The Twelve Days of Christmas

On the first day of Christmas my tutor gave to me a language formed all willy-nilly.

On the second of Christmas my tutor gave to me two sounds of c, and a language formed all willy-nilly.

On the third day of Christmas my tutor gave to me three sounds of -ed, etc.

On the fourth day of Christmas my tutor gave to me the f,s,l, and z rule, etc.

On the fifth day of Christmas my tutor gave to me five—short—vowel—sounds etc.

On the sixth day of Christmas my tutor gave to me six syllable types, etc.

On the seventh day of Christmas my tutor gave to me seven r blends, etc.

On the eighth day of Christmas my tutor gave to me eight ways to spell long a, etc.

On the ninth day of Christmas my tutor gave to me a reminder to drop the e in ninth, etc.

On the tenth day of Christmas my tutor gave to me ten dictation toys with digraphs, etc,

On the eleventh day of Christmas my tutor gave to me the Norman Invasion's affect on English in the 11th century, etc.

On the twelfth day of Christmas my tutor gave to me twelve Wilson books, etc, and a language not quite so willy-nilly.

Losing a student

I found out Wednesday that one of my students is moving after Christmas and will not return to his school. And so next Friday, I'll say goodbye to my little guy who works for Legos. My goal is always to get the student to the point where he or she no longer needs me, and when this happens, it's cause for celebration. But this child struggles so and he has only mastered a few consonants and two short vowels. He's leaving a private school for a public school, which means a private tutor won't be allowed in to help. He will easily qualify for an IEP, but that process is so long and time-consuming, and there is no guarantee that there will be any continuity of instruction. It seems every time a child goes to a new school, they want to try all the things that didn't work in the old school. I feel sad that he is leaving, but I understand.

It's a little harder when I don't understand. Last year I had a young girl who was a total nonreader when we began. She soaked up the information I gave her with great enthusiasm and learned quickly. In a few short months she progressed at least two years. The parents seemed pleased, but then stopped the tutoring cordially but abruptly with no explanation.

Then there are the times that I am the one who ends the tutoring relationship. Occasionally it's because I am not the right tutor for the child; perhaps he needs organizational guidance and homework help rather than reading. Perhaps she needs more in-depth composition work than I do. I always explain that it's MY lack of knowledge and try to leave the parents with one or two good names that might be more appropriate. Parents pay a lot of money and I want them to get their money's worth.

There have been a few times in the past years that I ended tutoring for other reasons. Once I got caught up in an ugly custody dispute and the writing the student did for me was subpoenaed. I have stopped at least twice because the parents regularly forgot tutoring and didn't show. Once I had a parent tell me they couldn't pay me because, if they did, there might not be enough for their skiing vacation to Vail. The child that haunts me though is one from many years ago. At first glance his mom was so interested and involved. But then I realized she called every teacher every night, and I spent unpaid hours on the phone with her. If the child expressed an interest in something, the mother would sign both of them up for lessons, buy books, rent movies. This middle school child was denied the chance to have any interests of his own and I watched him withdraw more and more, from me, his friends, and his teachers. It wasn't abuse under the law so I couldn't report it. But it was abuse nonetheless, and I could no longer be a part of it.

December's rant

You know what really annoys me? People who can't keep their its straight. I'm not talking about kids writing a first draft or people scribbling a quick note. I'm talking about people with editors or public relations staff, people who should know better. And that includes teachers, by the way. Take this ad that's been flashing across my computer screen for the last several days: Dell's New Adamo PC - www.AdamoByDell.com - In a Class of It's Own. Fast, Thin & Light w/Intel Technology. If they don't do details, do I really want one of their computers? I'll stick with my Mac, thank you.

Years ago I taught a community college class made up of people who had worked all day in a factory before they drove over mountain roads to take my basic grammar class as part of earning their GED. One older woman heaved a great sigh one evening and said, "I ain't NEVER going to get my hits straight!" But she did, though I'm not sure she ever understood what I meant about ain't.

Surely if this uneducated mountain woman can get her "hits" straight, Dell can as well. Possessive pronouns don't have apostrophes. It's is a contraction for it is. It's not that hard.

. . . and MY philosophy you ask?

I was on my second day of working on the preceding article about school philosophies. I had hogged the computer and the phone rang regularly with people returning my phone calls. My elder child finally asked me to articulate my teaching philosophy since I was badgering everyone else about theirs. Luckily I was ready.

I believe that every child is precious and deserves to learn in the best possible way for him or her. The details include respect, finding joy, reducing anxiety, and feeding the right wolf (see November's post for the wolf story).

What's our philosophy?

I'm on a training subcommittee for SNAC, the Special Needs Advisory Council, for Chapel Hill/Carrboro City Schools. We spent almost two hours talking about the myriad trainings, both state or federally mandated as well as ones that dealt with methodology, and how one goes about evaluating whether they are effective or not. We were floundering. And though the other committee members did not share my certainty on the matter, I felt strongly that it's impossible to evaluate programs if one does not know what the philosophy of the school system is.

I've heard the quote that Christianity (my tradition) can be distilled into one sentence: Love the Lord your God with all your heart, all your soul, and all your mind, and love your neighbor as yourself. All the rest is details. The details are often what gets us into trouble, what with fighting over gay marriage, ordaining women, or birth control. But I think all Christian faiths would agree with Jesus when he said this is the first law and commandment. So I wandered around the rest of the day asking questions about school philosophies, both public and private, looking for the statement that summed us up when the details are stripped away.

Because I work in so many different schools and see how they are different, this is something that is front and center to me. Two private schools, Carolina Friends School and Jordan Lake School of the Arts, have such a clearly defined philosophy that they can be summed up in a sentence or two each: For CFS, it's Quaker Values—truth, respect, peace, simplicity, nature, service. JLSA's is more informal—We believe quirky kids have much to offer the world and we create an environment where they can be accepted and successful. Both schools have longer mission statements, but this core philosophy can be found in every decision that is made, down to the kind of copy paper used, how teachers are addressed, how decisions are made, and who cleans the school. A culture is created in which all participants buy in and actively seek to further. This helps with discipline problems, teacher retention and definitely with evaluation. I will write more about these two schools in later posts.

What I found with the Lincoln Center staff I talked to is that although they may have a personal philosophy—and most of them did—they had trouble articulating what the district's philosophy was. "Well, we DO have a mission statement," was a common reaction, but most couldn't remember what it was when put on the spot. The words diversity, partnering, high expectations, and doing what's right for kids were things that were mentioned. I talked to staff at Glenwood Elementary, my daughter's school, and found a very enthusiastic philosophy, but when I asked if it were the district's or the school's, we agreed that it was probably the school's. It was when I talked to school board members that I realized that we did have a governing philosophy, and some of them could articulate it well. There is a page on the CHCCS website called "Keeping our Eye on the Ball: the Focus of CHCCS", which is is intended to clarify mission, goals, and priorities, particularly for instructional staff members. Board members use this when making budget and policy decisions and several spoke with great passion about specific parts of the philosophy that meant a lot to them.

When I spoke to parents I was somewhat surprised and disturbed. The philosophy that many have spent time working on is not trickling down to a lot of the parents. A link on a website is no substitute for the culture that is created when all participants understand and buy into a governing philosophy. The way people are greeted by a receptionist, having phone calls returned, how complaints are handled, how a child who wets his pants is treated, how easy it is to find out how one gets a struggling child tested—all these things work together to create a culture. At Glenwood, Mr. Battle, the chief custodian, is one of the main reasons that school has such a strong and caring culture. His obvious love for the children and strong work ethic make him both a role model and a hero to the kids. Glenwood's Gator Show Choir teaches the whole school about excellence. The annual three day Sound to Sea field trip to the beach builds community as well as academic skills outside the classroom. I have seen this culture maintained by three different principals, so it's more than just leadership. But not all schools have such a strong built-in culture and Glenwood's is by no means perfect.

When I talked to parents in an admittedly unscientific poll, the overwhelming perception of the district's philosophy was "Education for all, excellence for none." This included EC parents, parents of the gifted and parents of typically developing children. There were pockets of satisfaction with specific teachers or programs, but a lot of frustration about having their children's needs met. Many of my friends who can afford it have pulled their children out to homeschool, utilize charter schools, or go to private schools. And I must admit that I have often felt that all that was cared about was EOG scores and that good enough was good enough. When IDEA was first implemented and schools no longer used the discrepancy model to label a child, my 2E older daughter, who had a 60 point discrepancy on some of her subtests, lost her IEP just as she was entering middle school. When I talked to someone at Lincoln Center about this, I was told, "We no longer have to worry about potential. All we need is a C." In middle school she was faced with classes that were either too hard or too easy, accusations of laziness in the area of her disability, an abusive teacher, and an unresponsive administration. In December of her 6th grade year, at her request I pulled her to homeschool her. I don't know if my daughter will be a candidate for Harvard or not. That's her choice. But I would like her to have the option if she does choose. And I certainly would like more than mediocrity.

When comparing philosophies it is not entirely fair to compare private schools to public schools. In this case we are talking about a whole system with the further complication of federal and state "regs", EOG's, and ever-changing mandates from the legislature. Their job is much harder. But I have seen Wright School, a state-funded mental health institution and school, deal with the same regs (and more) in a positive and life-enhancing way—because they have created a culture around the 12 principles of reeducation (I wrote about Wright School in November, "Education at its best"). I, perhaps naively, believe that with the right leadership and involvement at all levels, we can develop a supportive culture that lives up to the CHCCS philosophy that sits largely unknown. We are more than the regs; we are collective guardians of one of the most precious commodities in the world, our children, and it is our job to know what we believe, create our culture and to pass it on to them.

I didn't get my pithy philosophy statement until today. When I asked my daughter's EC teacher what she perceived the district's philosophy to be, she immediately answered, "You mean, all children will learn?" That's it, and the rest is details.

Too little, too late

My second year of teaching was at a small NC mountain high school as a Title I reading teacher, working with 9th and 10th graders who were not served by the special education program. One day the senior English teacher came to me and said that she was curious about a student who was a discipline problem in her class. M. was almost always absent on test days and if there was classroom reading or board work to be done, he usually ended up being sent to the principal for acting out. I was not legally able to serve seniors (sure hope the statute of limitations is up here!), but I told her I'd take a look.

The next day during my planning period, a burly football player came to my room, furious. "I don't know what that stupid teacher is talking about, I don't have no reading problem," he shouted. "Well, let's just make her happy by taking a look and sending you back," I replied. He was not appeased but he did sit down. I pulled out a graded reading assessment and asked him to read the fifth grade level paragraph. He tried, but he couldn't. I dropped down to third grade, then second, and finally first. He stumbled over the very simple sentences in the first grade paragraph and finally stopped. We sat in silence for a moment and then he began to cry, first just tears streaming down his face and then heartrending sobs. "I've never been able to read," he finally choked out. Anything I could say seemed inadequate, but finally I told him that he must be very smart to have fooled so many people for so long. When I asked him if he wanted help, he nodded.

That began his daily trips to my room as I tried desperately to make up for twelve years of lost time. I had to tell him that I was breaking a rule by serving him and that if he ever saw a strange adult in the room, he needed to just keep walking. If my district supervisor was there, he'd walk in, quickly assess the situation, and tell me he had come to get my car keys and take my car to the shop class to change my oil. I've never had a smoother running car than I did that year.

Eventually the principal noticed how much time M. was spending in my room and called me to the office. I admitted that I was working with the boy and he proceeded to ream me out, pointing out the legal ramifications if I were caught. Then I told him why. He leaned back in his chair and looked at the ceiling for a moment, then looked back at me and said, "Well, I guess we'll BOTH just have to go to prison if we get caught." I loved that man!

I had neither the knowledge nor the time to really teach him how to read. I made sure he had survival vocabulary and could spell his girlfriend's name, which, unfortunately, was Debbie, a dyslexic's nightmare. He graduated and went on to get a manual labor job. I've often wondered what happened to him. Early intervention is so important; by the time a kid is in the twelfth grade, it's just too late.

Give a child the gift of reading for Christmas

Do you have someone on your gift list who already has everything they need? How about a gift in their name to help a low-income, non reading child learn to read? The Augustine Project is based in Chapel Hill, NC, but has replications in Charlotte, Winston-Salem, Fayetteville, Hickory, Greenville, SC, and Controe, TX. Volunteers give up two weeks of time to receive 70 hours of top quality training in teaching children to read. They then work with a low-income child for a minimum of 60 lessons. Schools in these areas eagerly seek AP tutors out and invite them to tutor during the school day at school. While our tutors are not Wilson trained, they are conversant with Wilson materials and use those with their students.

The Augustine Project in Chapel Hill, sponsored by The Church of the Holy Family, has just celebrated its 15th anniversary. Check out the website and see what good work is being done. This program and its replications depends on grants and donations to keep the good work going. So check it out. And perhaps you can use this wonderful project as an opportunity to cross several names off your holiday list.

Language Scavenger Hunt

Every now and then you just have to mix it up, especially with a bright student. One way to do this is to review using a language scavenger hunt. I wrote this one for F., who has reached Wilson Book 8, but still needs a lot of review. She has an especially hard time with soft c and g, as well as r-controlled syllables, so I included plenty of those. You could do this for a child on just about any level. After reading the story, F. searched for the items listed below.

I learned several things with this exercise. First, while this will be perfect for my other sixth grader when she gets to this point, it was too long and too hard for F. Second, Tracey and I need to keep reviewing (I share this child with another tutor); she easily found the r-controlled exception and trigraphs, but she couldn't find a word with blends or remember the fslz rule. And third, if a teacher hands her back a paper and tells her to proofread it, she will not be able to do that; it was very difficult for her to scan for words. Because she is on the honor roll, she did not qualify for either an IEP or a 504. Somehow we have to figure out how to get that accommodation as she advances. But I still think it was a great exercise and one I plan to use with other students in other books. One of the advantages of a one-on-one tutor is that one size doesn't have to fit all.

So, give it a try. Are you as smart as a dyslexic 6th grader? Are we collectively as smart as F.? Choose a question and answer it in the comment section. Good luck!

Once upon a time, there were three little pigs, with varying degrees of intelligence and work ethic. They slept until twelve and ate large quantities of groceries. They were not a bit unhappy with their situation. Their mother, who was, finally tired of supporting them and sent them out into the world to make their living.

They set off in different directions. Gerry, never one to exert himself, talked a farmer into giving him some corn stalks to make a simple shack. Then he set off to pick jonquils and snack on apples. Homer, also disliking excess perspiration, spent a bit more time on his home project and gathered sticks in the forest. After awhile he lost interest and went off to play jazz on his flute with a hedgehog and his fiddle. Cyrus, the compulsive one of Mrs. Pig’s offspring, read Consumer Reports and scanned the Internet until he could confidently select the best quality brick. He handpicked the Victorian gingerbread trim and planted phlox in the turned and composted garden. Then he went inside to make fudge and send evite invitations to the other piglets for a grand meal.

At this same time and place in the woods, there was a wolf who favored a bit of grilled pork and was on a mission to find some, organic and corn-fed if possible. First he went to Gerry’s. Not one to huff and puff when a simple kick would do the trick, he struck down the flimsy shanty. Its vacancy irritated him, so he went on to Homer’s. A match, he hoped, would serve two functions at once, but the aroma of crispy pork chops was absent here as well. Disgruntled, he went to Cyrus’s sturdy abode. He glanced in a window and was filled with excited anticipation when he saw all three porcine siblings at table, eating turnips, parsnips, and cherry cobbler.

But how could he get in? The wolf sat on a handy but uncomfortable stump to ponder the situation. After a short time, an evil grin crept across his ugly face. Off he went to City Hall, where he checked to see if Cyrus had gotten a construction permit. His grin was transformed into a cackle when the clerk told him there was nothing of the kind on record. The wolf scampered hungrily behind the bulldozers who arrived to knock down the illegal dwelling. After the first slam, the walls crumbled and the three pigs came storming out, face to face with the mangy wolf. Then . . .

In the story of “The Three Little Pigs”, find the following items:

1. Find a word to fit each different syllable patterns:

a. closed/ v-c-e

b. closed/ cle

c. open/ cle

d. open/ v-c-e

e. closed/ closed

f. closed/ r controlled

g. r controlled

h. v-c-e

i. r controlled/ v-c-e

j. open/ r controlled

2. Find 4 soft c words.

3. Find 4 soft g words.

4. Find a word for each of the 3 sounds of –ed.

5. Find a word with both a beginning and ending blend.

6. Find 2 of the 3 “oh u little devil” words.

7. Find one compound word.

8. Find 5 words containing different consonant digraphs.

9. Find 2 words each with a different trigraph.

10. Find a word with each of the short vowels.

11. Find a word with each of the long vowels.

12. Find 2 different prefixes meaning not and write the words they are in.

13. Find an r controlled exception.

14. Find 2 words with different spelling of /shun/.

15. Find 4 words that fit the FSLZ rule, one for each letter.

16. Find 4 words that are closed syllable exceptions (kind old words).

17. Find words with 5 different r controlled vowels.

18. Find words with 5 different suffixes.

19. Find a pair of homonyms.

20. Find 5 synonyms for house.

21. Find words containing the welded sounds an, am, ing, ong, all, alk.

22. Find 3 words where a makes the schwa sound in an unstressed syllable.

23. Finish the story.

How many words are there in English?

English is a complex language, with perhaps a quarter million words in use. This doesn't even count different forms of the word (harps, harped, harping) or different meanings of the same word (harp, a stringed instrument and harp, to nag). If you counted all of those along with words that are now obsolete, the number of English words would run closer to three quarters of a million. Even with the smaller number, English is at the top of the language list for numbers of words.

The primary reason for this is that English is a rich and complex language, pulling from many sources. Unlike the French, English-speakers have eagerly sought out the riches of other languages. A favorite quote of mine explains this colorfully:

“The problem with defending the purity of the English language is that English is about as pure as a cribhouse whore. We don’t just borrow words. On occasion, English has pursued other languages down alleyways to beat them unconscious and rifle their pockets for new vocabulary.” James Nicholl

While English is a Germanic language, English words come from many sources; 28% comes from the French, another 28% from Latin, 25% from Germanic (Old and Middle English), 4% have unknown ancestry, 3% are derived from proper names, and less than 1% comes from other languages. Although there are fewer of them, the majority of the words we use everyday come from the Germanic.

What this means is that we can have several words meaning the same thing. Instead of one root, we often have four, giving us words with shades and subtleties of meaning. Take words dealing with birth. The word birth itself comes from the Old Norse byrth and refers specifically to the bringing forth of a new individual from the body of its parent. It is perhaps the most common root in English use for birth words.

But then we have the Latin root nascor, to be born, and all the words derived from that. Forms of this word often have nasc, nat, or gna as their root. Pregnancy is an example; pre-, before, and gna, to be born. Your natal day is your birthday, and things that are innate are inborn. Nativity refers to the process or circumstance of being born, and you are a native of the place where you were born. Nature also has the same root, referring to the inborn characteristics of a person. Nascent, as in a nascent industry, means newly come into existence.

A second group of words is centered around the Greek root genos, meaning birth, race or kind. To generate means to bring into existence. A generation is a group of individuals born and living at the same time; the same word can also mean the action of producing offspring. Genesis, the first book of the Torah and Bible which tells the story of creation, means just that: the origin or coming into being of something. Even generous is related; in its genesis, it meant highborn.

A third group revolves around the Germanic root kin. Kindergarten is a class for the teaching of children or kinders. Your kin or kinsmen are your relatives, as are your kindred, which can be both a noun or an adjective. Another Germanic root is the Old English beran, to bear, to bring forth, produce. We get the word born from this root. Interestingly, ball bearings are also related; they bear the friction and is one of several words that retain the notion of moving onward by pressure.

This is one reason why it is so important to teach reading using a systematic and sequential phonetic approach; there are simply too many words to teach each word individually. There are too many different syllables to use a syllabary as Sequoyah did. If a struggling reader hopes to improve, he must be given the tools to sound out unfamiliar words. And although our language is a hodgepodge of other languages, surprisingly over 85% of English can be sounded out using those tools.

The two sides of helicopter moms

I want to pass on an excellent article about helicopter moms from my friend Alison, mother of three autistic sons. She does a great job of pointing out the positives that are often overlooked when talking about parents with this negative term. While she refers to parents of kids with autism, it is true for any parent of a special needs child. Thanks Alison!

http://autismsocietyofnc.wordpress.com/2009/12/01/warning-helicopter-moms/