STORY FRAMES COMING SOON

I am excited and delighted to share the cover for my new book, STORY FRAMES FOR TEACHING LITERACY coming out with Brookes Publishing in early April 2021. Many of you have participated in my workshops for Story Frames (formerly The Secret Language of Stories). I have presented these strategies at ASHA, ILA/IRA, and the Annual Reading, Literacy and Learning Conference put on each year by the International Dyslexia Association (IDA), as well as many smaller conferences and workshops. 

If you have used these resources with your students and would like to share your experiences, please contact me at carolee@wordtravelliteracy.com.

Story Frames combines the strategies that teachers and SLPs implement to teach story grammar with the techniques that professional authors use to plot their books. This unique combination helps students appreciate stories at a deeper level and gives them tools for creating their own narratives. 

Here are a few of the features of the book described by the publisher:

"This guidebook reveals how to unlock literacy and learning skills by captivating K–12 students with the power of stories: how they’re structured, how they reflect and change lives, and how students can create their own original narratives. Using dozens of diverse fiction and nonfiction books as vivid examples, you’ll discover how to teach 12 key story elements (Story Frames) in dynamic, fun, and highly visual ways, including Quick Draws, storyboards, and icons that make narrative structure easy to grasp. Then you’ll get in-depth guidance on how to use knowledge of story structure to build core literacy skills—from oral language to reading comprehension—and empower students to write their own personal stories in a variety of genres. The book includes more than 35 adaptable lesson plans and a complete package of online support materials including PowerPoints and other tools for online learning." 

ONLINE MATERIALS: Implement Story Frames effectively with a full package of downloadable materials, including sample storyboards and templates, 40+ handouts and worksheets, game cards, slide decks to use in instruction, 30+ sample story analyses of books for children and young adults, and brief literature guides for applying Story Frames to picture books and to chapter books and novels.

Several noteworthy authors have contributed chapters to Story Frames including:

Amy Miller, Director of the May Center for Learning in Santa Fe, NM shares how students transform personal experiences into superhero stories. She runs a project called the Dyslexia Justice League where she uses superheroes and the Hero's Journey to help students explore personal struggles and develop a growth mindset.

Paula Moraine, educator, consultant, and author of Helping Students Take Control of Everyday Executive Functions provides practical strategies for using narratives as a medium for improving executive function skills.

Mary Jo O'Neill, parent advocate, discusses how getting parents to write down their family stories provides a powerful tool for advocacy. Her chapter highlights a type of persuasive writing that has real-world implications for students receiving special education services. 

Lesley Roessing, university lecturer and author of Bridging the Gap: Reading Critically and Writing Meaningfully to Get to the Core shares insights for teaching memoir writing and explains how memoir can be a bridge to expository writing.

William Van Cleave, educational consultant and author of Writing Matters: Designing Sentence Skills in Students of All Ages, helps educators make sense out of grammar instruction by focusing on function rather than form.

Carol Westby, university lecturer, researcher, author, and leading authority on narrative development, discusses the importance of considering multicultural perspectives in the writing of personal stories and the ways storytelling varies across countries and cultures. Her chapter also discusses strategies for empowering English as a Second Language (ESL) students. She offers several online courses through PESI including Developing Social-Emotional Skills and Self Regulation in Students: Narrative Intervention for Long-Term Academic, Personal & Social Success. 

For a full list of the downloadable resources that accompany my book, find out more at Brookes Publishing.

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Speech-Language Pathologist Summit

I am honored and excited to be part of the PESI Speech-Language Pathologist Summit happening later in November. I'm also thrilled to be pictured above next to my long time mentor, Carol Westby, who has a chapter in my upcoming book, Story Frames for Teaching Literacy coming in March 2021. Find out about her PESI Narrative Seminar HERE.

Many of us were saddened to hear that the annual American Speech-Language-Hearing Association (ASHA) conference was not only canceled but that there would be no virtual replacement. In response, PESI brilliantly organized the SLP Summit to take place the same weekend, filling an important gap for those of us who need continuing education credit before the end of the year. 

My session is a two-hour presentation on Written Language: Roles, Responsibilities, and Ethical Considerations. It includes evidence based strategies for working with students with reading and writing challenges. ASHA now requires continuing education training in ethics specifically and so I hope this seminar will fill an important gap. My session is appropriate not only for SLPs but also for other educators who are curious about how SLPs can support students with dyslexia and other related reading and writing challenges.

Register for the summit HERE. Hope to see you there!

DR. CAROL WESTBY'S NARRATIVE SEMINAR

I was delighted to have dinner with a college mentor of mine, Dr. Carol Westby, here in Denver at the Great Northern. She was in town to give a presentation for PESI on Narrative Intervention entitled: Developing Social-Emotional Skills & Self-Regulation in Students: Narrative Intervention for Long-Term Academic, Personal & Social Success.

I attended her Friday workshop and was thrilled to hear her talk about using picture books with students of all ages including those at the high school level. I have long advocated using illustrated texts for older students, especially narrative non-fiction picture books that include engaging autobiographies of scientists, mathematicians, sports figures, and important people from history. These books explore sophisticated topics, but the picture support makes them accessible to second language learners as well as to students with limited vocabulary and concept knowledge.

In my upcoming book with Brookes Publishing, I discuss several current picture books appropriate for students of all ages. Watch for Story Frames coming November 2020.

I'm thrilled to announce that Dr. Westby will be writing a chapter for Story Frames about Multicultural Issues. During her December PESI presentation, she discussed this topic at length. She pointed out that western stories tend to have a linear structure while the stories of many other cultures do not. We must exercise caution when listening to the stories of students from other cultures. Otherwise, we might assume that their narratives are incoherent when they are simply following a structure different from what we are used to teaching. This is especially important when using a student's narrative to assess language abilities.

One fun suggestion Westby gave for exploring unfamiliar settings was to use the story of The Three Little Pigs to discuss the different types of homes people construct in various parts of the world. She uses picture books that are take-offs on this story to provide examples such as The Three Little Hawaiin Pigs and the Magic Shark by Donivee Laird as well as The Three Little Javelinas written by Susan Lowell and illustrated by Jim Harris. The latter title is also available in Spanish.

                       

Another book I explore in Story Frames is The True Story of the Three Little Pigs written by Jon Scieszka and illustrated by Lane Smith. It is told from the perspective of the wolf who claims he was framed and is useful for discussing how spoofs are created from well-known classics and for discussing point-of-view. These tales provide great inspiration for student writing.

Dr. Westby has several upcoming presentations with PESI that are listed below. Live Online Webcasts of the presentations are available on 2/28/20 and 3/20/20. For more information or to register for these events, visit PESI and type Westby in the search window.

"Play & Language: The Roots of Literacy"

Thursday, February 27, 2020  - PORTLAND, ME

Friday, February 28,   2020     - MANCHESTER, NH

Friday, March 20, 2020           -  DENVER, CO

Thursday, April 30,  2020       - NANUET, NY

Friday, May 1, 2020                 - FORT LEE, NJ

Friday, May 15, 2020               - KING OF PRUSSIA, PA