Cassie’s Story

Around 10:30pm last night Cassie was industrially working away on a piece of paper writing or drawing something. Every once in a while she would ask me if something spelled something, just to verify she was getting it right.

“Does T-H-E spell the?” for example. Which she knows perfectly well it does. She just lacks confidence sometimes. So anyway, the only word she really needed help with was Dance (with a “c” not an “s” her brother corrected her). And the word “night”, which I just casually recite to her and explain that “igh” makes the long “i” sound sometimes. She always thinks it’s funny when there are weird combinations of letters to make certain sounds in words.

Her final paper read:

THE CAT AND ME

THE CATS DANCE ALL NIGHT WITH ME

IM A CAT WITH A KITIN

She also started one about the Dog and Me. We shall have to wait and see just what the dog will do with her.

Cassie is 7 and my late bloomer when it comes to reading. All the rest of my children learned to read by the time they were 6, some earlier (Kevin at 3 and Stephanie at 5). But Cassie enjoys being read to and I highly suspect she wants to hold onto that privilege just a little longer. Even though I have explained that I will always enjoy reading to her.

I’m not worried though. Her comprehension and understanding of plot subtleties in books and movies prove to me that reading is only one aspect of language arts. She can sit and watch an episode of Lost and remember 2 seasons back what the reference is. I have to ask her to explain situations to me sometimes on these shows!

What I love the most about this little story writing episode is the spontaneity of it and the self directed learning that takes place. It really helps the child retain what they are learning when it is child directed learning.  Without a doubt I know she now knows how to spell “night” and I expect to see it appear in future daily writing activities.

The New Reading Method

I've been reading John Holt's book "Teach Your Own". He quotes from the Chicago Tribune (1977) a story about the new reading program that has been 10 years in the making. "A program that may be the pacesetter for the nation...". It involved 500 elements or skills that children needed to learn in order to learn to read. They whittled that down to 273. John Holt was incredulous about this new method, and describes his own learning to read process:

 

 "When I taught myself to read, I didn't learn 500 skills, or even 273; I looked at printed words, on signs, in books, wherever I might see them, and puzzled them out, because I wanted to know what they said.  Each one I learned made it easier for me to figure out the next." (page 17, Teach Your Own)

This was essentially how my first son taught himself to read before the age of 3. He asked questions about letters, asked me what sounds they made, read signs at the grocery store, made me read the same books over and over as he puzzled out the words. 

Further in John's book he talks about other reading programs and classroom situations where children were not allowed to read certain books because they weren't at that level yet. He further describes a substitute teacher's success at implementing a silent reading program to a class and having children suddenly interested in reading....because they were allowed to read a book! What a concept!! 

Can you imagine a class situation where a child enters a class and is told "No Johnny, I'm sorry you can't read that book. It's on the 3rd grade reading list and you are only in 1st grade." In a sense this is what happened to my son. He entered Kindergarten already reading and writing these wonderful stories. His spelling and penmanship were atrocious, but I figured that was what school could teach him. His teachers had other ideas. The poor boy was bored to death being forced to stay with the class, do phonics worksheets, and read simple sentences like "the cat sat on the mat". When I asked for him to be moved up a grade I was told he was "socially immature" and therefore not ready for the 1st grade. Because he was a loner and chose not to interact with a classroom of "babies" as he put it. Thank goodness I learned about homeschooling. Today that socially immature child has just been promoted to Senior Airman in the US Air Force, a full 6 months ahead of the normal schedule for such promotions. 

From the website:http://usmilitary.about.com/od/airforce/l/blafrank.htm

here is a description of what that entails:

Senior Airmen (SrA) wear a chevron of three stripes with a silver star in the center. Pay grade is E-4. Personnel serving as SrA are in a transition period from journeyman/worker to NCO. They must develop supervisory and leadership skills through PME (Professional Military Education) and individual study. All SrA should conduct themselves in a manner commensurate with established standards, thereby asserting a positive influence on other airmen. The SrA must, at all times, present the image of competence, integrity, and pride. The official term of address is “senior airman” or “airman.”

I'm thinking he rose above that kindergarten label. 

Over the years I have encountered many new reading programs. Currently on Guam there is much debate over D.I. - Direct Instruction - which is a reading method that was originally developed for underprivileged communities. It was brought to Guam several years ago and has been forced upon the public schools as THE learning to read method that will improve test scores for the children of Guam. All that I have seen it do is take away a child's love of reading by making reading a rote exercise. Other subjects like art, music, science, and social studies have been set aside as the DI takes up too many hours of the instructional time in school. So at the cost of the arts and sciences, Guam's children are forced to endure the most boring teaching method around.

In John Holt's book he predicted that in 10 years there would be a new reading program. That was back in 1981 in Chicago. Twenty-seven years later I'm sure there has been more than one new program. What will the next new one be?

 As a homeschooler, I never need to know. I will continue to teach my children to read successfully using the method that works. Reading books, books, and more books. 

Finding the perfect Reading Curriculum

Christmas break was over much too soon. January 2nd we were back at school. I've been negligent in updating this. Must be a sign I've been a diligent teacher or something. Truth is, I just run out of steam by the end of the day, and blogging gets put on the list somewhere after sleeping.

This year's #1 goal is to get my girls to read.

I needed something to use with my K5 girls to start putting together the sounds of the alphabet they learned last year, into actual reading. While browsing my school shelf I once again pulled out the American Language Phonics K book 1 that I had looked at and rejected several times over the past few months. Finally I figured the girls were ready for this.

Lesson one covered the short sounds of "o" and "a" and combined them with L for "la" and "lo" words. Soon "i" and "e" short vowel sounds were added and the consonant blends of "m", "d", and "t" came soon afterwards. Five days into this book, M. looked up from her paper and said "P...a....m....PAM!" and a reader was born!

I really wanted to find an actual book for M. to take home and share with her parents. I spent the better part of art time looking through my books, browsing online in between glue emergencies, and wondering where those easy phonics books were that I knew I had seen somewhere. Just before the end of the day I found them. Frontline Phonics books! I knew that program would come in handy someday.

My problem is that I look at all these "programs" out there and like bits and pieces of them, but have never found one I can embrace completely. I really need to sit down at the end of this year and put together what I used and try to create my own "perfect" curriculum for reading. Or Math. But that is another blog topic!

In the meantime, M. and even A. and my own daughter, Cassie, are slowly but surely putting the pieces of the puzzle together to read. A major milestone in any child's learning life.