I knew that someday invented spelling (or as I like to call it - creative spelling) would show its ugly results to us at some point. But I had hoped that with using phonics to teach my daughter to read the spelling would fall into line as we went along. But as with all my other trusting beliefs with regard to my daughter's education, this too has proven to be naive at best.
And, it is even more clear now just how much the school's endless week by week spelling lists for the kids to memorize have really done nothing to help. It is so bad that there have even been words on the list for which my daughter did not know the meaning. For instance, the following are my favorites: earnest, yearn, mourn, pioneer, and peer. There are also words on the list that are homonyms with other words, but the other words are not on the list for the students to make the comparison and connection. I have to admit in some of the lists, the words do have patterns to them. But I'm not so sure that these patterns are explained in the class, or if the kids are supposed to learn the significance of the patterns by osmosis as it appears they are expected to learn how to read. I do know that at least they did learn about removing the -y from certain words to add -ies as my daughter explained it one night - and I was pleased.
I don't think I have mentioned it before but at parent teacher conferences, my daughter's teacher informed us for the first time of her concern that my daughter can not spell in her writing when she's writing research reports and stories (in 2nd grade). But it was not that she didn't spell correctly per se, but that she did not incorrectly spell words clearly enough that the teacher could figure them out. The teacher showed me some examples and I could see what she meant. Then she asked me to work with my daughter with regard to her writing and spelling, including the following, in addition to the spelling issues: how to properly indent, write alongside the margin and break her writing into paragraphs either).
So, I've been wondering how I am to go about helping my daughter learn to spell correctly. I started trying to work with her a bit by having her say the words to herself and then spell them. But I don't know what words to give her to work on to most efficiently and effectively help my daughter.
So I went to our local parent/teacher supply store looking for some helpful workbooks. But all I could find were books with random type lists like the ones the school uses and books that go through the phonics rules, which are just repetitive our reading efforts and obviously not what we need. Nowhere did I find a book that covered rules like "i before e except after c."
I have also been at a loss because its one thing to work on a problem after you've examined the symptoms and determined the likely cause. It's another when you're dealing with kids being told to spell however they want and trying to figure out what your child is specifically missing that prevents her from spelling things incorrectly but still recognizably (I know that sounds strange, but that's just how it is, unfortunately). If, for instance, I knew that there were certain types of words giving her trouble, I could isolate that problem and work on those types of words with the appropriate tools. But it's really like everything else connected with these haphazard, new ways of teaching. There's no systematic approach but instead, it's just tossed at the kids with the expectation that they will somehow learn by osmosis.
So that brought me to the Internet and I found this wonderful site that goes through the various spelling patterns (which you might call rules) ---
http://www.lewrockwell.com/taylor/taylor79.html
As with phonics, there are exceptions to these spelling rules, but the rules do work often enough to help a person spell many words correctly. I will also be looking for other resources, but this site seems to be a great start!
Somehow I have to figure out how to break these rules up into my own lesson plans and see if I can deliver it to my daughter in an interesting but educational way. I also can't overwhelm here with these all at once, so I have to figure out how to systematically teach it in manageable portions. Why oh why can't the teachers be doing this (as an aside, I'm not blaming it on the teachers - in our school district the district basically takes the discretion away from the teachers and tells them how to teach so it's supposedly uniform between all the elementary schools, so its not entirely the teachers' faults.)???
Btw, I realize that I am writing based upon my own personal experiences with one school and there may be schools out there that are doing a fantastic job. But from what I've been reading on other websites and other blogs, I know I am not alone with these challenges.
I realize this has been a long post...but one more thing.... At the same time that I am going to be working on these spelling issues with my daughter, I am working on reading with my son with phonetics and working on his letter writing (the actual forming of the letters) to get him more confident to write the stories that the school expects him to write after only a little more than 4 months in school, and no idea how really to spell (and he's smart enough to realize he really can't spell).
Tuesday, January 17, 2012
Monday, January 9, 2012
Sir Small and the Dragon Fly
Well, we didn't do the bingo. I had my son read all the words and point out words with 1,2,3 and 4 words. So, we're done and I'm signing the thing.
Tonight we were supposed to read two books. Both very picture reliant, like My cat has ... paws. My cat has .... ears. We did not read those, but instead I had my son pick from a stack of Level 2 readers that I bought at the teacher supply store the other day. He was resistant at first but I announced bed time and then he offered to read with me. I'm too sly...
I purchased the Level 2 books for him because the level 1 books are too short, too easy and too picture based. There does seem to be a big jump though between level 1 and level 2 books. But I figured we could go slow.
My son picked Sir Small and the Dragonfly, which is about a very tiny knight that is smaller than a toothpick. There was some humor in the books and of course a dragonfly, a kidnapping of a princess and the knight saving the day.
My son read about 8 pages with some help from me reminding him of some of the phonics and then rereading the sentence once my son figured out all the words. He did pretty well, so I will continue with this method. Hopefully, I can get him reading confidently without the guessing problem that my daughter still sometimes deals with.
After the 8 pages, I read the rest of the book to him as well as a truck book that I read to him as an extra reward.
Somehow I have to get him to do more writing with me - he is supposed to write short stories for school by the end of the year. Now, he is to draw a picture and then write a sentence about the picture. Sometimes at school he hides under the table instead of writing the story becaue he know he really doesn't know how to write and spell and he's too afraid of being incorrect.
I'm working on the reading now there are so many hours in the day and I work full-time outside the home. So, with working to fill so may gaps in this education, it's like I'm home schooling them part-time and I have to pick and choose. Right now, I'd rather my son can read.
Tonight we were supposed to read two books. Both very picture reliant, like My cat has ... paws. My cat has .... ears. We did not read those, but instead I had my son pick from a stack of Level 2 readers that I bought at the teacher supply store the other day. He was resistant at first but I announced bed time and then he offered to read with me. I'm too sly...
I purchased the Level 2 books for him because the level 1 books are too short, too easy and too picture based. There does seem to be a big jump though between level 1 and level 2 books. But I figured we could go slow.
My son picked Sir Small and the Dragonfly, which is about a very tiny knight that is smaller than a toothpick. There was some humor in the books and of course a dragonfly, a kidnapping of a princess and the knight saving the day.
My son read about 8 pages with some help from me reminding him of some of the phonics and then rereading the sentence once my son figured out all the words. He did pretty well, so I will continue with this method. Hopefully, I can get him reading confidently without the guessing problem that my daughter still sometimes deals with.
After the 8 pages, I read the rest of the book to him as well as a truck book that I read to him as an extra reward.
Somehow I have to get him to do more writing with me - he is supposed to write short stories for school by the end of the year. Now, he is to draw a picture and then write a sentence about the picture. Sometimes at school he hides under the table instead of writing the story becaue he know he really doesn't know how to write and spell and he's too afraid of being incorrect.
I'm working on the reading now there are so many hours in the day and I work full-time outside the home. So, with working to fill so may gaps in this education, it's like I'm home schooling them part-time and I have to pick and choose. Right now, I'd rather my son can read.
Saturday, January 7, 2012
Two Topics Tonight - Crayola Curriculum and New Hampshire
Tonight, my 5 year brought home homework from the teacher with an apology note for giving it over the weekend, and stating that she recognized the hardship and that we could have until Tuesday to complete it. The homework is a bingo game that we have to make out of pages she gave us filled with a list of sight words my son already knows. We have to cut up one of the pages so that we have bingo balls so to speak. The other pages are the bingo boards. I am to sign a note vouching that he read the words on the cards and that he was able to group words with 1, 2, 3 and 4 letters. Since my son already knows these words, the value of reading them to me in a bingo game is really nil. Also, since he can count to 20 already, I'm not sure of the value of rest of this project either.
This homework brings to mind some articles I read awhile back about "Crayola Curriculum," where the kids are supposedly learning about reading and other topics, by cutting, pasting and coloring. When I read those articles, I thought about our 100 days of school projects where the point is to show the kids what 100 items looks like. For one project we glued 100 beads into the shape of a tree, and for another we strung 10 strings of beads and glued them to a piece of paper. Guess who really had to count the beads to make sure they were all there.... It also brings to mind the "Star of the Week" type projects in which I helped my daughter gather together pictures, and special items to put on display for the class to see so that she could feel extra special for a week. What we learned from that one, I'll never know, other than my daughter had fun and felt extra special, and that it took me a long time to figure out how to photoshop her photos on to a piece of paper that we could glue to the construction paper supplied to us.
On top of all this, the teacher has "outsourced" (thanks FedUpMom for calling my attention to this process) the duty for me to teach my son how to write stories when he can't read much yet and really has no idea at all how to spell because he's only had 3 months of kindergarten. And, this was entirely outsourced to me, including lesson plans, as the teacher isn't sending home any homework that I could do with my son to work on these issues - I just get this homework this weekend that makes him do busy work for things he already knows.
Now, New Hampshire....
Below is a link to an article about a law that just passed in New Hampshire that allows a parent to object to any part of his/her child's curriculum at school and to have the school teach differently in a way acceptable to the parent. The parent, of course, gets to bear extra costs for exercising this right. I think this does go a bit too far as it appears to be pretty much unlimited. But when I think about my children being taught how to read in such unhelpful, harmful ways and constantly wishing I could make the school stop, it makes me think about whether I should move to New Hampshire.
Just tonight, I caught my daughter reading the word "slimy" as "simply." Then when I point out that for one thing there's no p in the word "slimy" she sounded out "si mil e." I wanted to pull my hair out - but I went through it with her and actually wrote out what she was saying and showed her how it can't be right. And, again I reminded her that she needs to look at the letters and in order and that reading a word incorrectly has consequences. What if she was reading her science book about the slimy frog and through it was a simile frog? When she looked closely at the word and was careful, she got it, including the additional, extra words I made her read to be sure. But the fact that I had to remind her once again, really goes to show what the school has done to her with their reading teaching methods involving guessing at unfamiliar words and memorizing as many others as possible...again, New Hampshire????
http://www.huffingtonpost.com/2012/01/04/new-hampshire-legislature-curriculum-objection-law_n_1184476.html
This homework brings to mind some articles I read awhile back about "Crayola Curriculum," where the kids are supposedly learning about reading and other topics, by cutting, pasting and coloring. When I read those articles, I thought about our 100 days of school projects where the point is to show the kids what 100 items looks like. For one project we glued 100 beads into the shape of a tree, and for another we strung 10 strings of beads and glued them to a piece of paper. Guess who really had to count the beads to make sure they were all there.... It also brings to mind the "Star of the Week" type projects in which I helped my daughter gather together pictures, and special items to put on display for the class to see so that she could feel extra special for a week. What we learned from that one, I'll never know, other than my daughter had fun and felt extra special, and that it took me a long time to figure out how to photoshop her photos on to a piece of paper that we could glue to the construction paper supplied to us.
On top of all this, the teacher has "outsourced" (thanks FedUpMom for calling my attention to this process) the duty for me to teach my son how to write stories when he can't read much yet and really has no idea at all how to spell because he's only had 3 months of kindergarten. And, this was entirely outsourced to me, including lesson plans, as the teacher isn't sending home any homework that I could do with my son to work on these issues - I just get this homework this weekend that makes him do busy work for things he already knows.
Now, New Hampshire....
Below is a link to an article about a law that just passed in New Hampshire that allows a parent to object to any part of his/her child's curriculum at school and to have the school teach differently in a way acceptable to the parent. The parent, of course, gets to bear extra costs for exercising this right. I think this does go a bit too far as it appears to be pretty much unlimited. But when I think about my children being taught how to read in such unhelpful, harmful ways and constantly wishing I could make the school stop, it makes me think about whether I should move to New Hampshire.
Just tonight, I caught my daughter reading the word "slimy" as "simply." Then when I point out that for one thing there's no p in the word "slimy" she sounded out "si mil e." I wanted to pull my hair out - but I went through it with her and actually wrote out what she was saying and showed her how it can't be right. And, again I reminded her that she needs to look at the letters and in order and that reading a word incorrectly has consequences. What if she was reading her science book about the slimy frog and through it was a simile frog? When she looked closely at the word and was careful, she got it, including the additional, extra words I made her read to be sure. But the fact that I had to remind her once again, really goes to show what the school has done to her with their reading teaching methods involving guessing at unfamiliar words and memorizing as many others as possible...again, New Hampshire????
http://www.huffingtonpost.com/2012/01/04/new-hampshire-legislature-curriculum-objection-law_n_1184476.html
Thursday, January 5, 2012
Long Overdue Update - There's two of them now
Hi all. This is definitely a long overdue update.
I had these grandiose ideas for educational progress over the summer. I would have my almost 5 year old reading before he went to kindergarten and started to experience the whole language method, which the school would claim is balanced with some phonics. I would have also had my son writing all of his letters. For my daughter, 7, she would have memorized all of her addition and subtraction facts as well as further refining her reading skills.
We didn't accomplish all of those grand plans because we had some fun for the summer - swimming, biking and other activities. But I did continue reading with my daughter and I did get my son started with his phonics. My son, however, did not want to learn to write his letters and I didn't get as far as I wanted with the phonics.
I'm going to cut to the chase and just tell you where we are now. My daughter is reading very well. She is well above grade level and she is being much more careful with her reading, although she has some days. But our new problems are that the school suddenly does want them to memorize their addition facts and that my daughter apparently has some terrible issues with spelling when she's writing her own stories.
As for the math, the school gives a once a week 60 second test with 30 math problems. The kids have to pass 4 of these tests before the end of the school year. This was sprung on us with no guidance on how best to approach this new system. Further, from what I can glean from my daughter, there is no studying of these math facts during the school day. It's only the tests. So, we're supposed to do all of this studying at home. I don't mind helping her study at home and I absolutely agree that these math facts have to be memorized for future math success, but why aren't they also studying them at school? After home studying nad my daughter still not passing, I have finally scanned a copy of the test and have given my daughter the test multiple times, starting with 180 seconds and widdling the time limit down towards the 60 seconds. Tomorrow she might come close to passing the first one, and if not tomorrow, she may just pass next week.
As for the spelling, there are spelling tests through the year. But there seems to be no rhyme or reason for the choice of the particular words on the test. Some of the words are words that my daughter doesn't know the meaning of until I explain it to her. It just also seems like phonics has no place in studying spelling. So after focusing so much on reading and hoping the spelling would come into line, it just didn't happen. The teacher first presented this problem to me at parent-teacher conferences right before Christmas, and pretty much dropped this in my lap with a comment about some other teacher is trying to help my daughter. I'm currently trying to figure out how to address this at home. One thing I'm finding that seems to help is to have my daughter say the word she wants to spell herself, rather than me continuing to repeat it, and to have her attempt and then trying to read what she writes.
And, now my son... He can use his basic phonics to read, but he's getting exposed to the guess-it strategies. And, I have to remind him to look at the words and not the pictures. I also remind him that the picture doesn't always point him to the right word. I think I'm going to get set 3 of the Bob books and see if I can continue him in his phonics with books not sent home from the school, which often contain words he can't sound out easily because they don't follow the rules. Honestly, you should see some of the ridiculous words in some of these books that are really inappropriate to expert a kindergarten student to read.
At parent-teacher conferences, I was alerted to the teacher's concern that my son won't be able to write stories this year because he won't attempt to write words. He claims he can't spell - and he's right. But the teacher wants him to try to guess the words and write each word however it sounds. He's a little perfectionist and he's afraid of being wrong. It seems to me almost like we're throwing our 5 year old into immersion spelling, reading and writing without anything in the way of fundamental instruction other than the focus on what the word starts with. I just can't imagine sending him into an immersion weekend of a foreign language, so how is this any better? So, on top of his regular homework, I have been instructed to help him write stories at home.
I love my kids and I feel appropriately responsible for making sure they have the best education possible. I will, thus, invest the time needed to make sure whatever holes are occuring in their education are filled. But, honestly, sometimes I feel like I should prepare a bill for the school itemizing my time. I work full-time outside the home and it's so difficult finding all the time to do my household duties, educate my kids, have fun with my family and having some amount of rest. What are they really doing during the school day????? Do, I have to pay for private tutors???
I had these grandiose ideas for educational progress over the summer. I would have my almost 5 year old reading before he went to kindergarten and started to experience the whole language method, which the school would claim is balanced with some phonics. I would have also had my son writing all of his letters. For my daughter, 7, she would have memorized all of her addition and subtraction facts as well as further refining her reading skills.
We didn't accomplish all of those grand plans because we had some fun for the summer - swimming, biking and other activities. But I did continue reading with my daughter and I did get my son started with his phonics. My son, however, did not want to learn to write his letters and I didn't get as far as I wanted with the phonics.
I'm going to cut to the chase and just tell you where we are now. My daughter is reading very well. She is well above grade level and she is being much more careful with her reading, although she has some days. But our new problems are that the school suddenly does want them to memorize their addition facts and that my daughter apparently has some terrible issues with spelling when she's writing her own stories.
As for the math, the school gives a once a week 60 second test with 30 math problems. The kids have to pass 4 of these tests before the end of the school year. This was sprung on us with no guidance on how best to approach this new system. Further, from what I can glean from my daughter, there is no studying of these math facts during the school day. It's only the tests. So, we're supposed to do all of this studying at home. I don't mind helping her study at home and I absolutely agree that these math facts have to be memorized for future math success, but why aren't they also studying them at school? After home studying nad my daughter still not passing, I have finally scanned a copy of the test and have given my daughter the test multiple times, starting with 180 seconds and widdling the time limit down towards the 60 seconds. Tomorrow she might come close to passing the first one, and if not tomorrow, she may just pass next week.
As for the spelling, there are spelling tests through the year. But there seems to be no rhyme or reason for the choice of the particular words on the test. Some of the words are words that my daughter doesn't know the meaning of until I explain it to her. It just also seems like phonics has no place in studying spelling. So after focusing so much on reading and hoping the spelling would come into line, it just didn't happen. The teacher first presented this problem to me at parent-teacher conferences right before Christmas, and pretty much dropped this in my lap with a comment about some other teacher is trying to help my daughter. I'm currently trying to figure out how to address this at home. One thing I'm finding that seems to help is to have my daughter say the word she wants to spell herself, rather than me continuing to repeat it, and to have her attempt and then trying to read what she writes.
And, now my son... He can use his basic phonics to read, but he's getting exposed to the guess-it strategies. And, I have to remind him to look at the words and not the pictures. I also remind him that the picture doesn't always point him to the right word. I think I'm going to get set 3 of the Bob books and see if I can continue him in his phonics with books not sent home from the school, which often contain words he can't sound out easily because they don't follow the rules. Honestly, you should see some of the ridiculous words in some of these books that are really inappropriate to expert a kindergarten student to read.
At parent-teacher conferences, I was alerted to the teacher's concern that my son won't be able to write stories this year because he won't attempt to write words. He claims he can't spell - and he's right. But the teacher wants him to try to guess the words and write each word however it sounds. He's a little perfectionist and he's afraid of being wrong. It seems to me almost like we're throwing our 5 year old into immersion spelling, reading and writing without anything in the way of fundamental instruction other than the focus on what the word starts with. I just can't imagine sending him into an immersion weekend of a foreign language, so how is this any better? So, on top of his regular homework, I have been instructed to help him write stories at home.
I love my kids and I feel appropriately responsible for making sure they have the best education possible. I will, thus, invest the time needed to make sure whatever holes are occuring in their education are filled. But, honestly, sometimes I feel like I should prepare a bill for the school itemizing my time. I work full-time outside the home and it's so difficult finding all the time to do my household duties, educate my kids, have fun with my family and having some amount of rest. What are they really doing during the school day????? Do, I have to pay for private tutors???
Tuesday, May 31, 2011
School is Almost Out!
Thankfully, school is almost out. My daughter is reading above first grade level, according to the report card in April, and has successful skills for decoding unfamiliar words according to the teacher's comments. But what surprises me is that the homework coming home for the last month or so has concerned blends such as st, sw, sl, and similar combinations. I'm really not sure why blends which seem so fundamental to me would be addressed so late in the year.
We have not been reading every single night as the sports season has become more intense for us - 3 nights a week and Saturdays between the sports for the two kids. And, when we sat down to read a challenging chapter book tonight I caught my daughter guessing again. I had to make her once again focus on the letters in the words. I also told her that I realize they are letting her guess at school, but that her guesses are most of the time wrong when sounding out gets it right most of the time. And, I told her that i am telling her she is wrong because I love her and I want to help her and I know she can do it. I also wouldn't let her give up either and I cut the guessing off. Cutting her off wasn't easy because the guesses were coming at 4-5 guesses in seconds. She even asked me one time if she could go back and read the rest of the sentence and figure out the word that way (context clues)and I told her no and helped her sound the word out. If I wasn't there to track her reading accuracy, she would have just gone on thinking the words were right.
This really just lets me know that I'm not going to be able to let my guard down on this guessing. It is really going to take a long time to get rid of - they've let her use the easy way out which is wrong. What kid is going to rise to the challenge if they aren't given a chance but instead are cut off at the knees because accuracy has no role. She's so incredibly capable of more and it really burns me that the school gave her this practically handicapping crutch.
I'm just so thankful that school is almost out. Perhaps I can drill this out of her before the beginning of the next school year.
My next goals are to work on prefixes and suffixes. I think I might also work on spelling because I've noticed that she is doing really well at the spelling and I think her process of thinking out how to spell helps her reading.
As for my son, who is starting kindergarten this fall, I'm not sure what to do. His interest in working with me is sporadic and is limited when he is interested. If I can show him a video he's more likely to pay attention than he would to me. In the worst case scenario, I will working with him on each sight word as it comes out and show him how to sound it out - except the few that are not really phonics based, and I mean FEW.
We have not been reading every single night as the sports season has become more intense for us - 3 nights a week and Saturdays between the sports for the two kids. And, when we sat down to read a challenging chapter book tonight I caught my daughter guessing again. I had to make her once again focus on the letters in the words. I also told her that I realize they are letting her guess at school, but that her guesses are most of the time wrong when sounding out gets it right most of the time. And, I told her that i am telling her she is wrong because I love her and I want to help her and I know she can do it. I also wouldn't let her give up either and I cut the guessing off. Cutting her off wasn't easy because the guesses were coming at 4-5 guesses in seconds. She even asked me one time if she could go back and read the rest of the sentence and figure out the word that way (context clues)and I told her no and helped her sound the word out. If I wasn't there to track her reading accuracy, she would have just gone on thinking the words were right.
This really just lets me know that I'm not going to be able to let my guard down on this guessing. It is really going to take a long time to get rid of - they've let her use the easy way out which is wrong. What kid is going to rise to the challenge if they aren't given a chance but instead are cut off at the knees because accuracy has no role. She's so incredibly capable of more and it really burns me that the school gave her this practically handicapping crutch.
I'm just so thankful that school is almost out. Perhaps I can drill this out of her before the beginning of the next school year.
My next goals are to work on prefixes and suffixes. I think I might also work on spelling because I've noticed that she is doing really well at the spelling and I think her process of thinking out how to spell helps her reading.
As for my son, who is starting kindergarten this fall, I'm not sure what to do. His interest in working with me is sporadic and is limited when he is interested. If I can show him a video he's more likely to pay attention than he would to me. In the worst case scenario, I will working with him on each sight word as it comes out and show him how to sound it out - except the few that are not really phonics based, and I mean FEW.
Saturday, April 2, 2011
Bogus Self-Esteem
Our gifted-education advocates group for our school district had a national speaker in today to speak about inspiring creative and critical thinking in our children. I did not necessarily agree with everything, but there were a quite a few take-aways from the presentation.
The one that resonated with me the most was his view that there seems to be this movement lately to establish a "bogus self-esteem." According to our speaker, the teachers are afraid to tell the students they are wrong because that might damage a student's self-esteem. He believed this to be wrong because it does not prepare a child for the challenges to come later in life, and that such an invalid view does little to challenge a child to reach his or her potential. He also stated that he believed this lead to sloppiness and bad habits.
I posed "invented spelling" (which I sometimes mistakenly call "creative spelling) as an example of the fear of telling a child he or she is wrong. I mentioned how my daughter actually, to my surprise, did not realize that when she knew how to spell a word correctly she should do so, rather than write however she wanted.
The response I got was that my question involved two issues. The first was about the extent to which I should be taking over some or all of my daughter's education for any area that I felt was not being adequately addressed, and the answer to that was yes - every time. The other issue was that there had been a problem with transitioning for my daughter between invented spelling and starting to use correct spelling.
As to the first part of the answer, it only reaffirmed what I am coming to believe; that I will be teaching my children quite extensively through out their school years. As to the second, the transition issue was that either no one had told my daughter that when she knew how to spell a word correctly that she should do so or she did not hear or did not listen.
Another take away was his view that children need to be trained to pay attention and to focus. I wish I had raised the question of how not telling the children they are wrong; and the use of invented spelling, and whole language/balanced literacy affects a child's focus and attention to detail. As you know from reading my blog, I believe these methods do create such problems, and do instill bad habits.
And yet another take away was the speakers view that the "drill and kill" theory that keeps some teachers from having their kids memorize math facts so that these are known by rote is a fallacy. I agree with this and will be doing my drill and learn with my daughter over the summer. To me this is the same fallacy that keeps teachers from teaching phonics - because the kids might get bored.
One last thing of note --- when I asked my invented spelling question, I heard a gasp from the other side of the room. I did not see the source, but it came from the direction of a person who I suspected to be a teacher, based upon a question she had asked. I could be wrong on both counts, though.
The one that resonated with me the most was his view that there seems to be this movement lately to establish a "bogus self-esteem." According to our speaker, the teachers are afraid to tell the students they are wrong because that might damage a student's self-esteem. He believed this to be wrong because it does not prepare a child for the challenges to come later in life, and that such an invalid view does little to challenge a child to reach his or her potential. He also stated that he believed this lead to sloppiness and bad habits.
I posed "invented spelling" (which I sometimes mistakenly call "creative spelling) as an example of the fear of telling a child he or she is wrong. I mentioned how my daughter actually, to my surprise, did not realize that when she knew how to spell a word correctly she should do so, rather than write however she wanted.
The response I got was that my question involved two issues. The first was about the extent to which I should be taking over some or all of my daughter's education for any area that I felt was not being adequately addressed, and the answer to that was yes - every time. The other issue was that there had been a problem with transitioning for my daughter between invented spelling and starting to use correct spelling.
As to the first part of the answer, it only reaffirmed what I am coming to believe; that I will be teaching my children quite extensively through out their school years. As to the second, the transition issue was that either no one had told my daughter that when she knew how to spell a word correctly that she should do so or she did not hear or did not listen.
Another take away was his view that children need to be trained to pay attention and to focus. I wish I had raised the question of how not telling the children they are wrong; and the use of invented spelling, and whole language/balanced literacy affects a child's focus and attention to detail. As you know from reading my blog, I believe these methods do create such problems, and do instill bad habits.
And yet another take away was the speakers view that the "drill and kill" theory that keeps some teachers from having their kids memorize math facts so that these are known by rote is a fallacy. I agree with this and will be doing my drill and learn with my daughter over the summer. To me this is the same fallacy that keeps teachers from teaching phonics - because the kids might get bored.
One last thing of note --- when I asked my invented spelling question, I heard a gasp from the other side of the room. I did not see the source, but it came from the direction of a person who I suspected to be a teacher, based upon a question she had asked. I could be wrong on both counts, though.
Vocabulary Issue
My daughter is doing well with her sounding out. Sometimes, she does try to guess still, but when I ask her to figure out the sounds she does sound out the words. I have discovered though that with the harder level books, there are expressions and vocabulary with which she is not familiar. The vocabulary issues become evident to me when I can see that she is saying the right sounds but still can't seem to piece the word together. I have been wondering as a result if I should get some books for vocabulary building, to catch her vocabulary up with her reading level. The other option is to let this happen more naturally and keep explaining the words, helping her to build her vocabulary as we read. It is only the occasional word, though. One example that I recall was "parental" as in "parental permission." Does anyone have any thoughts on this? I don't want to push her too hard, but I do want to help her grow by appropriately challenging her.
Btw, the expressions to which I referred above are actually "idioms." I did a search on idioms and went through a few with my daughter, such as letting the cat of the bag, and in the doghouse. She knew the one about something smelling fishy, so that was a good example for her.
Also, it is ironic to me that the school is sending my daughter home with books like Biscuit Goes to School, which are so incredibly easy for my daughter that they seem hardly worth it. I wonder how much of it is teacher assigned, though, versus the teacher letting her pick her own books. At home we have been working on the Diary of Wimpy Kids, which is a 5th grade level. We also read, Pinkalicious, Purplelicious, Silverlicious, and some other books, which are 2nd grade level and higher.
Btw, the expressions to which I referred above are actually "idioms." I did a search on idioms and went through a few with my daughter, such as letting the cat of the bag, and in the doghouse. She knew the one about something smelling fishy, so that was a good example for her.
Also, it is ironic to me that the school is sending my daughter home with books like Biscuit Goes to School, which are so incredibly easy for my daughter that they seem hardly worth it. I wonder how much of it is teacher assigned, though, versus the teacher letting her pick her own books. At home we have been working on the Diary of Wimpy Kids, which is a 5th grade level. We also read, Pinkalicious, Purplelicious, Silverlicious, and some other books, which are 2nd grade level and higher.
Saturday, March 19, 2011
The Next Step: Fluency
I did not post back then, but in January, we received a new set of instructions from the school explaining how we should work on fluency.
The instructions explain how fluency means using the appropriate pitch, pace, phrasing and expression. The instructions explain that this kind of fluency "aids comprehension."
The sheet explains 5 different methods parents can use at home to increase reading fluency.
1. Echo reading: You read one line and the child reads the same line. Increase the number of lines at a time to 2 and so on. This should be done at least once a week.
2. Choral reading: You and your child read the same text aloud together. Choral reading should be done at least twice a week.
3. Partner reading. You read a sentence and your child read the next and so on. When the child's reading improves, you read a page and your child reads the next page and so on. This should be done at least once a week.
4. Repeated reading. Read the same book or story more than once in the same week.
As you can guess, I was busy actually teaching reading, so I chucked these instructions to the side. Frankly, in my opinion, fluency comes with actually knowing how to read. And, some of these instructions seemed to me as if they were actually a deceptive way to disguise that the books have gone beyond the child's memorized words. After all, if the parents are reading the text first, that tells the child what the words are so that the child doesn't have to figure them out. That's even so with the choral reading, because I would bet that some children will be slightly behind the parent - like when you're singing a song you don't know the words to.
And, I just love that there was an assessment at the bottom giving guidance on determining the fluency of a child's reading. For example -
Needs work - Reading is word by word, slow, and choppy, with some words missed and not enough expression to show an understanding of the text.
Finally, I really don't care if my daughter can read the three little pigs and use the wolf's voice for the wolf. I'd rather that she can actually read the words.
The instructions explain how fluency means using the appropriate pitch, pace, phrasing and expression. The instructions explain that this kind of fluency "aids comprehension."
The sheet explains 5 different methods parents can use at home to increase reading fluency.
1. Echo reading: You read one line and the child reads the same line. Increase the number of lines at a time to 2 and so on. This should be done at least once a week.
2. Choral reading: You and your child read the same text aloud together. Choral reading should be done at least twice a week.
3. Partner reading. You read a sentence and your child read the next and so on. When the child's reading improves, you read a page and your child reads the next page and so on. This should be done at least once a week.
4. Repeated reading. Read the same book or story more than once in the same week.
As you can guess, I was busy actually teaching reading, so I chucked these instructions to the side. Frankly, in my opinion, fluency comes with actually knowing how to read. And, some of these instructions seemed to me as if they were actually a deceptive way to disguise that the books have gone beyond the child's memorized words. After all, if the parents are reading the text first, that tells the child what the words are so that the child doesn't have to figure them out. That's even so with the choral reading, because I would bet that some children will be slightly behind the parent - like when you're singing a song you don't know the words to.
And, I just love that there was an assessment at the bottom giving guidance on determining the fluency of a child's reading. For example -
Needs work - Reading is word by word, slow, and choppy, with some words missed and not enough expression to show an understanding of the text.
Finally, I really don't care if my daughter can read the three little pigs and use the wolf's voice for the wolf. I'd rather that she can actually read the words.
Rhyming
I remember from my daughter's early first grade days that there was a big focus on rhyming. But at the time I wondered why this was so important in first grade. As far as I was concerned, rhyming is relevant to writing rhyming poetry. It seemed unnecessary for first grade.
I have since read that rhyming is considered by some to be helpful for children learning how to read. But to me it seems like reading should come first and then rhyming. For instance, how does a child look at the words "red" and "said" and know that they rhyme unless the child can actually read the words. Also, although words like "bed" and "red" will probably appear to a child to rhyme, even if a child can't read the words, how does this help a child to actually read these words. I realize that the thought is that if the child knows the word "red" but not the word "bed", that through rhyming the child should know the word "bed." But this does not help children at all when the sounds are the same but the spellings are vastly different.
My daughter, for instance, brought home this terrible rhyming assignment in the first month or so that had words my daughter could not read at all and she was supposed to be able to pick out the rhyming words. It was the most horrendous and frustrating assignment for my daughter all year. And, she didn't learn anything from it, nor would I have expected her to.
I have since read that rhyming is considered by some to be helpful for children learning how to read. But to me it seems like reading should come first and then rhyming. For instance, how does a child look at the words "red" and "said" and know that they rhyme unless the child can actually read the words. Also, although words like "bed" and "red" will probably appear to a child to rhyme, even if a child can't read the words, how does this help a child to actually read these words. I realize that the thought is that if the child knows the word "red" but not the word "bed", that through rhyming the child should know the word "bed." But this does not help children at all when the sounds are the same but the spellings are vastly different.
My daughter, for instance, brought home this terrible rhyming assignment in the first month or so that had words my daughter could not read at all and she was supposed to be able to pick out the rhyming words. It was the most horrendous and frustrating assignment for my daughter all year. And, she didn't learn anything from it, nor would I have expected her to.
Friday, March 11, 2011
We Teach Phonics
I recently asked my daughter's school district what the district policy is on the teaching of phonics and here's what I received in response:
As recommended by the district, state and current evidenced-based research on best practices, the first grade teachers at *** use a balanced literacy approach that includes components of alphabetics, vocabulary, and sight words. Students are immersed in alphabetics daily which includes both phonemic awareness and phonics (sound isolation, identity, categorization, blending, segmentation, phonemic deletion, and onset-rime). Systematic strategies are taught to teach students how to isolate and manipulate phonemes in words (beginning, middle, and end). Vocabulary instruction is taught through three components: oral, listening and speaking, within context at students’ independent and instructional level. Research informs us that vocabulary is best learned when taught explicitly, when students are engaged in class discussion and conversation, when read aloud to, and when they read on their own. Sight word recognition is taught through systematic instruction based upon evidence that quick and effortless recognition of words is necessary for readers to read fluently. In addition, in acknowledgment of research that indicates alphabet and phonemic awareness are the two best indicators of how well children will learn to read, the **** First Grade teachers work hard to provide individualized instruction through scheduled word work, Intervention Block, Guided Reading, Reader's Workshop and Writer's Workshop.
I see a lot of phonemic awareness, but where is the phonics? What is described as phonics parenthetically is virtually only a list of phonemic awareness topics.
As recommended by the district, state and current evidenced-based research on best practices, the first grade teachers at *** use a balanced literacy approach that includes components of alphabetics, vocabulary, and sight words. Students are immersed in alphabetics daily which includes both phonemic awareness and phonics (sound isolation, identity, categorization, blending, segmentation, phonemic deletion, and onset-rime). Systematic strategies are taught to teach students how to isolate and manipulate phonemes in words (beginning, middle, and end). Vocabulary instruction is taught through three components: oral, listening and speaking, within context at students’ independent and instructional level. Research informs us that vocabulary is best learned when taught explicitly, when students are engaged in class discussion and conversation, when read aloud to, and when they read on their own. Sight word recognition is taught through systematic instruction based upon evidence that quick and effortless recognition of words is necessary for readers to read fluently. In addition, in acknowledgment of research that indicates alphabet and phonemic awareness are the two best indicators of how well children will learn to read, the **** First Grade teachers work hard to provide individualized instruction through scheduled word work, Intervention Block, Guided Reading, Reader's Workshop and Writer's Workshop.
I see a lot of phonemic awareness, but where is the phonics? What is described as phonics parenthetically is virtually only a list of phonemic awareness topics.
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