Trees in the Forest: Growing Readers and Writers through Deep Comprehension

by Rita Cevasco, Tracy Molitors

Mastering language in all its forms—listening, speaking, reading, and writing— is not optional in today’s world. It’s a life changer.This creative resource can be used to aid children in becoming lifelong readers and writers. At its heart, Trees in the Forest captures the essence of our relationship with books, guiding us through the forest of literacy.

Who is Trees in the Forest for?

Struggling readers writers, and learners

Students who need to deepen reading and writing skills

Parents and home educators

Teachers and intervention specialists

Speech Language Pathologists

Many children who struggle get stuck in their learning, becoming frustrated, wanting to give up, or worse, secretly wondering if they are not smart enough. Trees in the Forest helps kids move along a path, figure out what is blocking their way, and then guide them to the next step, and the next, and the next—all while helping them to better appreciate the value and joy of sharing their ideas with others.

Think deeply to write deeply

Rita Cevasco, a Speech-Language Pathologist specializing in reading and writing, joins illustrator and children's book author Tracy Molitors to share interactive strategies encouraging deep reading and meaningful writing. This beautifully illustrated full color book offers language and art-based activities to augment your language arts program for years to come.

Study the trees to learn the forest

Based on Peter Bower’s metaphor, “study the trees to learn the forest,” Trees in the Forest is designed to help children learn the necessary skills (trees) in order to succeed in the bigger world of literacy (the forest).

To cultivate this forest, we need to study many trees. We will need to nurture different skills along the way,

Comprehension

Phonics and spelling

Handwriting, cursive, and keyboarding

Vocabulary and word study

Grammar and punctuation

More than anything we want to give kids the courage to read and write, to see themselves differently, to believe that they are readers and writers. This is the goal for all children, not just those who have dyslexia, dysgraphia, or challenges related to comprehension or expressive language. All children benefit from meaningful strategies that connect their skills (trees) to their more complex language thinking systems (forests).

This book starts us on a journey to be intentional, studying deep meaning and comprehension. Meaning is the essence of why we use language—what we share and why it matters. Meaning is the essence of reading and writing, as well.

I do it. We do it. You do it.

On this journey, we are going to study a few trees together for a deeper understanding of text. Because we want to facilitate our children’s learning, we will do these activities ourselves, improving our own understanding, thus laying a path for our children’s growth in reading and writing.

Genres: Nonfiction, Education

Kindle Edition

Published January 1, 2017

Reviews

[Mallory · Rating 3 out of 5]

I like these ideas in theory. As my children get older and I can implement it more, I’ll see how it plays out in real life. Some of it seems a little dry even to me, so not sure how to make the activities appeal to my child. We shall see!

[Stefani · Rating 4 out of 5]

Short but DENSE. I plan on rereading it in the future. It seems geared toward younger ages, but with a little thinking I've already applied some to my high schooler and middle schoolers.

[Angie · Rating 4 out of 5]

A quick read with valuable ideas and unique insights into growing in both reading and writing for ALL ages and skill levels in reading comprehension and even encourage reluctant or struggling writers as well as those who already write well. While some ideas may be geared more to one age than another, there are good things here for all. This is a wonderful addition to those who already value copywork...as it expands on that basis...encouraging students to take it to new levels. For those who do not utilize copywork yet, or are having a difficult time implementing it, this may be a gentle and effective tool to begin that path. Short, flexible tools to enrich any language program. It also includes blank forms, lots of examples and diagrams, etc... for solid visual representations of the concepts. There is a nice Language Tree diagram of how all the parts of language work together...from phonics to literary elements etc.. A wonderful resource!

[Catherine Lowe · Rating 4 out of 5]

Intentional Copywork focuses on one passage a week to explore each area of language arts including comprehension, phonics and spelling, handwriting and keyboarding, vocabulary and word study, and grammar and punctuation to help students write proficiently. This book lays a practical, clear and not overwhelming path for parents and teachers to implement this effective and efficient tool into the language arts curriculum and ends with a suggested weekly plan that rolls all elements together. With this book as a resource, I plan to utilize weekly intentional copywork in our homeschool this year to simplify our language arts curriculum while still covering all necessary elements and to utilize the "bits and pieces" of writing that it generates as a springboard for perhaps monthly original writing and/or formally edited pieces.