With the concise and readable "Brain Words," you will learn how children's brains develop as they become readers and discover ways you can take concrete steps to promote this critical developmental passage. Introducing their original, research-based framework of "brain words"--dictionaries in the brain where students store and automatically access sounds, spellings, and meanings--the authors offer a wealth of information that will transform your thinking and practice: (1) Up-to-date knowledge about reading and neurological circuitry, including evidence that spelling is at the core of the reading brain; (2) Tools to recognize what works, what doesn't, and why; (3) Practical classroom activities for daily teaching and student assessment; (4) Insights about what brain research tells us about whole language and phonics-first movements; and (5) Deepened understanding of dyslexia through the enhanced lens of brain science. With the insights and strategies of "Brain Words," you can meet your students where they are and ensure that more of them read well, think well, and write well. [Foreword by Mark Weakland.]