Save the Cat!®

This Guide shows you how to work with students who are using the Save the Cat! Student Workbook - Dyslexia-Friendly Edition to help them develop stronger ideas, clearer organization, and a deeper understanding of how stories work. This approach supports both reading and writing. 

Save the Cat! is especially effective for students with dyslexia. It helps students recognize patterns in storytelling. When students learn to identify these patterns, storytelling becomes more concrete, predictable, and approachable. 

As students understand that stories follow a recognizable structure, they are able to focus more on creativity and meaning rather than managing multiple cognitive demands at once.

The Curriculum carefully explains the Save the Cat! methodology, centering on its backbone: the Save the Cat! Beat Sheet, a framework of 15 key story beats that represent meaningful stages in a narrative. 

The Teacher's Guide includes "beat by beat" instruction and follow-up, plus downloadable worksheets.