Bus Stop Blues is a powerful first release by Leslie Vaughn, whose work is emerging in Detroit, giving voice to parents, teachers and children on the topic of literacy. It is written from all three perspectives and showcases original artwork by Lamarr Sanders, a renowned Detroit artist. A discussion guide supports the teacher or professor in exploring the literary and artistic aspects of this 100+ page piece of work. Bus Stop Blues is designed as a decodable with few multi-syllable words. BFR designed sound charts, explicit spelling generalizations and a list of ‘sight words’ address all of the skills needed by the reader in order to decode every word in the book. The goal is to model for teachers new to the science of reading and those who are preservice teachers how to set a child up for success. What are the foundational skills? What does a child need to know to read a certain text? Can we explicitly identify that, make sure the child has those skills and THEN ask the child to read? Equally important with Leslie’s work is that it exemplifies what a decodable for older children can be: engaging and relevant subject matter worthy of discussion accompanied by accessible text. Reach Leslie Vaughn for speaking engagements and bulk book sales through info@brainfriendlyreading.org. Her website is under construction.
