For The Love Of Literacy

Scripts, Sentences and Structures: Helping Students Unlock Meaning - Louise Hewitt, Meghan Hicks & Mary Beth Steven

Teaching about morphemes (the meaningful components of words), sentence structure (syntax) and grammar (the framework for organizing words and sentences) isn’t hard, once you learn about two new resources: Mary Beth Steven’s Dramatic Scripts and Meghan Hicks and Louise Hewitt’s The Sentence Studio. In fact, you can learn about these vital components of language as you teach your students by using their scripts, sentence and text practices. Their common goal is to create insightful readers and articulate writers.  These educators recognize that word study, syntax and grammar go to the heart of reading comprehension and written expression. They also focus on responsive teaching that brings these topics alive through rich highly engaging activities. Mary Beth Steven book, Enhancing the Teaching of Morphology and Grammar with Dramatic Scripts for the Classroom, uses plays to build reading comprehension while creating a collaborative classroom. Meghan and Louise’s new instructional guide, The Sentence Studio, teaches grammar and syntax with fables and a groundbreaking BubbleMap analysis strategy. Educators and students discover the artistry of sentence structure while unlocking the meaning that lies within every sentence You can find more information about Mary Beth’s book on her classroom blog mbsteven.edublogs.org [http://mbsteven.edublogs.org/] You can purchase The Sentence Studio and access free downloads and other supporting resources at Meghan and Louise’s website www.scienceofthesentence.com [http://www.scienceofthesentence.com/]

Meet the Students (A.K.A. Humans) of the Boring (into words) Scholars Collective - Sara Leland & Students

Title: Meet the Students / Humans of the Boring (into words) Scholars Collective Listen Sara Leland’s students, five humans who have dyslexia, ADHA and/or autism. With Sara’s guidance and support they grew to love literacy. They joined together and built a website www.boringscholarscollective.site [http://www.boringscholarscollective.site]. The boring scholars used their writing, creative and artistic skills to express their love of reading and writing through the website. Learn how they became word detectives, deeply investigating the spelling, meaning and history of words.  Sara shares how she develops a fascination for words in children who may have struggled with basic skills. She explains that the ultimate purpose of education is human development, helping children to grow into capable, curious, creative and empathic citizens. You’ll also learn how a philosopher views language, filled with metaphors and narratives, fueled by critical thinking.    Sara’s own website is:  www.wordscholars.net [http://www.wordscholars.net] Sara can be contacted through the site or by email at:  sara.wordscholars@gmail.com [sara.wordscholars@gmail.com]

The Sentence Pathway to Decoding and Comprehension -- Xiuhong Tong & S. Hélène Deacon

If you have ever wondered why your students struggle with word reading, or read accurately but with limited comprehension, then you may want to flip your approach to reading instruction. Start at the sentence level by using Xiuhong Tong and Hélène Deacon’s groundbreaking Linguistics Pathways Model, which provides two parallel paths leading to reading comprehension. The first pathway leads to word recognition by morphological decoding. Deacon and Tong show how word reading and meaning arise from an awareness of how morphemes—the meaningful components that compose all words—are linked to graphemes. Unlike phonics decoding, students develop word reading, spelling and vocabulary knowledge in unison, which supports reading comprehension.  The second pathway is a syntax to sentence pathway. Syntax, the blueprint for creating and understanding sentences, is the layer of language that most directly supports reading comprehension and fluency. Together, words are not only read with meaning but as part of meaningful sentences – which largely determines text comprehension. Xiuhong Tong and S. Helene Deacon 2025. The Linguistic Pathways Model: Capturing the Multiple Dimensions of Reading Development. Reading Research Quarterly

Four Powerful Word, Sentence, Text and Cognitive Routines for Teaching Writing - Meghan Hicks

Meghan Hicks returns to talk about how teaching structure at the word, sentence, and text levels can help students make sense of the writing process. We often discuss literacy as a system and the importance of students understanding how it works. Meghan explains the broader system and how her students discover that the whole is much greater than the sum of its parts.  You’ll learn that syntax—how sentences are constructed from words, phrases and clauses—isn’t an abstract language concept. Rather, it is a straightforward way to improve reading comprehension and sentence construction. Meghan explains a simple sentence diagramming method that provides visual representations of sentence structure. Meghan also dives into the cognitive aspects of writing, starting with thinking. Students who can structure their thoughts are better able to structure their sentences. You learn about the four categories of thinking and how they influence students’ writing.   You can contact Meg at ThinkWriteReadCommunity@gmail.com [ThinkWriteReadCommunity@gmail.com]  or visit the Think~Write~Read Community [https://thinkwriteread.webnode.page/]  Bruce Howlett's Seven Layers of Literacy Project - ReadingShift.com [https://www.readingshift.com/]

Respecting the Social, Emotional & Academic Needs of Dyslexic Individuals -- Bonnie Feeney & Jen Petrich

Bonnie Feeney, a dyslexic mother and Jen Petrich, her PhD neuroscientist daughter discuss dyslexia from a unique perspective—one of from a journey of personal discovery and the other from studying brain science. Hear how their journeys came together, enriching both their lives.  Learn the difficulties that dyslexics confront within and beyond the classroom. Dyslexics share more than a diagnosis and supporting them requires more than just a reading intervention. They deserve our respect and understanding.  For decades, Bonny experienced biases and judgments that included narrow instruction that didn’t develop her interest in language. Jen became a neuroscientist not to help her mother, but to understand neurodiversity and find methods that support students broadly. Bonny began to listen in on Jen’s tutoring sessions with students and realized that this type of word and sentence inquiry made sense to her.  A note from Jennifer Petrich: I would like to clarify a comment I made on this podcast episode that doesn’t reflect my true beliefs. In recounting someone else’s experience, I used language and framing that I no longer align with, including referring to a good IQ and not being dumb. I believe that measures like IQ do not define a person’s worth or fully capture their abilities, and I’m mindful that words we use—especially casually—can reinforce harmful assumptions. This was an unfiltered moment, and I’m committed to being more thoughtful and aware of my language and biases moving forward. Bruce Howlett’s Seven Layers of Literacy Approach: ReadingShift.com [https://www.readingshift.com/] Literacy Dr website: https://www.theliteracydr.com [https://www.theliteracydr.com/] D.O.T.S. course info and registration: https://www.theliteracydr.com/pd/dots [https://www.theliteracydr.com/pd/dots] Wednesdays with Literacy Dr (free drop-in) info and registration: https://www.theliteracydr.com/drop-in [https://www.theliteracydr.com/drop-in] Literacy Dr videos: https://www.theliteracydr.com/videos [https://www.theliteracydr.com/videos] List of Resources for Further Learning: https://cb29367d-4ec0-40b5-af0b-a46966ed9d5a.filesusr.com/ugd/2c8fa0_47cff29b89e34ae2bcf16d59670de2d7.pdf [https://cb29367d-4ec0-40b5-af0b-a46966ed9d5a.filesusr.com/ugd/2c8fa0_47cff29b89e34ae2bcf16d59670de2d7.pdf]