Rewiring Dyslexic Brains: The Writing-First Approach with Russell Van Brocklen

What if everything we've been taught about teaching dyslexic students to read and write is backward? In this eye-opening second installment of my conversation with Russell, we discover how the dyslexic brain's unique wiring demands a completely different approach to literacy.

Russell reveals the science behind his revolutionary method, showing us brain scans where dyslexic students have 2.5 times more activity in the front part of their brains compared to typical students. This neurological difference explains why traditional teaching methods often fail—and points to a solution that plays to dyslexic strengths rather than weaknesses.

Ready to transform how you support the dyslexic learners in your life? Download Russell's free resources mentioned in the show notes and join us for the next episode, where we'll explore how to develop these foundational skills into high school and college-level writing abilities.

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🆓 Free Resource: The 3 Reasons Your Child’s Dyslexia Education Isn’t Working – And How to Fix It

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Chapters

• 0:00 Episode Introduction and Previous Recap
• 1:00 Focusing on Dyslexic Brain Strengths
• 5:19 Teaching Specific to General for Dyslexics
• 10:04 The Plus Sign Method for Basic Sentences
• 19:21 Three Default Writing Strategies Explained
• 29:03 Building Vocabulary with Universal Themes
• 39:02 Practical Example Using Santa Claus
• 46:05 Next Steps and Future Techniques

Transcript

Jackie Pelegrin: 0:01

Hello and welcome to the Designing with Love podcast. I am your host, Jackie Pelegrin, where my goal is to bring you information, tips, and tricks as an instructional designer. Hello instructional designers and educators, welcome to Episode 78 of the Designing with Love podcast. Today, I'm thrilled to welcome back Russell Van Brocklin, New York State Senate-funded dyslexia researcher, for part two of our series. In our last conversation, Russell gave us the big picture of his approach. Today, we're going to focus on helping students from first grade through third grade improve their writing and reading skills to the point where the teachers can take over and help them cross the finish line. Russell, welcome back. It's great to continue this conversation with you.

Russell Van Brocklen: 0:47

Thanks for having me. I'm glad to be back.

Jackie Pelegrin: 0:49

Yes, absolutely. So before we get into the moves you teach, can you explain in plain language why your step-by-step approach lowers cognitive load and helps keep kids engaged?

Russell Van Brocklen: 1:00

Sure. So the first thing we need to do is this book is the top of the food chain when it comes to dyslexia research. It's Overcoming Dyslexia by Sally Shaywitz from Yale, and I'm just going to reintroduce you to this is the second edition, page 78, figure 23. That's dyslexia, yes, okay, now I want you to notice the back part of the dyslexic brain and you see how there's virtually no neuroactivity there.

Jackie Pelegrin: 1:29

Yes, I see that.

Russell Van Brocklen: 1:30

Now, with a typical brain, there's this massive activity.

Jackie Pelegrin: 1:34

Right.

Russell Van Brocklen: 1:35

Now I need you to look at the front part. You see how the dyslexic brain is about two and a half times overactive compared to the gen ed brain.

Jackie Pelegrin: 1:43

Yes, I see that Okay.

Russell Van Brocklen: 1:46

So here's my weird idea overactive compared to the gen ed brain. Yes, I see that. Okay. So here's my weird idea let's focus on the dyslexic strengths, not the weaknesses. So just to remind your audience, my initial program I took a bunch. It was Averill Park Central School District, right outside of Albany, new York, my old high school, and I wanted to see what I could do with the idea. These were high school juniors and seniors selected by Averill Park that met the following criteria they were highly intelligent, highly motivated, excellent family support, college math. They're high school juniors and seniors, dyslectic, with seventh or eighth grade writing skills. Susan ford was their best special ed teacher took about four hours to show her the process. One class period a day for the school year, about 180 sessions approximately. They went from middle school writing skills to average range of entering graduate school students.

Russell Van Brocklen: 2:42

They all went out of college, no accommodations, gpas of 2.5 to 3.6. How did I do that? Well, look at again the front part of the dyslexic brain. Yale said this is articulation, followed by word analysis. We use the graduate records exam, analytical writing assessment, analytical articulation same thing Very little word analysis. So after I presented that in New York City, what about typical students? I had to switch that over to word analysis followed by articulation. We're going to go into that in a lot of detail tonight.

Jackie Pelegrin: 3:16

Okay.

Russell Van Brocklen: 3:17

Okay, but if you want to make things more effective, all right. What you need to do is if you can focus on the dyslexic speciality, their area of extreme interest and ability, it would make this a lot better. They're a lot more motivated, All right, but that's hard to do when you're dealing with 30 kids. So Evelyn White Bay she's on the New York State Dyslexia Task Force. As one of the most successful dyslexic teachers in New York State. She had an idea Maybe you come up with two or three books that the kids are really interested in, divide them into groups and then at least you have something where they're somewhat interested. Okay, All right. But secondly, you can do this Do not ask a dyslexic student to learn from the journal to the specific. It's like us grabbing fog. There's nothing there. So you can't ask, for example, if we're dealing with high school kids, what effect did Martin Luther King's I have a Dream speech have on the American civil rights movement in the 1960s? There's nothing for us to grab onto.

Jackie Pelegrin: 4:21

Right.

Russell Van Brocklen: 4:21

That makes sense Okay. Because, with a dyslexic, you ask them for your area of extreme interest and ability, your speciality. Do you have ideas flying around your head at light speed but with little to no organization? They're going to say yes. So what we have to do is force the brain to organize itself by using writing as a measurable output. So we teach them from the specific to the general what personally compelled Martin Luther King to want to give his famous speech? And then we do word analysis followed by articulation. Does that make sense?

Jackie Pelegrin: 4:51

That makes sense, right, yeah, so you want to. Yeah, you want to start with their area of interest and you want to see where, where is it that we can really hone in on those, those ideas that they have right, and then help them organize it. And then you move to the more broad right and the more simple.

Russell Van Brocklen: 5:07

Yeah, we start with a very specific question and then we move out from there.

Jackie Pelegrin: 5:11

I like that idea. So for many years it was done the opposite way, right? The teachers would start more general and then move to specific, so they probably didn't understand why dyslexic students were failing right.

Russell Van Brocklen: 5:26

That's not the reason, the reason why they're doing it again. I'll go back to the science. Look at the back part of the typical brain. School is designed for the 80 plus percent of people who aren't dyslexic, but our brains are completely different.

Russell Van Brocklen: 5:43

So now, what I'm going to do is I'm going to do is I'm going to show you word analysis followed by articulation, and I want to make things very clear to your guests. I have tried this. Don't try this with kindergarten kids. Wait until they're in first grade, and then it's going to be notoriously slow. The older they are, the quicker they will pick it up, but you can start this in first grade. So the first thing that we need to do is have you ever heard of dyslexic elementary school kids and I'm just ripping this off from a special ed teacher in New York City who said that her elementary school dyslexic kids appeared to be writing randomly placed misspelled words. Sound familiar?

Jackie Pelegrin: 6:21

Yes, that does sound familiar because I have a lot of my coworkers that were former teachers. Now they're in higher education working in curriculum and then they also have kids in school. So yeah, I've heard that quite a bit.

Russell Van Brocklen: 6:34

Okay, yes, now we're going to show you how to fix that. Okay, all right. So what we're going to do is I want you to. First of all, can you think of an elementary school child who met that description? They're in elementary school, writing what appears to be randomly placed mispelled words.

Jackie Pelegrin: 6:51

Yes, I have a. We mentioned this before we started recording. I have a coworker who has a son that has ADHD. He might I don't know if he has dyslexia too I'm not sure, but he definitely has ADHD. And she says his writing is all over the place and he's in high school. He's a freshman.

Russell Van Brocklen: 7:09

Or no.

Jackie Pelegrin: 7:10

Yeah, oh, you wanted elementary, though, right.

Russell Van Brocklen: 7:13

Oh, I'm sorry, Just so you know ADHD and ADD same thing. Okay, we solve it the same way. They just go through it quicker.

Jackie Pelegrin: 7:24

Okay, sounds good.

Russell Van Brocklen: 7:31

You think a kid has ADHD, can't concentrate.

Jackie Pelegrin: 7:32

Get them in their speciality and they're laser focused for 12 hours. Oh wow, try to pull them away.

Russell Van Brocklen: 7:36

Yes, Right so, but you know of an elementary school kid like this, or should I use one of my standard examples?

Jackie Pelegrin: 7:41

Yeah, that might be good, because I'm trying to think of anyone that I yeah, and I don't think I have coworkers that have kids.

Russell Van Brocklen: 7:49

I think that's the only one but he's in high school, yeah, okay. So let me explain to you when we'll eventually get to high school, but for right now, I'm going to give you my standard example. Her name is Sarah. She's, at the time, 10 years old. Her favorite thing to do in the world is swimming. She's on the swim team. She took a course to be an assistant swim instructor for the really little kids. Okay, she gets in the pool every chance she can. All right. So what we do is the first thing is we have. I'm going to, first of all, I'm going to go over three default writing strategies from this book. It's called Strategies from Struggling Writers.

Jackie Pelegrin: 8:31

Okay.

Russell Van Brocklen: 8:32

Professor James Collins. This is a result of a $1.5 million grant from the United States Education Department. He has three default writing strategies copying, visualization and narrative. Kids naturally want to use these. Schools tell them not to. Okay. So what we're going to do is we're going to start off with a list of 10 likes and 10 dislikes. If you don't like dislikes, you can do 20 likes, so I'm just going to assume the 10 to 10. Okay, so we have the child write out, or you can do this in a group, it doesn't matter. You write out the 10 things that they really really like and then the 10 things they really, really dislike. Okay, and then what you do is, after we practice this with what they like and dislike, then you go to their book and you find out what their character likes and dislikes. So, for example, girls in elementary school almost always pick Hermione from Harry Potter for a very horrible reason she's not stupid and they don't want to be stupid anymore.

Jackie Pelegrin: 9:32

Okay.

Russell Van Brocklen: 9:32

Okay, so then they would go through book one, the Sorcerer's Stone. Give me 10 things that Hermione likes and then 10 things that she doesn't like. They listen to the audio book and follow along with their fingers trying to answer a specific question. Redu, they listen to the audio book and follow along with their fingers trying to answer a specific question. It reduces that chaos in their head by about 70% Wow.

Russell Van Brocklen: 9:48

So what we do first of all is for Sarah, the first thing is swimming. Okay, that's what she likes the most. So what we do is we're going to now engage the default writing strategy of copying. The instructor will type out on a laptop no iPad, no iPhone and no handwriting. Teachers are going to scream what do you mean? No handwriting? When I took the best students in my original program, they were hitting the 70th percentile. Here's an easier prompt and read out the answer. The SUNY distinguished professor in psychology, dr Holitschka, said I am trying to keep this at the 30th percentile. It should be at the sixth. The spelling and grammar went out the window because it's so much harder mental energy to try to write the letter W than to hit a key.

Russell Van Brocklen: 10:42

Yes, that's true, Okay, so typing from now on on a real keyboard all right, no iPad, no iPhone. So you're going to type out hero plus sign what are we talking about? Then Sarah will retype that and we're going to switch it over. We're going to get rid of hero for Sarah Sarah plus sign, what are we talking about? Then we're going to take the first thing on her list that she likes Sarah plus sign swimming. See how we got there.

Jackie Pelegrin: 11:11

Yes, okay.

Russell Van Brocklen: 11:13

Okay, Now I'm going to try to fool you. I'm going to ask you the simplest questions in the world, and if you answer them correctly, this will work. If you don't, it doesn't work. The simplest questions you'll ever be asked. Do you think I can fool you?

Jackie Pelegrin: 11:29

Maybe We'll see. Okay, we'll give it a try.

Russell Van Brocklen: 11:33

Most of the teachers get this wrong at major dyslexia conferences. Okay, remember, the thing Sarah loves best in the world is swimming. So we got Sarah plus sign swimming. The plus sign is the default writing strategy of visualization. It indicates that we most likely need to add a word, subtract a word or move something around. Right, but we need to add a word here. So here's my question Are you ready? Yes, I'm ready, I'm going to try to fool you. Answer it exactly Ready, okay.

Jackie Pelegrin: 12:00

Yep.

Russell Van Brocklen: 12:01

Here's my question Does Sarah like or dislike swimming?

Jackie Pelegrin: 12:06

Like.

Russell Van Brocklen: 12:07

Okay, go ahead and complete the sentence for three words.

Jackie Pelegrin: 12:12

Sarah likes swimming.

Russell Van Brocklen: 12:14

You did it the first time and you messed it up the second time.

Jackie Pelegrin: 12:17

Oh no, what did I do? Okay, what do you think you did wrong, sarah? Well, I replaced the plus with the like. That was correct. That was absolutely correct. Sarah likes what did I? I don't know what did I do wrong?

Russell Van Brocklen: 13:16

Okay, and just so everybody knows, you teach instructional design.

Jackie Pelegrin: 13:21

Right, and you don teach instructional design. Right, and you don't see it.

Russell Van Brocklen: 13:25

No, I'm trying to imagine it in my head. I'm trying to let you know you're about ready to have an epiphany and understand how we're going to solve this. You still don't see it.

Jackie Pelegrin: 13:32

No, because I'm trying to imagine myself typing it and I'm picturing it in my head.

Russell Van Brocklen: 13:37

Okay, let me ask you one more time Again. I'm not trying to make you, I'm just trying to. You're about to have an epiphany. Your audience is about to. This whole thing's going to become clear. Yes, I asked you. What did you say initially, when I asked you to Sarah like or dislike? Your answer, which was correct, was Like like. Okay, oh, oh.

Jackie Pelegrin: 13:56

I get it, I know what I did.

Russell Van Brocklen: 13:58

now, what is it?

Jackie Pelegrin: 13:59

I said likes instead of like. So Sarah likes swimming, right? I was supposed to say.

Russell Van Brocklen: 14:04

Just so your audience understands. You did it. Initially. I asked if she liked or disliked and you said like, because that's what I asked, right? But then, like every educated person, when you put it in the sentence, you corrected it. So, sarah, likes swimming Sarah, as a dyslexic doesn't know how to add the S.

Jackie Pelegrin: 14:26

Oh, okay, yeah, Because my brain automatically knows I got to make it sound correct for English, right?

Russell Van Brocklen: 14:34

Yes, you automatically know that it's ingrained. And this is where Sarah starts to feel really bad, because how do we fix this? So if you were really really rich, if you were Bill Gates' grandkid or great grandkid, whatever it is, you would be looking at a Fortin-Gillingham multi-sensory structured language approach and you would use seeing, touching, hearing. All of that. It takes two years and $11,000 to become certified. Wow, it's forever, but it works. This is what the wealthy, this is what they do. So, for example, the Windward School in the Upper East Side of Manhattan will take kids, you know, let's assuming it's fourth grade or above and they have a 98% success rate.

Russell Van Brocklen: 15:26

Wow $75,000 a year for four to five years. Oh, my goodness, wow, yes. So now I'm about to show you how we're going to do this, for it's going to be absolutely clear and it's so much simpler. So let's assume it was Sarahah. I would say, sarah, do you like or dislike swimming? And she was like like I was like, okay, now replace the plus sign, what do we have sarah like swimming? I was like okay, sarah, but does that sound a bit weird?

Russell Van Brocklen: 15:57

and she's enthusiastic yeah I, okay, read it out loud and let me know if it sounds generally correct. Sarah likes swimming. Does that sound generally correct, sarah? No, fix it. Sarah likes swimming. Okay, now we practice that until the like and dislikes are correct every time. It's been mastered Right, okay, okay, and teachers are. So here's what happens all the time. It's a race. Let's try to get through this. This is not a race. Yeah, you are going to do this really slowly.

Jackie Pelegrin: 16:40

Yeah, it's a journey, right, it's a journey for them, yeah.

Russell Van Brocklen: 16:43

I'm I'm teaching a mom. I have permission to tell her story. Her name is Angela. Her son name is August. She's a certified. She's not in special ed, but she's a certified elementary school teacher and she's tried everything. So he's nine and he found out he likes doing two to three sentences a session and that's it. But she's made more progress in the last three weeks than she has in the last three years.

Jackie Pelegrin: 17:10

Oh wow, that's amazing.

Russell Van Brocklen: 17:12

So don't try to make sure they get it correct. But you see how like and dislike is a simple form of word analysis.

Jackie Pelegrin: 17:22

Yes, absolutely.

Russell Van Brocklen: 17:24

Wow.

Jackie Pelegrin: 17:25

I love that exercise too, russell, because it shows that there's a difference between how dyslexic kids and adults, how they process it, and how someone like me that's not dyslexic, how it's just so automatic for me to want to correct it and so that's an ep's a, that's an epiphany, wow.

Jackie Pelegrin: 17:45

I never realized it was like that, you know, cause I don't think I really ever understood, really what dyslexic kids were going through when I was, when I was in school or anything like that, or even now, because it just wasn't something that was talked about a lot. And so, yeah, really helping them in that way, that's amazing.

Russell Van Brocklen: 18:04

I love that, but yeah, but let's look at where we are. I mean, and just you know, the older the kid is, the quicker they'll pick it up. Third graders will pick this up a lot faster than second and first graders. But even once we're done, congratulations, we're doing a three-word sentence. We got to do better than that.

Jackie Pelegrin: 18:22

Right.

Russell Van Brocklen: 18:23

So what we're going to do is now we're going to add the word because. Okay, give me a simple reason why Sarah likes swimming.

Jackie Pelegrin: 18:33

Let's see, because she loves the water.

Russell Van Brocklen: 18:38

Because she loves the water, sarah likes swimming because she loves the water, and what you got there is a whole mess of misspelled words. Okay, now, the traditional way of teaching spelling to me is archaic, inefficient and not based on the current science. So now I'm going to tell you how we're going to do this, because when I did my initial study, those kids, their spelling and grammar, was atrocious. Dr Hrlitschka describes it sometimes as disgusting. But after 180 days it was clean at the graduate school level, entering graduate level. And guess what? Susan Ford, the teacher, spent almost no time on spelling and grammar to autocorrect it.

Jackie Pelegrin: 19:20

Oh wow, that's great Now.

Russell Van Brocklen: 19:22

I'm going to show you how we're going to autocorrect this. This is really important. What you're going to tell the student is, before they put the period down, they can ask any question. Okay, okay, but let's say what was the reason you said again, because she what?

Jackie Pelegrin: 19:41

Oh, let's just say she enjoys the water. She enjoys the water.

Russell Van Brocklen: 19:45

Yeah, maybe she could ask did I spell water correctly? And you'd be like, no, sarah, you didn't. So now you type out water and then she copies it because she asked before the period was put down. But that doesn't happen. These kids are period droppers. But that doesn't happen. These kids are period droppers once they put the period down. If there's a major and I need to emphasize, major grammatical issue, if you try to hit them up with every grammatical mistake, they will shut down and you're wasting your time. Just try to get the stuff that's massively disgusting, horrible out, and you know what that is right forget the meat, the simple and medium stuff, just just the massive, horrible stuff.

Russell Van Brocklen: 20:22

What you really get them is, if they make a major grammatical or any spelling mistake, they got to retype the entire thing. So what happens? They keep making the same mistake over and over again, usually between three and 13 times. Three and 13 times as they keep making the mistake. To help lessen the annoyance that they have with themselves, you simply need to tell them you made a silly mistake or a silly error. A silly mistake or a silly error. Okay, Now, once they they understand that they're going to keep retyping, they're going to keep making the same mistake Each time. They're going to start getting more annoyed with themselves. Then what's going to happen is they're going to start to hyperfocus to around 9 to 13 times. They're focusing so hard you might see sweat coming down the door.

Jackie Pelegrin: 21:20

Wow.

Russell Van Brocklen: 21:21

Okay, and then, finally, they'll keep getting it wrong until they get it correct, all right, and then you move on to the next one. You want them to keep repeating this until they do all 20, perfectly, don't try to rush this. So then we do reason one, and then I tell them we're going to come up with two reasons and glue them together with the word end. So reason one and reason to same thing, the same 21. So they're going to, they're going to rewrite the same uh, what they like or dislike, and then they're going to write the same reason one that they did before. They're recopying that. And then now we're adding just the second reason.

Jackie Pelegrin: 22:03

Okay.

Russell Van Brocklen: 22:04

And then we get to the bane of my existence when we get to three reasons. It's called the Oxford comma, and if I could go and just rip that out of the rule book I would be so happy. So here's my question for you, For three reasons are you a one comma person or a two comma person? I'm a two comma person, Okay. So what I do is we go to the kid's parents or guardians Is this a one comma kid or a two comma kid? And even if you don't like it, it goes in the IEP and it's in there forever If a teacher dislikes it too bad. I have seen kids cry. I've seen kids held back for months because teachers and parents were at war with each other over a stupid one or two comments.

Jackie Pelegrin: 22:49

Oh my goodness, all right.

Russell Van Brocklen: 22:51

Don't. It's in the IEP, keep it there. You don't like it? Tough All right. You literally will cause extreme anxiety with these kids.

Jackie Pelegrin: 23:00

Gosh, I didn't know it was that crazy.

Russell Van Brocklen: 23:02

It is that bad Wow. I literally had kids who were crying over this.

Jackie Pelegrin: 23:06

Oh, my gosh.

Russell Van Brocklen: 23:07

I always taught two commas and the teacher went. I am confused and the whole thing just.

Jackie Pelegrin: 23:11

All over a comma.

Russell Van Brocklen: 23:13

All over this darn Oxford comma yeah.

Jackie Pelegrin: 23:17

Okay.

Russell Van Brocklen: 23:17

And I found the simplest way is just go to the parents or guardians and say is this a one comma kid or two comma kid? Then it's in the IP itself Individual education, yes, okay, then you do three and remember we're doing this until 20 are perfect. They mess up on number 19,. Start over again. Yeah, if you only get through four in a session, come back to the next session. Work with the parents to help do this, to do the grunt work at home.

Jackie Pelegrin: 23:50

Right, yeah, I'm, I'm advocating teach your parent kind of think of it as like math homework right, okay, now does that any?

Russell Van Brocklen: 23:55

do any questions with that process?

Jackie Pelegrin: 23:58

no, that's really good. That actually was eye-opening for me to see that difference. Yeah, and now I understand better what these students go through every day and what the teachers go through and the parents. So it's a real partnership where you want the parents and the teachers to work hand in hand, because you can't have that, you can't have the teachers do one thing and then the parents do another thing at home, because then the kid's going to get confused, right, and it's like a tennis match, right, the ball's going back and forth and you're not going to have, right.

Russell Van Brocklen: 24:29

but here's the other thing. Just give me a rough idea. You're in Arizona.

Jackie Pelegrin: 24:34

What is the?

Russell Van Brocklen: 24:34

average student-to-teacher ratio in a public school in Arizona for elementary school. Just give me a ballpark number.

Jackie Pelegrin: 24:40

I would say probably for every teacher. There's probably about 30 students in a class.

Russell Van Brocklen: 24:48

Okay, yeah, so you need to be able to go to the parents and have them do the grunt work at home.

Jackie Pelegrin: 24:56

Right.

Russell Van Brocklen: 24:56

And just so teachers understand, can parents do this on their own? I recently heard back from I have full permission to tell a story. Kimberly was homeschooling her son Reed, who was 10 years old, reading and writing at a similar to the mid-second grade level. So he's in the state of Ohio. The test he scored a 190. Test he scored a 190. If he was in public school for the rest of the school year, the statistics were he should increase by 2.8 points to a 192.8. His grade level was 211. At the end of fifth grade. Kimberly worked with him for half an hour a day, three days a week. For a little under six months I worked with her for half an hour a week. Remember she's a parent, not a teacher. She needs a lot more support.

Jackie Pelegrin: 25:42

Right.

Russell Van Brocklen: 25:44

Reed didn't increase by 2.8 points. He increased by 20 points to a 2.10.

Jackie Pelegrin: 25:49

Wow, that's phenomenal.

Russell Van Brocklen: 25:50

One point below average. So then his friend said Reed, for social reasons we want you to come to public school. So he and his brother decided to go to public school and his sisters decided, no, okay, so he goes in. He's in normal classes, normal genetic classes, doing just fine. If this was January, he would have been put in special ed. They wouldn't know how to deal with him and he wouldn't be with his friends and it would have been a big blow up.

Russell Van Brocklen: 26:14

His mom did this in a little under six months, so mom can do it, teachers can do it.

Jackie Pelegrin: 26:20

Absolutely Right. That gives them that motivation that they can do it.

Russell Van Brocklen: 26:25

So now let's take a look at the next, because right now I don't know where you're going to think of basic three reason sentences. I usually am told end of second, beginning of third grade somewhere. So now what we're going to do is we're going to go ahead and we're going to do how do we do reading? So one of the big things I want you to understand is I don't teach reading, I teach writing because I have this. This is very important for you to understand. If the kid can write it, they can read it.

Jackie Pelegrin: 26:58

Right.

Russell Van Brocklen: 26:59

And now I'm going to show you how we're going to start developing a vocabulary of dozens and eventually hundreds of evolved words. Okay, great, to give you an example of why I do it this way, I want you to imagine do you ever go to the movies?

Jackie Pelegrin: 27:14

Yes, I do.

Russell Van Brocklen: 27:16

Do you ever read movie reviews where you can look and see that the journalist who did this went to an Ivy League college and they essentially tell you this happened, and this happened and this happened. Does that sound familiar?

Jackie Pelegrin: 27:29

It does yes.

Russell Van Brocklen: 27:31

So I'm going to show you a way where we find a universal theme and then, if you apply it to this, you write a review on how the actors did with that universal theme the director and the screenwriter. So now you reviewed the movie. They understand what's going on at the most important level, what you think of it, but you didn't tell them. Abc happened.

Jackie Pelegrin: 27:50

Right, okay.

Russell Van Brocklen: 27:51

Okay, Pathetic. That I'm telling you is something that's quick when people are trained in how to do this at the Ivy League. It's just I can't understand it.

Jackie Pelegrin: 28:01

Yeah.

Russell Van Brocklen: 28:02

All right. So what we're going to do is understand the meaning of a universal theme. So what we have to do is remember what we just did. Like and dislike is a form of word analysis. And because after that the reasons are articulation that's how the front part of the brain works Word analysis is all about articulation Two and a half times the neural activity. Now we're going to do the same thing here, but at a much deeper level. And once the kid learns the word I've had this happen so many times They've learned the word somewhere in elementary school and then when they're taking their SATs or ACTs in high school. The vocabulary section is simply the verbal section is essentially a vocabulary test. They remember 70 to 80% of the definition. They don't need to learn a list of hundreds of evolved words, they already know them.

Russell Van Brocklen: 28:51

Right it drives their peers crazy. They said oh, I learned that in fifth grade, what I have a lot of fun with it, so what we do. Let's start off with what I like to call the half circle. Okay, we have a hero. The hero wants to do something, so we ask them to write it out in a sentence. Do you see how they just wrote a three-reason sentence? Now they can write out a basic sentence.

Jackie Pelegrin: 29:15

Right.

Russell Van Brocklen: 29:16

Then we're going to ask for an action word, a word that takes the hero in the general direction they want to go, and then a most important word, another form of word analysis. Then that's going to be what I call the base universal theme. The base universal theme is normally very broad. Then what we're going to do is go to a thesaurus and look up five words, ten words, maybe use AI, maybe not. I recommend against it.

Russell Van Brocklen: 29:44

Oh, just so you know, as far as AI is concerned, if a teacher says AI can, any one of these steps can be used. I think it's ethical. If a teacher doesn't say it can be used and they use it, it's not ethical. Teachers can disagree amongst themselves, but they're the ones that decide yes or no. And it's per teacher. Okay, I thought everybody can pretty much agree with that. One Right? All right. So, but as we eventually show you, once you understand this, you can send your kids home to do essays and if they can't show their work, you put a big red F and say go do it and show me the steps Right. So you know that it wasn't just cranked out by chat GPT.

Jackie Pelegrin: 30:25

Right, that's true.

Russell Van Brocklen: 30:29

So once we find you know maybe it's five synonyms, ten synonyms, we have them type out the word. Go to Merriam-Webster's online dictionary. They cannot copy and paste. They cannot copy and paste. I can say this until I'm blue in the face. They have to type it out. Copying and pasting is a waste of time. They have to type out the word, type out the definition. Let me tell you why.

Jackie Pelegrin: 30:57

How many times do you need to type out a word?

Russell Van Brocklen: 30:59

and type out a definition until you know it Multiple times. Yeah, multiple times. Maybe it's five, maybe it's times yeah maybe it's five, maybe it's 10, maybe it's 20, who cares? All right, it is what it is. They do this until they know it. Eventually, they're going to have dozens of the evolved words and then hundreds. You want to see a big jump up in reading scores oh right, yeah, I can see that okay, yeah, so then that's our post-universal thing.

Russell Van Brocklen: 31:20

And then if I'm dealing with young kids, when I come to the ultimate villain who can best prevent the hero from accomplishing their goals I tend to just leave it as a person. The older the kids get you're professionals, you can then move it on as a person or a concept.

Jackie Pelegrin: 31:38

Right, that makes sense, and then, as they get older, I'll do a person or a concept Right. That makes sense.

Russell Van Brocklen: 31:41

And then, as they get older, I'll do a person and a concept, and then we'll have a hero, universal theme, ultimate villain, separated by plus signs. Ask them to read it out loud. Does it sound correct? No, fix it. And they give you a basic sentence Right? So, let's go into that in more detail. That's the overview. Let's go into more detail? Sure, so I want you to think of a bright student who this could be helpful to and then change their name to protect their identity.

Jackie Pelegrin: 32:11

So should they be elementary school?

Russell Van Brocklen: 32:13

It doesn't matter, you can use this in third grade, you can use this with PhDs. So just so you know, if I'm doing this with a PhD student, what does a hero want to do? They might write 20 pages Then I would go through that, have AI select the action words and the most important words. In certain ways, I filter it out. Okay, it's the same thing. When you have more ideas, you tend to get better answers. But just pick up probably an elementary or middle school kid.

Jackie Pelegrin: 32:42

Okay, let's see. So I have a friend, her little boy. I won't say his real name, but he's eight, going on nine. So he's a pretty bright kid, but he tends to because he's been on a tablet since he was two, which I don't agree with, but that's the way it is. But he, he wants to go into like programming and stuff like that. So he actually does at eight he's doing programming stuff, but his re, his reading and writing is not that great. So that's where he needs the help.

Jackie Pelegrin: 33:13

So, um, do you want me to give his real name? I cause I won't.

Russell Van Brocklen: 33:17

No, no, no, Make up a name, Make up a name. Make up a first name, so he's completely protected.

Jackie Pelegrin: 33:23

Okay, let's say John.

Russell Van Brocklen: 33:25

John, okay, okay. First thing we're going to do is take that tablet away from him.

Jackie Pelegrin: 33:29

Okay.

Russell Van Brocklen: 33:30

And we're going to give him a laptop. Is that an iPad that he's using?

Jackie Pelegrin: 33:37

Yes, and then the mom and dad have the keyboard that you can detach and attach to it.

Russell Van Brocklen: 33:43

Oh, so it's a real keyboard.

Jackie Pelegrin: 33:45

Yeah, so it's like one of those iPad keyboards and stuff like that, so you can type on it.

Russell Van Brocklen: 33:50

Okay, well then he can use it. No typing on the. It has to be a keyboard. So, yeah, you can use that. What we're going to do is we're going to have John.

Jackie Pelegrin: 34:02

What. What we're going to do is we're going to have John. What's John's favorite book? Shoot? I'm trying to think Probably Nightmare Before Christmas.

Russell Van Brocklen: 34:10

I think he likes that one Nightmare Before Christmas. Who's the hero?

Jackie Pelegrin: 34:14

The hero is. Well, I guess you could say Santa Claus would be the hero.

Russell Van Brocklen: 34:20

Okay, what does Santa Claus want? So you're going to type out Santa Claus. Could say Santa Claus would be the hero. Okay, what does Santa Claus want? So you're going to type out Santa Claus.

Jackie Pelegrin: 34:24

Right, santa Claus, what?

Russell Van Brocklen: 34:25

does Santa Claus want to do One sentence.

Jackie Pelegrin: 34:29

Santa Claus wants to deliver the presents for Christmas.

Russell Van Brocklen: 34:35

In that book. Is that what he wants to do?

Jackie Pelegrin: 34:37

Yes.

Russell Van Brocklen: 34:38

Okay, so Santa Claus wants to deliver the the kids Christmas presents. Okay, right, what is the? What is the action word in that? What's the word that'll take the hero in the general direction they want to go? Deliver, deliver okay, I'm gonna say once oh, all, right, okay, no no, no that, no, that is not saying that's the correct answer but that's what teachers need to understand right. This is where I'm going to tell you real learning occurs. You're going to say deliver. Why is deliver the action word?

Jackie Pelegrin: 35:11

I think it's because I think of that as, like the action verb um, that he's actually doing something.

Russell Van Brocklen: 35:16

So that's where that's what made me think of that as the one okay, I'm saying once, because that's going to move him in the general direction he wants to go oh okay, okay, now it doesn't. We can disagree on that. You can say well, you think it's delivered. I can say well, I think it's yeah, it's once okay and then the class can decide what they think. So when you have a genuine disagreement, you can put completely, argue with it, and that's where the real learning occurs right, okay, okay.

Russell Van Brocklen: 35:50

This is what they're going to remember in the future, not some less, I hate to say. You teach them a lesson and it's like you know, we're clearly not just out of college, you and I.

Jackie Pelegrin: 36:01

Right.

Russell Van Brocklen: 36:02

We don't remember what we did on a Tuesday in the third week of January in fourth grade. We just don't remember Exactly. Okay, this is what they remember. Okay, so you figure out whatever your action word is Now what's the most important word of that sentence?

Jackie Pelegrin: 36:22

For me, I would say the presence, because that's what he's aiming to do. He wants to deliver those presents, so I would say presence.

Russell Van Brocklen: 36:30

I would say the most important word was deliver.

Jackie Pelegrin: 36:33

Oh.

Russell Van Brocklen: 36:34

I would assume that presents are presumed. And again, we can, we can disagree on that.

Jackie Pelegrin: 36:41

I can see where you're coming from on that. Yeah, that makes sense.

Russell Van Brocklen: 36:45

Right, but uh, but it's. Sometimes they're the same word.

Jackie Pelegrin: 36:49

Right Cause it's good to see each other's thought process and how, yeah, and where, where we came up with those things, yeah.

Russell Van Brocklen: 36:56

Right Now. Do you see how this is a form of word analysis? It really got you thinking.

Jackie Pelegrin: 37:02

Right, yeah, okay, I like that.

Russell Van Brocklen: 37:06

And remember, when you're teaching this, I'm just going to tell you what's going to happen. It's going to start off so slowly. Yeah, just to show you how bad this could get. Yeah, just to show you how bad this could get. When I taught my original program, the most advanced guy I taught it to completed an MBA Master's in Business Administration from Columbia University, ivy League, and he did very well. So I gave him. If I walked into any high school, any AP English class and said, what's the? What is this argument asking you to do? It would take less than a second for any of the kids to tell me once they finished reading. It took him almost 60 seconds.

Jackie Pelegrin: 37:45

Oh, wow.

Russell Van Brocklen: 37:46

And then, after he practiced it a couple hundred times, he got real fast. So eventually, the dyslexic will get much faster than their peers are, and sometimes much faster than their teachers, because remember, this is the part of our brain that's overactive. Right, okay, so what we're going to do is that? What way do you want to go?

Jackie Pelegrin: 38:12

What word do you want to use? We can use wants if you want. Yeah, let's use wants no.

Russell Van Brocklen: 38:16

No wants is horrible, that's horrible. You want to use deliver no no Wants is horrible, that's horrible. You want to use deliver no. Usually you go with the most important word.

Jackie Pelegrin: 38:23

Oh, I see.

Russell Van Brocklen: 38:24

But we have presence and deliver. Which way do you want? Don't just because it's my idea doesn't mean it's right. Which one do you like better?

Jackie Pelegrin: 38:33

Uh, we can go with presence.

Russell Van Brocklen: 38:38

Yeah, let's go with presence, Okay, presence, okay. So what I'd like you to do is that's our base universal theme, and I'm just going to show you how you can do this easier. I want you to go to ChatGPT, okay, tell them. Type in the hero wants, tell them what the hero wants to do. You're going to tell them the most important word is presence, alright. And then you want 10 synonyms of what the hero wants to do in relation to presence, and you want them to type out the word and give it a custom definition.

Jackie Pelegrin: 39:08

Okay, so I'm putting in chat GPT. What am I typing in there?

Russell Van Brocklen: 39:14

You're going to want to say what does the hero want to do? Type that out. This is what the hero wants to do. The hero wants Santa Claus wants to deliver presents. So just type the hero is Santa Claus, he wants to deliver presents, okay, okay. And you're going to say the most important word is presents, okay, okay.

Jackie Pelegrin: 39:40

And you're going to say the most important word is presence.

Russell Van Brocklen: 39:42

Okay, Based on what the hero wants to do. Give me 10 synonyms with custom definitions.

Jackie Pelegrin: 39:54

Custom definitions Okay.

Russell Van Brocklen: 39:56

Right Now you're going to send the kid and they're going to do this manually.

Jackie Pelegrin: 40:00

Right.

Russell Van Brocklen: 40:02

But once you've got past the problem stage, I just have kids do it with the AI.

Jackie Pelegrin: 40:09

Yep. So here's what it did. It came up with 10 synonyms with custom story-friendly definitions. You can give your narrative variety and charm. I like that.

Russell Van Brocklen: 40:18

That's cool. So we have the 10. So here's what I would ask. Here's the next step Tell it to pick the top five compared to what the hero wants to do.

Jackie Pelegrin: 40:34

Okay, okay, now do you?

Russell Van Brocklen: 40:38

see how it gave you the now did it give you? Did it give you the definitions as well, or it? Did tell it to. Okay, now, instead of us going through this, because it tends to annoy the listeners, just pick the one that you think is the best, the one that has the best definition that matches your head? I don't care what the word is. Which one has the best? The one that has the best definition that matches your head? I don't care what the word is.

Jackie Pelegrin: 41:01

Which one has the best definition that matches your head. Let's see. I would say, hmm, surprises, it says captures the wonder of children waking up to the unknown delights.

Russell Van Brocklen: 41:15

Okay, so surprises. So now that's our post-universal thing.

Jackie Pelegrin: 41:18

Okay.

Russell Van Brocklen: 41:19

Okay, now when the kids do this, they're going to go to Merriam-Webster's online dictionary, pick their definition and type it out again. As I said, we're going to have them keep doing this. It'll be 5, 10, 15, 20 times, who knows? Eventually they're going to have that moved in and they'll just type it out because they know it After. I've had kids do this in fifth grade for like six months the smartest kids and most motivated. They will go down, not only look at the first level on the synonyms. They'll go down to the second, third, until they get to a level where I call garbage words, where it's not as good as the previous level, and they will go through 200 words in less than 10 minutes.

Russell Van Brocklen: 41:55

Oh wow, because they know all the definitions Right. Yeah, reach their teachers. How did you know all this? Well, this is what I did for the last six months. All right, so what you just did. Now do you see how this definition best matches what's in your head?

Jackie Pelegrin: 42:10

Yes.

Russell Van Brocklen: 42:11

I do. Okay, now, this is so important, this is unique to you, right?

Jackie Pelegrin: 42:18

now. This is so important, this is unique to you, right.

Russell Van Brocklen: 42:19

If we're going through all those definitions, somebody else might pick the same word, but over time they're probably going to pick a different definition. Or even if they pick the same definition, it's for different reasons than why you picked it.

Jackie Pelegrin: 42:31

Right, exactly yeah.

Russell Van Brocklen: 42:33

So this is unique to you. Now based on, we have the hero of Santa Claus, we have the final universal theme is again it's what?

Jackie Pelegrin: 42:42

word Presence. Well, it's surprises now, right? Surprise, surprise, yep Surprises.

Russell Van Brocklen: 42:50

Okay, Now what person is the ultimate villain that can best prevent Santa Claus from delivering his surprises?

Jackie Pelegrin: 42:59

Jack Skellington.

Russell Van Brocklen: 43:01

Okay, now we have those three words separated by plus signs. Make it a simple sentence. Just connect it, so it sounds generally correct.

Jackie Pelegrin: 43:12

Okay, where I have the villain in there too. Yes, okay, so we can. I don't even remember what the original sentence was, santa.

Russell Van Brocklen: 43:20

Claus, santa Claus, plus sign surprises, plus sign Jack, whatever his name is.

Jackie Pelegrin: 43:26

Okay, so I want to put it together into a sentence where Wait wait, we just have those three words separated by plus signs.

Russell Van Brocklen: 43:32

Just add a couple of words.

Jackie Pelegrin: 43:34

Okay.

Russell Van Brocklen: 43:35

Until it makes sense.

Jackie Pelegrin: 43:36

Okay, until it makes sense. Okay, so Santa Claus wants to deliver surprises to the children on Christmas Day, but Jack Skellington took down the sleigh, or something like that.

Russell Van Brocklen: 43:48

Okay, that's it. Yep, then we do it again, okay, okay, and we keep doing this until the kids have it.

Jackie Pelegrin: 43:58

Oh, okay.

Russell Van Brocklen: 43:59

This is going to take forever for an eight-year-old in third grade. Right, they'll probably get it by the end of fourth grade. Much easier to teach in fifth. So if you don't get them to pass the third grade reading and writing test, english language arts, then we can shoot for fourth grade. We want to make sure they have it done by the end of fifth.

Jackie Pelegrin: 44:19

Oh, okay. So when you're working with them and you're finding out their favorite book, then they already know the story right, so that way they can make these sentences and connections so much easier.

Russell Van Brocklen: 44:30

What you do is you give the kid the correct book and audio book. So listen to their audio book while following along with the real book trying to answer a specific question. Give that to the parents to do at night.

Jackie Pelegrin: 44:41

Right, exactly yeah.

Russell Van Brocklen: 44:43

And then if you're again what Evelyn White Bay said, if you got 30 kids, maybe you pick two books or three books and go around and we saw the kids have an interest in the book, somewhat of an interest. Make it so much easier to teach.

Jackie Pelegrin: 45:00

Right, exactly.

Russell Van Brocklen: 45:01

And give the parents the grunt work to do it at home. Now, this is not going to work for every kid. I'm assuming that the parents want to try to overcome the issue and the kid wants to at least halfway try.

Jackie Pelegrin: 45:14

Right.

Russell Van Brocklen: 45:14

You get them in their speciality, they will care a lot more. But do you see now what we discussed tonight? What we did is now you understand how to get their sentence writing skills from kindergarten to end of second, beginning, third grade level, and now you're learning how to understand, how to get them to start developing a real vocabulary.

Jackie Pelegrin: 45:37

Yes, exactly, yeah, that may all make sense. Now you start with the, with the. Putting those plus signs there, you get them to start with their interest, and then you move on to the sentence structure and I can see how writing yeah is so important, because then it helps them with the reading.

Russell Van Brocklen: 45:54

Yeah, Right now, and we've done this in about 45 minutes.

Jackie Pelegrin: 45:58

Wow, that's pretty cool. Great, I love it.

Russell Van Brocklen: 46:01

Now for next time.

Jackie Pelegrin: 46:04

Yes.

Russell Van Brocklen: 46:04

What I'm going to do is I'm going to show you a more advanced reason. I'm just going to tell you the big picture we're going to come up with because, remember, we just did a lot of word analysis. Now we're going to do articulation. We're going to come up with three good reasons Okay, Not any reason the three best reasons the kids can come up with For each reason. After that, I'm going to show you how to take the reason and to make it a simple, universal theme so they can go find a quote. And then this is going to really oversimplify. You will not be ready to teach this until I show you in detail. We're going to take that quote and then we're going to answer the basic questions who, what, when, where, how, why and I'm going to show you how to turn that into a basic body paragraph.

Jackie Pelegrin: 46:53

Oh, I love that, and that's what we're taught in writing Right.

Russell Van Brocklen: 46:56

Yeah.

Jackie Pelegrin: 47:00

But this is going to be a very unique way of doing it. I love that.

Russell Van Brocklen: 47:02

The next thing up, that's the end of context, the craft of research, context, problem solution. Then we're going to do problem, and what I'm going to show you to do on problem is we're going to come back and for each reason, we're not going to look for one universal thing, we're going to work for two. They're going to start off by being very close together as the kid evolves. You're going to find a lot in the beginning of the book and a lot at the end of the book. You're going to pick your two best ones. Okay, and then I'm going to show you how to create a warrant for each of those sentences. That's from the craft of research, and a lot of people haven't heard of what a warrant is. It's a way of organizing your thoughts in a systematic way, to explain a quote. Essentially, that's my definition of it. I'm going to show you how to do that with two quotes, those body paragraphs, which will be enough to get you past the high school essay and into college.

Jackie Pelegrin: 48:00

Okay, and into college.

Russell Van Brocklen: 48:01

Okay, so just that one addition, as the kids practice that like reed's practicing that now in fifth grade he's I'm sorry sixth grade he's really good at, he's getting really good at doing the quotes. Wow, that's great. If I can, yeah, I show you how to do three body paragraphs. You do the introduction and conclusion. Now we have enough to get them to pass the high school essay.

Jackie Pelegrin: 48:21

I love that Wow.

Russell Van Brocklen: 48:22

And they're in middle school at this point.

Jackie Pelegrin: 48:23

I mean, this is great, and not only is this great for teachers, russell, but I can see this being good for instructional coaches, like curriculum coaches in school, and also people like me, instructional designers, that we, you know, I think. I don't think enough attention is given to this because if the if they're, if the kids were younger, now they're adults, you know, we don't, we don't realize, because universal design for learning, as you know, is so important, being able to design for every learner, no matter where they're at, and so I think these are great to know at, you know, whatever age they're at, so that you can meet them where they're at and hopefully help improve. Right, you know like you said yeah.

Russell Van Brocklen: 49:04

Let me be clear. Kimberly made this work. Now, she's just not any mom. She has taught her reads for brothers and sisters to read, well, yeah, using traditional methods. Okay. So she's not an inexperienced mom, but she's a homeschooling mom, but still not anywhere near a professionally trained teacher, okay, right. So just think about what I just told you. I gave you the outline, right, how I'm going to get you to do body paragraphs that are acceptable in high school and college as the next thing.

Jackie Pelegrin: 49:37

Right as the next. Thing.

Russell Van Brocklen: 49:38

Right as the next thing. It's literally that simple.

Jackie Pelegrin: 49:41

Wow, I love it Wow. I love it how you're teasing us for the next one, so that's great. It gives something to look forward to for my listeners. So is there anything you wanted to mention before we wrap up?

Russell Van Brocklen: 49:54

If anybody has any more direct questions, if they just go to dyslexicclassescom. There's a button there that says download free report. Just type on that, answer a few questions. You get a document, the three reasons your child's having trouble in school due to dyslexia and you can also set up. Then you can set up a time to speak with me for about for half an hour on whatever questions you have Perfect.

Jackie Pelegrin: 50:20

I love that.

Russell Van Brocklen: 50:20

Well.

Jackie Pelegrin: 50:21

Russell, thank you so much for coming back and sharing these practical strategies with us today. I know my listeners will really appreciate having such a clear, actionable set of moves that they can start using right away with their learners and their kids too. So that's great. And so, for those listening, don't forget to check the show notes for the free resources that Russell will send over to me. That will help you put these ideas into practice tonight. So the best part is, as we've mentioned, we're not done yet. So you'll be back soon, russell, for part three of the series and we're going to dive into the problem stage. Is that correct For the next?

Russell Van Brocklen: 50:54

one. No, we'll be going into answering the three reasons.

Jackie Pelegrin: 50:58

Answering the three reasons.

Russell Van Brocklen: 50:59

And doing the basic and then from there going into how to do the basic paragraphs, three body paragraphs, Okay, great.

Jackie Pelegrin: 51:08

So we definitely don't want our listeners to miss this one. We want to make sure we get them to that. So again, thank you, russell, it's been a pleasure having you here, and thank you for joining me for part two today.

Russell Van Brocklen: 51:18

Thanks for having me.

Jackie Pelegrin: 51:19

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