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.
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.
Golden books.
Phonics fill-in books.
Dr. Seuss.
Over and over.
And songs.
For adults: the newspaper. Especially the ads and sports pages.
McGuffey's Readers are still available and still very good at teaching reading.
You want to start with McGuffey Primer.
Taught my two to read using “Reading Made Easy” Started at around 6.5-7 yrs and it took about 3 weeks of 10 minute lessons.
http://www.valeriebendt.com/reading/
Also “Better Late than Early” explains how starting reading lessons “later” is better than pushing early reading
http://www.amazon.com/Better-Late-Than-Early-Education/dp/0883490498
When they stopped teaching phonics was when the trouble began with kids not being able to read or write. That started as far back as about the mid-60’s in some school districts around the country. Rudolph Flesch wrote “Why Johnny Can’t Read” to explain what was happening to the educational system, focusing on reading.
I taught my own kids to read using a method called “Alphaphonics” by Dr. Blumenfeld. The lessons are self-contained in one book that goes step by step. It’s a very natural approach. The book is still available today, and it’s only about $25.
Another great thing Alphaphonics offers are lessons for preschoolers (in the same book) for teaching the alphabet where the child actually learns the letters and doesn’t just memorize the alphabet by singing the song, they actually learn to recognize the individual letters by themselves, out of order. It’s a great
method.
I taught school 1954-56
We used the Dick and Jane books.
Reading was very phonics oriented.
.
I home schooled my kids (1 graduated summa cum laude in math/music, the other other about to graduate in computer science)
1. Read aloud to your children/grandchildren every day.
2. Read more aloud to your children/grandchildren every day.
3. Keep them away from electronic screens until after they are 2 years old.
4. Limit screen time to 1/2 hour/day til 5-7 years. TV destroys attention spans — trains the brain to expect new input every few seconds.
5. Abeka has a great phonics book. Readers, though, not so great. Use the library.
6. Know that many boys are not neurologically ready to read before they are 6 - 10 years old. It is NOT a learning disability! There’s a reason boys didn’t start school until they were 7 or 8 for most of history. My son didn’t read until he was 9 years old. He got the basics of Newton and Bernouli at 7 and aced college English at 16.
7. When kids start reading, have them read the periods (voice goes down at the end of a sentence), commas (pause), and question marks (voice goes up). They will have no problems with fragments or run ons if they can do this — natural grammar. This also helps kids who have trouble reading in later years. I’ve seen it help kids with a 4th grade reading level understand Mark Twain.
Next I remember reading in the second grade about a boy hunting turkey. It got my attention.
can you imagine, teaching young men to make meat today !!! LOL
I grew up with the Dick and Jane series of readers and a weekly magazine called the ‘Weekly Reader’ that was grade-specific.
some examples of the great illustrations in the Dick and Jane series can be seen here:
http://www.tagnwag.com/forsale/dick_jane_pages/matted/NWLS/index-nwls.html
Having home schooled our kids we used “The Writing Road to Reading”. Basically phonetics but using three senses feel(writing), hearing and seeing. I personally hated (past tense) reading, a large part being the lousy John/Jane books. I read encyclopedias, science and nonfiction. As another said the desire needs to be there and it can be instilled.
Another person mentioned the need to memorize arithmetic facts and counting (seeing how ones progress to tens which progress to hundreds). Also, being a research scientist I whole heartily agree. Without these two, the kid will be totally lost. Also, when someone has problem later with math and has these two foundations, it is usually that they missed a simple small fact, and that tiny point needs to be found.