Friday, March 19, 2021
I did one of my frequent short walks throughout the day, so I didn't spend endless hours just sitting on my ass watching my body settle into mush. I saw a young girl sitting on the lanai of the rental. I had seen a truck pull up and thought someone had moved in. There was further proof as furniture appeared on the lanai and then a large eating table and chairs at the side of the house. I called to the little girl, "How old are you?" Seven. I told her there was a bunch of six-year-olds living down the street. There is Leon, Adam, and Jazzy son, Leo, the son of the woman tenant in Adam and Jazzy's ohana, and finally, Juniper, who lives right across the street. The little girl's mom came out, and we introduced ourselves. The family had just moved here from the mainland. The mom had a job in a managerial position at a local golf club. I can't remember her name, but her husband's name was Ryan, the seven-year-old was Ryder, and the younger girl, turning two the next day, was Reilly. And yes, mom's name also started with an R.
I did more work trimming the shrubs along the top of the driveway. I've taken to sawing some of the branches. They're too thick for the loppers. I sprayed the saw blade with WD-40 each time and used both hands on the saw. The branches aren't too thick, and the work goes quickly.
I finally got around to applying vinegar to my backyard. I had three gallons that Judy and Paulette picked up for me at Costco and two more I picked up at Safeway. Because it has been such a long time since I have treated the area, I could only cover a small percentage of the backyard. I will need a good ten to fifteen more gallons.
I had an appointment with J in LA. He texted me he couldn't meet with me; they were cleaning the house.
Then I got a call from I's mother to say she had to take her son to the doctor at the time of our regular appointment; could we reschedule? Now, I had an immediate opening because J canceled. Right before I met with I, J texted me to say that he was free now. It hadn't been clear that he would only need a few minutes. I told him we could reschedule for later.
As I worked with I, I used more words from A Very Short Introduction to Spinoza. It led to a lesson on unstressed syllables. The word 'idea' came up. Hmm! This is a problem for me. As a New Yorker, I pronounce it 'idear.' I tried to figure out what the sounds might be if I said it like a Midwesterner. Boy, was I ever confused!
I met with J later. He zoomed through the work on his own, as he has been doing. I babysat. He may make one mistake here or there. He made errors determining the definition of some word using the text. I had to remind him to read the words before and after the unknown word to determine its meaning. While I like many things about the reading program he is in, I don't like that you can't go back and review the text at will.
I had my first session with 14-year-old D (versus the other D with memory problems, who is 10.) This D reads at a 2nd-grade level. He didn't want me to see him on the screen. I told him that was okay. I could hear the defensiveness in his voice. Others had tried to help him without success. I told him that I could not guarantee that I could help him while I had many success stories. Each case is different. I also told him that I wouldn't be blaming him if I couldn't help him. Then I started on my method, a system for discovering phonics. It came out that he didn't know what a syllable was nor what the vowels were. When I asked him if he knew, he said yes, A O S.
I told the mom to give him this simple exercise for remembering the vowels. Take any printed page, write the vowel letters across the top, AEIOU and sometimes Y, and have the student underline every vowel in the text. Preferably use a document written in English, but any text using the Latin alphabet will do in a pinch. The last bit of instruction is, Make sure the student scans the lines of text from left to right as they look for the vowels.
I finally got that we are always decoding 'single-syllable words,' even if the word is multi-syllables. Each syllable must be decoded separately. Once the individual syllables are decoded, you string them together to make a word- but we always start with lone syllables.
The way we identify the syllables is by identifying the vowel letters. They give us a clue as to how many syllables there are. We learn when a vowel letter serves a signal instead of a sound, as is the case in the silent final -e, and the vowel digraphs, like ea, ee, ie, ie, ou, au, etc. I realized that doing the vowel search exercise might also help my reading speed. Just as a professional musician practices the scales, any basic activity like a vowel search will reinforce and strengthen our ability to quickly recognize the presence of vowel letters. I did Phase I with my 14-year-old D exclusively, using his name and the names of his family members and then some words.
At the half-hour mark, I asked him if he wanted to continue. He said yes. He wanted to push through. I asked him if he was having fun or found it interesting or was just forcing himself. He said he was just forcing himself. I told him I didn't want him to continue in that case. The objective of this exercise is to learn to find exploring the sound/symbol relationship fun.
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