Wednesday, July 7, 2021

 

Wednesday, July 7, 2021

 

            I had sixth grade D at 10:30. I worked with him on reading smoothly. His reading sounded percussive, jerky. In our last session, I showed him how to collect several words before saying any of them. Today, I modeled the reading phrase by phrase and had him repeat it. Then he read a sentence on his own. I asked him if he thought he sounded better. He said no and explained why not with words that had no meaning to me. He said, “never mind.” I said no. Please, do what you have to communicate what you feel. You have information about yourself I do not have. I must understand what you think and feel. He finally got through to me.

D said he hit this very high note. (Not his words but what he meant.)  Then I got it. His family is Mexican. Spanish speakers use a narrower pitch range than English speakers. To Spanish speakers, Americans always sound overly excited or angry.   Each language has its own musical pattern, just as it has its own phonemic system.

            He agreed that he was uncomfortable using the English intonation, the musical pattern of the language.   The difference between the two languages isn’t apparent in conversational speech, but it is more so when using the ‘reading’ voice. We enunciate our words more clearly when we read than we do in conversation and use a more emphatic voice if we are reading well. The Spanish intonation (musical pattern) is choppier than English. English sounds like the ocean waves. D didn’t sound different in conversation. His English was perfect. It only showed up when he read. We’d see how this played out. He was doing the exercises I asked him to: he is practicing saying all the letters in sequencing in continuous text, and his mother had him listen to the audio file as he slept. 

            I headed to town after my session with sixth-grade D.  I had to cash a check. The bank line was the longest I’ve ever seen it. I wondered what was going on. Fortunately, I had my Kindle on me. I was in the middle of Blueprint, Nicholas Christakis’s book about the social suite, the essential elements of a functional human society, one that survives and promotes the survival of its members. 

            I thought of going to the shore to enjoy the ocean view before I went home, but it was late already. I had adolescent D at 1. In my conversation with Judy yesterday, I told her that D preferred to work with a word list than continuous text, where he could use context clues to help him figure out the words.   She said that was odd. Most students find reading words embedded in text easier because they can use the surrounding words to help them figure out the target word. It made me wonder. I thought- when he sees a word in isolation, he could focus on it. He gets confused when he sees a word in the middle of a field of words. It would be a visual perception problem. 

            When I told D about my thinking. He chose to work with the word list instead of a story. He did very well until we hit anyone, transcribe a/n-y/w-one. It reinforces my belief that something shifts in his head, creating confusion. He could read short words. He couldn’t contain each syllable separately. His mind wants to mush everything together.

            Back to BMS. Was there any change in his head?   Was there movement somewhere in his brain right now? Yes, in the front. As I understand it, that would be the visual working memory; the letters get tossed here and there. When reading, you need them to hold their place.   I asked him what it looked like in the front of his brain. He said there was a white block. It was large. I asked him how he felt about it. He said he hated it. While that was an understandable reaction, I said it had the effect of defeating his efforts to get rid of it. We did the complimentary releases: Release anything bad about your hatred for the white block and keep anything positive or anything you still need. And then, release anything bad about your love for the white block and keep anything good or anything you still need.   I find it is important to do both; one of them always holds a surprise.  

            In the evening, I watched This is Where I Leave You with Jane Fonda, Jason Bateman, Adam Driver, and Tina Fey. I thought it was wonderful. It’s the coming of age of a forty-year-old.