S7 E9 - Why We Should Keep the Early in Early Childhood

About this episode

Jocelyn discusses the importance of responsive, teacher-led instruction in early childhood education and advocates for a better-designed school day for young children.

In this episode, Jocelyn pushes back on all-day, scripted, tightly paced instruction in Foundation to Year 2 while defending responsive, teacher-led explicit instruction as essential for learning across the curriculum. She explains why young children need a better-designed school day with movement, talk, and purposeful guided play so they can regulate, engage, and learn more. Has something in this episode resonated with you? Get in touch! We have released Spelling Success in...

People in this episode

Host: Jocelyn Seamer

Topics covered

• early childhood education
• responsive instruction
• teacher-led learning
• play-based learning
• curriculum design

Keywords

• early childhood
• explicit instruction
• movement
• guided play
• engagement

More episodes of The Structured Literacy Podcast

• S7 E11 - What Does It Really Take to Make School Improvement Last? · April 25, 2026 · 24 min
• S7 E10 - How to Evaluate Spelling Instruction · April 19, 2026 · 25 min
• S7 E8 - Why Your Spelling Approach Might Be Working Against You (Part 2) · March 21, 2026 · 23 min
• S7 E7 - Why Your Spelling Approach Might Be Working Against You (Part 1) · March 14, 2026 · 26 min
• S7 E6 - Practical Steps When Grouping for Phonics · March 7, 2026 · 27 min
• S7 E5 - What Does the Research Actually Say About Grouping Students for Phonics? · February 28, 2026 · 24 min