COR - The Components of Reading - Part 5 - Vocabulary

VOCABULARY

Continuing our series on COR Instruction, where we highlight the activities explored in the HOT ROD activity books (Higher Order Thinking through the Reading of Decodables), this month’s topic is Vocabulary. For more information about decodable books, visit the page on our website titled "Decodable Books."

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One of the main features of HOT ROD books is their focus on providing decoding practice within a meaningful context, utilizing key vocabulary that can be used to address a variety of COR skills. 

Vocabulary is a foundational building block of both listening and reading comprehension, but it can be challenging to include robust vocabulary in a Structured Literacy lesson when focusing on the limited syllable constructs often found in decodable books and stories. On the other hand, even the most basic word forms can provide opportunities for exploring advanced vocabulary, especially when multi-syllable words are included. Consider these words based on closed syllables with short vowel sounds from Gods and Gifts: Three Greek Myths Retold - asp, vast, crag, smelt, crept, pox, kestrel, linnet, prospect, gallant, Vulcan, scandal, rascal, tempest, vespid.

When vocabulary is based on rich content, comes from material related to the curriculum, is used for additional activities that address skills like cognitive flexibility, morphological awareness, sentence structure, and more... repeated exposure to words happens naturally.

We know it is beneficial to pre-teach new words before students are asked to read them in context. However, it is also vitally important to teach students strategies for determining the meaning of new words independently. Students with reading challenges require even more exposure to a word than their peers, so even if they have already been introduced to a definition, it is still beneficial to explore it in context. Context is especially significant for understanding words with multiple meanings. Consider these multiple-meaning words from Gods and Gifts: bat, drill, hog, rat, pelt, land, last, spit, bluff, band, top, spin, class, jam, craft.

Multiple Meaning Word Search 

To promote both vocabulary and reading fluency, instruct students to:
1) Reread a story and create a list of any words that may have multiple meanings.  
2) Write down all the possible meanings of the word.
3) Reread the context to determine which meaning fits that word as it is used within the story.

Rereading helps students develop confidence and fluency, but there needs to be a meaningful reason for rereading, or it feels like busy work. Tying rereading into vocabulary instruction gives students a purpose for tackling a text more than once. 

Word Clues
Searching for the meaning of a word within the context of the story is a bit like being a word detective. It's helpful to teach students the specific ways a text can reveal the meaning of a word. The Hank the Tank Activity Book (based on the decodable chapter book - Hank the Tank: Animal in the Spotlight) contains three levels of activities to help students develop the skills needed to use context clues to determine the meaning of a word. The activity for Level 1 is available in a PDF below

Level 1 – Seek and Find: Sometimes the meaning of a new word is given within the context of a nearby sentence. Authors of children's books frequently provide definitions directly within the text. In the activity below, students underline the provided definition. Get the FREE PDF for this activity.

When reading books with your students, be aware of examples of "planted" definitions and direct your students to reread a sentence or paragraph to see if they can find it. Practice this skill often so they will know how to use it during independent reading.

The following activities are taken from the background section of the story and are not decodable, so you may need to read the sentences aloud to students. One of the strengths of HOT ROD books is a strategy called Pair and Share Reading. The adult reads the sections that are not decodable to provide background and context, while the student reads decodable sections containing words with syllable structures that have been previously taught. Using this strategy, upper-level Tier 3 vocabulary can easily be introduced to students with low levels of decoding skills. Here is an example incorporating the word hyperphagia.

Late summer is when bears go into hyperphagia in Tahoe. They binge eat everything they can find to build up fat reserves. Sometimes they double their body weight.

Word and Definition: Hyperphagia is when bears binge eat everything they can find to build up fat reserves. 

Level 2 – Making Inferences: Sometimes hints about a word’s meaning are given, but the meaning is not stated outright. For this activity, students are asked to write down what they think the word means based on the clues. Look for opportunities in the stories you read with your students to demonstrate how to make inferences about word meanings.

Here's an example from the Hank the Tank Activity Book, using the word' canids. In this example, hints about the definition are provided. From the information given, depending on the extent of their background knowledge, a student might be able to deduce that canids are animals in the dog family.

Bears have developed a fear of canids. A barking, snarling dog looks just as dangerous to a mother bear as a wolf or coyote.

Word and Definition: A canid is an animal like a wolf or coyote. These are animals in the dog family.

Level 3 – Opposite Meanings: Sometimes the context tells us the opposite of what a word means. Look for negative words like no, don’t, instead, unfortunately, or any other words that have prefixes like un. as a clue that the information may be hinting at an opposite meaning. Then write down what you think the word really means.

Here's an example from the Hank the Tank Activity Book using the word instincts.

When a bear loses its instincts, it has unnatural impulses to do things like eat garbage.

Word and Definition: If losing instincts results in unnatural impulses, we can deduce that instincts are natural impulses.

Independent Learning
Students typically learn around 2,000 to 3,500 new words per year, about 6 to 10 new words per day. This includes both explicit vocabulary instruction and implicit or incidental learning from reading and other experiences. 

By teaching strategies for determining the meaning of new words independently, we empower students to improve their ability to learn words incidentally and become lifelong learners, continually adding new words to their lexicon. This is vital, as we cannot possibly teach all the words students need to meet the demands of an ever-changing world.

See last month's post or COR Instruction and Morphology.

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References:

Wright, T.S., & Neuman, S.B. (2015). The power of content-rich vocabulary instruction. Perspectives on Language and Literacy, 41 (3), 25-28.

Shanahan, T. (2015). Are you lactating? On the importance of academic language. Perspectives on Language and Literacy, 41(3), 14-16.

Happy Halloween - Cause of Death Theory #4 - MURDER

Did someone want Poe dead?

Around the time of Poe's death, there were rumors that robbers had beaten him and taken his possessions, which is why he was wearing strange clothing, but what if he was beaten by someone who knew him?  Poe was engaged to marry Elmira Shelton, his high school sweetheart. When they were young, Elmira's father hid Poe's letters from her when Poe went away to college. Elmira ended up marrying another man, but when her husband died, and Poe's wife Virginia died, the two rekindled their romance.  Is it possible that someone else in the family also disapproved of the relationship? Perhaps Elmira's brothers? 

John Evangelist Walsh wrote an intriguing book called Midnight Dreary: The Mysterious Death of Edgar Allan Poe. He analyzed the last few weeks of Poe's life and came to the conclusion that Poe was killed by someone he knew. Was his death intentional, or was someone just trying to frighten him and they went too far? 

We may never know the real cause of Poe's death, but if you read my new book, The Raven Remix: A Mashup of Poe Titles, you will get to explore several theories about how he died. To review this month's blog posts on the subject, check out the links below.

Theory #1 came about when a strange mass was found in Poe's skull when his body was exhumed and moved to a better gravesite. 

Theory #2 was discussed in the Maryland Medical Journal.

Theory #3 can be traced back to a strange type of voter fraud prevalent in the 1800s.

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75th Anniversary of IDA

The 75th Anniversary of IDA (International Dyslexia Association) was a stellar event. I had the chance to catch up with old friends and make many more new ones. The beautiful women pictured above are all leaders of the Western Region branches of IDA. I have been very honored to serve as their liaison for the past three years as the Western Region Representative. We all dressed up on Saturday night for a Gala Celebration. Seven Legacy Awards were given out to IDA celebrities like Dr. Reid Lyon, one of the leading experts in reading research.

My booth design got a facelift this year with graphics by Sierra Gondrez. The center of each wheel has the image of a book. The focus is to start with a book and then use the content and context to work on the domains of language (phonology, morphology, syntax, semantics, pragmatics) as well as other areas that support literacy such as decoding, executive functions, written language, reading comprehension strategies, creativity, and even articulation (for my SLP friends). 

I was thrilled that so many people stopped by to talk about decodable books for older readers and spin the wheel to win a free digital resource. I gave away 5 different online activities to promote the activity books I designed to accompany my HOT ROD series (Higher Order Learning through the Reading of Decodables). I will be highlighting these activities and more starting in January of 2025 in my newsletter, so sign up HERE if you are looking for free digital resources or just want to learn more about decodable books.

I had a blast connecting with other authors of decodable books in the exhibit hall. Top right is Jill Lauren, creator of the Whole Phonics series and her illustrator, Darren McKee. Bottom right is Elise Lovejoy, creator of Express Readers. Bottom left are Christian and Noemi, the husband and wife team from Canada who are the creators of Wacky Tat books.

 

In celebration of their 75th Anniversary, IDA has made a special 75th Anniversary Issue of Perspectives on Language and Literacy. Use the QR code above or click HERE for access. This helpful and practical publication is typically only available to members of IDA. 

Last but not least, because it ends TODAY, the IDA Speaker Showcase Online Auction ends tonight at 11pm. Check it out and fine a speaker for your next conference. I am one of the featured speakers. 

Sign up HERE for the Carolee Dean, Author newsletter and receive a FREE digital copy of my book, No Gift for Man. You will also receive monthly updates, book news, and FREEBIES.

Using Narratives to Teach Morphology through Structured Word Inquiry

Structured Word Inquiry is a process used to engage learners in the scientific investigation of word parts and their morphology, etymology, and phonology. It looks at how those elements work together for both meaning and spelling, as well as how they are connected to other words.

The basic idea behind SWI is that English is a highly structured language when you understand the history of words and their underlying meaning. For instance, SWI treats homophones like to, too, two as terms that have important spelling variations to help signal meaning. Rather than being irregular, the word two makes sense when looking at related words like twin and twice. 

Peter Bowers Ph.D. is the founder of WordWorks Literacy Centre in Ontario. He coined the phrase Structured Word Inquiry (SWI). For more information about SWI, watch his  TedX Youth Talk entitled "Make Spelling Joyful Through Scientific Inquiry." He gives tips for "cultivating curiosity" for spelling in students by focusing more on meaning and less on sound.  It's 18 minutes long, and he recommends it as an introduction to the big picture of SWI.

Peter's 2009 book - Teaching How the Written Word Works: Using Morphological Problem-Solving to Develop Students' Language Skills & Engagement with the Written Word may be found HERE. I used his book as a reference when I was creating my SWI activities for my activity books. Peter is giving several workshops this fall, and many of them are online. Check out Peter Bowers Workshops.  You may also want to check out his latest Newsletter with tons of great information including a link to a free chapter of the children's book Is English Nuts.

In my most recent set of narrative-based interventions found in my Gods and Gifts Activity Book, I expanded the section on morphology to include activities for Structured Word Inquiry. My HOT ROD Decodable Books and the accompanying activity books focus on using narratives to improve decoding, reading comprehension, writing, and speech. One of the ways I do that is by looking at the underlying building blocks of language, like morphology. 

Teaching morphology using Structured Word Inquiry and word sums was a natural addition. The mini-matrix above uses the base element spect - "to see, look, observe." I created it using Neil Ramsden's Mini Matrix-Maker, found at https://www.neilramsden.co.uk/spelling/matrix/. It is fun to note that my decodable book Gods and Gifts, Three Greek Myths Retold, is based on Greek Mythology, so exploring Latin and Greek influences was a fun addition.

Although I previously included activities for morphology and base elements in my award-winning Hank the Tank Activity Book, I did not include specific Structured Word Inquiry activities. Therefore, I recently created a free supplemental activity for students online using Boom Cards. You can sign up for a free Boom  Card membership at https://wow.boomlearning.com  

Created with Mini Matrix Maker, at www.neilramsden.co.un/spelling/matrix

To preview my FREE SWI activity for tract, go HERE. If you explore the word matrix activity, you will better understand how you might apply SWI and word sums to words your students encounter in stories. For a small fee, I also have a matching game based on tract HERE.  To explore all 15 of the online games connected to Hank the Tank, see the Hank the Tank Bundle. Many activities are free, including digital digraph flash cards and Sount Tracks. That resource has moveable letter pieces for tracking sound changes in words and non-words.

Watch for my next Activity Book coming this fall, which is based on The Raven Remix: A Mashup of Poe Titles. The decodable book will be available in paperback and hardcover on October 15 and is available for pre-order now as an ebook on Amazon. If you order the book, please leave a review!

Sign up for my newsletter HERE and receive a free copy of my first decodable book, No Gift for Man. Don't miss any of the fun-filled activities coming up for A Year of AWE: Authentic Writing Experiences. The September writing activity is Museum Fun.

Authentic Writing Experience for September - Museum Fun

Consider the literacy impact of field trips. Whether you are a teacher, a homeschooler, or simply a parent looking for something to do when school is not in session. Why not check out your local museum? This month's Authentic Writing Experience is all about museum fun. Museums are perfect for both family adventure and class field trips. Your city or town probably has some type of museum. The less well-known it is, the more unique it may be to your location. A trip to a museum may even inspire creativity! The two museums below influenced the setting of my new book, The Raven Remix: A Mashup of Poe Titles.

The image on the left is The Edgar Allan Poe House in Baltimore.  In 1832, Poe moved into this house with his aunt, Maria Clemm, his grandmother, Elizabeth Cairnes, and his first cousin, Virginia, who later became his wife. This house where Poe got his start as a short story writer is now a museum open to the public. 

The image on the right is the Poe Museum in Richmond, VA. Poe lived in Richmond with the Allan family for most of his early life. Although he did not live in this particular house, it was around at that time and likely a place he visited. It is the oldest house still standing in Richmond and contains items from places that Poe did live such as his writing desk, a bed, and a staircase. I first visited the Richmond location two years ago when my daughter started graduate school at VCU. I returned this past May when I was there for her graduation. Chris Semtner, the curator and the artist who created the raven painting in the photo, took me on a personal tour where I learned fascinating details about Poe's life and his strange death. The cause is still a mystery. In October, in celebration of Halloween and the Day of the Dead, I will explore a new theory about how Poe died each week. Thanks to the two museums above for allowing me to use photos of their locations in my book.

Although my setting for The Raven Remix is fictitious, it takes place in an old house that has become the Ed A.P. Bookstop, Pet Shop, Inn & Grill. A boy stops by for a visit and meets the host - Ed. When he opens a mysterious book with a raven on the cover, animals appear from various stories by Poe. You can find five of them on the cover. The ebook version of The Raven Remix is currently available for preorder. The paperback and hardcover are coming May 15.

It has been quite a year for museums. While on the East Coast, my husband and I also went to Washington D.C. and visited several Smithsonian Museums, including the Museum of Natural History, the Air and Space Museum, and the Museum of the American Indian. I spent a long time going through the Wright Brothers exhibit below.

While attending the ALA conference in June, we visited the USS Midway. It's a museum inside of an aircraft carrier. 

Most museums now have self-guided audio tours in many languages. This is a great example of how Universal Design, which strives to make things accessible for those with disabilities, is beneficial for everyone. A student with a reading disability can listen to the audio tour rather than reading long passages of information posted next to displays. 

For this month's Authentic Writing Experience, I suggest having students create a photo tour of a museum. They can take just a few photos or several. Then, they may generate a caption to go with each photo. It can be a few words or a description of several sentences. It's a great way to practice summarizing a lot of information into a few key sentences.

PHOTO TOUR

1. Ask if it is permissible to take photos of the exhibits. Some information may be copyright protected, and flash bulbs may damage artwork, so ask first.

2. Take a self-guided audio tour of the museum. 

3. When you come to a display that is of interest, pause the Audio.

4. Open the NOTES section of your phone and take a photograph.

5. Turn on your microphone and record a short summary of what interests you about the display.

6. Turn the audio tour back on and continue the tour, stopping to take photographs and make notes along the way.

7. Compare your photos with those of family members or classmates. It is surprising to see what catches the attention of different people. You may have seen things that no one else noticed.

Below is an example from my tour of the USS Midway. 

This photograph shows the uniforms of the servicemen.  

This is the sick bay. During a battle, men sometimes had to be treated 

in the mess deck where the food was served  

Six people shared this tiny bunk space.   

They kept their personal possessions in a drawer 

underneath the mattress.   

Museums will often offer scavenger hunts for kids. If you turn in the one for the USS Midway, you get a free pair of wings at the end of your tour.

Have fun visiting museums this school year. They are very context-rich environments and allow kids to explore special interests. If you can't take a physical tour of a museum, consider sending students on a virtual tour. 

Be sure to return to my blog each week in October to learn theories about Poe's mysterious death.

Sign up for my newsletter HERE and receive a free copy of my first decodable book, No Gift for Man. Don't miss any of the fun-filled activities coming up for A Year of AWE: Authentic Writing Experiences.

Communication Community Interview

While I was at the ASHA conference last November in Boston, I met the two lovely SLPs who run the Communication Community - Kristi Stearns and Becca Sylvia. They were my booth neighbors and asked to interview me at a future date for one of their Office Hour podcasts. That date has come. I recently joined them to discuss my journey as a Speech-Language Pathologist and what inspired me to write decodable books. The link to the interview and information about their online community may be found at Communication Community. 

Next Generation Indie Book Award Winner

My Hank the Tank Activity Book has just been named a finalist for the Next Generation Indie Book Awards in the category of Activity Books. The awards banquet will be June 28th in San Diego at the same time as the American Library Association (ALA) Conference. Speaking of ALA, if you happen to be attending, stop by the IBPA (Independent Book Publishers of America) Booth # 1837. The Hank the Tank Activity Book will be on display and so will the decodable book upon which it is based, Hank the Tank: Animal in the Spotlight.  Many other unique books by independent publishers will also be available. 

It's exciting that decodable books and the materials that support those resources are getting more and more attention from the larger book industry. If you'd like information about decodable books, see my web page entitled Choosing the Right Decodable Books for Your Students. I talk about what decodable books are and where to find them. For information about how to set up literacy hubs and acquire decodable books for your school or local library, visit Teach My Kid to Read. 

The Hank the Tank Activity Book (available at Amazon & Barnes and Noble) is based on Hank the Tank: Animal in the Spotlight, a decodable chapter book, available now in hardcover, paperback, audiobook, and e-book formats at  Amazon.  You can even read it for free on Kindle Unlimited if you have a membership. You may also find the hardcover and paperback versions at Barnes & Noble or you may order them from your favorite local bookstore. Read more about how to credit local bookstores with online purchases HERE. In addition, Many of the games from the Activity Book are available as digital Boom Cards. See the Hank the Tank Bundle. It includes 15 decks/games and several are FREE.

Preview the first part of the story as well as some of the activities in this FREE ACTIVITY GUIDE PDF DOWNLOAD.

Sign up for my newsletter HERE and receive a free copy of my first decodable book, No Gift for Man. Don't miss any of the fun-filled activities I'm creating for A Year of AWE: Authentic Writing Experiences.

Celebrating National Poetry Month - Pandora's Lunch Box

Poetry is a great example of authentic writing because poetry is meant to be shared. Poems can be used to entertain and may be displayed on classroom walls and halls. They may easily be slipped into a letter to a relative or friend and be given as a gift. Interesting words may even be printed on magnets and hung on refrigerators to inspire family members to create spontaneous lines of poetry.

This month I'm sharing a fun poetry-writing activity based on my new decodable book, The Box. Read my recent post HERE to learn more about the story, my process for creating decodable books, and list poems in general. The Box is on sale for $8.99 for the month of April on Amazon. Watch for the black-and-white chapter book version for older students, Gods and Gifts, coming this summer. It includes the first three books of the series reconfigured as chapters telling the Greek Creation Story.

Now back to Pandora... Imagine that Pandora's Box was a lunch box. What kind of disgusting things might have come out of it? What is something good that might have been left at the bottom? A link to the Free Activity PDF may be found at the bottom of this post.

Directions: Start by brainstorming lists of disgusting foods with your students like moldy meatballs, soggy sandwiches, and squishy squid soup. The PDF includes one blank chart and one that already has a few suggestions. Choose whichever one works best for your students.

You may want to focus on word patterns you are studying in class such as consonant-L-silent e (CLe)  words like maple, waffle, and apple. Speech-language pathologists might have their students choose words that start with the /r/ sound like rice with lice, bologna rigatoni, and rabbit foot stew or /s/ like spicy spinach spam.

1. Help students brainstorm a list of disgusting foods and write them on the graphic organizer in the PDF.

2. Write down one delicious food at the bottom of the graphic organizer.

3. Draw a lunch box, use plain brown lunch sacks, or use the lunchbox graphic in the PDF.

4. Write this phrase at the top of the box or sack - Pandora opened her lunch box and out came disgusting things like...

5. Cut out 3 disgusting foods and glue them underneath.

6. Write this phrase near the bottom - Pandora was about to slam her lunch box shut when a little voice said, "No, don't leave me inside, I'm...

7. Cut out the last delicious food item and glue it at the bottom. 

Here are some examples from the downloadable PDF:

Get the Free Activity PDF HERE. Sign up for my newsletter HERE and receive a free copy of my first decodable book, No Gift for Man. Don't miss any of the fun-filled activities I'm creating for A Year of AWE: Authentic Writing Experiences.

Celebrating Poetry Month with a New Decodable Picture Book in Verse

It's April and I'm celebrating National Poetry Month with the release of my new decodable picture book, The Box. It's a sassy retelling in verse of Pandora's Box. If you have read any of my recent decodable books, you know that I use poetry to create fun ways for older struggling readers to practice syllable patterns. The Box is on sale on Amazon. It is the third installment in the Greek Creation Myth series. You can get the first book No Gift for Man as a free PDF download when you sign up for my newsletter HERE. The second book is The Bandit, a retelling of Prometheus stealing fire for the first humans. Together, these three full-color 32-page picture books form the Greek Creation Myth. 

If you would prefer a chapter book version of the same stories with black and white illustrations for older students, watch for Gods and Gifts coming this summer. It's a 95-page chapter book that includes the same three story poems above. In addition, it is filled with background information about the discovery of fire, the origins of the Greek alphabet, and comparisons to indigenous myths.

To celebrate my new book, I have created a simple and fun poetry-writing activity called Pandora's Lunch Box which will appear in my next blog post. But first, to prepare for that activity, I'd like to talk about list poems and how I use them to create decodable books. Decodable books contain stories that focus on using words with specific syllable patterns. These patterns follow a scope and sequence that has been taught to students using a structured literacy and Science of Reading (SoR) approach. You can read more about decodable books on my WEBSITE.

These are my steps for creating a list poem that also serves as a decodable book:

1. First, I study a list of decodable words that fit a certain pattern. For the three stories in the Greek creation myth, I focused on closed-syllable words. Closed syllables contain only short vowel sounds. 

Some of the words for The Box follow a straight consonant-vowel-consonant CVC pattern (tin, box, lid). 

Some have consonant blends at the beginning of the word - CCVC (spit, slop, trap). 

Some have consonant blends at the end of a word - CVCC (bend, band, gift). 

Some of the words have blends at the beginning and the end - CCVCC (craft, swift, swept).

There are even some multi-syllable words, which I split into syllables for students who have not learned that skill (dis-tant, at-tic, splen-did, ). 

If the stressed syllable comes later in the word, I make that syllable bold (dis-con-tent-ment, prob-lem-at-tic, in-dig-nant). 

By breaking large words into manageable parts and highlighting certain stressed syllables, I'm able to include more sophisticated words for older students who are ready for higher-level vocabulary but still face challenges with decoding and reading basic syllable patterns. 

2. As I study the word lists, an idea begins to emerge for ways to group the words together. Then I come up with a theme or concept. For The Box, I made a list of all of the bad and annoying things that might come out of Pandora's box (mumps, strep, slips, bumps) Then I got a bit silly with my list and added things like dentist drills and rotten eggs.

3. After I generate a list of theme-related words and phrases, I join them together in stanzas of rhyming verse.

Ban-dits with a dras-tic plot,

pans that rust and eggs that rot.

Tun-nel traps and den-tist drills.

Ants in pants and milk that spills.

You will notice that the lines of poetry above don't follow typical sentence structure patterns. That is often true of poetry. It is the reason that poems are difficult to analyze using grade-level metrics that are based on sentence length. 

As mentioned above, the story I created for The Box is based on the structure of a list poem. A list poem focuses on a list of related people, places, things, or ideas with a lead-in and a conclusion. The structure of a list poem works well for my decodable books since the purpose is to provide students a fun way to practice lists of words in a meaningful context.

4. After I write my poem, I create an Introduction to provide additional background information and context. I use the ATOS scale to determine an approximate reading level for that part of the book. The introduction for The Box is written at a fifth-grade reading level which means it can be read independently by students with a fifth-grade reading level and with support by students reading at a fourth-grade level. It may also be read aloud by an adult in a strategy I call Pair and Share Reading. To find more information on how ATOS reading levels are calculated, visit ATOS. Their analyzer tool is free.

5. Finally, I make a list of the words in the poem that don't follow the specified patterns. This list might include irregular words such as was, of, does, or words with concepts and patterns that have not yet been introduced such as th or wh in with, that. when. That way students can practice these words before they read the story poem.

That's it! Then I ask someone familiar with the scope and sequence to proofread my work to make sure I followed the patterns. Another reviewer looks specifically at the rhyme and meter of the poems. Then I find an illustrator. Here is one of the internal illustrations from The Box. It was created by a company called 1000 Storybooks. They also made the cover.

Finally, I create an Activity Book, online games, and an audiobook. I'm still working on those things for The Box. In the meantime, go to the page for COR Instruction on my website to find several free activities for Book 1. Scroll to the bottom to locate the FREE Plot Analysis Activity for the entire three-book Creation Story. Also applicable to all three books are a set of electronic Boom Card games called Four in a Row (similar to Connect 4). This closed syllable deck includes 8 different games that may be used for in person or online learning.

Information about other books and resources may be found on my WEBSITE. 

Watch for the FREE Pandora's Lunch Box activity coming in a few days. It will be based on a list poem inspired by The Box.

The word lists I use come from the Sounds In Syllables (SIS) program created by Sandra Dillon and used at the Multisensory Language Training Institute of New Mexico which is currently run by Mary Gilory and Erin Brown. They offer online training for those interested in becoming a dyslexia therapist and a Certified Academic Language Therapist (CALT). This is the training that I went through to get my CALT certification and I highly recommend it. They have a new Summer 2024 Cohort starting June 12 with an Introductory class on Zoom.

Last but not least, sign up for my newsletter HERE and receive a free copy of my first decodable book, No Gift for Man. 

Exploring Authentic Writing Experiences at ASHA

I will travel to Boston, MA, in one week for the American Speech-Language and Hearing 2023 Conference (#ASHA2023).  If you are going, check out Booth 1254 for Word Travel Press along with my presentation on Saturday afternoon from 4-5 p.m. entitled "Story Frames for Teaching Literacy: Using Narratives as a Bridge to Informational Text." The presentation is largely based on Chapter 7 of my Story Frames book - "From Story Writing to Expository Writing: Bridging the Gap with Narrative Nonfiction," but the strategies I discuss may be used with any program. 

I gave a similar presentation twice this year already in author/educator panels with Jolene Gutierrez and Beth Anderson. See my interview with Beth, where she talks about The Resilience of English Language Learners. Then check out my blog post with Jolene on The Resilience of Bionic Beasts. I'm excited to announce that CCIRA has asked us to present this same author panel on February 8-10, 2024 in Westminster, CO. The specific day will be determined later. All the attention on this topic confirms my belief that students need help making the leap from stories to informational text in both reading and writing.

In addition to discussing ways that narrative strategies may be used to enhance understanding of informational text and vice versa, I will also discuss ideas for exploring authentic writing opportunities, including crafting a "Letter to the Author" that follows a format similar to a short essay. One of the most successful writing activities I ever conducted for struggling learners was in a tenth-grade special education Language Arts class. It was a Letter to Author Cynthia Leitich Smith that arose organically after we read the graphic novel based on her book, Tantalize. Because they knew their letters were going to a real person, the author of a book they enjoyed, everyone participated in a way I hadn't seen with any other writing activity. Students were eager to edit because they wanted their letters to be perfect. Some even brought in special stationery.

I always get excited when I learn about opportunities for students to explore authentic writing experiences. Jill Lauren, creator of the Whole Phonics series of decodable texts, is a member of the Decodable Book Alliance that I joined recently when I started writing decodable books. Jill is holding a contest through November 30th where students can win a puzzle by illustrating a scene from one of her books and writing a one-sentence description. Find out more HERE. If you don't have any of Jill's books, don't worry. You can get a free copy of A Pig and His Wig by visiting her website at  https://whole-phonics.com/ and joining her mailing list. She offers 4 other decodable texts on her partnership page with ReadWorks. These free titles include Zac's Pal (short "a"), Rod's Box (short "o"), Buzz, Buzz (short "u"), and Get Up! (short "e"). You will want more of her books, but you can start now with these for free. 

Often, decodable books lack real-world application, but Whole-Phonics does a good job of bridging this gap by partnering with ReadWorks to provide background knowledge. That's exactly the gap I'm attempting to fill with my HOT ROD decodables for older readers. 

Writing contests provide simple but compelling opportunities for authentic writing. If you are wondering what decodable books are, check out the article on my website at https://www.wordtravelpress.com/. Go to the tab at the top for Resources>Decodable Books. You can also learn about the HOT ROD series (Higher Order Thinking through the Reading of Decodables).

I was already working on a December Poetry Giveaway to encourage reading and writing over winter break when I read about Jill's contest,  I decided to turn my Poetry Freebie into a contest starting on December 1 after Jill's contest ends. If you want to be sure to get the latest information about that contest, as well as other freebies, articles, and book news, join my Author Newsletter list. You will automatically receive a PDF of my first decodable book, No Gift for Man. You may unsubscribe at any time.

The Decodable Book Alliance works in conjunction with Teach My Kid to Read which is a 501c3 dedicated to educating librarians about the importance of decodable text. My next post will be about their experiences at the recent New York Library Association Conference, so stay tuned.

HINT: My December poem giveaway is called, A Long Winter's Nap and was inspired by a mother bear hibernating in a most unusual location.