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Reading Fluency

Reading Fluency: Part 1

Reading with fluency is like driving on a well maintained road.

Reading fluency is the ability to identify words quickly ,  accurately,  and  understanding their meaning.  Learners develop  reading fluency  by reading daily at their reading level.  This reading level is constantly changing .Learners start developing fluency at an easy reading level.  Then they move on to the next book, which  will be slightly more difficult, but not much, as to not frustrate the reader.  Therefore, reading fluency and reading a lot are linked together.

 

Lack of reading fluency is like driving on a road full of pot holes.

Dysfluent Reader

A dysfluent learner cannot decode words quickly ( phonological awareness and sound identification are not in place) and accurately. They will stop frequently trying to ‘sound out’  word after word. This causes learners to lose speed and comprehension, which leads to frustration and lack of motivation to read. In this case there is no reading fluency.

 

It’s important to get to the root cause of fluency difficulties.

Reading fluency problems don’t fix themselves and learners become dysfluent.  This needs to be corrected so that learners continue to acquire vocabulary and knowledge through reading whether reading silently or orally.

Can’t or won’t?

Reading is Empowering

Some fluent readers are  voracious readers, others read because they have to and others don’t like to read.  I find that if a person can read  fluently with comprehension and says, ‘I don’ t like to read’, it is usually the type of reading material that turns them off reading. Especially in school settings where learners have to read what they are told to read, instead of what they like to read.  Reading is reading whether you read a magazine, a book, a newspaper, internet materials…and so on.

On the other hand, some people would like to read, but they can’t. This is a technical difficulty that can be remedied with the right tools, time and practice. Everyone can learn to read.  It empowers people!

Reading fluency is a very important part of the reading process.  It is important to access  and develop it.

Love, Light and Gratitude,

Alda

 

Quote

“Start by doing what is necessary; then do what is possible; and suddenly you are doing the impossible.”     (St. Francis of Assissi)

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Phonics: The Advanced English Code

 Advanced English Code Characteristics

A learner who has mastered the basic English code is ready to move on to the advanced English code.  In addition to the subskills previously learned, the student needs to develop the ability to understand that sometimes two or more letters represent a sound. For example: – the word “eight” has 2 sounds /eigh/ and /t/;  – the word “shoe” has 2 sounds /sh/ and /oe/.

One Sound Many Spellings

Equally important is the ability to understand that there is more than one way to represent a sound.  For instance,  the long /a/ sound as in the word ‘paper’ can be represented in the following ways:

   – /a/ as in baby

  -/ay/ as in  stay

 -/a–e/ as in game

 -/ai/ as in pail

 -/eigh/ as in eight

 -/ey/ as in they

-/aigh/ as in straight

  -/ea/ as in steak

 -/ei/ as in vein;

Sound Overlapping

On the other hand, there is some overlap in the English code. Some components of the code can represent more than one sound. For example:        the long /o/ sound can be represented in the following ways:

– /o-e/ as in note

-/ow/ as in show 

-/oe/ as in toe

-/oa/ as in goat

Complexity of Text

By the time learners get to fourth grade about 60% of words in the texts they read are advanced code.  It is important to teach this explicitly, directly with lots of practice and repetition. A learner who knows how to  map and do word analysis needs to read daily to someone who can support him/her in this process. Learners need to learn  this new information, but they also need  a plan to organize and help to make sense of this information.  Memorizing the 134 sound pictures representations of the English code  is the first step. However, to learn to identify them in words that one never saw before is the practical application of this knowledge.

The Right Way to Teach

English is a sound-symbol code. This  means we have various sounds represented by symbols; therefore the sounds are the material of written words. When we read, we build up from the sound to the syllable and to the meaning of the word. So in order to save time and frustration it is logical to use teaching methods that agree with the structure of the code being taught.

 Freedom 

Braking the shackles of learning to read  will allow learners to read to learn, by focusing on other aspects of the reading puzzle and enjoy reading. 

With Love and Gratitude,

Alda

Source:

Reading Reflex. Carmen and Geoffrey McGuiness

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Phonics: the ‘sloppy /u/ ‘ sound

My 3 year old granddaughter was reading the word ‘but’ on a T-shirt.  She said,  “/bu/u/t.” She was adding a ‘sloppy /u/ sound to the consonant /b/.

This is common when we teach children to ‘sound out’ and we attach the /u/ sound to a consonant. For example, we say, /bu/ instead of just making the /b/ sound. A consonant needs a vowel (a,e,i,o,u, and sometimes y) to sound with. Therefore  if we attach a “sloppy /u/” sound to a consonant, we are confusing the child. Children often write the word ‘hut’ like this: “ht” and they read “hut”. They do this because they heard /hu/ for /h/ often enough.

It is helpful to teach children properly to avoid this type of confusion. By using mobile/magnetic letters and moving them while making the appropriate sounds, the child will see, in a concrete manner, how to segment  sounds  in words.

Segmenting can be tricky for parents too, especially in advanced code words.  It’s not unusual to hear children read words such as “bell” like this: /b/e/l/l/. They have not been taught that some sounds have more than 1 letter; therefore they apply the strategy they learned (one picture/letter=one sound).

Here are some examples of segmented advanced code words:

House                   /h/ou/se/                             Hill                          /h/i/ll/

Frown                   /f/r/ow/n/                            Hiss                        /h/i/ss/

Float                       /f/l/oa/t/                             Bill                          /b/i/ll

Bread                    /b/r/ea/d/                           Buzz                       /b/u/zz/

Table                     /t/a/b/le

Children should be able to segment sounds in spoken words and transfer that skill to written words. We are talking about sounds not letters. The ability to separate sounds in words is highly correlated  to reading success.

If a child has difficulty in discerning individual sounds ( auditory processing)  such as perceiving  a word as a sound unit  (ex: perceives ‘cat’ as 1 sound rather than /c/a/t/), this can be taught. A child can be trained to learn the correspondence between a symbol and a sound; this is called paired associated  learning. When children learn to decode the visual representation of the sounds in spoken words, they are reading. Training through consistent practice creates success and increases self worth.

“The reward of a thing well done is having done it” – Ralph Waldo Emmerson

Love and Gratitude,

Alda

Source:

Reading Reflex.  Carmen McGuinness and Geoffrey McGuinness

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Phonics: The Basic Code Sounds

The basic code sounds are  comprised  mostly of  words with one letter one sound correspondence.  The word ‘cat’ has 3 letters and each letter represents one sound – /c/ /a/ /t/. Cat has 3 sounds that once blended form the word ‘cat’.

If a child, four years old or older, needs practice blending sounds then you can practice this skill by playing a blending game. You practice with the child by using magnetic letters or little paper squares with the letters on them. Show the child how you blend the sounds of the word ‘cat’ by moving the letters closer together while you make the sounds. The child can manipulate and make the sounds as he/she forms the word. To make it easier draw 3 lines on a little white board or on a piece of paper to place each sound/letter on each line while blending sounds.

c a t

 

__C___    __a__   __t__            c a t     cat

The Blending Game

The game is supposed to be casual and fun to play. It’s perfect for car trips and “I spy “games.

*Tell the child you’re going to play a sound blending game. (if the child has seen you make a smoothie, or blend something in the kitchen, the child knows what blending means).

*Think of a 3-sound word (cat, dog, map, mat, etc). Say the sounds in a segmented manner /c//a/ /t/; that is, /c/pause /a/pause /t/.

*Ask the child to guess the word

Sometimes the child may confuse one of the sounds. You said, ‘cat’ and the child heard ‘cot’. Then repeat the sounds and stretch out the one that was wrong. Now you say, “/c/ /aaa/ /t/.

 

Before long, the child will be the “segmenter” and you will be guessing her/his words.

Finding Sounds Around Us

This is also a fun game to play when you are out and about. It encourages the child to think about sounds in words.  It’s good practice for identifying the first sound in a word.

This is an oral game. No need for sound pictures a.k.a letters. As before practice at home at the work table you use to teach the child. Once the child understands what you mean and is successful than she/he is ready.

*As in the game before, tell the child you’re going to play a sound game.

*Tell the child you are thinking of an animal.  Tell her the first sound you hear in this animal’s name is /p/.  [You can choose any category in the child’s vocabulary ; fruits, shapes…]

*Ask the child to guess what animal you’re thinking of.

If the child guesses a word that doesn’t start with the /p/ sound, then say, “The first sound in __(whatever word the child said) is  __. The first sound in the animal I’m thinking of is /p/. The child has the opportunity to hear both sounds and choose the appropriate one.

Soon the child will be thinking of words and have you guess their first sounds.

The websites below are great for games and resources on this topic

 

Source:

Reading Reflex by Carmen and Geoffrey McGuinness.

Resources:

www.kizclub.com

www.starfall.com

www.readinga-z.com

 

With Love and Gratitude,

Alda

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Phonics and the Sound Wall

The Word Wall

Word walls are great. I think they are a good strategy in the content areas to develop vocabulary for both monolingual and bilingual learners. Good examples are: math word walls, science word walls, history word walls….  , but a word wall to teach to decode? I always found it very confusing because it’s not accurate. A word wall to teach decoding looks like the letters of the alphabet on a wall    and a column of words under each letter that start with the same letter.  When children need to copy how to spell a word, they look at the wall, find the first letter and hopefully the word is in that column.  I found that students were looking for letters rather than sounds. Again this may work for basic code when the letter ‘T’ sounds /t/, but when the letter ‘T’ is part of the digraph /th/ then it’s confusing. Therefore, when the student is looking to spell the word ‘one’, ‘the’, ‘chair’, ‘she’, where is s/he supposed to look?   S/he is told to look at the ‘o’, ‘t’,’c’,’s’ columns, but the sounds don’t match.

 

It is very common to listen to students decode advanced code with basic code sound-out strategy. When I asked a student to make the sound for ‘s’, or ‘h’ there was no problem; however, the moment I showed the picture for ‘sh’, the student would instinctively separate the sounds into /s/ /h/ even if they were written together on the same square of paper.  Looking at 3 squares of paper with these 3 different sounds, the student would always split the digraph (sh). This would repeat for other digraphs. This assessment  showed me that the methodology that created this “learning difficulty” was the cause of the problem.

                                                            /o/

 o             au              aw           al                a               ough            augh

pot        fraud       lawn         walk      father     fought        taught

The  Sound Wall

As the name indicates, a sound wall deals with sound symbols or pictures of sounds.  A sound wall would start with the sound symbols for the basic code, a continue with digraphs followed b other sounds and their spelling patterns. To grasp the concept that some sound symbols have two or more letters, requires direct, explicit, and systematic instruction. Instruction  needs to show that one sound can be spelled in several ways which  takes us into the advanced code that is so prevalent int texts at grade 4 level and beyond.

A brick wall can be transformed into a sound wall. The sound patterns change as children advance in their decoding and coding skills. The English code comprises French, Latin, and Germanic influences. Sometimes words were adopted ‘as is’ without changing them into the English sound code. The /eigh/ in eight is of German origin, while the /ay/ as in ‘say’ comes from French influence. Language is more than sounds and syntax. It is born of the history and culture of the people who speak that language. When a country conquered another it didn’t just acquire more territory, it acquired also what existed in terms of culture and language. A language is a living part of culture, it’s always evolving, changing,creating.

 

Here are other examples of spelling patterns  for the advanced English code.

 

 /ee/ sound /z/ sound /n/ sound
Ee        meet

Ea        seat

Ie          chief

Y         funny

E          she

i-e        petite

I           variation

Ei         receive

e-e       eve

ey        key

 z      zip

zz    buzz

s      is

se    choose

ze   snooze

x      xylophone

 n    no

nn   dinner

kn   knee

gn   gnat

pn  pneumonia

 

 

 

 

 

With Love and Gratitude.

Alda

Source:

Reading Reflex by Carmen and Geoffrey MCGuiness

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Phonics: All Letters are Silent and Ready to Be Decoded

 

Phonetics, aka phonics, describes the sounds of a language . Humans have been making sounds way before they found a way/symbols to represent those sounds. Traditionally teaching the sounds in the English language started from the letter to the sound, giving the impression that letters were invented before sounds. Throughout the decades methodologies were invented which seem to confuse many children learning to read.

The problem with the traditional approach is that it ignores all the knowledge about sounds that children have been accumulating since birth. All the stories, word games, all the spoken language learned within the family and community circles gave the child a good knowledge of the sounds of his/her native language. In order to continue expanding the child’s knowledge on its way to reading, the child needs to learn the symbols that represent all those sounds s/he already knows. The phonemic/phonological awareness previously developed are sub-skills needed to learn to read. Children need to learn the sub-skills necessary to reading in the right order.

Reading Sub-Skills

1- ability to scan text from left to right.(understand the code moves in one direction)

2- ability to match visual symbols to auditory sounds (ex: child makes the /a/ sound to match the letter ‘a’

3- ability to blend discrete sound units into words.(ex: you say /p/i/g/ and the child says ‘pig’)

4- ability to segment sounds into words (ex: you say ‘dog’ and the child says /d/o/g/)

5- ability to understand that sometimes two or more letters represent 1 sound.(ex; ‘sh’, ‘gh’, ‘ph’)

6- ability to understand that most sounds can be represented in more than one way (ex: the sound ‘ee’ can be spelled in several ways: green, team, happy, etc)

All Letters are Silent

If you place a book next to your ear and fan the pages, you’ll feel a nice breeze, but no language sounds, no words or sentences.  All letters in the book are silent.

Human beings are equipped with a “voice box” which enables us to make sounds.  Letters, on the other hand, cannot make sounds. Therefore, we need to teach children to make the appropriate sound for the appropriate symbol representing that sound. This is important because it avoids a lot of confusion later on. If letters made sounds, just imagine the cacophony around the books on the meadow below…

I worked with a grade 1 child who was perceived to be reading at grade level. He had the ability to memorize text. A typical person can memorize between 2000-3000 words. As an English as a Second Language (ESL) teacher I had the opportunity to work one-on-one with this student. After a few assessments I understood that the child couldn’t read. He couldn’t crack the English code. He didn’t have the opportunity to memorize  the text I was giving him, which he did on a regular basis with classroom texts. He might have been able to continue this until the end of grade 1, but by mid-grade 2 his house of cards would have collapsed.

The English Written Code

The English code is a sound symbol code. This code has 134 sound pictures that represent the various sounds used in English. If the child learns these symbols, the child will be able to decode words in English. There are about 55 English words that do not decode accordingly (ex: yacht). Typically a student uses around 20,000 daily vocabulary words; therefore either the student memorizes the 134 sound pictures or s/he needs to memorize these words needed to function in his/her environment. Learning the code opens the way to never before seen words, not just the daily ones.

The Basic Code

A four year old child can begin to learn the basic code. S/he begins to read and spell three-sound words. The basic code is the 1 symbol =1 sound word. The child can make the sounds for: b,c,d,f,g,h,j,k,l,m,n,p,r,s,t,v,w,x,y,z,i,e,a,o,u.   By the time the child is 5 yrs old s/he has mastered the basic code.

The Advanced Code

By the age of 6 a child should know about 70% of the advanced code. The advanced code is 1, 2 or more symbols = 1 sound. The child needs to learn what sounds to make for the symbols: sh, ch, th, ck, qu, ce, ai, ou, ea, oa, ow, igh, eigh, ay, ie, aw, ee, ey, ue, ew, au, oo, ui, oy, and oi.  60% of grade 4 texts are in advanced code. If children are taught to ‘sound out’ basic code words, logic dictates that they will use the same strategy to decode advanced code words, unless properly taught.

There is a phenomenon called the ‘grade 4 slump’. Research shows that there is a decline in reading scores at this point. I believe this ‘slump’ comes about because children were not taught to decode the advanced code. Probably the last time anyone taught them to decode was in grade 1 or 2. There is, of course, a limit to the number of words one can memorize.

The Importance of Learning to Decode for ELLs

I encountered students with difficulties in reading that were created by the methodologies  used to teach them,  which failed to empower these students to learn to read. When a significant number of students have the same difficulties, one cannot blame the students, one needs to look for the causes. The advanced code also needs to be taught directly, explicitly and consistently. Learning the English code (or French, or Spanish, or Italian, or…) is important for anyone who speaks English (or a particular language), but I think that it is even more so for an English Language Learner (ELL). A person , who  is literate in a mother language, will transfer acquired reading knowledge into the new language. However, if the English code is not taught the student will apply the sounds of his native language to English.  This is easy to see especially when ‘reading’ advanced code words with sounds (i.e ‘th’) that don’t exist in the student’s native language. In this case the ELL has to make a conscientious effort to train his/her ‘voice box’ to make the new sound.

 

With Love and Gratitude.

Alda

Source:

Reading Reflex : The Foolproof Phone-Graphix Method for Teaching Your Child to Read.  By Carmen and Geoffrey McGuinness

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

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Phonemic and Phonological Awareness

 

 Phonemic Awareness

Phonemes are the smallest part of sound in a spoken word.  For example, if you change the phoneme /h/, in the word ‘hat’, for the phoneme /c/ you make the word ‘cat’.  Therefore,  phonemes make a difference in the word’s meaning. Phonemic awareness is not phonics– that’s  a different puzzle piece. Phonemic awareness is understanding that the sounds of spoken language work together to make words. As seen above the phonemes /h/a/t/ work together to make the word ‘hat’. This is about hearing and processing  sounds. Phonemic awareness is a subcategory of phonological awareness.

Children who have phonemic awareness skills are likely to have an easier time to learn to read.

Phonemic awareness is… ·  …       the ability to hear, identify and manipulate individual sounds –phonemes- in spoken words
Phonemic awareness is important because… ·         it improves children’s word reading and reading comprehension.

·         It helps children learn to spell
Phonemic awareness can be developed through a number of activities… ·         Identify phonemes

·         Categorize phonemes

·         Blend phonemes to form words

·         Segment words into phonemes

·         Delete or add phonemes to form new words

·         Substitute phonemes to make new words
Effective phonemic awareness instruction… ·    …     When children are taught to manipulate phonemes by using letters of the alphabet

·   …      When instruction focuses on only one or two types of phoneme manipulation

 

Phonological Awareness

Phonological awareness identifies and manipulates larger parts of the spoken language, such as words, syllables and onsets and rhymes as well as phonemes.

So when children:

  • identify and make oral rhymes- “The cat sat on the mat”
  • identify and work with syllables –clap syllables of their name :” An-drew”
  • identify and work with onsets and rimes – the first part of sip is s-/the last part of win is –in
  • identify and work with individual phonemes is spoken words – the first sound in sat is /s/.
 Training

Training is the key to breaking the  chains that keep children from successfuly learning to read.  Many children acquire these skills effortlessly, if they were raised by adults who talked to them constantly, played word games incessantly and read aloud nursery rhymes and poetry at bed time. Some have an innate ability to process sounds/language; however, there are  many others  who find these skills difficult.  This skill is crucial to acquiring the English language code necessary to master reading. Children, who lack these skills, need to be trained in developing them.  Children do not outgrow phonological awareness deficits or develop phonological awareness skills with physical maturation (Liberman & Shankweiler, 1985) cited in “Teach Them All to Read” p.33. These skills have nothing to do with IQ levels.

Success in acquiring phonological Awareness comes from teaching it systematically, explicitly within a supportive environment. Attention in training blending, segmenting , auditory processing and code knowledge (alphabet sounds) are really important in this process.

The sweet taste of success is very powerful. The good news is that not only can children overcome it by training, but that parents can help them do it.  Carmen and Geoffrey MacGuiness in their book ‘Reading Reflex- the foolproof phono-graphix method for teaching your child to read” do just that.  I found this resource to be pretty empowering.

With Love and Gratitude

Alda

Sources:

Teach Them All to Read by Elaine McEwan

Reading Reflex by Carmen and Geoffrey McGuinness / www.readamerica.net

 

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Language is Cultural

 

Language is more than just words. People who share a language share a culture and an identity. Learning a language is more than just learning sounds, vocabulary and grammatical rules. It’s also learning the culture expressed by that language. Therefore when parents/families teach children their spoken language they are also teaching them and identity and a culture. Sound is an important part of this process.

Sounds in Spoken Language

Children become aware that some words rhyme. When I read Sofi  “Green Eggs and Ham”, she will meet my “box” with the word “fox” for example. She recognizes the same sound.  However,  Mark at 4 yrs knows they rhyme and can make work families –cat, sat, mat, rat, and so on. Although at different levels they are both developing phonological awareness; that is they can hear and work with the sounds of the English language.

The ABCs

Knowledge of the alphabet – the names, sounds and shapes of the letters by the time children get to kindergarten is a great help.  At 2yrs a child (my experience, perhaps even younger) who has been immersed in a language rich environment can recognize the name, sound and identify a word that starts with a specific letter.  Sofi ‘reads’ her alphablock   book.  She starts with the letter name, sound and the name of the picture on that page. Of the 3 things she identifies the most helpful in helping her to read is the sound she makes when she looks at a particular letter. We read by blending sounds, not by saying letter names.

Reading Aloud

 

This is really the context within which reading develops. It’s probably the most important building activity a parent can do to start the process. When children actively participate in the reading aloud with adults, they learn new words, learn more about a theme, learn about written language and really see the connection between reading and writing. They are making connections and practicing applying knowledge acquired in different contexts. They may connect to another book, to a movie, to a personal experience…. they begin to transfer knowledge from one area to another.

Vocabulary and knowledge of the World

Vocabulary is the number of words we use to name concrete/ abstract objects/ideas. It’s word power that allows us to express what’s in our minds and understand other peoples’ ideas. The size of a person’s vocabulary is connected to that person’s ability to comprehend what he/she reads in all areas. Children learn vocabulary both indirectly, by hearing and seeing words as they listen, talk and read; and directly when parents and teachers teach them the meaning of words. The more personal experiences children have the greater is their vocabulary. When they go grocery shopping with their parents, when they go to the park, zoo, travelling, visiting, are all opportunities to learn that are built in a day’s activity. These are not programs, these are ways of living. Parents are busy so it’s important to use the time they have with the children and use it productively. Even watching TV together and talking about what they are seeing can be an opportunity for learning, providing the program can teach anything of value.

Comprehension

Comprehension is critical to reading. Getting meaning out of text is the reason to read. By using what  they already know children can attach new meaning, new concepts, new words to further their understanding of a subject. At this young stage ‘conversations’ with adults about the world around them  are a good context to show children  how to make connections. Also by asking what they think can happen, making mental pictures, and asking questions. When adults model these strategies aloud  they are showing  the though process for reading/ problem solving, etc. Later children will learn to make  predictions, make inferences,  summarizing and so on.  By  modelling these behaviours early on adults are helping build these reading blocks, which will be part of  a structured reading process at school.

pexels-photo-256417

There are many games and programs to keep children entertained and teach them words and sounds, but there is no substitute for the human voice and human interaction. I truly believe this.

 

With Love and Gratitude

Alda

Resources

www.starfall.com     ( I like this site. It’s the closest I’ve found to teach phonics the  way I believe is less confusing for children.  )

 

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Oral Language and Vocabulary

It is very important that children develop oral language and vocabulary skills  as part of literacy preparedness.  According to Hart and Risley , Meaningful Differences in the Everyday Experience of Young American Children (2002),”in professional families, children heard an average of 2,153 words per hour, while children in working class families heard an average of 1,251 words per hour, and children in welfare families heard an average of 616 words per hour.”   By the time these children get to kindergarten there is quite a disparity in the number of words they have heard and acquired, which has a direct impact on their reading readiness. Therefore the development of oral language and vocabulary is crucial in this process.

A Rich Language Environment

Young children learn language naturally by using it, imitating those around them, and by working through the rules of the language on their own (ex: “ I goed” precedes “I went”).  Humans’ brains are wired for talk. However, children require time to develop language through everyday practice within a social context. This process of language acquisition varies from child to child. Some children start speaking and using complex sentences earlier than others. Immersing children in a language rich environment, whether in their mother tongue or the official language, is extremely important no matter how early or how late they start talking. They may not be talking, but they are listening.  Having ‘conversations’ with  children, before they are talking, teaches them the rules of conversation such as taking turns, paying attention, facial and voice expressions/intonation (asking questions, exclamations)and so on.

Oral Language Components – Relating Sounds to Meanings

Phonological –  it’s about the rules of combining sounds . English speakers understand and pronounce English words and know that some sounds always come at the end of words.

Semantic –  the smallest units of meaning – morphemes- that combined with others make up words.

Syntactic –  the rules that make possible to combine words into sentences. As soon as a child uses two words together, as in “I happy” she is using a syntactic rule to convey meaning.

Pragmatics –  the rules of language use:  formal and informal language. Children need to learn the ways of speaking at day care/school. Pragmatic is important because we are perceived by others based on both what we say, how and when we say it. (Reading Rockets article by Celia Genishi “Oral Children’s Oral Language Development”).

www.readingrockets.org   is an excellent literacy site for both parents and teachers. On the oral language development part of the site parents can access tip sheets in English and Spanish about topics such as: Nursery Rhymes, Literacy for pre-schoolers, growing readers  and  much more. On their PBS series, we can find articles such as Roots of Reading for infants and toddlers in a video clip hosted by Fred Rogers. He looks at the earliest stages of literacy and helps parents and other stake holders who can help children get on their literacy journey. The amount of information and guidance on this site is tremendous. I’ve spent many hours on this site.

Peer Learning

Peer learning is an important part of language development.  It is important  to give children the opportunity to interact with other children, especially if they are of mixed-age groups.

Adult-Child Conversations

Story time is a great opportunity for adult-child interaction or one sided ‘conversations’.  At  9 months old my grandson had a favourite story. At first I didn’t understand why the fussing because I usually read both stories . Then I figured out that the fussing stopped when I read a particular story. He had a favourite story! I saw this behavior again with my granddaughter. Now they both talk (at the ages of 4 and 2 ) so we have conversations about story settings, characters, problems, solutions, feelings while we reread their favourite stories. Of course in this process I must remain faithful to the script… because they know if I skip/change a word or sentence. At age 4 he reads some words of the story as he is developing sight words and also learning phonics, or reads pictures as in ‘see and say’ story books. At age 2 she is into Dr. Seuss’ Green Eggs and Ham and has memorized parts of the story.

It is never to early to start children on the road to literacy in a fun and relaxed way.

With Love and Gratitude

Alda

Source:

www.readingrockets.org/blogs/sounditout

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Illiteracy Rates and The Need for a Paradigm Shift

 Reading Wars

 

Reading  wars – as in this method is better than that- has been how people have attempted to solve the illiteracy situation. Just about any methodology can show that someone was able to learn by using it. The claim is made statistical documentation is presented, but the problem is still unresolved.

Methodologies

From the 1950’s to present a series of reading methods have been introduced to improve the literacy rates in North America, and others countries. From the “Dick and Jane/Look and say”, to phonics to decode the meaning of text, to Whole Language- emphasizing meaning over sounds- and to present with  Balanced Literacy – a combination of phonics and cognitive strategies. These were/are some of the methods used to teach reading. The war mentality so far doesn’t seem to solve the problem.

Illiteracy Rates

 

In the 1970’s statistics on illiteracy rate came out at 33% just using the phonics approach. By 1995 with all the improvements to reading instruction, The US Department of Education reported the results of the mix of whole language and phonics approach as the illiteracy rate climbed to 43%. In 2015 the National Center for Education (NCES) reported that 64% of grade 4 students and 66% of grade 8 students were under-performing, that is reading below proficiency reading levels.

In Canada, 42% of Canadian adults between 16-65 years of age have low literacy skills and are considered semi-literate.  According to Craig Alexander, deputy chief economist of TD Bank Financial Group (2007), “The  Canadian economy could enjoy a $32 billion boost if literacy rates were improved by only 1%.”  The Canadian Council on Learning in the report, “The Future of Literacy in Canada’s Largest Cities” (Sept. 8, 2010) suggests that by 2031 more than 15 million Canadian adults will have low literacy levels. This is an increase of 25% in the next 20 years, which will create a ‘literacy dilemma’ if the  situation is not addressed immediately.

The Gift of Learning

Give children the gift of learning. Teach them accordingly to their needs. Elaine McEwan in Teach Them All to Read had some ‘eye opening’ information that sheds some light in why somebody always learns something independently of the method. She says that of “the total percentage of students enrolled nationwide (US) 5% read ‘as if by magic’ some arrive at school already reading; 20%-30% learn with ease, by any kind of formal instruction; 60% find learning to read to be ‘hard work’;15%-25% find learning to read difficult even with one-on-one specialized instruction; and 5% will have serious and pervasive reading disability.” This means that “to survive academically …they will require the very best in systematic and direct reading instruction from highly skilled and supportive teachers”. (p 6). The last thing anyone needs is to be in the middle of a reading war, waiting for people to make up their minds , while children continue to fall through the ever widening cracks.

Changing the Paradigm

 

With all the money invested in education and  scientific research in the fields of education and brain function,  why is it so difficult to teach children to read? Scientific research and technology are constantly changing. Who is not keeping up? What can be done differently to teach literacy more effectively?  Perhaps the way educational systems group children by chronological age needs to change? Does the teaching  environment need to be improved?

Teaching All Children All they Need to be  Successful

Definitely the need for a “foundation of solid reading skills that includes fluency, development of strong academic language ….., the building of stores of knowledge, cultivation of a sturdy and flexible suite of comprehension strategies, and opportunities to choose and read engaging texts alone and with others – all of these are essential for reading success” (Liben and Liben, 2013). The Libens and Elaine McEwan seem to agree on the need to teach ALL the reading components to ALL the children.

Children’s life conditions need to be improved even before they get to school. Poverty never helped anyone grow healthy and develop their potential. This is not just a classroom problem; it’s much larger than that, but the right approaches in the classroom should mitigate the problem.

From a Fighting Mentality…

 

Human beings are complex. We have many things in common, but we also differ in areas such as learning styles, innate abilities and needs. Therefore a ‘one-size-fits-all’ approach whether in education or any other field that deals with humans (i.e. health care) cannot be successful in my opinion. It is time to change the paradigm from “war on illiteracy”, “war on drugs”, “war on….” – phrases, which invoke only  destruction and desolation.  When we look back to historical times the periods of war and destruction are just that. It’s only after  those periods of darkness that people are able to show their creativity; when the arts, music, architecture, literature and other higher forms of human creative cooperation finds expression.

…… to Creativity and Co-creation Mentality

 

 

A paradigm of cooperation and co-creation for the highest good of the children embedded in love, understanding, and empathy will enhance creativity and co-creation . It’s time to pay serious attention to emotional intelligence. This paradigm invokes creativity, happiness, joy, fun – a set of much higher vibrations- a state of being where human beings can thrive and create.

Mental Health: sowing the seed of love of learning

Nurturing environments are fertile ground to sow the seeds of love. Internal states of war are as destructive as external ones. Today children of all ages (as do adults) carry an enormous amount of stress and anxiety. These negative emotions manifest into physical form as headaches, stomach aches and so forth. Add to this, challenging school environments with bullying, lack of respect, and many children will develop fears,  and low self-worth.

Children who are initiated in Reiki energy and/or who learn to use Emotional Freedom Technique (EFT) also known as Tapping  have a way of dealing with stress and other negative emotions.   I saw a video clip from Pacific Grove Middle School, CA School District  where students, who  are practicing Tapping before and after class, are said “to improve focus, reduce anxiety, become better collaborators and increase productivity”. I found this video when I   Googled Tapping Solutions. They also talked about a book written by Alex Ortner for elementary school children called “Gorilla Thumps and Bear Hugs” to teach tapping.

Opinions will differ on these subjects, but it’s personal experience that counts. These techniques work in the realm of energy so for someone still viewing the world solely based on Newtonian physics, Quantum is really a big leap.

 

 

With Love and Gratitude,

Alda

Resources:

Teach Them ALL to Read: Catching the Kids Who Fall Through the Cracks  by Elaine K. McEwan

A Proposed Paradigm Shift for CCSS ELA and Literach by Liben and Liben

www.statcan.gc.ca

www.literacymattersus.org

www.excellence-in-literacy.org/facts.html

www.literacy.ca

www.indexmundi.com

www.huffingtonpost.ca/2016/09/01/canada-literacyrates-n-11817262.html