Red Flags for Elementary Teachers: Vision and Neurodevelopmental Issues That Interfere with Reading and What to Do about Them

For many years, Katie Johnson believed that grammar and languages were the most fascinating part of her life, and teaching children to write was her focus as a teacher. For the past fifteen years that fascination has been edged aside by learning about developmental movement and vision and how they affect the lives of her primary-age public school students.

Teaching French in the Philippines for a year was Katie Johnson s first teaching position after graduating from Vassar College, with a major in English and strong minors in Russian and Greek. After teaching two years in high schools, Katie moved into the elementary grades, discovering in 1973 that first grade is where her heart is. Katie has taught first grade, in both Maine and Washington, for 37 of the 46 years she has been a teacher.

Katie Johnson has three published books about teaching writing to young children. She has worked as an adjunct professor of literacy in the teacher-training programs of Pacific Oaks College (California) and University of Washington (Bothell campus), as well as in the graduate school of Lesley University (Cambridge, Massachusetts), and done many professional development presentations across the United States. She is a Fellow of the Southern Maine Writing Project and co-teaches an Institute for the Puget Sound Writing Project.

Katie teaches in the Shoreline School District and lives with her partner (also a primary teacher) in an old Craftsman house in Seattle. She likes to dance, read, cook, garden, write, talk, go to the symphony, and sample the ever-evolving microbrew production in the Northwest. She has two daughters, three granddaughters, and two great-grandchildren.