Celebrate!Calm

You may have gathered it from reading this blog already, but if you haven't, daughter #2 is what educator Kirk Martin calls an "intense child." Eight months in NC's wonderful Wright School helped, but day-to-day maintenance is critical and exhausting. With a child like this, there is no margin for error.

Schools, any schools, have even less patience for intense kids. They present as defiant, oppositional and rude. It's hard to see how terrified they really are. Schools are incredibly user-unfriendly to these kids and new models for interacting are needed, both at home and school.

I attended one of Kirk Martin's Celebrate!Calm workshops last week, and was astounded to hear him describing my child and the interactions we have in our home. The school cafeteria we met in was half-full, and all the other parents were nodding along with me. Martin describes his organization:

Based in the suburbs of Washington, D.C., Celebrate!Calm is a world-renowned educational organization that provides science-based training for educators, parents and children. While the research-based interventions help all children learn more effectively, the organization specializes in working with children affected by Aspergers, Autism, Sensory Integration, Opposition Defiant Disorder, Anxiety Disorder, OCD, ADD, ADHD and other learning or emotional difficulties.

The two hours were packed with information, which I found trustworthy because it was so similar to Wright School's methodology. Martin sells his CD series for what he admits is an exorbitant amount of money, partially because he wants it to hurt enough that people will listen to and use them. I knew I couldn't afford it, but then he announced a special individual price for people in financial need. I approached him at the break and we agreed on a very reasonable amount that I promised him still hurt considerably.

His sessions are free to participants and there is no real pressure to buy the CD's, which are worth every penny I spent on them. There is a set for teachers, for dads, for married couples and some for everyone. Check out his website and see if he's coming to your area. If you parent or teach an intense child, put it on your calendar. You won't regret it.

See Spot Read

This week I got to observe a really cool program called See Spot Read. Therapy dogs and their owners show up at schools that request them and let children read to the dogs. It's easy to see that for a struggling reader, reading to a dog would be less threatening and much more fun. Two dogs came to our school and one child read Jake the lab Green Eggs and Ham, while Shadow the golden retriever was treated to a guitar "concert" by a nonreader. The service is free and all dog owners are volunteers.

I love innovative programs that make reading fun for children. And I salute these volunteers who give up their times to train their dogs and let them make children smile.

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.

Why do students reverse letters?

When most people hear the word dyslexia, they think about reversing letters. While many dyslexics DO have letter reversals, so do many young non-dyslexic children. Why is this?

The explanation that has made the most sense to me, and the one I use when explaining to students and parents, is this. I hold up a pencil: "What is this?" "A pencil," the student says. I turn the pencil upside-down. "Now what is it?" "A pencil," he replies. I do this several times, rotating the pencil each time, and always the answer is a pencil. Then I hold a d letter card up: "What is this?" "A d," he says. I rotate the card: "Now what is it?" "A p." What worked for the pencil doesn't for the letter.

Up to now in a child's experience, an object remains the same object any way it is positioned. Letter and number symbols are the first thing a child encounter in which the positioning matters. It's a different object with each different orientation, or perhaps it's no object at all. A pencil can't be "backwards", but a letter or number can. So of course it's confusing, and most young children reverse their letters at some point. I gently correct and teach them how to "make their bed" (a way to hold their fists to make a bed and see the correct orientation of b and d). Generally this goes away with time and familiarity with the language. If it hasn't by second grade, it's time to take a second look.

Tell me a story

Stories are important things in our lives. Families are held together by stories ("remember the time we . . ." or "Dad always . . . "). It's only when we know and share people's stories that we can claim them as friends. Religions are full of stories. Islam, Christianity, and Judaism share many stories; when the stories diverge, so do the religions. Stories can heal or inspire, and if we aren't careful, hurt. Stories are powerful. And every teacher needs to be a good storyteller.

Being a good storyteller is especially important for a tutor, who works with kids in their area of greatest weakness. Words are not my students' friends, and it's up to me to make those words friendlier. One way I do that is by telling the story behind the words. Knowing their backgrounds reveals fascinating tales. Ralph Waldo Emerson said, "Every word is a fossil poem." That is so true; you have to have the heart of an archeologist and dig until you discover the poem within the word. A great source is the Oxford English Dictionary. In the absence of that, a good online etymology dictionary works.

A great example is the word answer. This is a killer for students to spell. WHAT is that stupid w doing in there? I find the story fascinating (okay, so I'm a word geek!). It comes from the Old English andswaru, which was formed from two words, and (against) and -swaru (to swear). While now it simply means "to reply to a question", it once had the meaning of "making a sworn statement rebutting a charge". We see a vestige of that meaning in the phrase to answer to. Once students hear that story and can see the fossil of the word swear, I find most never misspell it again.

If your student is having trouble with a particular word, look for its relatives. Is your child having trouble keeping the to/too/two group straight? Teach to first. Next, point out two's relatives: twain, twin, twice, twelve, twenty. Even though we don't pronounce the w, think of it as two's family name. You can see it in the word between, which comes from Old English bi (by) and tweon (two each). There it is in twilight, in which the meaning seems to be "half-light", although we once also spoke of the morning twilight. Twine originally meant "a double thread", while twist once meant "to spin two threads together." Do you think your student will ever forget that two is the number word? Not after all those stories! Last, too can be added with "too many o's."

So go to it. Start digging—find those fossils, find the poems, and tell those kids a story!

I'm stuck

The advantage a tutor has over a teacher is that she can tailor a lesson to a specific child. Sometimes that's as easy as spending a little extra time on something or playing a learning game he loves. Last year I had a child with autism who became obsessed with manhole covers. With my handy Pampered Chef can opener (which leaves no sharp edges), I gathered a bunch of can lids, wrote words on the "manhole covers", and he read them happily.

Sometimes a kid gets really stuck on something that is very important and I want to make sure he has the concept before we go on. My student A. is having trouble with consonant blends. Because they are ubiquitous, it's important to have a good grasp of them. We've done workbook pages, played Go Fish and other games with them, dictated, used the magnet board . . . I've pulled everything I have out of my bag of tricks. He's getting better, but he isn't consistent and he certainly hasn't over-learned them. For instance, today he spelled spin sinp. It's almost as if he sees the word as a whole and misses the parts. And to make it worse, he refuses to tap the sounds out; that's just too weird for him. I'd love to find a substitute for tapping that he would do.

This guy has one strength that I very seldom see in my students. He loves to put things in alphabetical order and he's good at it, even when he has to go to the third or fourth letter. He also loves patterns. How can I use these strengths to help him with his weaknesses? One thing I will try next session is to write words on index cards, perhaps all with s blends, have him alphabetize them and then read them. To alphabetize he must first look at the letters in order. And then I'll try . . . hmm. I must admit I'm stuck. Is there a way to use his love of patterns to help him overcome this block? He likes sorting games, and that helped him master -ng and -nk.

So, master tutors, teachers, and generally creative thinkers: what would you do? I'd love to hear your best ideas. Helping a child learn in the way she learns best is my favorite part of tutoring. I'm just stuck, sort of like A. is. And it's my job to get us both unstuck.

I can help you with that . . . .

Several years ago I visited a cemetery in one of the mountain counties. There, carved on a nearby gravestone, was the epitaph, "She's with the angles". My thoughts were certainly not befitting of the occasion: congruent, acute or obtuse? Or is she a circle that somehow went to the wrong place?

I was reminded of this when I went to a school system office this week. I have been doing contract work for a nearby school system for the last three years, and they recently had to cancel my contract due to lack of funds. I went to the district office to fill out some paperwork, and they had one of those security systems where you sign in via computer. They take a most unflattering picture of you, determine where you are going, scan your driver's license, and then issue you a badge. When I got to the point of telling the computer my destination, I saw that one of my choices was the Cirriculum Department. I almost lost it. I wanted to tell them, "You know, you might want to keep me on. I can help you with that."

So, just in case anyone from that school system is reading, here's the rule: when c is followed by e, i, or y, it generally says /s/: circus, century, cyanide. When g is followed by e, i, or y, it usually says /j/: gentle, gist, gym. It's called the soft sound. When they are followed by a consonant or a, o, u, the c and g will have the hard sound: /k/ and /g/. There are a few exceptions, but it's a pretty safe rule in general.

And maybe, just maybe, systematic, phonetic spelling instruction needs to be part of your curriculum.

You are not the one who failed

My favorite students are those who are failures. They come to me with no hope left. No matter what's been tried—Reading Recovery, resource help, extra teacher time, learning centers—they still aren't reading and they have accepted the fact that it's their fault. Here they are again, going through reading assessments that spotlight their weaknesses, with another stranger who will eventually give up. No wonder they have bad attitudes.

The first thing I tell a new student after I assess her is that I know she can learn to read. It's just that no one has taught her yet. "It's not your fault that you learn differently," I say. "I WILL teach you to read. And if I can't, it's MY fault, not yours, and I will help your parents find someone who can. But I don't plan to fail and I will teach you." I love the look of puzzled surprise I get after I say that. They may not believe me, but they are intrigued. No one has ever said it's not their fault, and whether they can verbalize it or not, they believe it is.

I want my lessons to always feel a little too easy for a student like this, and I tell them so. I compare learning to read to building a house. "When you build a house, where do you start?" I ask. The bottom, they reply. "And if there are holes in the bottom, what happens to the house you are building?" It falls. "There are holes in the foundation of your house. We are going WAY back to fix those holes and then we will keep going up. And with every brick, you will be a better reader."

And so we go back to short a and a few consonants like s, f, r, and m that blend easily into that a, along with t and p to put at the end. Soon they are reading sat and fat and maybe even map. And then I can say, "Now you can read. The rest is just learning more sounds." That's usually enough to get them back for a second session.

Sometimes a student will ask, "Why didn't my teacher teach me?" I always emphasize that it's not the teacher's fault either; no one taught him how to teach students like this. And until we change how the universities teach reading methodology, there will continue to be failures.

I love the failures. But I wait for the day when there aren't any because the schools are able to hire teachers who can teach children who learn in all different kinds of ways. Though there will always be kids who need one-on-one help, we can significantly reduce that number with proper teacher training. It's time to look at who the real failures are and address that problem. There are holes in the foundation of our teacher training programs. We need to go back to the bottom and fix them.

I may love the failures, but they don't love failing. And they are not really the ones who are failing.

What's a Renegade Teacher?

I am a reading tutor out of penitence. I have a BA in English and was certified in Reading, but in all my coursework I was never taught how to actually teach reading. I was taught how to test a child to see how poorly he read, how to arrange my class so he'd want to read, how to determine the reading level of a text, how to teach finding the main idea in a passage, but never the mechanics and structure of the language and how one imparts that. The thinking seemed to be that if I did all these things, my students would just pick literacy up like a dropped item on the floor. Learning to read was an act of will. And if they didn't learn, well, maybe they just weren't trying hard enough or their parents weren't sufficiently involved.

Whole word was the method I was taught, with an emphasis on looking at the pictures and using context clues to guess at words. Phonics? The only lesson I remember about that was when the reading professor wrote the word ghoti on the board. "If phonics worked," he said, "that would say 'fish'." We stared blankly. The punch line came triumphantly: "gh as in rough, o as in women, and ti as in nation. Phonics doesn't work."

And so in 1977 I became a Title I reading teaching for 9th and 10th graders in a North Carolina mountain high school. I went in with high aspirations and a desire to change the lives of these kids. My students never learned to read. I worked hard, I arranged the room just so, I exposed them to the very best literature I could find, but these kids just didn't learn to read. And no one, not their parents, not the administration, not the Title I supervisor, no one was outraged or even surprised by this.

After four years of that job, I took a position teaching English at a private Episcopal boarding school in the foothills of North Carolina. This school had a language therapy program for dyslexic students. I didn't pay too much attention to it; two very nice ladies took students and worked with them on their reading and helped them with the papers I assigned. Dr. Lucia Karnes was the school psychologist and she ran a six week camp for dyslexics at the school during the summer break. She hired me to teach composition at camp and asked me to provide language therapy for one student. I underwent her three day training with such skepticism I could hardly stay in the room. She used the Orton-Gillingham method, indeed had trained with Mrs. Orton, and it was heavy on the phonics. And I knew phonics didn't work.

The student I was assigned was bright, but was having difficulty in reading and spelling. I dutifully if unenthusiastically went through her program with this boy. When she did post testing with him at the end of the six weeks, he had gained two years in his reading and spelling.

My world was rocked. I was stunned, but most of all I was furious. If kids could be taught to read, why had no one taught me how to do it? What had I done—or not done—to all those kids who had come to me full of hope? I grieved for all the students I had failed, but there was no way to put things right for them. A famous Mother Jones quote says, "Pray for the dead and fight like hell for the living." And that's what I determined to do.

When I moved to Chapel Hill and first started tutoring, all I had was Mrs. Orton's little yellow book, A Guide to Teaching Phonics. But I devoured it and anything else I could find and soon became a proficient reading tutor with successes of my own. I decided I would be a renegade teacher.

The dictionary defines renegade as "one who rejects a religion, cause, allegiance, or group for another; a deserter; an outlaw; a rebel." And that's me. I rebel against bad teaching and bad methodology. I no longer owe allegiance to the instruction I received that did such a disservice to so many children. I found a new cause. I am a renegade teacher. Watch out!