for safe and engaging set-ups in classrooms ...
In this episode of Let’s Talk Teacher to Teacher, Dr. Gina Pepin explores why today’s children struggle to visualize and imagine in our fast-paced, image-driven world—and how this impacts their comprehension and creative thinking. Discover practical, engaging activities for home and classroom that help kids build their mental imagery skills, from listen-and-draw games to guided imagery exercises and sensory storytelli...
In this inspiring episode of “Let’s Talk Teacher to Teacher,” Dr. Gina Pepin welcomes a special guest who is both an accomplished reading interventionist and the coauthor (alongside children's author Eric Litwin) of The Power of Joyful Reading: Help Your Young Readers Soar to Success. Drawing from her unique dual role, she shares how effective reading instruction is about balancing intensive, systematic intervent...
In this insightful episode of the Let’s Talk, Teacher to Teacher podcast, Dr. Gina Pepin—a passionate reading specialist, professor, and Region 1 Michigan Teacher of the Year—dives into a commonly overlooked factor in early literacy: how vision issues can impact learning to read, especially for students already identified with speech or language impairments. Dr. Pepin shares a powerful real-life story of a young learn...
In this episode of Let’s Talk Teacher to Teacher, Dr. Gina Pepin unpacks what Michigan’s new dyslexia law means for secondary content area teachers. Learn the law’s key requirements, discover specific classroom strategies, and gather tips for making your subject accessible and empowering for students with dyslexia. Whether you teach literature, chemistry, or American history, this episode will help you ensure every st...
In this episode of Let’s Talk Teacher to Teacher, Dr. Gina Pepin breaks down Michigan’s new dyslexia law and what it means for elementary educators. Learn about universal screening, practical classroom requirements, and actionable strategies for early identification and support. Dr. Pepin empowers teachers to use structured literacy and collaborative practices—so every student has a chance to succeed in reading from t...
In this episode of Let’s Talk Teacher to Teacher, Dr. Gina Pepin explores the key characteristics of dyslexia in middle and high school students. Learn what dyslexia looks like beyond elementary grades, discover classroom signs to watch for, and gather practical tips for supporting adolescent learners—whether it’s with extra time, audiobooks, alternative assessments, or just a bit more patience and encouragement. Idea...
In this episode of “Let’s Talk Teacher to Teacher,” Dr. Gina Pepin debunks the myth that sight word learning is all about visual memorization. Drawing on current reading science, Dr. Pepin explains how true sight word mastery actually relies on strong phonemic awareness, phonics skills, and spelling practice. Learn what orthographic mapping really means, why “see and say” is not enough, and how teachers can help every...
In this episode of "Let’s Talk Teacher to Teacher," Dr. Gina Pepin shines a spotlight on the unique vocabulary learning challenges faced by children with Specific Language Impairment (SLI). Discover why fast mapping—acquiring new words quickly—is especially difficult for these students and how gaps in lexical learning impact their classroom success. Dr. Pepin shares actionable strategies for general educatio...
In this episode, Dr. Gina Pepin focuses on the critical importance of identifying dyslexia characteristics through careful observation of students’ language, reading skills, and behavioral signs—while also considering the multi-faceted role of visual sensory processing in reading. Dr. Pepin empowers educators to look beyond test scores and notice the everyday experiences that can signal reading challenges in their stu...
In this episode of “Let’s Talk Teacher to Teacher,” Dr. Gina Pepin breaks down the essential building blocks of reading success: word recognition and language comprehension. Discover the key components of each—like alphabetic coding, print concepts, phonemic awareness, and the alphabetic principle for word recognition; and linguistic knowledge, background knowledge, inferencing skills, syntax, and vocabulary for langu...
In this episode of "Let’s Talk Teacher to Teacher," Dr. Gina Pepin explores how to balance intensive, code-based reading instruction with the vibrant, meaningful experiences that authentic texts bring to striving readers. Discover why real books, stories, and poems matter—even for students in Tier 3 intervention—and get practical strategies for integrating authentic texts alongside systematic phonics teachin...
In this episode of “Let’s Talk Teacher to Teacher,” Dr. Gina Pepin unpacks the essential components of structured language and literacy instruction. Discover how effective teaching goes beyond simply sounding out words—encompassing phonology (the speech-sound system), orthography (the writing system), syntax (sentence structure), morphology (word parts and meanings), semantics (meaning at the word, sentence, and text ...
Ever wondered what those Rapid Automatized Naming (RAN) scores truly reveal? In this episode, Dr. Gina Pepin breaks down how RAN points to a child’s processing speed and automaticity, risk for reading challenges—including dyslexia—and early signals for reading fluency issues. Learn what RAN predicts, how it fits with other reading assessments, and what it can’t tell you about your students. Walk away with new tools to...
Join Dr. Gina Pepin on this laugh-out-loud episode of “Let’s Talk Teacher to Teacher” as she shares an unforgettable compliment from a first-grade student: “You look so beautiful—just like a clown!” Dive into the unpredictable world of honest student feedback, the art of accepting compliments (no matter how colorful!), and the value of authenticity and joy in teaching. Whether you’ve been called a clown or a superhero...
Join Dr. Gina Pepin as she unpacks the hot topic of nonsense words in early literacy! Originally created as an assessment tool to gauge students' decoding skills, nonsense words have made their way into daily instruction—but is this really best for our young readers? In this episode, Dr. Pepin explores the history, purpose, and unintended consequences of practicing nonsense words, including how it can affect the ...
Timed one-minute benchmark assessments have become a cornerstone of literacy instruction, but are we getting the full picture for students with speech impairments? In this episode, Dr. Gina Pepin explores how these common assessments can blur the lines between decoding difficulties and speech challenges.
Listen as she unpacks strategies for fair and accurate assessment, discusses collaboration with speech-language pat...
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