So Excited! The Black Silk Path Cover

-
Here is the front cover for The Black Silk Path. 
 I'm so thankful Michael Pyle took the job to design it!


 

Comments

Post a Comment

Popular posts from this blog

Free Game From "The Black Silk Path"

-
Image
I'd like to share my game "Time Loop" from chapter 13 of "The Black Silk Path."  It has been popular with my students. I think they enjoy it when I get stuck going around and around and around my loop, and they happen to be speeding through the loops.
I use the idea of a time loop to review the material. When we review, it is like stepping back in time for a little bit. I won't reveal how the time loop affects the characters, Ed and Mel though.

"The Black Silk Path" includes 15 themed games with the 14 chapters of Narrator text and decodable Student text. I know it is unusual to have games in a beginning chapter book, but I have a different agenda than conforming to typical book genre standards. I missed out on the importance (and fun) of games with my sons, so I want to encourage others to use games to help their beginning readers. Also as a veteran homeschool mom, I know the budget is important. The games provide that extra value I look for as …
Read more

Reading Backwards

-
Despite what the title may suggest, I am not going to talk about the myth that Dyslexics read backward. Instead, I am going to point out how purposely reading backward (word by word, not sound by sound) can help break a guessing habit.

In David Kilpatrick's book, Essentials of Assessing, Preventing, and Overcoming Reading Difficulties, he provides a good overview of how we read, including using decoding, context, and contextual guessing. He states, "For weak readers, contextual guessing allows them to bypass the orthographic mapping process, which secures a particular written word in memory for later, instant recall." (page 39) Hmm, skipping the process that secures a written word in memory for later, instant recall. That doesn't sound good.

So, what do you do when your student, who may have been taught specifically to guess the word from the context, keeps guessing instead of slowing down to decode the word?

Several strategies can be used, including using highly dec…
Read more

April 2020 Update and a Free Game Preview

-
Image
I've been hard at work on "The Hunt for R. L. Nox." It is on target for a mid-year 2020 release. I've had a chance to adapt all the games to an online format for remote tutoring. I decided to put all the games into one file with the hope that they will be easier to manage. Copies can still be made with a smaller number of slides as well.

I thought I'd go back and put all the  "The Black Silk Path" games in one file as well. The individual files are still available just like they have always been. I did make a few small improvements on a couple games on this new file though.

I also want to share a way I found to avoid "resetting the game" after playing with a student. I select the game I want to play on the film strip view in Google Slides. While the thumbnail is still "selected," I go up to "Edit" and then "Duplicate." I use the duplicated slide to play the game. After the game is played and the cards or tokens ar…
Read more