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Brain Words
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 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, 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.
176 pages, Paperback
Published February 8, 2019
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Displaying 1 - 14 of 14 reviews
December 1, 2024
Speed reading practice (promo)
Book notes:
“The more you read and study and experience life, the more words you add to that dictionary in your brain.”
“New information from cognition psychology demonstrates how having a deep level of knowledge of words in the brain-including how to hear them, say them, read them, and spell them correctly-turns out to be a very big deal.”
“The alphabetic principle is the understanding that each grapheme or letter (or in some cases a group of letters) must map onto a sound or phoneme. Children who understand the alphabetic principle know that letters represent sounds that form spoken words.”
“Leading developmental theorists, including Linnea Ehri of City University of New York and David Share of University of Haifa, for instance, have written extensively on how children learn to read words, and they make a clear distinction between sounding out words (serial decoding) and rapid retrieval of words from memory by sight (sight word reading).”
“This differentiation between decoding (phonics) and visual word recognition (sight word reading) is reflected in models of skilled reading from cognitive science. Dual-route models of skilled word reading are descriptive models that account for how word reading proceeds via two possible routes or pathways.”
“the dual-route model includes a sublexical route (focused on units smaller than a word) that involves a serial letter-sound conversion and a lexical or orthographic route that recognizes words as wholes (Coltheart 2005; Coltheart et al. 2001)-in other words, two routes to reading.”
“bringing the whole word visual recognition route and the letter-sound conversion route together is a critical missing piece of instruction for making learning to read easier and more efficient through children’s acquisition of brain words. Remember, brain words are stored representations of spelling patterns, syllables, and words, linked by neural circuits to sound and meaning in a readers’ spoken language system.”
“It is important to point out that a word’s orthography, linked to sound and meaning, is what we call a brain word—a spelling pattern that is stored in the brain. We now know that for reading, spelling patterns stored in the brain are a very big deal. If the child can spell a word correctly, she likely can read it with comprehension!”
“word reading goes through consolidated-alphabetic phase, where the child begins to store longer chunks of letter strings in memory. For example, the two letters of at may be consolidated into one chunk /ăt/, making for easy analogizing from mat to cat, hat, fat, and sat. In this phase the eleven letters of interesting may be consolidated into four chunks: in-ter-est-ing. These chunks of letters and corresponding sounds are stored in memory leading to (orthographic) representations at the syllable and eventually whole word level, allowing for so-called sight word reading (Bhattacharya and Ehri 2004).”
“research by Gene and others (Ouellette and Tims 2014; Ouellette 2010; Shahar-Yames and Share 2008) has shown that spelling practice is even more effective than decoding experiences in establishing these spelling patterns in the brain.”
“The ultimate goal of word study for all beginning readers and for all word types is to build a store of detailed and accurate spelling representations in each child’s brain—that is, to establish brain words. Continuing to add brain words through explicit systematic spelling instruction also extends beyond second grade to help achieve reading proficiency at higher grade levels.”
“The culmination of this research has been the identification of what is now referred to as the neurological reading circuit.”
“We are not born with the reading circuit already in place-it requires rich language and literacy experiences to develop to its fullest extent. This is why early childhood experiences, including early education and literacy teaching, are critical—they help shape the reading brain!”
“The neurological reading circuit foremost depends on the integration of known speech- and language-processing areas of the brain. These areas are activated through hearing and auditory processing. This is why phonological awareness is so important and why invented spelling is such a great starting point for children to match an auditory analysis with print.”
“Researchers have repeatedly shown that learning to read results in observable changes to the reading brain and, in particular, to a stronger role of the Word Form Area and stronger links between the various brain regions involved in reading and writing. And this is built on a foundation of speech, language, sound-letter knowledge, and auditory/phonological processing.”
“Word reading requires decoding; decoding requires the integration of alphabetic knowledge, phonological awareness, and phonics knowledge/ skills to connect pronunciations to strings of letters in long-term memory. This integration happens in the child’s brain, linking letters, sound, and meaning.”
“Marilyn Adams in her groundbreaking book, Beginning to Read: Thinking and Learning About Print (1990)”
“Even the most intensive teaching of phonological awareness is not enough to bring about the storage of accurate brain words. As described by William Tunmer and colleagues (1988), phonological awareness is “necessary but not sufficient” for learning to read (50).”
“Analytic Versus Synthetic Phonics. Analytic phonics begins with a whole word and the child analyzes its sounds and letters (whole to parts). Analytic phonics is sometimes associated with the practice of using the first letter to “guess” the word. Synthetic phonics begins with learning the letter-sound parts individually and synthesizing the parts by blending each part into a whole (parts to whole).”
“In summary, although phonics instruction in general has an impressive research backing, it is far from perfect, especially when it fails to teach brain words.”
“Hundreds of published peer-reviewed research studies have shown that skilled readers are able to rapidly recognize and read printed words, regardless of whether the words are presented in context or in isolation (e.g., Cunningham 2006; Landi et al. 2006; Martin-Chang, Ouellette, and Bond 2017; Wang et al. 2011). When new or difficult words are encountered in context, it is still the letter-sound associations that provide the first and most efficient route to reading, not the meaning or syntax from context.”
“Knowledge of Spelling Is the Key. As stated by researcher Marilyn Adams: “The best differentiator between good and poor readers is repeatedly found to be their knowledge of spelling patterns and their proficiency with spelling-sound translations.” (Adams 1990, 290)”
“Phase 0: Non-Alphabetic”
“Phase 0 word readers and writers are unable to use the alphabet. Phase O spellers may use approximations of letters, but they don’t know the letters of the alphabet,”
“In attempting to read words in Phase 0, the child does not use the letters in the word to cue reading because she has no alphabetic knowledge. The child may recognize a few words from memory when she sees them in the environment.”
“Phase 1: Pre-Alphabetic”
“Pre-alphabetic spellers use letters, but they do not know that the letters”
“represent the sounds of the word they are attempting to write.”
“With Phase 1 pre-alphabetic word readers, the letters are basically ignored. Phase 1 readers aren’t using letters to read words because they do not understand that letters represent sounds in the spoken word. They can’t decode, and just as in Phase 0,”
“Phase 2: Partial Alphabetic”
“Phase 2 writers and readers make a giant cognitive leap. They are beginning to see how the alphabetic system works! You will see them start using the alphabet to spell and even to read words by matching some of the letters to sounds in their spoken language albeit their knowledge of the system is limited.”
“Phase 3: Full Alphabetic”
“Phase 3 spelling in most cases is “a letter for a sound” spelling. With full alphabetic spelling virtually every sound in the word is represented, but the spelling is slow and deliberate. Often you can hear a child say the sound and then watch as he writes the letter for that sound in the word.”
“In Phase 3 full alphabetic word reading-cueing on a letter for each sound-greatly increases the volume of words children can read.”
“It’s important to remember that Phase 4 really jump-starts the express pathway in the Word Form Area, using consolidated chunks of phonics patterns for automatic recognition as children map to other words, including polysyllabic words for quicker and easier decoding.”
“These Phase 4 chunks include prefixes, suffixes, root words, onset patterns, rime patterns, and syllable patterns drawing largely from Anglo-Saxon derivations but even occasionally from Latin and Greek (Moats 2015/2016; Henry 1989).”
“Phase 1 Pre-Alphabetic Spelling (formerly precommunicative spelling): Expected no later than the first half of kindergarten. This is the “babbling” stage of spelling. Children use letters for writing words, but the letters are strung together randomly and you can’t read them. The letters in Phase 1 spelling do not correspond to sounds.”
“Phase 2 Partial Alphabetic Spelling (formerly semiphonetic spelling): Expected no later than the end of kindergarten. This is when spellers first know that letters represent sounds. They perceive and represent reliable sounds with partial sound-letter spellings. Spellings are often abbreviated, representing initial and/or final sounds.”
“Phase 3 Full Alphabetic Spelling (formerly phonetic spelling): Expected no later than the middle of first grade. Students in this phase almost always spell words with a letter for each sound. They perceive and represent all of the phonemes in a word, though spellings may be unconventional. Children in Phase 3 often use a technique called finger spelling to determine the sounds in a word, and they write a letter for each sound.”
“Phase 4 Consolidated/Automatic Alphabetic Spelling (formerly transitional spelling): Expected by the end of first grade. Children in Phase 4 spell words in chunks of letter patterns using their knowledge of phonics patterns. They may think about how words appear visually; a visual memory of spelling patterns is apparent. Spellings exhibit conventions of English orthography like vowels in every syllable, VCe and vowel digraph patterns, correctly spelled inflectional endings, and memory of recurring English letter sequences in chunks of phonics patterns.”
“Conventional Spelling (formerly correct spelling): Expected throughout elementary and high school. Children develop brain words over years of systematic explicit spelling study while expanding their vocabulary and spoken language system through reading and writing. In this phase, correct spelling is categorized by instructional grade-level expectations.”
“Once you have an understanding of the expectations within each developmental phase, scoring the students’ spellings becomes much more straightforward; in our experience, teachers tend to become familiar with the scoring process rather quickly.”
“Phase observation is a boon to early literacy success for spellers, readers, and writers and a powerful tool for reading teachers. Making the connection between spelling and reading is a transformational concept and a missing link that can lead to better reading and higher test scores.”
“A spell-to-read teaching approach promotes and integrates important foundational skills and develops and consolidates the routes to word reading along with the various processing areas of the reading brain.”
“Our spell-to-read, listening-first five-step sequence-Hear-It, Say-It, Write-It, Read-It, Use-It—can easily be incorporated into any classroom and builds a dictionary of key words in each beginning reader’s brain that will be available for a lifetime of use.”
“In Phase 1, kindergarten children begin to visually perceive and process alphabet letters-they learn to write their names, identify some letters, and even recognize a few words based on environmental cues. With appropriate reading and writing instruction the kindergartner’s brain begins to change some more.”
“The move to Phase 2 evokes further brain changes as alphabetic symbols (letters) start to be matched to stored representations for sounds and at the same time speech codes are being connected with pronunciations in the child’s spoken language along with higher-order language skills for sentences and comprehension.”
“In Phase 3, often in the first half of first grade, brain changes help children decode words with one-to-one letter-to-sound mapping and encode or spell words with sound-to-letter mapping as the sounding out route to reading develops.”
Reader extension (promo)
Book notes:
“The more you read and study and experience life, the more words you add to that dictionary in your brain.”
“New information from cognition psychology demonstrates how having a deep level of knowledge of words in the brain-including how to hear them, say them, read them, and spell them correctly-turns out to be a very big deal.”
“The alphabetic principle is the understanding that each grapheme or letter (or in some cases a group of letters) must map onto a sound or phoneme. Children who understand the alphabetic principle know that letters represent sounds that form spoken words.”
“Leading developmental theorists, including Linnea Ehri of City University of New York and David Share of University of Haifa, for instance, have written extensively on how children learn to read words, and they make a clear distinction between sounding out words (serial decoding) and rapid retrieval of words from memory by sight (sight word reading).”
“This differentiation between decoding (phonics) and visual word recognition (sight word reading) is reflected in models of skilled reading from cognitive science. Dual-route models of skilled word reading are descriptive models that account for how word reading proceeds via two possible routes or pathways.”
“the dual-route model includes a sublexical route (focused on units smaller than a word) that involves a serial letter-sound conversion and a lexical or orthographic route that recognizes words as wholes (Coltheart 2005; Coltheart et al. 2001)-in other words, two routes to reading.”
“bringing the whole word visual recognition route and the letter-sound conversion route together is a critical missing piece of instruction for making learning to read easier and more efficient through children’s acquisition of brain words. Remember, brain words are stored representations of spelling patterns, syllables, and words, linked by neural circuits to sound and meaning in a readers’ spoken language system.”
“It is important to point out that a word’s orthography, linked to sound and meaning, is what we call a brain word—a spelling pattern that is stored in the brain. We now know that for reading, spelling patterns stored in the brain are a very big deal. If the child can spell a word correctly, she likely can read it with comprehension!”
“word reading goes through consolidated-alphabetic phase, where the child begins to store longer chunks of letter strings in memory. For example, the two letters of at may be consolidated into one chunk /ăt/, making for easy analogizing from mat to cat, hat, fat, and sat. In this phase the eleven letters of interesting may be consolidated into four chunks: in-ter-est-ing. These chunks of letters and corresponding sounds are stored in memory leading to (orthographic) representations at the syllable and eventually whole word level, allowing for so-called sight word reading (Bhattacharya and Ehri 2004).”
“research by Gene and others (Ouellette and Tims 2014; Ouellette 2010; Shahar-Yames and Share 2008) has shown that spelling practice is even more effective than decoding experiences in establishing these spelling patterns in the brain.”
“The ultimate goal of word study for all beginning readers and for all word types is to build a store of detailed and accurate spelling representations in each child’s brain—that is, to establish brain words. Continuing to add brain words through explicit systematic spelling instruction also extends beyond second grade to help achieve reading proficiency at higher grade levels.”
“The culmination of this research has been the identification of what is now referred to as the neurological reading circuit.”
“We are not born with the reading circuit already in place-it requires rich language and literacy experiences to develop to its fullest extent. This is why early childhood experiences, including early education and literacy teaching, are critical—they help shape the reading brain!”
“The neurological reading circuit foremost depends on the integration of known speech- and language-processing areas of the brain. These areas are activated through hearing and auditory processing. This is why phonological awareness is so important and why invented spelling is such a great starting point for children to match an auditory analysis with print.”
“Researchers have repeatedly shown that learning to read results in observable changes to the reading brain and, in particular, to a stronger role of the Word Form Area and stronger links between the various brain regions involved in reading and writing. And this is built on a foundation of speech, language, sound-letter knowledge, and auditory/phonological processing.”
“Word reading requires decoding; decoding requires the integration of alphabetic knowledge, phonological awareness, and phonics knowledge/ skills to connect pronunciations to strings of letters in long-term memory. This integration happens in the child’s brain, linking letters, sound, and meaning.”
“Marilyn Adams in her groundbreaking book, Beginning to Read: Thinking and Learning About Print (1990)”
“Even the most intensive teaching of phonological awareness is not enough to bring about the storage of accurate brain words. As described by William Tunmer and colleagues (1988), phonological awareness is “necessary but not sufficient” for learning to read (50).”
“Analytic Versus Synthetic Phonics. Analytic phonics begins with a whole word and the child analyzes its sounds and letters (whole to parts). Analytic phonics is sometimes associated with the practice of using the first letter to “guess” the word. Synthetic phonics begins with learning the letter-sound parts individually and synthesizing the parts by blending each part into a whole (parts to whole).”
“In summary, although phonics instruction in general has an impressive research backing, it is far from perfect, especially when it fails to teach brain words.”
“Hundreds of published peer-reviewed research studies have shown that skilled readers are able to rapidly recognize and read printed words, regardless of whether the words are presented in context or in isolation (e.g., Cunningham 2006; Landi et al. 2006; Martin-Chang, Ouellette, and Bond 2017; Wang et al. 2011). When new or difficult words are encountered in context, it is still the letter-sound associations that provide the first and most efficient route to reading, not the meaning or syntax from context.”
“Knowledge of Spelling Is the Key. As stated by researcher Marilyn Adams: “The best differentiator between good and poor readers is repeatedly found to be their knowledge of spelling patterns and their proficiency with spelling-sound translations.” (Adams 1990, 290)”
“Phase 0: Non-Alphabetic”
“Phase 0 word readers and writers are unable to use the alphabet. Phase O spellers may use approximations of letters, but they don’t know the letters of the alphabet,”
“In attempting to read words in Phase 0, the child does not use the letters in the word to cue reading because she has no alphabetic knowledge. The child may recognize a few words from memory when she sees them in the environment.”
“Phase 1: Pre-Alphabetic”
“Pre-alphabetic spellers use letters, but they do not know that the letters”
“represent the sounds of the word they are attempting to write.”
“With Phase 1 pre-alphabetic word readers, the letters are basically ignored. Phase 1 readers aren’t using letters to read words because they do not understand that letters represent sounds in the spoken word. They can’t decode, and just as in Phase 0,”
“Phase 2: Partial Alphabetic”
“Phase 2 writers and readers make a giant cognitive leap. They are beginning to see how the alphabetic system works! You will see them start using the alphabet to spell and even to read words by matching some of the letters to sounds in their spoken language albeit their knowledge of the system is limited.”
“Phase 3: Full Alphabetic”
“Phase 3 spelling in most cases is “a letter for a sound” spelling. With full alphabetic spelling virtually every sound in the word is represented, but the spelling is slow and deliberate. Often you can hear a child say the sound and then watch as he writes the letter for that sound in the word.”
“In Phase 3 full alphabetic word reading-cueing on a letter for each sound-greatly increases the volume of words children can read.”
“It’s important to remember that Phase 4 really jump-starts the express pathway in the Word Form Area, using consolidated chunks of phonics patterns for automatic recognition as children map to other words, including polysyllabic words for quicker and easier decoding.”
“These Phase 4 chunks include prefixes, suffixes, root words, onset patterns, rime patterns, and syllable patterns drawing largely from Anglo-Saxon derivations but even occasionally from Latin and Greek (Moats 2015/2016; Henry 1989).”
“Phase 1 Pre-Alphabetic Spelling (formerly precommunicative spelling): Expected no later than the first half of kindergarten. This is the “babbling” stage of spelling. Children use letters for writing words, but the letters are strung together randomly and you can’t read them. The letters in Phase 1 spelling do not correspond to sounds.”
“Phase 2 Partial Alphabetic Spelling (formerly semiphonetic spelling): Expected no later than the end of kindergarten. This is when spellers first know that letters represent sounds. They perceive and represent reliable sounds with partial sound-letter spellings. Spellings are often abbreviated, representing initial and/or final sounds.”
“Phase 3 Full Alphabetic Spelling (formerly phonetic spelling): Expected no later than the middle of first grade. Students in this phase almost always spell words with a letter for each sound. They perceive and represent all of the phonemes in a word, though spellings may be unconventional. Children in Phase 3 often use a technique called finger spelling to determine the sounds in a word, and they write a letter for each sound.”
“Phase 4 Consolidated/Automatic Alphabetic Spelling (formerly transitional spelling): Expected by the end of first grade. Children in Phase 4 spell words in chunks of letter patterns using their knowledge of phonics patterns. They may think about how words appear visually; a visual memory of spelling patterns is apparent. Spellings exhibit conventions of English orthography like vowels in every syllable, VCe and vowel digraph patterns, correctly spelled inflectional endings, and memory of recurring English letter sequences in chunks of phonics patterns.”
“Conventional Spelling (formerly correct spelling): Expected throughout elementary and high school. Children develop brain words over years of systematic explicit spelling study while expanding their vocabulary and spoken language system through reading and writing. In this phase, correct spelling is categorized by instructional grade-level expectations.”
“Once you have an understanding of the expectations within each developmental phase, scoring the students’ spellings becomes much more straightforward; in our experience, teachers tend to become familiar with the scoring process rather quickly.”
“Phase observation is a boon to early literacy success for spellers, readers, and writers and a powerful tool for reading teachers. Making the connection between spelling and reading is a transformational concept and a missing link that can lead to better reading and higher test scores.”
“A spell-to-read teaching approach promotes and integrates important foundational skills and develops and consolidates the routes to word reading along with the various processing areas of the reading brain.”
“Our spell-to-read, listening-first five-step sequence-Hear-It, Say-It, Write-It, Read-It, Use-It—can easily be incorporated into any classroom and builds a dictionary of key words in each beginning reader’s brain that will be available for a lifetime of use.”
“In Phase 1, kindergarten children begin to visually perceive and process alphabet letters-they learn to write their names, identify some letters, and even recognize a few words based on environmental cues. With appropriate reading and writing instruction the kindergartner’s brain begins to change some more.”
“The move to Phase 2 evokes further brain changes as alphabetic symbols (letters) start to be matched to stored representations for sounds and at the same time speech codes are being connected with pronunciations in the child’s spoken language along with higher-order language skills for sentences and comprehension.”
“In Phase 3, often in the first half of first grade, brain changes help children decode words with one-to-one letter-to-sound mapping and encode or spell words with sound-to-letter mapping as the sounding out route to reading develops.”
Reader extension (promo)
May 23, 2024
I heard this author on a podcast and was interested in his “new spell to reading approach.” I was disappointed that it didn’t seem to be anything more than the mental process known as orthographic mapping through what seemed like the encoding portion of an Orton Gillingham lesson. And honestly, as soon as you mention Fountas and Pinnell and give any credence to their so called “levels,” your work is undermined. (Chapter 5) I would seek out other sources of interested in learning more about the science of reading.
December 13, 2020
This book provides practical approaches to spelling. It is not a spelling curriculum.
March 19, 2021
Speech to print. Sound to spelling. Critical.
July 6, 2022
Beautifully worded how and why Brain Words (Orthographically Mapped Words) are the key to proficient literacy outcomes and backed those claims to current research.
Truly cemented my idea of how speech to print or verbal first teaching is an effective instructional technique. Along with how important spelling is in the classroom and how to effectively utilize “The Weekly Spelling Test” and the data that is collected.
Will be recommending to colleagues this fall.
Truly cemented my idea of how speech to print or verbal first teaching is an effective instructional technique. Along with how important spelling is in the classroom and how to effectively utilize “The Weekly Spelling Test” and the data that is collected.
Will be recommending to colleagues this fall.
July 26, 2022
There was so repetition throughout the book with regards to info and research, but it can be helpful to have important point reiterated. I did appreciate the routine shared to help build “brain words” so students have a strong sight vocabulary that starts from speech.
August 31, 2022
As educational has bounced between phonics and whole language literacy, spelling really has fallen to the wayside in so many ways. I really like the practical and easy to implement way that this book explains the science of reading and connects it to spelling instruction.
November 2, 2022
This book is such a fantastic reference for understanding key elements of reading development, and practical strategies to support it. I keep coming back to it time and again when I need to clarify my thinking. I will never be done reading it :)
January 15, 2023
Reading this for my Masters action research project. Great read to how we learn how to read.
August 13, 2024
Very thought-provoking approach to teaching reading through spelling. I’m excited to try it out!
January 27, 2025
After finishing chapter 5, with the mention of F&P, it was a no for me.
September 11, 2019
I really expected to love this book. I bought it after having spent a day at a workshop with Richard Gentry, which I attended because I was already familiar with his work. The workshop was great. Unfortunately I found the book vague and repetitive. The intervention and accommodation ideas aren’t concrete. Perhaps it’s a good introduction for people who are new to reading research, but overall, this book, sadly, wasn’t a great fit for me.
December 31, 2021
Changed how I teach!
Displaying 1 - 14 of 14 reviews