Dyslexia Networks

My presentation Dyslexia Networks: Supporting Students by Fostering Collaborative Connections Between Disciplines with me, Paula Moraine, and Dr. Shreya Hessler is part of a Science of Reading Content Power Session, an extension of the 2020 Annual Conference. Is now available on IDA Streaming TV.  It is free if you paid for the 2020 IDA conference supplemental program. Otherwise, there is a fee for IDA TV. Watch for my upcoming IDA presentation, The Goldilocks Effect: Finding the "Just Right" Books for Struggling Readers. In addition, I now have a page on my blog that provides information about decodable books along with publishers and links to book information. If you are looking for titles to use with your struggling students, check out my new page HERE!

Subscribe to my monthly newsletter HERE and receive a FREE fill-in-the-blank story template PDF called Travel Trouble. Each month you will get updates, activities, and tips about writing and working with students along with book news. 

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.

Sign up for my monthly NEWSLETTER for articles, book news, and FREE offers. Receive a FREE Story Template PDF called Travel Trouble when you sign up.

Deception Pass, The Eclipse, and Winnie-the-Pooh

Last week was quite an adventure. My husband and I flew to Seattle and then took the train to Bellingham, Washington where we spent a few days with my brother and sister-in-law and got to watch the eclipse. We squeezed in a drive to Vancouver, Canada and a ferry boat ride to the San Juan Islands where we visited  Friday Harbor and Deception Pass. Now wouldn't those make good book titles? 

My creative wheels are turning.

On Wednesday my husband flew home and I took the train to Portland where I was graciously welcomed by members of the Oregon Branch of the International Dyslexia Association. On Thursday I gave a workshop on Adventures in Verse: Using Poetry to Support Reading, Writing and Speech. Afterward my good friend, Paula Moraine, and I held teacher workshops for the Oregon Branch including a three-hour workshop on The Secret Language of Stories. I will be holding several SLOS Workshops this fall in Colorado, New Jersey, Georgia and Los Angeles at various conferences across the country. There is a tab on this blog where you may learn all about SLOS and find several stories that I have already analyzed using this method that I created to teach writing and story analysis to students of all ages. 

On today's post I'm including an analysis of Finding Winnie, the story Paula and I shared at the Oregon workshop for those who so graciously attended and for anyone else who might be interested. Paula has added a wonderful executive function perspective to my material and has written two books on the subject.

Finding Winnie: The True Story of the World’s Most Famous Bear by Lindsay Mattock. Winner of the Caldecott Medal.

SUMMARY: In 1914, Harry Colebourn, on his way to war, rescued a baby bear and took her with him across the ocean. He named her Winnie and left her at the London Zoo where a small boy named Christopher Robin befriended her. This true story of the bear that inspired Winnie-the-Pooh is told from the perspective of Harry’s great granddaughter, Lindsay Mattock.

ORDINARY WORLD: Harry Colebourn lives in Winnipeg and works as a veterinarian. 

CALL AND RESPONSE: World War I breaks out and Harry gets on a train with the other troops headed to Valcartier, Canada.

MENTORS, GUIDES, & GIFTS: He gets off of the train to take a little walk around the station and pays a trapper twenty dollars for a bear. He names the bear Winnipeg to remind his regiment of home as they gather in Valcartier and prepare to go across the sea.  

CROSSING: Harry takes Winnie with him in a giant ship across the Atlantic Ocean. 

NEW WORLD: The regiment trains on the Salisbury Plain and Winnie becomes the Mascot of the Second Canadian Infantry Brigade.

PROBLEM, PRIZE, PLAN: The order comes that it is time to fight. Harry doesn’t want Winnie to get hurt so he plans to take her some place safe.

MIDPOINT ATTEMPT: Harry takes Winnie to the London Zoo. 

DOWNTIME RESPONSE: Harry and Winnie say goodbye. He tells her, “I’ll always love you. You’ll always be my bear.”

CHASE & ESCAPE: Harry goes off to take care of the horses at the front in France. 

DEATH & TRANSFORMATION: It seems that Winnie’s story is over, but then a boy named Christopher Robin comes to the zoo and a new story begins.

CLIMAX/ THE FINAL TEST: Christopher Robin plays in the bear enclosure with Winnie. He loves the bear so much that he names his stuffed bear Winnie-the-Pooh. Playing with Winnie inspires him to take his stuffed bear on adventures in the woods.

FINAL REWARD: Christopher Robin’s father, A.A. Milne, writes many famous books about his son and his bear and that’s how Harry’s Winnie becomes the famous Winnie-the-Pooh. Harry returns to visit Winnie and is happy to discover that she has found people who love her. A statue of Winnie and Harry is unveiled in Winnipeg in 1992. 

 Please send feedback if you are using SLOS with students. I always love hearing  your stories.