The NEW Secret Stories® Phonics Book— Version 2.0!

Sharing the Secret Stories® just got a whole lot easier! Teachers' favorite secret weapon for teaching all (and I mean ALL!) of those tricky letter sounds and phonics skills just got a "face-lift!"

Introducing the latest edition of Secret Stories® Cracking the Reading Code with the Brain in Mind!— Version 2.0! 

This NEW edition of the Secret Stories® book and posters was just released this fall! If you've been waiting for the right time to update yours, or if you have always wanted to buy it, now is the time!

The new look, layout design makes it easy to start sharing the Secrets! Instructional icons, in-line text boxes and "just-so-you-know" tags, the new book is easy to navigate and grab what you need in a hurry! Plus, it's jam-packed with new sections, including how to dig even deeper into the affective learning domain for accelerated reading and writing (phonics) skill access!

And for those who might be wondering how to still make use of your existing book and/or poster set, here's the best tip ever....and one that might even convince your principal to purchase it for you!

Ideally, every classroom using the Secret Stories® should have a 'loaner' book available for parents to check-out, as needed, to remediate and/or accelerate learning at home. Your old book makes the perfect parent resource, plus it's an easy way to satisfy School Improvement Plans that Require teachers and administrators to connect school and home learning, so as to foster stronger home-school connections.

Quite possibly, the world's most well-used "old" Secret Stories® Book!

Similarly, your old Secret Stories® posters can be bound together to make a 'big book' of all the Secrets that students can take turns taking it home to share. (This will be the most valuable commodity in your classroom, as all of them will want to be privy to new Secrets that you haven't yet shared, which makes it a great behavior incentive!) Simply staple or hole-punch/bind posters together. If you had originally cut your posters, don't fret, as they can easily be re-mounted onto large pieces of construction paper (preferably yellow, black or read) and them laminated.

(More on this adorable little PeeP-Pic on Instagram) 

Both are ideal ways to "let parents in on the SECRETS®" and how kids use them in the classroom to read and spell words!

To celebrate the new release,  I'm doing a special giveaway of the new book, along with the choice of poster styles (Fun & Funky, Space-Saver/Dual-Use Placards or Original) See Rafflecopter below for details on how to enter. 

But you don't have to win to get started sharing Secrets, as you can download the FREE mini-anchor sample set, here, or by clicking on the link, below!

Download the FREE mini-anchor sample poster set

If you are subscribed to my newsletter, then you already know about the free download window for  the SECRET STORIES® Guided Reader "In the Fall!"  If not, be sure to grab it now before the window closes later this week!

Secret Stories® Phonics Guided Reader —In the Fall

And finally, here's a great video just posted to the SECRET STORIES YouTube Channel of some first graders just a couple of weeks into school, sharing the amazing "secret" discoveries they've made in their names!  (For more background, read here, here and here!) 

"Spotting SECRETS™ in my name!"  

To enter the Raffelcopter Drawing (which begins at midnight on Thursday, Nov. 3rd) post a comment below. You can also follow on Facebook and Twitter (or if you're already following, just let me know :) 

a Rafflecopter giveaway

Happy Fall!!!

I hope to have the chance to meet many of you during my conference travels this year!

Until Next Time,

Katie 

Never Miss a Secret! Subscribe to the Newsletter! 

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Secret Stories® Makes Phonics Make SENSE!

Try a "taste" of the Secrets with YOUR class 
and see the difference they make!
Click to Download the FREE Secret Stories® Mini-Sample Poster Pack

For a list of upcoming conferences, or for information on scheduling a school or district professional development workshop, click here. 

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www.TheSecretStories.com

Backdoor Learning Channels for Phonics Skill Mastery— The Social & Emotional "Feeling" Networks

"Beware of the stories you'll read or tell; subtly, at night, beneath the waters of consciousness, they are altering your world."   

                                                                                                                                       —Ben Okra     
                                       

Can you breathe underwater?

The likely answer is no.

But what if you lived in a world where breathing underwater was possible? 
Then the correct answer would be yes. 
In other words, the answer depends on the context.

Traditionally, the idea of teaching complex phonic concepts and strategies to beginning, early grade learners would be considered developmentally inappropriate—a position with which I would have to agree. 

Giving them however, is a completely different story! 
By wrapping skills up into stories, we can give them what can’t be taught. Stories are easy for kids to remember because stories are HOW kids remember. Stories act as a sort of "memory-enhancer." They serve as strong memory-holding templates in the brain and provide a much-needed framework for memory construction.

Stories pose no developmental harm, nor are they age or grade-specific, as learners naturally take away only what is personally meaningful and relevant to them, without any expectations. In this way, the reading and writing code is transformed into 'skill-drenched' golden nuggets, buried within familiar and easy-to-remember stories, allowing learners to become their own "gate-keeper" of skills. 

And herein lies the power of the SECRET STORIES® as a backdoor delivery method for the totality of skills that all readers and writers need, but traditionally cannot have—not until they are “ready.” 

So hold your breath and prepare to dive into a new way of thinking about what we do and why we do it, and in no time, you and your students will be breathing underwater!  

For more on the Secret Stories® use of the affective learning networks as a backdoor delivery system for high-leverage concepts and strategies, check out these previous posts here and here. 

For more, subscribe free to the Secret Stories® YouTube Chanel.

You can also check out this video below on the brain's development, back to front, and how to activate the earlier-developing, social and emotional "feeling" networks for use as a backdoor for accelerated skill mastery. 

Before I close, I wanted to kick-off the new school year with this fun and FREE 36 page Secret Stories® Reward/Incentive Bucks Pack! It even includes a student purse and wallet for safekeeping of students "secret" earnings! Inside, you will find information on how to use it with the Secret Stories® in the classroom. You can grab it by clicking here or on the link, below.

Free Secret Stories® Reward/Incentive Bucks

On a side note, I always love getting to meet so many incredible teachers at conferences around the US! And over the next couple of years, in addition to my current speaking schedule, I will be doing a series of keynotes in cities throughout the US and Canada as part of the Vulnerable Learners Summits some of my personal mentors, Dr. Richard Allington, Dr. Anne Cunningham and Debbie Diller (see promo below.) If you have the chance to attend one of the Summits, do go! They are amazing and each of us gets to spend some quality time with attendees, with alternating keynotes and lots of  follow-up extended length break out sessions. I hope to one day have the chance to meet YOU! :-)

For more upcoming dates, check out my speaking schedule, here!

Until Next Time,

Katie 

Never Miss a Secret! Subscribe to the Newsletter! 

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Secret Stories® Makes Phonics Make SENSE!

Try a "taste" of the Secrets with YOUR class 
and see the difference they make!
Click to Download the FREE Secret Stories® Mini-Sample Poster Pack

For a list of upcoming conferences, or for information on scheduling a school or district professional development workshop, click here. 

---

www.TheSecretStories.com