What I’ve learned from my ten years of volunteering in school computer labs: The MOST important grade for increasing efficiency and reading skills in school is FIRST GRADE. And first graders can definitely learn to touch-type. No matter what the obstacles (and there were many) it’s important to encourage each kid to really learn to touch type. It takes practice, but with Read, Write & Type the practice is fun! Kids have such a wide variation in how their brains are wired, there’s a huge difference in practice time to learn the sound-to-keystroke (letter) habit. But the practice is worth it, because they’re learning the skills they need for reading and writing at the same time. And if they master the keyboard they are much more efficient and confident in their writing all through the rest of their school years.

-Fred Lewis

Proust and the Squid by Maryanne Wolf (HarperCollins, 2007) is the most well-written and inspiring book about the reading brain that I have ever read.  What a remarkable writer!—a rare thing among scientists.  If you are interested in how the brain works to develop skilled reading, do yourself a favor and read it!

Read an excerpt from the book here.

Here are some quotes from the book that I would like to share with you:

“Reading is one of the single most remarkable inventions in history; the ability to record history is one of its consequences.   Our ancestors’ invention could come about only because of the human brain’s extraordinary ability to make new connections among its existing structures, a process made possible by the brain’s ability to be shaped by experience.  This plasticity at the heart of the brain’s design forms the basis for much of who we are and who we might become.”  Maryanne Wolf, Proust and the Squid, HarperCollins, NY, 2007

“Reading can be learned only because of the brain’s plastic design, and when reading takes place, that individual brain is forever changed, both physiologically and intellectually.” Maryanne Wolf, Proust and the Squid, HarperCollins, NY, 2007

Find out more and download the report here: To Improve Reading, Teach Writing (on the ASCD Inservice Blog)

However children are curious about how whole words get on paper because they already know a lot about spoken words. Piaget and Vygotsky both noted the role of curiosity, and observed that learning occurs when new information is linked to previously learned information. The purpose of the alphabet is to make spoken words visible. Therefore, instruction in the alphabet should demonstrate how it can be used to represent (previously learned) spoken words. Start with a few letters to sound out and spell words like CAT, HAT, FAT, SAT, and then gradually introduce new words that add to the previous letters and sounds already learned. Your child will be building new neural pathways for reading closely linked to what the brain already knows about words—their pronunciation and their meaning.

To achieve automatic visual word recognition, these networks must begin to accomplish with one stroke of attention what originally required dozens. The young brain must systematize the work to be done and must develop a system of automatic habits corresponding to the system of tasks, because reading (unlike speech) does not come pre-wired. As reading is first introduced, the brain organizes and stores the information wherever it is processed. If the instruction involves pronouncing and segmenting whole words, and linking letter shapes to those spoken sounds in a systematic way, these new networks, over time and with practice, will be linked efficiently to word pronunciations and meanings.

Therefore it is important that early instruction in phoneme awareness and phonics encourages children to attend to their own physical production of phonemes as they segment words, and builds new reading skills on the neural foundation of existing speech networks.

“Children in first grade should not be given lists of sight words to memorize. They should be learning to decode (sound out) and encode (write) regularly spelled words, NOT MEMORIZE THE VISUAL APPEARANCE OF WORDS.

First graders should be learning to identify the sounds in words they say and link letters to those sounds. This is called phoneme awareness and phonics, and these are the critical skills for becoming a good reader. Your first grader should read words like GO and SEE by knowing the sounds that those letters stand for, and sounding out the words. As he does this often, his brain will start to automatically recognize the words. This will enable him to sound out and read or write any regularly spelled word independently. He will not have to visually memorize lists of words, except for those few that are “outlaw words” (don’t follow the rules), and he should only tackle these after he’s mastered phoneme awareness and phonics.

If he is not learning phoneme awareness and phonics at school, teach him at home. Try asking him to read some nonsense words like MUN or SAF. If he can’t do this, ask his teacher whether she is teaching him to sound out words. If you want him to be a good reader in second grade, teach him these skills NOW yourself. There’s lots of good information on the web about how to become aware of the sounds in words and link those sounds to letters.”

However, they suggest that 20 hours of class time should suffice for teaching phonemic awareness. Since close to 70% of American 4th and 8th graders cannot read proficiently, and since phoneme awareness and phonics are the two most frequently found deficits in children who struggle to read, perhaps we need to re-evaluate whether students are really learning this skill in the 20 hours of instruction they receive. What do you think? Are phoneme awareness and phonics separate skills? Or should they be linked so that children understand why they are asked to become aware of the sounds in words?

I would love to hear your thoughts.

A new study put out by Kaiser Family Services tells us that children are using media like TV, music, and internet social media more than 7.5 hours a day—that comes to an average of 53 hours a week of mostly passive experience! Yes, they text, but what kind of thought goes into texting or tweeting?  Are their brains really processing and analyzing and digesting new information?  Unfortunately, no.

Using the brain fully requires a complete circuit—IN + PROCESSING-> OUT.  It’s the PROCESSING and the OUT that’s missing. The brains of this generation are not learning to think deeply or express thoughts in an articulate and reasoned way.  Thoughts are being expressed rapidly without reflection, and compressed into short sentences requiring the shallowest of thinking, the paltriest use of language.  Fewer connections are made in the brain, and there is little growth.  This lack of neural challenge occurs during a period of time when young brains should be developing and laying down millions of connective nerve pathways that will serve for a lifetime.

How many youngsters of this American generation could write a diary like Anne Frank, or letters like John Adams? Teachers in middle school, high school and college these days despair of getting their students to write even a cogent paragraph.

Writing should start in kindergarten and be required across the curriculum all the way through school. And writing should be encouraged and praised by parents at home. Putting words on paper (or screen) makes your thoughts visible.  It creates a space for them to sit while you think about what you’ve said.  There may be another way to say them that will be kinder, or more forceful, or more imaginative.  The words sit there waiting, while your brain sorts through many possibilities—A metaphor? A different word?  A punctuation mark? A more humorous phrase?

What should concerned parents do to limit media time, and to provide more stimulating and meaningful experiences to help their children grow smarter brains?  More in the next blog…and send me your ideas as well, as a comment reply to this post, I would love to hear and share them.

(The study mentioned here is not available on-line, but a similar study and article can be read here.)

At this time of gift-giving, when money is tight, why not give your child a gift that won’t cost you anything but time and love, and will last a lifetime.  Here is a recipe for getting started:

There are 18 FREE decodable booklets in pdf form on our website.

Print out the first booklet “IS IT A CAT?”  Look at the first book together, and read it to your child.  But don’t try to have your child memorize the appearance of words or “read” the book until you have played together making words.

The secret of learning to read is understanding how to make words first! If your child can arrange letter tiles to create the words in the first booklet, he or she is well on the way to understanding how letters are used to represent the sounds in words—and that is the key to reading!

The main words in this booklet  (bat, rat, mat, hat, cat) use seven letters:

a       t        c        h        b        r        m

1. Create a page in your word processor with lots of these letters in large lower case letters, spaced so they can be cut out as letter tiles.  (72 pt Helvetica font is good),

2. Arrange three letters c, a, t on the table in front of your child

3. Look at the cat picture on the last page.

Ask: “Would you like to learn how to write the word cat?”

4. Have your child look in a mirror while saying the word cat.

Observe: “See how your mouth makes different sounds when you say cat?  You have to move your mouth and your tongue to make the different sounds.  These letters stand for the sounds you are making with your mouth.”

Take some time to repeat the separate sounds together:  “c”, “a”, “t”

5, Then arrange the letters c, a, t in sequence to spell out cat as you say the sounds.

“This letter says “c”, this letter says “a”, and this letter says “t”.

6. Mix up the letters and have your child arrange them to spell cat.

NOTE: YOU MAY NEED TO REPEAT THE ABOVE STEPS SEVERAL TIMES.

IF YOUR CHILD IS NOT HAVING FUN, STOP AND HAVE SOMETHING GOOD TO EAT TOGETHER!  THEN TRY AGAIN LATER.

7.  When your child is successful at arranging cat, try the word “at” or “tac”, again pronouncing each sound together and paying attention to what the mouth is doing.

8.  On another day, try cat, at, tac again. Repeat until this is successful.

9.  When you feel your child is ready for another sound and letter, add b to the three cat letters on the table.  Look at the picture of the bat on the first page of the book and talk about bats.  Find the “b” letter on the table.

Repeat the mirror game, while pronouncing the word “bat” and segment it into its separate sounds, “b”, “a”, “t”.

“To make the “b” sound, you press your lips together and pop the air out.”

Point out that “bat” sounds like “cat”, except for the first sound.  Arrange the word bat on the table and sound it out.  Then mix up the 4 letters and play with bat and cat and tab.

10.  Repeat with the other letters one at a time: h    r   m for hat, rat, and mat. You can read the booklet together—wait when you come to one of the words you have worked on to see if you child will read it.

Eventually you will add s   f and i (one at a time) for writing and reading the words in the second book “SASS HAS A FIT!” for Sass, has, fit, sit, etc.

Then with these nine letters you can write more words like sat, fat, bit, etc.  Always practice with the previous words before you proceed to new sounds and letters.  Make the sessions short and fun!

Our software, Read, Write & Type can add to the fun.

Try it for only $35 at www.talkingfingers.com. Check out our special holiday discounts as well, when you sign up for our email newsletter.

HAPPY HOLIDAYS!

“One of the most fundamental flaws found in almost all phonics programs, including traditional ones, is that they teach the code backwards.  That is, they go from letter to sound instead of from sound to letter.”

Louisa Moats, 1998

What do you think about this quote from Louisa Moats?

How do you teach phonics? Method A or B?  Why?

A. Print-to-Speech. Letters-to-sounds. Decoding.

Teach the alphabet song.

Associate 26 visual letters with their names.

Then teach letter sounds.

Decode a familiar word together, like CAT by identifying each letter, saying the sound that is associated with that letter, and blending the sounds together.  If the blended sounds resemble the word, the word is decoded as CAT.

Use flash cards to practice letter names, and words.

B. Speech-to-Print.  Sounds-to-letters. Encoding.

Start with a familiar spoken word, like CAT

Segment together the three sounds in the word.

From a few letter tiles, find the letters that stand for those sounds. Arrange the tiles to represent (encode) the sequence of sounds in CAT. Mix up the letters until the child arranges them correctly. Read the word. Discuss other words in the same family, like FAT or HAT.  By working with other Consonant-Vowel-Consonant words, eventually the child learns the letters that represent the 40 sounds of English.  Encode words first, then decode (read) what has been written.

How do YOU teach early reading?   Let’s have a discussion!