Listen Again: Dr. Margie Gillis

The Dyslexia Duo: Dr. Margie Gillis on Dyslexia, Structured Literacy, and Why Teacher Coaching Matters

Aimee and Melissa introduce their podcast, The Dyslexia Duo, and interview Dr. Margie Gillis, founder of the Connecticut nonprofit Literacy How, which provides coaching support for teachers from pre-K through high school. Dr. Gillis shares her personal and professional connection to dyslexia through family members and explains dyslexia as a neurobiological, hereditary, language-based learning disability often co-occurring with challenges such as ADHD, anxiety, dysgraphia, or dyscalculia. The conversation distinguishes instructional programs from instructional approaches like Orton-Gillingham and alphabetic phonics, clarifies structured literacy as language-structure content plus explicit, systematic, data-driven pedagogy, and discusses universal screeners, diagnostic assessment, and progress monitoring. They address insufficient teacher preparation and professional development, RTI/MTSS implementation problems, COVID learning loss, “dys-teach-ia,” and why districts avoid using the term dyslexia due to service costs, and Gillis recommends books and describes her Professional Learning Series.

00:00 Meet the Dyslexia Duo 01:06 Why Margie Gillis Matters 03:05 Interview Begins and Literacy How 04:51 Training Roots and Structured Literacy 08:01 Margie Origin Story and Family Dyslexia 10:25 School Pushback and Defining Dyslexia 19:56 Programs vs Approaches OG Explained 27:43 Structured Literacy and Curriculum Must Haves 32:47 Coaching Teachers and Better PD 39:51 RTI MTSS and the Wait to Fail Trap 47:30 Beyond the Score Report 50:33 COVID Learning Loss Debate 54:29 Dyslexia or Dyslexia 58:28 Why Universal Screeners Matter 01:03:16 Sharing Data With Families 01:08:22 Why Districts Avoid Dyslexia 01:12:24 Training Teachers Better 01:14:44 Advice for Parents Teachers 01:18:41 Book Recommendations Roundup 01:24:33 Comprehension and Vocabulary Focus 01:25:53 Closing Thanks and Signoff