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Brenda Linn
Author, General Editor
Brenda Linn, Ph.D.
(brendalinn@languagepatterns.ca) is an experienced teacher, with a doctorate in the psychology and pedagogy of reading. Brenda was a graduate student of Keith Stanovich and is a member in good standing of the Ontario College of Teachers. She has worked extensively in Inuit and Cree communities in the North, and also with Inuit students who live in urban settings. She is one of the original authors of Language Patterns, a structured literacy programme which she has been constantly updating and revising, and has implemented in a number of settings. She has used the program as the basis of graduate courses and professional development courses, as the basis of a kindergarten program for community centres in Toronto and Montreal, and also as a Tier 2 program for older elementary students. In addition to writing and designing educational resources, Brenda has written many of the poems that appear in Language Patterns, and her adult poetry has appeared in several literary publications.
Stephanie Stringer, MA
Author, Editor
Stephanie Stringer, MA
(stephanie@languagepatterns.ca) is a doctoral candidate at Concordia University. Stephanie is a member of the Métis Nation of Ontario, and has worked with Indigenous organisations including the Cree Health Board, and the Cree and Kativik school boards. For over ten years, she taught early readers and dyslexic readers in both English and French at the Learning Associates of Montreal, and at Dorval Elementary School, where she worked with first-language Inuktitut students. Between 2010 and 2015, she also conducted educational assessments in Cree and Inuit communities. Stephanie is well positioned to lead and advise on the linguistic aspects of this project, having an extensive background in languages and linguistics from the University of Toronto, the University of Oxford, and the Université de Montréal, as well as having completed introductory level courses in Inuktitut and Cree. She is also acutely aware of the cultural and justice issues that underlie a project such as this, having been an active volunteer for the Truth and Reconciliation Commission hearings, and having been involved with several Indigenous rights initiatives. Stephanie is also a novelist. Her first novels, Under Dark Boughs and its sequel, Through Black Spruce, are available on Kindle, and her work has appeared in the Métis Voyageur.
Andrew Stringer, BFA
(andrew@languagepatterns.ca) has a university background in both English Literature and Fine Arts. He is a member of the Métis Nation of Ontario. Andrew has exhibited at art shows in Montreal and in New York State. He has also taught beginning reading to students in Canada, China, and Costa Rica, using the Language Patterns program, to which he has also contributed recent illustrations. During his extensive travels, Andrew was invited to create wall murals in Cambodia, Thailand, and Costa Rica. In addition to teaching and painting, Andrew worked for several years as a wilderness camp counsellor and wilderness guide. He was part of one of the last expeditions to canoe the 496 kilometre course of the Romaine River, before the hydroelectric generating station made the river impassable. More recently, Andrew has spent his summers as a tree planter in Ontario, Alberta, and Northern British Columbia. As well as having planted well over a million trees, Andrew has considerable experience in management, having overseen reforestation and rewilding projects throughout Ontario since 2012.
Andrew Stringer, BFA
Illustrator
Ron Stringer, Ph.D.
(ron@languagepatterns.ca) is a recently retired professor from the Department of Educational and Counselling Psychology at McGill University. He is a specialist in reading and reading disability, and a member of the Métis Nation of Ontario. He spent his childhood on Manitoulin Island, where he learned about his Métis roots in practical hands-on ways. Ron studied and worked with Keith Stanovich, whose seminal reading research is frequently cited in the recent Ontario Human Rights Commission report. Ron has done psycho-educational assessments for the East James Bay Cree School Board, as well as teaching both undergraduate and graduate courses on reading and reading disability at McGill.
Ron Stringer, PhD
CIO, COO
The original Language Patterns program was developed in the late 1960's by Grace and John Linn, with the assistance of several working classroom teachers (Mabel Bruce, Dorothoy Donaldson, Jean Ellis, Anne Saunders, and Janet Trischuk). It was introduced and tested in classrooms in the Ottawa Public School Board.
Grace Linn was a well-known teacher of remedial reading in Ottawa and area. She saw the need for a practical and effective method of teaching reading when she had her first class as a teacher (45 grade one students!)
Dr. John Linn was a principal, superintendent and psychologist in the Ottawa Public School Board. In all of his positions he saw the devastation caused by the failure to learn to read, and backed by Grace, he did something about it.
Language Patterns was taken on by Holt, Rhinehart Publishing of Canada, after the president of the company saw how effective it was (he had a dyslexic son.) It became the best-selling reading program in Canada during the 70's.
Grace Linn
Dr. John R. Linn
