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Want to Impress Your Child?
2007-06-16 18:39:00
Children love jokes. They love telling them and they love hearing them. And jokes are wonderful. With their twists on words, they not only provide fun, they also improve language skills. In case your child is not familiar with some of the ones below, you might try the following: What does a tree do when he is ready to go home? He leaves. What did one tooth say to the other tooth? The dentist is taking me out today!
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Reading and Humor: A Nice Partnership
2007-06-14 16:06:00
Of the many benefits of reading, one is its power to expand the sphere of humor. For example, consider a one-liner like the following: Police were called to a daycare where a three-year-old was resisting a rest. With this sort of material, print--rather than speech--is the perfect medium. If you would like to SEE some more of this ilk, just read on. (And, if you would like to get serious about this material, you can see how much time it takes you to spot the key word in each sentence.)
More About: Humor , Reading , Nice , Humo , Ship

Reading: It?s Not Just Knowing How; It?s Also Knowing About
2007-06-11 16:56:00
For years now, E. D. Hirsch and his colleagues have been at the vanguard in trying to revamp the teaching of reading. They want to have it move beyond the almost exclusive focus on "sounding out" and incorporate what he terms "cultural literacy." By this, he is referring to the knowledge that members of a society share about the world--such as the American Revolution, the Ten Commandments, Thomas Edison and so on. Without this knowledge, it becomes impossible to understand the ideas being discussed on the printed page. In some ways, this view turns the usual focus of reading on its head. The common idea, expressed succinctly by none other than Dr. Seuss himself is that "The more that you read, the more things you will know." In other words, reading is correctly seen as critical to expanding one?s knowledge. But what Professor Hirsch has highlighted is the chicken-egg nature of the situation.
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Can Reading Instruction Enter the 21st Century?
2007-06-09 23:05:00
Time magazine, a few months ago, had, as a lead story, How to Build a Student for the 21st Century . It started as follows: Rip Van Winkle awakens in the 21st century ...and is, of course, utterly bewildered by what he sees. Airports, hospitals, shopping malls?every place Rip goes just baffles him. But when he finally walks into a schoolroom, the old man knows exactly where he is. "This is a school," he declares. "We used to have these back in 1906. Only now the blackboards are green." The children in those classrooms who spot Rip might well envy him. He is only a century out of synch; by contrast, their life is dominated by a system of reading system that is even more out of date. It stems from the 19th century. The problem is not simply that the system is antiquated; it is extraordinarily ineffective. Government figures consistently show approximately 40 percent of bright, capable children have trouble in learning to read. Y...
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Some Advice from a Founding Father
2007-06-04 18:34:00
Benjamin Ffanklin seemed to write on anything and everything. So it's not surprising to find that he had lots of thoughts on education and the path to knowledge. And his power to convey those ideas was amazing. Here, in just 15 words, he has pinpointed some central truths of teaching and learning. Tell me....And I Forget, Teach me.....And I Learn, Involve Me.....And I Remember. Of course, he has lots more to say such as:.
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How To Ensure Accurate Spelling
2007-06-04 17:44:00
I recently received the following letter from a parent: I have been using your Phonics Plus Five method with my 6 year old daughter. Thank you for creating such a great program. I love it. So far, we have made it through the Boarding program. When we got to the end, she could read all the words, but she could spell only about half of them correctly. Since you provide a set of review activities, I assume this is normal. But the review does not seem to be enough. Her spelling is still not as secure as I would like. She can spell them fine if I give her the letters out of order and she has to arrange them in the right order, but she cannot pull them out of midair, so to speak. What should I do? And here is my answer: This is a great question and it gets to the heart of a set of key skills that children must develop?the skills involving visual memory. When the review activities in the program are not sufficient, the best technique to use is what I call "One Hour Recall."
More About: Questions , Parents , Spelling , Sure , Rate

Having Writing Come Alive
2007-06-01 01:56:00
There is a magic to the computer. Among its powers is the capability of making the written page come alive. You can see this, for example, in software programs where stories are read aloud as the pages appear on the screen. The combination of seeing attractive pages of print while simultaneously hearing the words is unbeatable. Now you can give some of that power to your child through free software that speaks the words that your child writes. Natural soft is one such program and you can find it at http://www.naturalreaders.com/?gclid=CIvX -ajBtowCFRKsGgodEBPORg.
More About: Writing , Tips , Alive , Ving

Resolving the Mysteries and Miseries of Punctuation
2007-05-28 21:13:00
For many children, even when reading and writing are going well, there is an aspect of the printed page that eludes them. That aspect is punctuation. (That word may send a few shivers down your own spine since many, many adults report that they do not really understand how to use punctuation with any sense of mastery.) The difficulties are understandable. Punctuation is designed to capture some powerful dimensions of language such as pauses, questions, emphasis, and hesitations--to name but a few. However, to carry out this rather significant assignment, punctuation--and its partner capitalization--have been given a paltry set of minute marks that hardly seems up to the task. Do these limitations mean we, and our children, are to be condemned to being "punctuation illiterates?" No, not at all.
More About: Writing , Teri , Miser , Ving , Serie

Can Reading Be "Easier" than Speaking for Children with Language Disabiliti
2007-05-24 04:19:00
I was recently speaking to the principal of a school for children with learning disabilities. She was talking about a seven year old girl who had been a student in her school since she was about four years of age. During that time, the director said their focus had been on developing the child's spoken language and holding off on literacy since "there was no way to expect her to read until her spoken language skills improved." The concern that the principal showed for the child is laudatory. And her thinking was totally in line with accepted practices. For most children, speaking precedes reading. Further, the skills of spoken language seem to be prerequisites for being able to master reading. That seems to be why children with problems in speaking have high rates of failure in learning to read. This dependency relationship is sometimes expressed as "written language is parasitic on spoken language." But is the situation as straightforward as we have been led to believe? Signif...
More About: Children , Reading , Thoughts , Language , Bili

Everyone Has An Opinion About Reading
2007-05-21 23:46:00
Reading, like all powerful forces, leads to many and varied reactions. Here are some musings from the famous--and not so famous--that reflect a few of the many facets of reading. A wonderful thing about a book, in contrast to a computer screen, is that you can take it to bed with you. Daniel J. Boorstin Books are not men and yet they stay alive. Stephen Vincent Benet Books had instant replay long before televised sports. Bert Williams
More About: Reading , Opinion , Everyone

"How Can I Convince My Child?"
2007-05-18 22:49:00
I was speaking to a father whose 11 year old son had significant language problems--problems severe enough to keep the child mired at a first grade level of reading. The father asked, "Do you think your Phonics Plus Five program might help my son?" I told him that while he could only find out by trying, the prospects were good. I knew from personal experience with large numbers of families that it led many children to successful reading--even after they had been failing for years. Then, plaintively he asked a second question, "How can I convince my child to try it?"
More About: Achievement , Child , Vince

Teaching Reading in More Than One Language
2007-05-16 18:11:00
I recently received an interesting question from a parent in Malaysia. She said, "My daughter is expected to learn three languages in school: English, Chinese and Malay. This is not a choice but mandatory. Please advise me on how should I approach this problem. Is it more advisable to stress one language first and then help her acquire the other languages at a later stage..." In the United States, of course, schools with trilingual demands are rarely, if ever, to be found. Nevertheless, in our nation with its huge numbers of immigrants, bilingual situations are common. This leads many parents to confront choices that are similar, albeit less intense, than the mother in Malaysia. So a key question is "How to approach literacy when more than one language is involved?"
More About: Reading , Teaching , Language , More , Teac

Teaching Reading to Dyslexics: It?s Time to Exit the World of Alice in Wond
2007-05-14 18:10:00
Dyslexia is a topic that arouses enormous passion and anxiety. It's not surprising. With reading playing such a central role in our lives, we know the severe consequences that can follow from the failure to master this critical skill. So, not unexpectedly, lots of effort goes into trying to overcome the problem. But the efforts fall painfully short of the mark. Indeed, many of the efforts to help actually work to aggravate the difficulties. It's easiest to see this if we step outside the area of reading. To do this,
More About: Reading , World , Time , Teaching , The World

As California Goes-So Goes the Nation?
2007-05-13 19:34:00
California is often looked to as the trend setter for the nation. If so, as far as education is concerned, the latest figures tell us that we have a lot to be concerned about. The San Francisco Chronicle recently reported that the high school graduation rate in that state is the "lowest in 10 years " as over a third of the state's seniors failed to earn a diploma. In 2005, the graduation rate was 71%; in 2006, 67%. For the past decade, the state has put into place a range of expensive changes in the classroom- including class-size reduction, higher standards, additional teacher training and more. So what is behind the dismaying new statistics?
More About: California , Nation , Goes , Calif , The Nation

A Path to Success: Using a Public Health Model to Create Reading Programs
2007-05-12 01:09:00
Michael Shaughnessy, the editor of the New Mexico Journal of Reading , recently interviewed me about my ideas for transforming reading education. It gave me a great opportunity to expand on an idea that I think has tremendous potential for bringing reading success to all. That idea rests on adopting a public health model in our classrooms. The interview started with the following question: 1) You are proposing that we adopt a major change in our approach to teaching reading. How would you describe the current approach? Here is my response:
More About: Health , Programs , Public , Success

Worksheets: Reworking A Homework Ordeal
2007-05-11 18:49:00
Worksheets are a major part of reading homework in the early grades--and even beyond. And multiple choice items are one of the favorite formats used. For example, there may be five sentences where each sentence has a missing word or phrase. The child?s task is to fill in the missing words by selecting from a set of 10-15 words that are presented in a list above, below or next to the sentences. For children who are proficient in reading, this format --like most of the reading tasks--poses no problem. But for children who have reading difficulties, the experience can be a nightmare.
More About: Reading , Homework , King , Working , Ework

Some More Musings from George Carlin
2007-05-06 17:59:00
George Carlin, an endless source of laughs, often provides interesting insights into words. Here are a few: I went to a bookstore and asked the saleswoman, "Where's the self-help section?" She said if she told me, it would defeat the purpose. If a man is standing in the middle of the forest speaking and there is no woman around to hear him-is he still wrong? If someone with multiple personalities threatens to kill himself, is it considered a hostage situation? Where do forest rangers go to "get away from it all?" What do you do when you see an endangered animal eating an endangered plant? Would a fly without wings be called a walk? What was the best thing before sliced bread?
More About: Musings , George , George Carlin , Sing , More

"I do not remember when I could not read"
2007-05-06 16:34:00
Ben Franklin in writing to his son about his early years, commented that he had to have learned to read "very early" because "I do not remember when I could not read." Although he was not focused at the time on the implications of his experience for education, his words are nevertheless highly relevant to the teaching of reading. As Franklin suggests, the early mastery of reading has enormous power. It invariably leads children to feel totally connected to reading, leading it to become a central, comfortable, enjoyable part of their lives. For some children, probably Franklin was among them, all this happens independently. They simply "take to reading" and run with it. The earlier this happens, the more powerful the connection. Fortunately, children who do not independently start to read can experience the same result--but they need to be taught. The reliance on teaching changes everything --because there is a huge difference between spontaneous learning and learning attained...
More About: Thoughts , Read , When

The Link Between Wall St and Pubic Education
2007-05-03 19:14:00
It's hard to imagine two entities that could be further apart than Wall St and public education. But an internet financial newsletter recently showed the link that COULD exist between the two when it stated: "It?s a shame, that much of what is offered here (referring to their newsletter)? at no charge ? is not taught in the public schools. Why is it that you can graduate in the top of your high school class and know next to nothing about credit card debt, adjustable-rate mortgages, or 401(k)s?" Should financial literacy be a core part of everyone education?
More About: Education , Thoughts , Link , Ducati

Even in China!
2007-04-30 21:02:00
A recent report in the Washington Post Foreign Service stated that, in China , despite a 50-year-old campaign to stamp it out and a government declaration in 2000 that it had been nearly eradicated, illiteracy is increasing. For the most part, the reasons rest with the infrastructure--or rather the lack of infrastructure. Although the law says that every child has the right to nine years of schooling, in many rural areas (and that is where most of the population live), schooling remains unavailable or prohibitively expensive. Those who do go to school often do so only for the very early grades. Then, once they leave, they ?forget? what they learn. Given the competition that now exists between the US and China, we may be tempted to embrace these findings and comfort ourselves with the idea that the Chinese after all, are not that great. That would be an unfortunate conclusion. It would be far better to use these findings to re-examine the situation in our nation.

A Bit of Word Play
2007-04-27 06:26:00
For people who love words, puns can be a delight. Here's a sampling that may bring a smile to your lips. I wondered why the baseball was getting bigger. Then it hit me. I couldn't quite remember how to throw a boomerang, but eventually it came back to me. Did you hear about the guy whose whole left side was cut off? He's all right now. He drove his expensive car into a tree and found out how the Mercedes bends. Police were called to a daycare where a three-year-old was resisting a rest. To write with a broken pencil is pointless. Show me a piano falling down a mineshaft and I'll show you A-flat minor. There was a sign on the lawn at a drug re-hab center that said 'Keep off the Grass'. What did the grape say when it got stepped on? Nothing - but it let out a little whine. A bicycle can't stand on its own because it is two-tired.
More About: Word , Play

Every Child Left Behind
2007-04-26 21:58:00
David Helfand, a world renowned astronomer from Columbia University, is an impassioned advocate of science education. In a recent lecture, he was asked to comment on the state of science and math education is our nation?s schools. Turning the well-publicized NO CHILD LEFT BEHIND idea on its head, he said that an appropriate characterization of the current situation is EVERY CHILD LEFT BEHIND. Unfortunately, Helfand?s description is not confined to the math/science scene. It applies equally to the teaching of most basic subject in schools?namely, reading. Ironically, the No Child Left Behind legislation, aimed at pressuring schools to improve their outcomes, has led many to believe that literacy problems are lessening. In fact, they are not. In an effort to attain higher scores, huge amounts of time are now spent in "training children to the test." But for the most part, the training concentrates on simpler skills such as decoding (i.e., word recognition). While these sorts of skil...
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The Reading-Math Connection
2007-04-23 17:07:00
While reading failure dominates the news, math failure comes in as a close second. The recent headline in the Seattle Times "New-age math doesn't add up" is but one of the many examples that appear almost daily, highlighting the weaknesses in the math education offered to our children. Aside from the issue of failure, the two spheres of reading and math are rarely linked. Nevertheless, reading problems are a major contributor to math difficulties.
More About: Reading , Connection , Math , Achievement , Connect

Let's Do the Numbers
2007-04-16 18:08:00
There is a radio broadcast on the stock market that always has a segment titled, "Now let's do the numbers." That sentence kept going round in my head as I listened to a lecture on reading education. It focused on the idea that classroom teachers can, and must, meet the needs of each individual child. How important is this idea? Very! How idealistic is it? Very! How realistic is it? Now the answer changes. Despite being wonderful and desirable, there is no way for this goal to be met in current classroom instruction. Why? Well let's do the numbers. Reading is the area that takes up the largest amount of time in the first three grades. So let's be more than generous and say that three full hours are spent in this critical area. That's 180 minutes. Now let's assume there 25 children in the class (although many classes are larger). Let's assume further that the teacher is a super-human dynamo and has arranged to spend only 30 of those minutes in group instruction (focu...
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Returning to the Lighter Side
2007-04-16 17:06:00
Among his other accomplishments, Woody Allen is famous for his one-liners such as the following: -I took a speed reading course and read War and Peace in twenty minutes. It's about Russia. -If you want to make God laugh, tell him your future plans. -The lion and the calf shall lie down together but the calf won't get much sleep. -There are two types of people in this world, good and bad. The good sleep better, but the bad seem to enjoy the waking hours much more. -I don't want to achieve immortality through my work?I want to achieve it through not dying. -What if everything is an illusion and nothing exists? In that case, I definitely overpaid for my carpet. -Interestingly, according to modern astronomers, space is finite. This is a very comforting thought - particularly for people who can never remember where they have left things. -94.5% of all statistics are made up. -I failed to make the chess team because of my height. -I was thrown out of college for cheating on the meta...
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Learning in Classrooms
2007-04-14 01:35:00
"Opportunities to Learn in America's Elementary Class rooms." That attention-getting title headed an article in the March 30th issue of the prestigious journal Science. Reporting on a study of over 2500 classrooms in 1000 elementary schools, the article reported that children across the grades spent over 90% of their time in whole-group or individual seat work with minimal time spent in small group instruction. Overall, they concluded that "opportunities to learn ... proved highly variable and did not appear congruent with the high performance standards expected for students or for teachers as described in most state teacher certification and licensure documents." How are we to interpret these less than ideal findings? The answer is "It depends."
More About: Achievement , Learning , Room

Help for Older Students
2007-04-06 01:25:00
A teacher recently wrote to me, asking if the techniques in Phonics Plus Five could be adapted for older students--ages 12-17--who have poor reading skills. The answer happily is YES. The issues involve a host of complex factors and it's best if they are dissected into manageable pieces. So for now, I'll cover some of the issues in comprehension.
More About: Reading , Students

The One That Appears in Many Guises
2007-04-01 23:02:00
In a recent interview I gave for a local educational TV program, one of the first questions put to me was, "Why are there so many reading programs? Parents constantly call in, saying that the wide array leaves them confused and unable to determine which program is the right one for them to use?" My immediate reaction was, and continues to be, "Technically, there may be a large number of programs. But the variety is deceptive because all are variations on a single theme. In one form or another, they represent teaching that is based on the "sounding out" ideas and rules of traditional phonics. There would be nothing wrong with this--if the approach was effective. Unfortunately, it is not. It has for generations been responsible for enormously high failure rates--including the current national failure rate which steadily hovers around the 40% level. Given its lack of effectiveness, one might wonder why the approach continues to hold center stage.
More About: Reading , That , Pears , Ears , The O

A Valuable Resource If You Have a Child in Special Education
2007-03-25 01:23:00
For children in special education, there is one resource that far and away outranks all the other help they receive. That resource is their parents. Their commitment and devotion make them, by far, the strongest advocates a child can have. But motivation is not enough. It must be paired with solid information. One of the best places to get that information is Wrightslaw--Special Education Law & Advocacy. If you would like to check out the website, just go to http://www.wrightslaw.com/info/rti.index. htm
More About: Tips , Child , Have

What A Difference A Letter Makes
2007-03-22 11:26:00
Spelling accuracy has nowhere near the clout it had in days of yore. But those who still value correct spelling might enjoy seeing what a change in a letter or two can do to some tried and true concepts. Intaxication: Euphoria at getting a tax refund, which lasts until you realize it was your money to start with. Bozone: The substance surrounding stupid people that stops bright ideas from penetrating Giraffiti: Vandalism spray-painted very, very high. Sarchasm: The gulf between the person who makes a cynical remark and the person who doesn't get it. Inoculatte: To take coffee intravenously when you are running late. Karmageddon: When everybody is sending off all these really bad vibes and the Earth explodes. Decafalon: The grueling event of getting through the day consuming only things that are good for you. Beelzebug: Satan in the form of a mosquito that gets into your bedroom at three in the morning and cannot be cast out. Reintarnation: Coming back to life as a hillb...
More About: Letter , Make , Difference , Ferenc , Diff