Trees in the Forest: Growing Readers and Writers through Deep Comprehension

Mastering language in all its forms—listening, speaking, reading, and writing— is not optional in today’s world. It’s a life changer.

This creative resource can be used to aid children in becoming lifelong readers and writers. At its heart, Trees in the Forest captures the essence of our relationship with books, guiding us through the forest of literacy.

Who is Trees in the Forest for?

• Struggling readers writers, and learners

• Students who need to deepen reading and writing skills

• Parents and home educators

• Teachers and intervention specialists

• Speech Language Pathologists

Many children who struggle get stuck in their learning, becoming frustrated, wanting to give up, or worse, secretly wondering if they are not smart enough. Trees in the Forest helps kids move along a path, figure out what is blocking their way, and then guide them to the next step, and the next, and the next—all while helping them to better appreciate the value and joy of sharing their ideas with others.

Think deeply to write deeply

Rita Cevasco, a Speech-Language Pathologist specializing in reading and writing, joins illustrator and children's book author Tracy Molitors to share interactive strategies encouraging deep reading and meaningful writing. This beautifully illustrated full color book offers language and art-based activities to augment your language arts program for years to come.

Study the trees to learn the forest

Based on Peter Bower’s metaphor, “study the trees to learn the forest,” Trees in the Forest is designed to help children learn the necessary skills (trees) in order to succeed in the bigger world of literacy (the forest).

To cultivate this forest, we need to study many trees. We will need to nurture different skills along the way, including:

• Comprehension

• Phonics and spelling

• Handwriting, cursive, and keyboarding

• Vocabulary and word study

• Grammar and punctuation

More than anything we want to give kids the courage to read and write, to see themselves differently, to believe that they are readers and writers. This is the goal for all children, not just those who have dyslexia, dysgraphia, or challenges related to comprehension or expressive language. All children benefit from meaningful strategies that connect their skills (trees) to their more complex language thinking systems (forests).

This book starts us on a journey to be intentional, studying deep meaning and comprehension. Meaning is the essence of why we use language—what we share and why it matters. Meaning is the essence of reading and writing, as well.

I do it. We do it. You do it.

On this journey, we are going to study a few trees together for a deeper understanding of text. Because we want to facilitate our children’s learning, we will do these activities ourselves, improving our own understanding, thus laying a path for our children’s growth in reading and writing.

There is a learning model in education: I do it. We do it. You do it. This means: I will show you. We will do it together. Then you will be able to do it independently.

We will unearth what literature has to teach us, exploring samples of writing to learn the world of writing. We will uncover the relationship between the roots and the canopy, between strengthening skills and appreciating literature.

So drop your backpack. Let’s climb a tree together. Click the 'Look inside' feature to read the full table of contents and the introduction to Trees in the Forest.

Rita Cevasco, SLP and Tracy Molitors combine their specialties of language therapy and art/design to create books and materials that encourage the connection of Language and Art to Language Arts.