WHY DO I SUGGEST STUDENTS UNDERSTAND THE READING/SPELLING/WRITING BRAIN PROCESSES? Let’s talk about this phrase: “Knowledge is POWER.” Don’t you agree? The more students of any age know abour how a task is accomplished, it’s got to have a positive outcome. Children and parents alike are often confused and upset when things aren’t going well …
A few months ago, I had occasion to correspond and speak with Lisa Hanifan, who by her own admission, was an “angry teacher” and a mom who later “felt guilty as a parent.” You see, Ms. Hanifan didn’t know what she didn’t know. My colleague, Lisa, has NOTHING to feel guilty about—neither as a teacher …
Start Early!! Why wait? Start with oral language, encourage interest in letters, then speech to print (sound to symbol correspondences) to teach blending and segmenting! A few things crossed my desktop this week, but NOTHING compares to the birth of a new granddaughter, which also occurred this week!! That’s number 3 for me. Molly will …
Why Wait? Literally (or is it Literacy?) from the Mouths of Babes! Read More »
For some students, even able ones, reading is just “too much” work. A little parable is then offered in support of teaching literacy skills efficiently, effectively, and in accordance with what we now know about how the human brain learns to read–in other words–aligned to The Science of Reading. HERE IS THE STORY — EVERYONE …
Is it YOUR or YOUR CHILD’s Enemy too? I am downsizing, moving, and relocating to another state in just a couple of weeks. So you know the story. These are the file cabinets that were once filled with paper—stuff from my home, stuff from my job(s), stuff from my kids. I suspect NO ONE will …
I love sharing stories. That’s why I received a gift of a ‘storyteller poster’ which hangs in my office. And that’s why I continued to receive gifts relating to storytelling over the years. Image by Lori Josephson I used to talk with my students, all of whom had dyslexia to greater or lesser extents, about …
Going Back To School Is Like A Roller Coaster…Especially On the First Day! Read More »
I listened to Dr. Tiffany Hogan speak… …at the annual AIM Institute Symposium last month. Her area of expertise is language comprehension, as she is currently the Director of Speech and Language (SAiL) Literacy Lab at Massachusetts General Hospital Institute of Health Professionals in Boston. Image by Lori Josephson She discussed catching students who experience …
Tom Hid the Cat in the Shed…What’s This All About? Read More »
HELP ME PROCESS..TOUCH MY HAND My friend and colleague, Pam Kanfer, recently passed away after a long illness. I took Pam’s passing very hard—and still do. She was so important to so many people, especially to children, whether her own, her relatives, her children’s friends, or her students. Pam’s friend (and now colleague–keep reading), Holly …
I recently read a novel entitled The Measure by Nikki Erlick. This quote resonated with me for many reasons: “I arise in the morning torn between a desire to save the world and a desire to savor the world. That makes it hard to plan the day.” ― Nikki Erlick, The Measure A DELICATE BALANCE …
Since it is November with the holidays upon us all, a nod to cooking seemed appropriate to me. What does cooking have to do with literacy development? What can YOU do to ‘whip up’ successful literacy instruction whether you are a parent or a teacher or a teacher of teachers? Let’s start with this… I …