Services

WORKSHOPS

Workshop Information

Research demonstrates that dyslexic students process and retain information more effectively when learning engages their superior visual and narrative strengths. Join Marie Foley in learning how to teach students to read, spell and write by combining Structured Word Inquiry and visual narrative reasoning. Educators will gain a unique perspective on literacy instruction as Marie, like many of her students, is dyslexic and has ADHD (combined type). Marie’s workshops explore practical strategies to activate the reasoning strengths of dyslexic learners and help students acquire literacy skills by providing them with access to the underlying logic of English. Building an accurate understanding of how English works is the key to helping dyslexic students read, spell and succeed.

Please let us know if the workshop dates and times don’t work for you by filling out our workshop availability form . Alternative workshop dates can be arranged as long as there is a minimum of 6 people registered.

Workshop:

Making Sense of Spelling

September 19, 2025

In this workshop you will explore what morphology is and discover practical ideas on how to creatively integrate morphology into your current literacy instruction to help students with reading, spelling and comprehension.

The workshop will cover information on how to:

  • Create visuals lessons to help students understand how words are built using morphological elements.

  • Introduce how morphology can be used to help students make sense of words across all subject areas.

  • Discover how morphology and etymology can help make sense of so called “irregular” words and how to convey this information to students using visual narrative.

  • Explore how to use visuals to explain suffixing conventions in order to help students to store and retrieve these spelling patterns as needed.

Date: September 19, 2025

Time: 7:30 p.m. to 9:00 p.m. Eastern

Cost: $55 USD

Past Workshop Series

INTEGRATING MORPHOLOGY INTO LITERACY INSTRUCTION

Using visual narrative and structured word inquiry to help students make sense of English.

The three-part workshop series provides an in-depth opportunity to learn about the benefits of morphology and how it improves literacy instruction. Through hands-on, experiential learning, participants will practice creating visuals that explain a range of orthographic concepts. Customized feedback will be provided on all assigned projects. Upon completion, participants will have developed the skills to design visually engaging lessons that help students access a deeper understanding of the writing system.

In this workshop series, participants will learn to:

  • Create visuals to explain the morphological structure of English and demonstrate how a word’s journey into English influences its spelling.

  • Discover how to use visuals to help students make sense of silent letters, vowel reduction and assimilated prefixes.

  • Explore how to design visuals to help students make sense of words that are frequently described as having irregular spelling patterns.

  • Explain suffixing conventions using visuals to promote understanding and help students store and apply this information as needed.

  • Learn how to redesign exisiting classroom material to ensure the information is accessible for all learners.

Date: July 11, July 18, and July 25

Time: 3:30 p.m. to 5:00 p.m. Eastern

Cost: $110 USD

Examples Of My Work

  • Educational infographic showing the purpose of spelling to signal meaning, featuring illustrations for words "sea," "see," "heel," and "heal." Each word has a related image: turtle in water for "sea," astronaut with telescope for "see," socks with arrow pointing to heel for "heel," and bandages for "heal."
  • Illustration of a tree with the words "Friend," "Friday," and "Frigg" connected by hearts. Three people sitting with backs turned, raising hands in peace signs. Text reads "Silent letters make sense when you explore related words" and "to love."
  • Diagram illustrating base word 'sect' in 'insect', 'section', and 'dissect', showing pronunciation and meaning connections. Includes visuals of an ant and scissors, with the Latin root 'secare' meaning 'cut.' Highlights pronunciation shift with 't' in 'insect' and 's' in 'section.' Text emphasizes spelling consistency and phonological flexibility."
  • Illustration showing a smartphone with a map and location pins, alongside the words "here," "where," and "there" with "ere" highlighted, under the text "Meaning and spelling are connected."
  • Educational graphic illustrating morphology and etymology with words 'accident' and 'deciduous', breaking them into parts 'cide' meaning 'to fall'. Includes visuals of a person falling and a tree shedding leaves.
  • Illustration showing word formation from the root "do," with a house design. The word "do" is central, with affixes "un," "es," "ing," and "ne" to form words like "does," "doing," "done," and "undone." A caption emphasizes understanding related words for spelling. A pink heart symbolizes creativity.

Don't See a Workshop Time That Works for You?

Share your availability through my workshop form. If we get more than 6 folks with the same availability, we can add a new workshop to the schedule.