Mr. Brian Vieira is a graduate of NYC's prestigious Stuyvesant H.S., and an alumnus of Emory University and Brooklyn College's Graduate Division where he earned his master’s degree in American History.
An award-winning state certified Master Teacher with over 30 years of academic experience, Mr. Vieira taught American History in high school for 14 years. He was awarded "Students' Choice Teacher of the Year" at Wingate H.S. in Brooklyn, N.Y for his passionate commitment to helping underprivileged, inner-city youth to excel. His students consistently scored far above city and state norms on the NYS American History Regents Exams.
In 2001, Mr. Vieira established his own state-certified school to assist students at smaller teacher-student ratios. He also established ScholarSkills Learning Center as an after-school program to help students to master the foundations for excellence in reading, writing, and arithmetic.
He is currently the President of ScholarSkills Learning Center which assists students, parents, and teachers in their quest for excellence. ScholarSkills offers direct tutoring to students, guidance counseling to parents, developmental curriculum to schools, and professional development workshops for teachers in English Language Arts, American History, and the implementation of civics education.
An award-winning state certified Master Teacher with over 30 years of academic experience, Mr. Vieira taught American History in high school for 14 years. He was awarded "Students' Choice Teacher of the Year" at Wingate H.S. in Brooklyn, N.Y for his passionate commitment to helping underprivileged, inner-city youth to excel. His students consistently scored far above city and state norms on the NYS American History Regents Exams.
In 2001, Mr. Vieira established his own state-certified school to assist students at smaller teacher-student ratios. He also established ScholarSkills Learning Center as an after-school program to help students to master the foundations for excellence in reading, writing, and arithmetic.
He is currently the President of ScholarSkills Learning Center which assists students, parents, and teachers in their quest for excellence. ScholarSkills offers direct tutoring to students, guidance counseling to parents, developmental curriculum to schools, and professional development workshops for teachers in English Language Arts, American History, and the implementation of civics education.
Frequently asked questions
Mr. Vieira, you are the President and founder of ScholarSkills Learning Center and the author of the Sentence-Smart System for Reading Comprehension and Writing Skills. What's the relationship between Sentence-Smart and ScholarSkills?
ScholarSkills is an educational services provider that offers resources to schools and online tutoring and test preparation to families. Sentence-Smart is ScholarSkills' premier reading comprehension and writing skills program.
Why did you create Sentence-Smart?
I created Sentence-Smart to make English language arts easier to teach and more exciting to learn. I was (and still am) deeply troubled by our nation's reading crisis. When only 60% of fourth graders can read at grade level, it's time to take action!
Did you always have a passion to teach language arts?
No. In fact, I hated grammar, but I have always had a passion for educating children to the highest levels of literacy. I recognized that grammar was an essential component for comprehension and writing, but it seemed arcane and arbitrary. I could never understand why it was so difficult to figure out what a predicate was, or what a predicate adjective was, or what a being verb was. I read several textbooks, and they all left me in the same place--bored and feeling even more helpless than before. I kept asking: "Why is grammar so difficult to learn?" "Why doesn't someone make this easy for kids and teachers?"
So I decided to create a book that would make grammar easy to teach and exciting to learn. The result was "Sentence-Smart."
But is "Sentence-Smart" more than a book? Is it a multisensory learning system?
"Yes, as I began teaching it to my tutoring students at ScholarSkills Learning Center, I realized that they needed much more than a book: they needed to touch sentences and move their parts around. They needed to see that sentences were just parts of speech that writers organize to create complete thoughts. So I created a color-coded card system to help students to analyze sentences by physically taking them apart, and to construct sentences by putting them back together. Then I added songs and instructional videos so that students could use Visual, Interactive, Tactile, Auditory Learning (or VITAL) strategies.
Is Sentence-Smart simply a grammar system?
No. It's much more: it actually became a complete reading comprehension and writing skills program. As my team and I taught more students, we realized that students needed much more than grammar if they were going to read and write with excellence. We recognized that there were four foundations for excellence in reading and writing: Phonics (fluency), Vocabulary (meanings of words), Grammar (sentence structure), and knowledge (context for reading).
So we went back to the beginning and added phonics, vocabulary, and knowledge building resources to our initial grammatical system. With a full phonics, vocabulary, grammar, and knowledge-building Sentence-Smart now helps students to read fluently with comprehension and to write clearly with depth and accuracy.
"I created Sentence-Smart so that kids could start enjoying learning--again. I must say that I am deeply pleased with the results so far. Nothing makes me happier than watching the joy and excitement on children's faces as they spin the wheel, sing the songs, and learn to read and write with confidence."
ScholarSkills is an educational services provider that offers resources to schools and online tutoring and test preparation to families. Sentence-Smart is ScholarSkills' premier reading comprehension and writing skills program.
Why did you create Sentence-Smart?
I created Sentence-Smart to make English language arts easier to teach and more exciting to learn. I was (and still am) deeply troubled by our nation's reading crisis. When only 60% of fourth graders can read at grade level, it's time to take action!
Did you always have a passion to teach language arts?
No. In fact, I hated grammar, but I have always had a passion for educating children to the highest levels of literacy. I recognized that grammar was an essential component for comprehension and writing, but it seemed arcane and arbitrary. I could never understand why it was so difficult to figure out what a predicate was, or what a predicate adjective was, or what a being verb was. I read several textbooks, and they all left me in the same place--bored and feeling even more helpless than before. I kept asking: "Why is grammar so difficult to learn?" "Why doesn't someone make this easy for kids and teachers?"
So I decided to create a book that would make grammar easy to teach and exciting to learn. The result was "Sentence-Smart."
But is "Sentence-Smart" more than a book? Is it a multisensory learning system?
"Yes, as I began teaching it to my tutoring students at ScholarSkills Learning Center, I realized that they needed much more than a book: they needed to touch sentences and move their parts around. They needed to see that sentences were just parts of speech that writers organize to create complete thoughts. So I created a color-coded card system to help students to analyze sentences by physically taking them apart, and to construct sentences by putting them back together. Then I added songs and instructional videos so that students could use Visual, Interactive, Tactile, Auditory Learning (or VITAL) strategies.
Is Sentence-Smart simply a grammar system?
No. It's much more: it actually became a complete reading comprehension and writing skills program. As my team and I taught more students, we realized that students needed much more than grammar if they were going to read and write with excellence. We recognized that there were four foundations for excellence in reading and writing: Phonics (fluency), Vocabulary (meanings of words), Grammar (sentence structure), and knowledge (context for reading).
So we went back to the beginning and added phonics, vocabulary, and knowledge building resources to our initial grammatical system. With a full phonics, vocabulary, grammar, and knowledge-building Sentence-Smart now helps students to read fluently with comprehension and to write clearly with depth and accuracy.
"I created Sentence-Smart so that kids could start enjoying learning--again. I must say that I am deeply pleased with the results so far. Nothing makes me happier than watching the joy and excitement on children's faces as they spin the wheel, sing the songs, and learn to read and write with confidence."
