Saturday, June 1, 2024

 Saturday, June 1, 2024 

   I made a video the other day about my point of view on reading, particularly on learning to read English. McMurtrey uses some of my techniques, but her method is nothing like mine. She teaches a strict Orton-Gillingham approach.  Letters and sounds are all taught in a rigid sequence, and the teacher dictates the pronunciation of each phoneme; regional and cultural differences are discouraged. She also uses structured texts so the student never sees letter/sound combinations that have not been taught.  She argues that doing it that way teaches students they can trust phonics to produce reliable results and prevents them from guessing.

     There's one huge problem with her approach. The relationship between English spelling and pronunciation is unreliable; it's highly variable. Students have to be taught how to deal with that. They have to learn what to do when they follow a basic decoding procedure and wind up with something resembling the actual pronunciation. Then, they have to figure out what the word really is.  There is no way anyone can figure out the pronunciation of a word if it is not already part of their listening vocabulary.

   Elsa tried to get into bed last night using the stairs.  She'd gained more confidence in navigating space with the Elizabethan collar. She did a great job getting to the top of the stairs. Only then she couldn't make it to the bed. Instead, she jumped off the top step. I think it was a surprise to her. It certainly was a surprise to me. I think we agree: for now, she should rely on me to get her on and off the bed.

  Okay, the stinking thinking started around 3 a.m. I got up at 3:30 rather than stay in bed and suffer. The delight of retirement is that I can sleep as much as I like during the day. I wanted to call Ego first thing in the morning anyway.  When I mowed the lawn last week, I hit something. At first, everything looked okay. However, when I checked the bottom of the mower as I put it back in the shed, I noticed a crack in the shield. When I took it out yesterday, I touched the shield to the left of the crack. The piece shifted under my hand.  This did not look good.  I wanted to know if the shield can be replaced? And if it can, can I get it repaired somewhere on the island. I can imagine there is a repair place on Oahu. It's hard for mainlanders to understand that getting from one island to another is not like driving to the next town. When ferries ran, it might have been somewhat more manageable. But nowadays, the only way to get around is by plane.

   While up, I continued working on the updates. I reviewed Josephine's request that I teach English to the children. I hate teaching ESL. It doesn't resonate with me. The Waldorf method for teaching children reading comprehension and language skills at an early age came to mind.  They tell stories. The teachers don't read the stories; they tell them.  I checked online to find out more about the process. Yes, this is perfect. Teach language by modeling it.  I use modeling a lot in my teaching. It works like a charm. It doesn't put the student in the hot spot, constantly subjecting them to evaluation. They can absorb the information from the comfort of their own minds.  I don't have to know if they learned what I taught then and there.  If I can keep them engaged with an open mind free from fear of judgment, I have a better chance of getting them to learn the material.

   My mind was on fire with ideas.  Storytelling could be used at all grade levels to teach English.  Have the 'teacher' read the story and ask for responses from the kids.  What did they like about the story, not like?  What was their favorite part.?  What do they wish would have been different? How would they have changed the story if they had written it?  The 'teacher' can restate what they say in 'correct' English.

  But then I had an even better idea inspired by Waldorf.  The teacher reads the story and then tries to retell it, not just as a summary, but literally retelling it with all the details, asking the kids to tell them if they leave something out or get something wrong. What better way to get kids to pay attention!  Hopefully, this will inspire the kids to do their own retelling of the story.  Waldorf says repetition is valuable. A set of three to five stories can be retold in sequence.

   Yvette's mother did something like that. She read a chapter to her every night from a stack of books by Yvette's bedside.  When she finished going through the stack, she'd start again. It wasn't a constant search for something novel. Yvette could become familiar with the language.

   The readings could be scheduled, like on Thursday at 2 p.m. or Stories for Kindergarteners. Friday at 2 for first and second graders. However, it must include all are welcome, including parents. Getting people engaged might take a while, but teaching English through storytelling sounds like a wonderful idea.

 One source of stories could be school texts. These would not only serve as good materials for English language learning but also prepare students for the next school year. Surely, Josephine could get copies of the schoolbooks.

  I had a session with Mama K's twin girls. Twin A has been resisting the sessions. Twin ed  de

   Twin A told me she was sad about her poor reading a week ago or so.  If someone does poorly in reading and fights getting extra help, one has to wonder why. Third-grade L resented the tutoring until I correctly identified his problem. I suspect that, in the past, teachers have said he wasn't making progress because of a lack of effort, but they never told him what to do to overcome his problem. They gave him more of the same, but it didn't work and drove the kid crazy.  Why did Twin A resist the tutoring?

   She attended today. I asked her if working with me made her sad. She said no, but I suspect she wasn't comfortable telling me the truth. She may be used to taking care of the adults in her life. often, when kids get that I really want the truth about their feelings, they say, "You're so nice!" I tell them I'm not nice; I'm smart. I want to be successful. I want them to be good readers. How they feel about themselves as readers and the tutoring experience are as important as what they can and cannot do academically.

  She read a passage on a middle-third-grade level reasonably well.  Then, she came across the word edges.  She didn't recognize it and proceeded to decode it. She read ed as /de/. I asked if the letters moved around. No. Then why would she read ed as /de/? I asked her if she saw that the E came before the D? Yes. Did she think she could read the letters in either order? Yes. Huh?  I wrote her name with the letters mixed up. Was that okay? No. You can't change the order of the letters when saying the words. Oh!  I could see her taking in this information. I asked her if that helped. She wrote, "A LOT."

   I have never encountered this before in my over fifty years of teaching reading. Does that mean no other student has had this problem, or does it mean that I've never asked the right questions? I know most teachers assume A is stupid. I consider that maybe she is. But no! She can express a passage's main idea and supporting details. If she could learn that, she can't be cognitively impaired. What would create an inability to see that the order of the letters matches the order of the sounds? Maybe she doesn't hear the sounds. But she does. She can decode unfamiliar words in sequence. She often does.  Why does she mix up the letter order when she does? I still have more questions than I have answers.

    I speculate she only applies what she knows to be true if the situation is familiar -enough. Then, she assumes the rules she knows do not apply. This has affected all her learning situations. Holy cow!  I'll keep you posted, dear reader.