Brain Words

Written for beginning or seasoned teachers, homeschoolers, teacher educators, and parents who want to fully engage in their child’s literacy development, this updated and highly readable new edition presents brain science, reading research, and theory that can be directly applied in teaching, leading to efficacious literacy instruction.

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"Gentry and Ouellette are cannonballing into the reading research pool, they're making waves, and these waves are moving the field of reading forward."

—From the foreword by Mark Weakland, Super Spellers

"In this second edition, the authors have written a practical and fascinating resource that helps connect the theory and research of the neurological reading circuitry to classroom practice."

—Molly Ness, teacher educator, author, consultant

A lot has changed since the original publication of Brain Words. The first edition was very much a call for change, and change has indeed happened! While the science of reading has made real and substantive change within education, there unfortunately remain too many misunderstandings and misinterpretations of what the science of reading is, and stubborn resistance to all it has to offer. Now more than ever it is vital that we work towards an understanding of the science of reading and what it has to say about teaching our students how to read.

Written for beginning or seasoned teachers, homeschoolers, teacher educators, as well as parents who want to fully engage in their child’s literacy development, this updated and highly readable new edition presents brain science, reading research, and theory in ways that can be understood and directly applied in teaching, ultimately leading to efficacious science of reading based literacy instruction.

Gentry and Ouellette show how an understanding of the science of reading can shape teaching to help make all students literate. Building on their science of reading based framework of “brain words”—dictionaries in the brain where students store and access word spelling, pronunciation, and meaning—the authors offer a wealth of information to transform your thinking and practice. They offer:



an updated review of models of reading, developmental theory, and brain research that help explain the reading brain
a new exploration of how oral language provides the foundation for learning to read and write, and how elements of oral language directly contribute to literacy learning throughout the school years
an evolving critique of classroom practices that aren't as effective as once believed
explicit guidance on how spelling can be used to teach the critical skill of word reading
a deepened understanding of dyslexia through the lens of the science of reading

With the insights and strategies in Brain Words, you can meet your students where they are and ensure that more of them read well, think well, and write well.