Friday, September 27, 2024

 Friday, September 27, 2024  

   As I approached the intersection of Holoholo and I'lau this morning, I saw a large black animal in the middle of the westbound lane a few feet from the stop sign, lying on its side with its feet up in the air.  It took me a while to figure out what the animal was. A pig? A dog? It wound up being a goat.  The belly was swollen. I assume it was a pregnant female. I called 911 to let them know. They would contact animal control to get it off the road.  

   On the first call, I thought I heard the dispatcher give me a telephone number and hang up. I called again and was assured the dispatcher would follow up.  I received a call from an unidentified number as I approached my driveway.  I refused the call. They called back. The police were looking for more information about the animal's location.  The intersection is two side roads in a development lined with homes in a 25 mph zone.  If you stand in the middle of the intersection and look around, there is no way you could miss the large black animal lying on its side in the middle of the road. 

   I continued practicing the We Both Reached for the Gun dance meme. I doubt I'll get to the point where I can look energetic or fun to watch.  My damaged body can't pull off the precise and percussive moves necessary for Fossesque choreography.

  On YouTube, I saw a woman who did the choreography from the closing group sequence of CDK's choreography of Someone I Used to Know. She made all the moves but missed the 'dance' aspect, the impulse for the moves. I don't know that I can get enough control over my 83-year-old body to execute the correct impulses so it looks like a dance.

   I remembered Linda Ronstadt's comment about her singing after she developed Parkinson's. The interviewer said she could still sing.  Ronstadt said she had lost all the shadings, the subtleties of execution.  I didn't understand what she meant when she spoke about singing, but it does when it comes to dance.  

    Today, I finally called the gardening company I used several years ago before I hired the one I fired sometime last year. I don't know that either one will be what I really need.  Both the company owners have communication problems because of language and cultural differences.   The friend I asked to do some garden work cancels almost every appointment he makes. He's inexpensive, $35 per hour, but he works so slowly and sloppily that I doubt he's worth even that.

  I had an appointment with fourth grade LG. I continued the work on identifying two out of the seven syllable patterns.  He's like Mike; he can't understand what he doesn't already know. He's a top-down learner. Bottom-up learning requires accepting an incomplete understanding of what is going on. It means tolerating uncertainty and confusion, a challenge for the best of us.  A person's ability to tolerate not-knowing and confusion is a sign of their ability to learn.  Learning something new is impossible if we have to be on the mark at all times and in the know.

   I approached LG's problem with learning the VC (one vowel followed by a consonant) versus the VCe (one vowel letter followed by a consonant and a silent e) syllable patterns by anchoring the two categories in the concrete.  I drew two boxes; I labeled one VC and one VCe.  I reviewed what the V, C, and e stood for.  Then, I asked him to give me examples of VC and VCe patterns.  He generated the following:

az, ed, ib, om, uk and ake, ebe,ide, oce, ude. He stumbled at first.  I didn't ask him as a challenge to his memory.  I assured him I was right there to help him if he needed it. I could provide guidance by saying, "Give me a vowel letter; now, any consonant (except l, r, h, w, and y)." Those letters are part of different syllable patterns. He grew stronger as he progressed. 

   LG also had problems learning new concepts and blending the vowels with the following consonant sounds. For example, in AZ, he would correctly identify the A as short in the VC syllable pattern and then convert it to a long A when blending it with the Z. I reminded him to use cross-body blending, which fixed the problem.

     Like many of my students, he made mistakes as he read. He persisted in using automatic processing when he needed to use conscious decoding.  It wasn't that he didn't know the procedure; it was that he didn't stop to use it. 

   I made a little more progress learning the We Both Went for the Gun dance sequence, which is all the rage. I found another instructional video. The woman models the dance in front of a mirror, affording both back and front views. She pays more attention to the hand movements. An older person commented, thanking her for breaking down the choreography so it's accessible to older people like me.

   I met with the Mama K's Twins this afternoon.  I covered the same passage with Twin E. She remembered some of the words better than she had.  I reviewed the rule for the pronunciation of C.  She couldn't remember what I said from one minute to the next. She does not process aural information.  Mama K said she would play the 5 Stories tape for the girls at night. I can't begin to tell you how many times I've asked her to do this.  I can appreciate her reluctance. I can't imagine it makes any sense to someone who hasn't experienced it directly. Mama K is one of those people.  Her older son played it every night for her younger son, clearing up his speech problem.  That playing the tape alone would have an impact doesn't make sense to most people. 

  I spent half an hour trying to get the C= /k/or /s/ rule into Twin E's head. I believe intelligence is taught, and if there is a problem, most can be overcome with brain plasticity. Twin E is challenging my cherished belief. There is no clear sign of intelligence on any plane. It's very frustrating, but I'm determined to figure it out. 

  I used the box method I used with fourth grade LG. I located the two categories in space. One box was labeled C, e, i, and y, and the other as c, a, o, u, or a consonant.  Then I wrote CA and asked her which box this combination belonged to, the first or second? Then I asked her if the C would be pronounced as an /s/ or a /k/. She got better with the drill.  The problem feels more like one of attention than intelligence. But how do I get her to attend? Her attention is not 'sharp'; it's diffused, 'dull,'  like a dull blade. How much of intelligence is nothing more than attention? She's not paying attention to something else. She just has a weak 'grip' on the mental process. 

   Once, people who were deaf or blind were considered stupid. No one thinks that anymore. In my youth, anyone who had trouble reading was considered a mentally impaired retard. That is no longer true. I look forward to the day when some of the learning problems my students experience will also be considered a problem to be overcome or compensated for, not a severe handicap.

   Then, I worked with Twin A. She reads fine until she hits a word she doesn't know. Then she resorts to wild guessing. Like LG,  she doesn't switch to conscious decoding. No matter how often I go over the procedure with her for decoding unfamiliar words, I must start from scratch each time.  Identify the vowel letters, identify which of the vowel letters makes a sound;  choose a logical possible sound for that vowel letter, using specific phonics rules when possible; blend the vowel sound with a following consonant, if there is one; finally, blend the letters in front of the target vowel letter. When she goes through the procedure, she gets it every time. It's very frustrating. So far, I've kept my cool reasonably well. But the frustration is seeping into my voice.