Teaching Dyslexic Kids: A Language Arts Teacher’s Perspective ft. Diane Bramble

Once you sort of own it and embrace it, then you can have the power to deal with it. It's sort of empowering and also enriching to the whole community because everybody has a different brain. And it's okay to talk about it. It's okay to just accept that and know that that's just a part of who you are. And as we know, dyslexia is something that you have forever.

Hey, everyone. We're Nick and Sonja, and this is Dyslexia Journey, where we help you support the dyslexic kid in your life. And today we are so excited to welcome language arts teacher, Diane Bramble. And I want to just start by reading a little intro for her. Diane hails from Delaware, where she spent her formative years playing sports, honing her big sister skills, and escaping into books to lessen her feelings of shyness.

She credits Mary Poppins, her mom, and her favorite teacher, Mr. DeBartolo, for inspiring her to be a teacher. In high school, Diane found music and credits Joni Mitchell with saving her soul with blue. She got her undergraduate degree in elementary education with a minor in special education, and her master's degree from the University of New Hampshire in the teaching of reading and writing. Diane taught second and third grade at Friends School for about 25 years.

She's been teaching at Friends Middle School for seven years. She loves the younger learners because of their wide-eyed curiosity, fascination with everything, and their hugs. She loves the older learners because of their intellectual curiosity, their bravery in working to figure out who they are in the world, and their humor. Diane says, I'm passionate about learning and teaching, especially the reciprocity of those things. I feel most energized when I'm digging into a new concept or topic, and I love finding a way to share my new knowledge with my students.

Welcome, Diane. All right. Thank you, Nick and Sonja. I'm excited and honored to be here to talk about this important topic of dyslexia with you today. Thank you. We're excited to have you here. So let's jump in with our first question. So to start, we'd love to hear a little bit about your approach to teaching middle school language arts overall, and also in your career as a teacher. Can you tell us a little bit about what you've noticed about dyslexia and other learning differences affecting kids in school?

Sure. Well, I think kids are so aware of similarities, differences, and even though they're, in the younger years, so egocentric, it's about me. What do you think of me? Look at this. It's mine. This is special to me. As they get older, they become increasingly more aware and compare themselves to other students. So I really believe in the power of demystifying for students and kids what's going on in their brains. Their similarities and differences, those are superpowers.

And I think that kids who are dyslexic are well aware that they're different from other students. And they might be thinking, wait, why am I reading Frog and Toad when my friend is reading A Wrinkle in Time? What's happening? And other kids might be able to read from the board in the classroom, or they're going to finish reading a paragraph twice. It's going to take them twice as long to read than a peer.

So I believe that when I'm thinking about learning differences in school, it's really important to talk as an educator to the families, the parents and caregivers, about the, whether it's a diagnosis or whether it's observed behavior, how that student is different and what we can do to do an intervention, accommodations, but definitely finding out more information about that student. And even though I think it's really difficult sometimes for parents to think about disclosing something so personal as a learning difference or a diagnosis of dyslexia, it's so powerful for that child to know, wait, it's just the way my brain works.

And that means if I've got 20 friends in this classroom, you know, one-fifth of my friends are going to be just like me, even though every dyslexic brain is different. So it's going to present in a different way. But I do believe in the power of letting that student know. And then also, if the family feels comfortable, letting the rest of the class know. Because having those skills of being able to talk to someone who has a learning difference is a life skill, because throughout everyone's lives, there are going to be differences, whether it's dyslexia or something related to identity in some way.

So I really believe that the importance of normalizing, demystifying, putting it out into the air so there's not a secret, there's no stigma, there's no shame about having a learning difference. Yeah, I think that's really interesting, that perspective of almost a community's perspective around it and how everyone can learn around it. It sounds like that's gone pretty well then, too. Do kids usually take pretty well to that, it sounds like? They do.

And having taught in the elementary grades for many years, and then now in middle school, I can really see the benefits of putting, just saying, a student might come in and say, I've just learned this about myself. And it's very, there's sort of an innocence about it when they're younger, and they're trying to figure out a little bit more, they're a little more willing to share. Oftentimes, adolescents have a sense of course developmentally, I don't want to stand out, I don't want to be different.

So you have to be mindful about what works for that adolescent learner. But I had a student this year who has had a diagnosis of dyslexia, and he started to be playful with it. He talked to the students about it, talked to his friends about it, and they would say, oh, of course, you need quiet. You need a little extra time. Okay, you're going to read in the library. We'll all be here.

We'll check in with you later. And then a few times he started to say things like, imagine we're going out to recess, it's sprinkling. And he would say, you know, I can't go out there, I'm dyslexic. It's sprinkling. I just can't. I would say, well, that's, yeah, good one. Nice. I love the adolescent snark and creativity and humor there. So sometimes once you sort of own it and embrace it, then you can have the power to deal with it.

It's sort of empowering and also enriching to the whole community because everybody has a different brain. And it's okay to talk about it. It's okay to just accept that and know that that's just a part of who you are. And as we know, dyslexia is something that you have forever. Have you noticed throughout your career any changes in the way that dyslexia is talked about or stigmatized? Like, do you feel like it's become less stigmatized recently?

I do. I have definitely seen a change in students and in their parents and caregivers. Of course, it varies. But as an overall general truth, it has become less stigmatized. And I think that parents are able to get more information. They can gather information from the internet. There are a lot more publications, brain research, neuroscience has grown so much. We understand so much more about brain development now than we did in the past.

And I think the importance of teacher education and professional development about this has improved. You're probably well aware of the argument or the conflict right now of balanced or whole language, balanced literacy versus structured literacy. And Emily Hanford and the science of reading. So I think definitely it's in the environment right now of we have to be very methodical and consistent in the way we teach reading. And I think everybody's becoming more aware of differences and being able to just say the word dyslexia, dysgraphia, dyscalculia.

Those things are okay to say. It's just a way of being aware of who you are and what your brain is doing. But yeah, I think the stigma has definitely lessened. That's good to hear. Yeah. Yes, definitely. Moving in the right direction. Yeah, you mentioned, you know, sort of the debate between techniques. I'm curious, maybe just more generally, just from your own personal experience. Do you feel like there's any particular approaches or is it just completely individualized?

Because it sounds like you individualize a lot as well. That have you found particularly helpful in working with dyslexic students? Well, I have this written down here. The National Reading Panel has listed five pillars using thousands of data points looking at research, latest brain development, the most effective teaching techniques. The five pillars are phonemic awareness, phonics, vocabulary, fluency, and comprehension. So for the younger students, and sometimes older learners as well, really understanding the phonics, the phonemic aspect of language, individual sounds pieced together.

Then going a little broader, working through how all language has patterns, then moving into becoming a fluent reader and decoding, being able to comprehend older readers and learners, increasing vocabulary, because vocabulary is one of the best indicators for reading comprehension. So I think every learner needs to start with those discrete, small parts, and then build to that. And right now, the gold standard is Orton-Gillingham. And I know a lot of teachers are being trained in Orton-Gillingham, not necessarily certified as Orton-Gillingham providers.

But I think that has been one of the most effective, powerful ways. I'm not a certified Orton-Gillingham person. And I was trained in Linda Mood-Bell back in the day. But I really do believe that individualized, very direct, targeted instruction with assessment, ongoing assessment, is the most powerful, effective way to work with those readers.

What, I guess, in general, thinking about middle school kids, for a second here, since I'm at the current age level that you're teaching. Yes. How do you approach, or anything you want to add about how you approach teaching language arts, specifically to dyslexic kids in middle school? Right. So teaching dyslexic kids in middle school definitely has a different sort of feel just because of how aware they are of how they compare to others.

If we can get the trust is so important, relationship, student-to-teacher relationship is so key. And also, I think, acknowledging how hard they've worked and how difficult it can be to have a diagnosis of dyslexia and work through a day of school. It's really hard work. They're working twice as hard often as other students are. And so I think that really developing that sort of conversation, that language that you can share, and understanding between the teacher and the student is key.

You have to start there. You really have to know that student. You have to be able to know their reading level, their interest level, related to reading. You have to get the right book in their hands at the right time. You have to have a lot of conferences. You have to assess those students. One of the good things about teaching in a middle school setting is that there's a lot of one-on-one conferences.

So I can pull up my chair alongside a writer or reader and just have a very quiet conference. Nobody else has to know anything about what we're talking about. Whether they're working on scooping up sentences and getting more fluent or they're trying to figure out figurative language, where other kids might be thinking about foreshadowing and making inferences more easily. So every student gets a little more individualized care in a way that's a little stealthy because that's what they need at that point because of the way they really want to not stand out in any way with their peers.

And I do believe, though, that it's still important of thinking about phonics, vocabulary, fluency, comprehension, and vocabulary development is so important. So we do a lot more vocabulary work in middle school. And I really do also talk to the students about the importance of prioritizing reading. And I'll talk to them about the Matthew effect, which you probably have talked to other guests on your show. I'm calling it a show. Your podcast, where a fluent reader in the top of the class is going to read in a year over a million words, a million and a half words in a year.

A struggling reader reading just five minutes a day and might spend 10 minutes of reading time in the bathroom or getting a drink of water, maybe avoiding. So that reader who's reading just a few minutes a day is going to read about 8,000 words in a year. So that fluent reader in two days is going to read more than that struggling reader or that beginning reader. So I talk to the students a lot about you've got to get words, got to get those words in.

You've got to get on the road, you've got to get those miles in, because the more you read, the better reader you're going to be. Practice. It's just like anything. You have to practice it, even though it's really hard. So acknowledging that, encouraging that, it was really important for those middle school learners. Yeah, I really like what you said about sort of recognizing that dyslexic kids are working harder than other students often.

And really recognizing the sort of mental toll that takes. And I definitely understand the importance of encouraging them to persist with the reading to get those sort of words under their belt, so to speak. How do you kind of deal with or handle motivating reluctant readers, specifically dyslexic kids, to spend those minutes or hours actually reading when it is such a struggle and takes so much mental effort? Mm-hmm, mm-hmm. Right. It's so important.

One of the books that I have spent a lot of time with in my career is Overcoming Dyslexia by Sally Shaywitz. And she has a whole chapter about nourishing the soul of your child. And I think that's so important because it's really easy to get down when you're working twice as hard to produce something, when you see your peers working less hard. And one of the things that I think is really important is just setting up a safe space as a parent with your child to say, you know, tell me more.

Tell me what's going on for you. How was it today with dealing with, like, what was something that was really great about being someone who has a brain like yours? And it could have been that the child says, well, you know, I know that I'm so creative and my brain compensates to figure out words and make meaning of language. So I was so creative today in social studies when I figured out when the teacher read this passage, something, something.

Or you can then also say, and what was hard today about being dyslexic or having your brain today? And they might say, you know, I'm exhausted. I really just want to have a snack and play Candy Crush. Whatever the kids, whatever the youth are playing today on their phones. So getting your child to talk, I think you can say something like, do you want me to just listen? Do you want to rage and rant together?

Do you want to be sad together? Do you want me to just take care of how your heart feels? Or do you want to do something that's more practical? Do you want to brainstorm and role play talking to your teacher who's really not doing the accommodations that we know you're supposed to have? Because that's the learner you are. And that's how you learn best. Do you want to talk about how you can advocate for yourself?

You're a middle schooler. We know that you can do this. How can you talk to that coach or teacher about what you need? Do you want to send an email to that teacher? Let's craft it together. Or you write it and I'll check your spelling for you. Or we'll put it through Grammarly. So I think talking to that student, making it a safe space, I've put a list together of resources and there's a link to about 30 motivational short and long videos that I think every now and then it's good to just grab a box of tissues and watch somebody talk about what they've overcome in their lives.

And you can sort of remember like, oh yeah, okay, this hard day was a blip. I've got a big, long life ahead of me. I'm okay. You could talk about famous people who've had dyslexia or who have dyslexia. Tom Holland, Spider-Man, Einstein, Dave Pilkey, Captain Underpants. He was told he wasn't smart. He had to sit in the hall because he wasn't able to keep up with the rest of the class and he was learning how to draw Captain Underpants out there in the hall.

So another study that I've just come across is that through the Yale Center of Dyslexia and Creativity, they looked at graduates of college and they asked those graduates all sorts of different questions about time on task, organization, taking time away from extracurricular activities. They found that the only difference from dyslexic students to non-dyslexic students was the kids, the students who had dyslexia needed more time. And that's something that we know. That's the only difference.

And if you can reassure your child that it does get better and it is going to be okay, it's hard now. You've got your team, you've got your family, you've got your team at school, and we're going to get through this. Yeah, it is hard and it is a lifelong thing that you're going to have to deal with. But we have so many ways that we can support you and what you need.