Beginning Literacy Teacher Training - Summer 2025
A seven week in-person training for K-2 grade teachers
June 21, June 28, July 12, June 19, June 26, August 2, and August 9.

In our seven week training course we’re going to immerse participants in activities designed to inspire discovery. This is how we’ve been teaching our students at Reading For Life for the past eight years. We’ve discovered that when they’re given the structure and materials they need, kids learn really well. They’re excited to be given space to explore, make observations, and draw conclusions. The patterns they learn this way are practiced with activities designed to give them creative choice, and freedom of expression. They learn to trust their own learning process, and develop confidence in their ability to learn.

Participants will engage in the same fun, varied activities that make the English alphabet code clear to learners. They’ll learn to support students in a process that makes reading and writing empowering, and the learning process fun and inspiring. 

Week One we’re going to give an overview of effective literacy instruction, then in subsequent weeks dive into each aspect in great detail.

Week Two is an exploration of the English alphabet code, in which its inherent logic is fully mapped. Our code charts divide the logic for systematic, effective instruction into 4 levels. We’ll lay out and discuss learning objectives for each grade. Our new understanding of the logic of English flips instruction upside down: instead of teaching ‘the alphabet,’ we teach the ‘sound code’ and we understand exactly why it’s supremely important that we do. We’re going to outline instructional practices to NOT do, and the things TO DO in the classroom to guarantee success for all learners.

Week Three is a deep dive into child development. In order to teach such a complex code successfully, teachers must understand how children learn best. They must learn to engage them in fun, active activities and games. They need to learn to present the complex code carefully, starting with the simplest logic. Teachers must weave this logic throughout all activities. They must learn to gauge how much practice is needed for individual students, They must learn to avoid the common teaching practices that obscure the code. They must learn to scaffold learning for various learning styles and abilities. They must learn to create opportunities for success, so that children slowly build confidence in themselves. This is the way to fuel and accelerate the process.

Week Four: Handwriting

Teachers will learn how to give concise, clear instruction with letter formation. They’ll learn to use mnemonic devices and starting dots. They’ll learn to orient children to the proportions of letters with the use of double lined paper. Teachers will learn to teach groupings of letters with similar movements. They’ll learn the proper sequence of handwriting instruction. They’ll learn to ensure success at each and every stage. 

Teachers will learn how to give repeated practice with a wide variety of writing and art media. You’ll learn to make writing instruction fun and risk free for students. They’ll learn how to remediate bad writing habits of older students, and how to help students who feel self conscious about their writing. We’ll talk about how to give error corrections. We’ll give teachers strategies for helping older students learn handwriting, while teaching the code at the same time. Once letter formation is reflexive, writing is used as a tool for learning the code. We’ll discuss why we do this. 

Week 5: The Sub Skills
In week five we’re getting to the heart of the sub skills that underlie success with literacy. What are the basic skills that predict success with reading and writing? If taught correctly from the start, they’ll already be in place, carefully ingrained as reflexes in kindergarten. 

Blending is the ability to synthesize the sounds of letters into a recognized word, and arrive at meaning (reading). It relies on the ability to quickly remember the associated sounds (without going through a filter of the letter name first). Blending relies on something called ‘echoic memory,’ which is time dependent (short term memory fades fast!) - the sounds of successive words must be said quickly to ‘hear the word.’ 

Many children who have trouble with this skill have been taught the sound of the consonant letters with a ‘pesky uh’ sound attached to it. In other words, instead of ‘saying them clean,’ /p/ (which is an unvoiced ‘lip popper’) will be /puh/, with an attached vowel sound. Almost all the consonants can be pronounced this way, obscuring the code, and causing early frustration and failure on a child’s literacy path.

Segmenting is the ability to unglue the sounds from a word and write their associated letters to convey meaning (writing). Older students who add or drop sounds in words aren’t ‘saying the sounds’ as they write. We’ll show you how to use manipulatives like blocks, gems, stones, and coins to make phonemes real to them. 

Often we’ll have to ‘deprogram’ students from maladaptive strategies like chanting letter names while writing. It’s often a long tedious process for students and teachers to rewire the brain for the proper reflexes. 

Phoneme manipulation grows the mental connections between visual and auditory centers of the brain. This skill develops as the brain learns to recognize the phonemic makeup of words. They start with manipulatives - wooden letters, glass gems, etc, changing one sound unit at a time, and resynthesizing the words. This leads to students being able to do it mentally, preparing them for learning spelling patterns in the complex and advanced code.

None of the sub skills are hard-wired into human brains. Isolating phonemes in words isn’t something we needed to do before this code was invented. Learning the code is completely reliant upon it, and we’ll teach teachers how to instill them in every kid, with simple and effective techniques.

If students have been taught the code correctly right from the start, they’ll have no problem with these skills. Participants will learn how to ingrain young students with reflexive segmenting skill with simple techniques. 

Week 6 Participants will be given experience with our curriculum. They’ll have the whole alphabetic code at their fingertips. They’ll see the patterns unfold in front of their eyes, just as their students will. They can dive into any of the little plastic drawers, spread the headers out, and read and sort the cards. These tactile, movable word cards are low pressure for students, because they only have to read one word at a time in a structured framework that is fail proof. The highlighted spelling pattern (or phoneme) is clearly written on headers, making the logic clear to students. 

The first step for each lesson is a ‘read and sort’ of the cards. Reading the words involves recognition memory, and I consider it a warm-up for exercising a deeper level of memory: writing (recall memory).

The second step in learning spelling patterns is to write them. We’ve thought of all the ways for young learners to do this, and created worksheets for them. These worksheet activities are fun for kids, and easy to scaffold for different abilities and interests. They support student expression and creativity. We’ll go through the steps with each activity in class, then take home a sample set of curriculum for doing homework with a volunteer student.

Week 7 Participants will learn to adapt the curriculum. Humans come in a wide range of learning styles, interests, and abilities. We’ll talk about these different types of learners. 

Participants will share and tell about their homework. They’ll show their volunteer student’s work, and describe how the process went. 

We’ll talk about error corrections. (try again, nice effort, practice makes progress, etc). The importance of keeping corrections positive. The emphasis that ‘this is all for practice.’  Keeping records of student work, to show the student their own progress, which is what it’s all about. Using examples of athletes as examples for us with literacy. Practice, and train, until all the skills get fast, easy, and automatic. 

We’ll adapt it for: reluctant learners, those with slow writing skills, kids who don’t like to draw, those who do like to draw, accelerated learners. How to gauge when students need a rest, and the importance of ‘brain breaks.’

Participants will be given homework to complete between sessions, in order to lead to thoughtful integration of the course content. This will consist of watching videos, reading articles, writing essays, and directing lessons with students. They’ll receive copies of our linguistic code charts, as well as sample packs of our curriculum to use as part of homework assignments. At the end of the 6 weeks, participants will each receive a certificate. They’ll be immensely better prepared and inspired for teaching beginning readers this coming school year.