Brain Words: How the Science of Reading Informs Teaching

The past two decades have brought giant leaps in our understanding of how the brain works. But these discoveries-;and all their exciting implications-;have yet to make their way into most classrooms.

In Brain Words: How the Science of Reading Informs Teaching, authors J. Richard Gentry and Gene Ouellette bring their original, research-based framework of brain words dictionaries in the brain where students store and automatically access sounds, spellings, and meaning. This book aims to fill the gap between the science of reading and classroom instruction by providing up-to-date knowledge about reading and neurological circuitry, including evidence that spelling is at the core of the reading brain.

Brain Words will show how children’s brains develop as they become readers and discover ways you can take concrete steps to promote this critical developmental passage, including:

• Incorporating tools to recognize what works, what doesn’t, and why
• Practical classroom activities for daily teaching and student assessment
• Insights about what brain research tells us about whole language and phonics-first movements
• Deepened understanding of dyslexia through the enhanced lens of brain science

With the insights and strategies of Brain Words, you can meet your students where they are and ensure they gain confidence as readers, spellers, and writers.

Table of Contents

1. Rethinking Reading Instruction as Building a Dictionary in the Brain

2. How the Scientific Study of Reading Can Inform Teaching

3. The Reading Brain

4. What Works and What Doesn’t: A Critical Look at Current Teaching Practices

5. Phase Observation for Early Spelling to Read

6. Spell-to-Read: Building Brain Words in Kindergarten and First Grade

7. Building Brain Words in Second Through Sixth Grade

8. Understanding and Supporting Children with Dyslexia in Light of Reading Science

Support Material

• Study Guide: Brain Words
• Brain Words: How the Science of Reading Informs Teaching
• White Paper: Brain Words