Posted on 12/17/2014 5:52:27 PM PST by Jamestown1630
Oooops - s/b ReadinG.
(What a mistake to make! on my own thread about readin’ and writin’ :-)
-JT
That's why teachers unions fight testing teachers tooth-and-nail. They know what would be exposed.
I learned to read by looking at candy wrappers.
C H O C O L A T E.
You learned to read by learning phonics, how each letter or combination of letters sounded. And you will probably still use that method with unfamiliar words. Now that your reading skills have matured, you recognize patterns of letters that form words and don’t have to read individual letters anymore.
Mid-fifties. We learned to sing the alpahbet, perhaps in Kindergarten, then write the letters and start with sounds and short words
Dick and Jane readers. Mom, Dad, Dick, Jane, and Sally, with Spot the dog.
See Jane.
See Jane run.
One word at a time, building skills with new vocabulary.
Then, sometime second or third grade, got introduced to something called SMA or SME (or some such acronym), a cardboard box with ever more difficult readings, starting from the front and working to the back.
That was the most fascinating set of books I had ever seen, and wonderfully engaging. I really believe my reading skills were shaped more by that than anything since.
Of course, parents that kept all manner of reading material in front of us didn’t hurt, either. LIFE and LOOK magazines, Reader’s Digest, local newspapers...even the TV Guide.
In fcat, you can siltl rogneczie wdros eevn if tehy are wertitn in the wnorg oerdr.
We learned with Dick and Jane readers. “Look, Jane, look. Look. Look. Look.”
It was repetitive and it was basicly “This is what the word ‘look’ looks like.” The actual learning became a cascade. It wasn’t that you had to stop and be told each word...it became intuitive and somewhat phonetic. And our vocabulary grew exponentially.
It all worked. The difference is that we taught ourselves with guidance, in a way. I do not see the same happening now and hence kids who simply cannot read.
At least thats how I vaguely recall it.
Readin’, writin’, and ‘rithmatic.
I am an engineer/scientist and have taken almost every college math course there is. I have also taught my kids and grand kids what they need to be successful in math. As a result of my kids and grand kids I have had long lasting battles with my local California school districts, over the last 40 years, as to why they refuse to teach basic math in elementary school. Here are the 2 basic secrets required to reach math to anyone: 1) be able to count and 2) memorize and I mean memorize the addition, subtraction, multiplication, and division math facts for example 2+1=3, 2+2=4, 2+3=5, etc. Once your 7 year old child can spout back the math facts, without thinking, he/she will be able to master math for the rest of their life. If a person does not memorize the math facts, they will never master even the basics of math such as fraction operations.
When I was in the first and second grade in 1953 and 1954 we spent half of every school day practicing these math facts. That was all we did.
Today, when I ask the elementary school teachers and admins why they refuse to teach kids math facts, they tell me it is boring to the children. So as a result, 80% of the high school graduates live in fear of math.
Yes; there were always lots of books in our house - OLD books, since my father married late, and his mother married very young. They also never ‘talked-down’ to us; they always used very literate adult language, and we just picked it up by some kind of ‘osmosis’. (And reading the newspaper every day was a Big Deal. I started with the ‘funny papers’...)
Some of the books in the house were so old, it took me forever to quit writing words like “color” as “colour”. (I still accidentally revert to it, and the spell-demon chastises me.)
I think part of my facility came from really WANTING to read. Desire is a big part of any accomplishment. And I know that the ‘phonics’ technique was used, though I never heard that word until around the 1980s (my younger husband doesn’t recall hearing about ‘phonics’ when he was trained, either...)
-JT
Isn’t the brain amazing? I had lunch with a group today. The conversation came around to eyeglasses & one lady said that her doctor recommended one contact for distance & one for close up (as she was frustrated by having multiple pairs of glasses). He said it would take two weeks for her brain to sort things out, & most people didn’t have the patience for it. After four days she finally started seeing properly - for just a couple of hours. Then it kept getting longer & longer & now she doesn’t think twice about it & sees normally.
I am left eye dominate up close and right eye dominate on distances.
My now teens went to a Lutheran grade school. The teacher for the primary levels drilled and drilled those math facts! All three of my kids are mathematically competent. That school also did not allow calculators (through grade 8) and my kids have no problem calculating things in their heads.
I remember ‘Dick and Jane’. But what books did the teachers use, to teach the kids? That’s what I’m trying to find; a manual or teacher’s guide, from that era.
-JT
Comic books were very big in our house, too. I remember whole summers lost in Wonder Woman and Superman - in between that era’s version of romantic historical novels.
The writers of comic books in those days were actually educated people; a lot of real wit and literacy went into comic books.
-JT
Golden books.
Phonics fill-in books.
Dr. Seuss.
Over and over.
And songs.
For adults: the newspaper. Especially the ads and sports pages.
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