I was up and out by 5 am. the alarm rang as I was walking. I called Dorothy, but she was out, just getting in her car to return home from somewhere. She said she would call me back when she got home.
Right after yoga, I drove sweet Elsa down to the Dog Groomer. I love this guy. He rents a hole in the wall in one of the bays in the new industrial center. His quarters look like a combination of hippie home, decorated with objects found in the trash and Gerry rigged setups. Mike would have been beside himself. He liked workplaces to look 'professional,' However, I find Jim a sweet, loving guy. Elsa doesn't shake as we pull up. That's what counts for me.
Because I didn't have Elsa on a leash, I called Dave to come out and get her from me. I didn't need a leash. I can walk out of the door with Elsa, and she will follow me. I hope I don't ever regret this behavior. Dave called for me to pick her up while I was meditating. Elsa was my priority. I continued meditating when I got home. Julia texted me before I was through to tell me that she thought she knew how to deal with the Zoom problem. She gave me two times to call her. We changed my password. We'll see.
I had another hour and a half before my session with J. I did some work in the garden and listened to Dahaene's lecture on Reading in the Brain. Absolutely fascinating. Also, he shows videos of what is going on in the brain as we read. You can see the neurological response move through the brain instead of just seeing a series of static pictures. I read his book a while ago; I loved it and didn't' remember what he said about the 'letterbox.' How could I not remember what he had to say about that? The 'letterbox' is a specific part of the brain which discerns letters. It is activated right after the primary visual cortex. When the stimulus enters the primary visual cortex, V1, it is at its most elemental, lines and intersections. As it moves forward in the brain, it combines these elements to make letters, and then as it moves further forward, it combines letters, etc. As I read it, I wondered if I could apply this knowledge to help D.
It's interesting. I have had students point to the primary visual cortex or the letterbox when I ask them to visualize letters. I also redirect them to the front of the forehead. It's not that I thought the section they pointed to was irrelevant; no, just the PC part of the brain (V1 and the letterbox) is less accessible than the monitor, where the information is accessible.
For J.'s session, I could not sign on to the Step-Up zoom account, but mine was fine. Julia had shown me to set up the program so both the host and the guest could use the screen share feature. J. brought up the story we had been reading about Blue Whales. I spent less time asking questions about each sentence. I even asked him if he thought he was doing better because of the work we did or only because he was more comfortable with me. He thought it was more the latter.
As we worked through the article, I asked him to express the main idea of sentences or paragraphs. I asked him to use his background knowledge to better understand a passage. I asked him to tell me what two details were being contrasted in the passage. He did reasonably well on two of these tasks. He had the most trouble with was using his own experience to understand a passage.
There was some information about the gestation period for baby blue whales. He said he had never seen a pregnant woman. What??!!! The other issue was why we couldn't hear whale 'songs' without special equipment. Now, part of the problem is its sonar, but there is also the problem of hearing sounds made underwater when you're standing on land. He thought you could hear sounds made underwater. He didn't bring up an experience of his on his own. I had to ask him if he had even been at a pool and seen his friends make noise under the water. Could he hear that sound? Why wouldn't he have done this on his own? Is it an inability to see the similarity between a whale swimming in the sea making a sound and a friend swimming in a local pool making a sound? Is it an inability to appreciate his own experience and doubt the value of what he does know? We'll see how it goes.
I did some more reading on the material I had already written for the Phonics chapter. It's all very interesting but way too much information.
My friend Melissa called to tell me that she told a woman well-connected to the Hawaiian teacher's union from church about my method. She said the woman didn't know who I was but was interested. To begin with, I have had contact with this woman several times. She taught at the elementary school where I volunteered. I experienced her as rigid. I can't imagine her having a positive response to my work. I can imagine her reading it and telling me what to study to know more about teaching. In other words, she would direct me to teach in conventional ways of teaching. I'm curious, but I will be shocked if she does anything else.
My first encounter with her was when I volunteered to tutor at the school. She said I couldn't come in a just do my own thing. She offered me a job working with a small group of children. I would have to follow the program set up by the school and follow a schedule. I told her I wasn't interested. She then offered me an opportunity to work less frequently, doing the same thing for free. I looked at her and asked, "Why would I want to do for free what I won't do for pay?" (I had no trouble finding teachers that would allow me to give what I wanted to offer and be grateful)
Another encounter I had with her was when she observed the teacher I wound up working with. Her class was pretty chaotic. She came in and told this teacher, who was in her first year, that she should integrate the children she had sitting separately to assert more control. She completely ignored the fact that both of these children were seriously disturbed and violent. Despite her inexperience with teaching, this classroom teacher, a woman in her late forties, had the confidence to blow off her suggestion. Yay!
Both those children wound up requiring careful monitoring. They evidentially had student aides assigned to them. Those aides weren't allowed to help any other kids in the class because these students could be so destructive. J. knew this about these children. Instead of pushing for help for the classroom teacher, she dumped the problem all on her. Can you tell I'm not a fan of J's? I'm curious about her reaction to my work, but I can't imagine a positive response. She's the definition of rigid. She knows what she knows, and nothing else is worthwhile exploring.
As rigid as J. is, I am very impressed by Melissa's reaction. It's not just that she is advocating for me; she sees how this method can be used. She saw that it can be used with any alphabetic language and any pronunciation within that language. She saw that it teaches a process of discovery, a method for observing the letter-sound combinations to discover the patterns. She understood that this is what good readers must be doing and what poor readers must be taught.
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