More Than 100 Brain-Friendly Tools and Strategies for Literacy Instruction

"This is a fabulous book! Hundreds of activities that can be implemented at no cost. Buy it, use it, and allow the genius of Kathy Perez to rub off on you."
―Harry K. Wong, Author
The First Days of School

Boost literacy achievement with these practical, brain-compatible strategies!

Activating prior knowledge, differentiating instruction, and creating interactive opportunities―these are key practices that optimize learning, according to brain research. This essential guide translates cutting-edge research into ready-to-use tactics to promote literacy development in your classroom.

Internationally recognized educator Kathy Perez offers a definitive collection of more than 100 field-tested strategies that can be implemented easily and immediately for maximum results at any grade level. The activities and tools provide strong building blocks for creating a dynamic, brain-friendly environment where teachers and students thrive. The book offers a flexible framework, step-by-step guidance, and key features such as:

• Approaches to motivate students with hands-on learning
• Specific techniques for differentiation and utilizing multiple intelligences
• Tactics to strengthen reading comprehension and the meaning-making process
• Pre-reading strategies, standards-based activities, planning templates, reproducibles, and other resources to boost student achievement

More Than 100 Brain-Friendly Tools and Strategies for Literacy empowers teachers, literacy coaches, and reading specialists with proven tools to cultivate active learning.

Katherine Perez, a professor of education at Saint Mary’s College of California, has over three decades of teaching experience from the preschool level through graduate school. A frequent presenter and enthusiastic “teacher cheerleader,” she offers guidance to both novice and experienced educators. Perez is an international educational consultant, author, and motivational speaker, specializing in instructional strategies and creative approaches to literacy and professional development. She integrates state-of-the-art methods and research with passion and practical insights from her own classroom experiences.

Perez has taught in many diverse environments, including in Richmond and Oakland, as a general educator, special educator, reading specialist, and curriculum and staff development coordinator. In order to “keep it real,” she balances her college courses and her work as a coordinator for the California Beginning Teacher Support and Assessment program by serving as a literacy coach in a San Francisco Bay Area middle school, engaging even the most reluctant learners with brain-friendly techniques.

Perez works with teachers, administrators and parents throughout the United States, Canada, Europe, the Caribbean, New Zealand, and Australia. For the past three years, she has conducted extensive training in Singapore and Hong Kong for the Ministry of Education.