Thoughts on Reading, Writing, and 'Rithmetic

This is Debbie:

One thing I like about working at ALP is -- seeing a student's confidence grow as they move through our program

One of my favorite experiences with a student was the time when -- a third grader said, "This means I don't have to guess when I read!"

Before coming to ALP, I -- was a case manager for individuals with developmental disabilities

When I was a child, I always wanted to grow up to be a -- cowgirl

People say I -- talk with my hands

One of my favorite books of all time is -- To Kill a Mockingbird by Harper Lee

Something I really hate -- flat tires

If I could use one word to describe myself, it would be -- complex

Most children's books come with brightly colored pictures to go along with the words. This helps stimulate comprehension for little ones whose understanding of the words may need some backup. As students get older, the number of pictures in books diminishes until adults are left with cover art and not much else. The reasoning behind the decreasing pictures is that older readers are expected to make pictures in their heads and depend less on the ones provided to them. For those with weak comprehension, however, looking at the pictures may be their main strategy for understanding the text.

Avi is a first-grader at ALP for visual-verbal integration, phonemic awareness and visual motor treatment. At first, when we read together, he often had to stop and sound out each word - making it difficult to get meaning from the sentences. He was very dependent on looking at the picture on the page and matching up individual words to the action shown. If a word was particularly difficult, he would stare at the picture and attempt to come up with a word that fit the illustration. His dependence on the picture was interfering with his reading, and his comprehension.

After a few weeks, as his phonemic awareness began to stabilize, I tried an experiment. When it was time to read, I covered the picture on the page with a blank piece of paper and told Avi we were going to focus on the words.

He pushed at the hand holding the paper down. "But I like the pictures!"

"We can look at the picture as soon as we've read the words. Then we can see if the picture looks like the one we made in our heads."

He seemed unsure, but agreed to give it a try. It was hard at first. He was still struggling to decode words, so the pictures in his head were often unclear - if he had formed one at all. We re-read sentences after the words had been decoded to help form pictures. Often, when the book's picture was revealed, Avi would light up with an "OH! Now I get it!"

We kept at it, focusing on reading fluently so the sentences made pictures in his head. After a while, Avi quit trying to peek at the picture before we read. He would giggle as he read, sometimes even stopping to tell me what he pictured in his head for the words. His comprehension was becoming more and more automatic.

Then one day, we read a story about a fox, and when the picture was unveiled, Avi frowned.

"They didn't do it right," he said in disappointment.

"Oh?"

He pointed to the fox. "I pictured the fox being sneakier and hiding like this." He gave me a quick demonstration of the fox hiding.

I grinned. "So, whose picture do you like better? Yours or the one in the book?"

"Mine."

Mission accomplished.

Imaging content with Avi can still be a struggle, but now that the pictures in his head are getting stronger, I have no doubt he'll be fine when he moves on to books without pictures.

“When we practice phonics rules, you can do it without checking our list almost all the time, right?”

Sam gave a cautious nod, still focused on the little machine on the other side of my elbow.

“And when we practice common endings like 'tion'  you’ve got it down, no sweat, right?”

Another nod.

“What we’re doing now is taking all that information that you’ve got about how words work, and using it to make sure what we wrote on here –“ I pointed to the page “- matches up with what is in your head.”

He seemed a little suspicious. I laid the paper back down and pointed to a word.

Indeeun.

“Indian,” he read.

I nodded. “That has all the right sounds in it. We could use the spell checker now, but I want you to think about endings. Is there an ending on our word?”

Sam thought. “ Yeah – un.”

“Say it again. There’s a little more to it.”

He repeated the word. “Oh! Ee-un!”

“Great work! Now, is there an ending that says that?”

“I-o-n?”

“Or?” I prompt.

“I-a-n.”

“Which one of those do we usually use when we’re talking about people?”

“I-a-n.” Sam erased and scribbled in the new letters.

“Congratulations, Sam. You didn’t need the spell-checker for this one.”

He actually smiled when I said that.

We’re still working on thinking through words and waiting on the whole question before answering, but Sam’s attitude toward the help has changed dramatically. He’s willing to try to figure it out on his own, and more often than not, he’s right. The spell checker is still available when he needs it, and he likes to double check, but it’s not his main strategy anymore. He had the tools, but he hadn’t made the connection that he could use them independently. That connection has made all the difference in our sessions, and hopefully, in Sam’s success. 

Rachel Phelps, Clinician

PS - Last week Sam proofed two pages without using the spell checker at all!

This is Sarah:

Educational Info: Bachelor's in Elementary Education from MidAmerica Nazarene University; currently pursuing a Master's in Education from MNU.

One thing I like about working at ALP is -- working one on one with many different students

Before coming to ALP, I -- was a waitress at Outback Steakhouse

When I was a child, I always wanted to grow up to be a -- teacher 

One of my favorite books of all time is -- The Missing Piece, by Shel Silverstein

This is Rachel:

Education info: Bachelors in English Literature from MidAmerica Nazarene University

The thing I like about working at ALP is -- seeing the kids start to have fun while learning

One of my favorite experiences with a student was the time when -- a student asked me what a 'bird can' was after reading the sentence, "The bird can fly high."

Before coming to ALP, I -- was the editor-in-chief of the MNU student newspaper and editor-in-chief of Bluestem, the creative arts annual publication.

People say I -- act like a mother hen with my friends

One of my favorite books of all time is -- The Hawk and the Dove by Penelope Wilcock

Something I really hate -- fried okra

If I could use one word to describe myself, it would be -- devoted

Right up there with learning to read and rhyme is learning to count and use numbers. In kindergarten, math can still be fun.

identify numbers 1-20 – after all, we only get to 3 when our parents are counting.

count by ones, fives and tens – thus assisting in requesting cookies.

do short 'story problems' (if you have 3 kittens and give 1 to me, how many do you have?) – also reinforcing that “sharing” concept that we all struggle with occasionally.

The harder number stuff comes later in school, but it all builds on the successful understanding of these basic concepts. Some students may be introduced to more than this, but these are the foundational pieces. If your child is out of kindergarten and still struggling, don’t wait till he is in Algebra 2 before you look into getting help.

ALP has worked with students ages 5 to 50, and the earlier the intervention, the better the student can compensate further on in life.

Rachel Phelps

Clinician

The ABCs are the building blocks for kindergarten – not to mention the rest of school. Usually children start manipulating sounds in spoken words before they reach kindergarten.  They can make up silly rhyming words by manipulating beginning sounds--for example, Susie makes up a new name for her sister and calls her "Silly Jilly". 

But in kindergarten, learning about the funny shapes called “letters” that we use to put our spoken language into writing begins in earnest.  Most kids in kindergarten have the phonemic awareness they need to really take off with using the alphabetic system.  Somewhere between 10 and 20 per cent of children will need help with developing that phonemic awareness, however.

Word games are a delight in kindergarten, a joy that should never cease throughout life. Here are a few things that a kindergartener should be able to do by the end of the kindergarten year:

- orally identify beginning and ending sounds (not necessarily letters) in words AND

- orally identify the middle sound (not letter) in a short word like 'cat' or 'play' – recognizing different sounds in spoken words is an important step in language processing – the alphabet may be the building blocks, but we all know how English cheats. Sounds come first.

- be able to create rhyming words – because half the fun of childhood is rhyming

- be able to orally omit a sound in order to create a new word (what is 'fat" without the /f/ sound?) - being able to manipulate sounds deson't come quite as easily as manipulating the parents, but it should be there by the end of the year.

recognize, name, and write the letters of the alphabet in both upper case and lower case - but it's not a cause for worry if 'b' and 'd' really take some thought still. 

associate sounds with all the consonant letters and the five "main" vowel letters (a, e, i, o, u) – if only Old McDonald came with a few more vowel sounds, this would be a cinch.

recognize a few sight words (such as 'the') and read sentences containing simple one-syllable words – See Jane run with scissors – oops, that last word’s a little too big, probably a good thing.

One of the best things about working at Applied Learning Processes is hearing about former students who are continuing the successes they began with us.

Last week we got an email from a very happy mom. Her son was with us in 2005 and 2006 as a 1st grader.  His needs were among some of the more severe we've ever seen. We worked with him on phonemic awareness and beginning reading and spelling, language comprehension and math.  Four years later, his parents and his school are still seeing improvement.

He got a 100% on the following spelling list:

remain

pressure

dance

appear

plantation

bear

convey

encyclopedia (yikes)

continue

become

flicker

nose

dungeon

The week before he got an 80% on a math test with almost complete independence. His mom told us that he has been moved into the regular spelling group, and she is looking forward to seeing him continue to improve. So are we!

People can think of kindergarten as a time of learning to play nice with others before starting school, when the real work will begin. While there is a definite element of truth in the essay All I Needed to Know, I Learned in Kindergarten and that way of approaching the kindergarten experience, kindergarten is actually a very important year academically. Aside from learning the Golden Rule and remembering to put away what they get out, children will spend the year learning how to manipulate the alphabet and numbers and establishing a foundation for some basic academic skills.

Here is a partial list of the academic skills your child should have grasped by the end of kindergarten, with an ALP-style twist of humor.

Basic skill set:

coherently retell a story that has been read aloud – keeping the facts straight is important throughout life.

establish right or left-handed dominance – Useful when writing, shaking hands, and eating.

understand time concepts like yesterday, today, tomorrow – Yesterday, I asked for a puppy. Today I am asking for a puppy. Tomorrow I will ask for a puppy again.

understand spatial concepts like over, under, behind, before – because we have to be able to tell our parents where the monsters are hiding.

hold a pencil correctly – even if it seems more fun to scribble, it’s a part of being a big kid.

recognize and name the 8 basic colors - Let’s face it, life without colors would be a terrible thing.

recognize and name basic shapes (square, triangle, circle, rectangle) – Things in life rarely fall in these exact shapes, but it’s a great starting place.

state his/her address and phone number – it’s almost as important as remembering not to talk to strangers and staying put if you realize you’re lost.

There are many other skills a kindergartener will need to have mastered by the end of kindergarten. Check back for more information about kindergarten alphabet and number skills.

If what you’ve read so far has given you some concern for your child, be proactive about potential problems. Early intervention is the key to long-term success.

One of the things the students and I share is a love of the end of an hour. That doesn't mean I dislike my job or any of my students - in fact, the reason break time is so great is that I have those few seconds to chat with the students without our work being the priority. Oh, and there's the stickers. Choosing the appropriate sticker for the hour can be the highlight for both of us.

I have a set of pirate stickers that was the favorite of one of our students in particular. Braden Konzem is a second-grader from Great Bend, KS, who came to us in September, 2009 for intensive phonemic awareness treatment. Braden and I quickly became "pirate buddies" - we put the treasure chest sticker inside his flashcard box and decorated the outside with pirate ships, cannons and "Beware of Pirates" stickers as booby traps in case anyone came searching for the treasure. Braden made excellent progress, but I admit, I was pretty sad to see him go.

Last week, ALP got a call from Braden's mom. She has been thrilled with Braden's progress since he left. Whereas before he came to ALP, he consistently failed spelling tests, he has earned a 100% on every one since his return to school. She also said he is interacting with his peers with much more confidence.

At his nine-week report, Braden was put on the honor roll, something his mom never thought she would see. She is very happy with how her son is progressing, and so are we.

Way to go, Pirate Buddy!

- Rachel Phelps, Clinician