My expertise is in reading/literacy and many years of teaching experience 
albeit with "at risk" students often, e.g. basic (below) English classes high 
school where up to half my students were RSP (learning disabilities) and had 
the inclusion cluster of 7 - 8 children in my 5/6 multiage classroom.  And my 
last years teaching in a 2/3 class of Native American children behind in 
reading.   I have only the fuzziest belief in special ed as a separate category 
of disabilities but that's another story.  Lots of cross study in special ed 
with the more progressive line of thinkers there.  

sooo have had many children meeting literacy challenges thru the years.  Two 
books that were of enormous practical help to me were Reading with the Troubled 
Reader by Margaret Phinney and Readers and Writers with a Difference by Curt 
Dudley-Marling.  Both authors expertise in special education but both clearly 
believe in learning as constructivist.  Margaret calls her self a whole 
language special ed teacher (that was back in the day!  I still claim whole 
language -- to heck with those who disavowed it.)  anyway, just a thought.

I have read quite a bit about blending being very hard for some kids and not at 
all the approach to use always.
Better to use onset/rhyme.  Much more natural to teach by word families and 
analogy.   bat cat sat/light fright etc.
And I also believe strongly in language experience with kids writing their own 
stories with your scaffolding and reading their own writing!!!  and lots and 
lots of joyful experience reading meaningful texts (at appropriate levels - 
just right) but worth reading and rereading.  Songs come to mind too.

Just some thoughts. 
Sally



On Nov 24, 2012, at 12:33 PM, Linda Rightmire wrote:

> In a volunteer (one-to-one) setting, I was working with three students in
> grade two and three, individually, a half hour each. The one little boy was
> in clearly a different boat than the others -- they were "behind" (a
> little), while he was clearly *at sea*, completely worried about reading,
> it appeared, and much guessing. Didn't like to read, etc.
> 
> I observed both a *lack of directionality* (left to right, that is) and an
> unawareness/inability with *blending* (or even the notion of that).
> 
> These are the suggestions I wrote up to share with the others that worked
> with this little boy (in gr. 2).
> 
> Linda Rightmire
> SD #73 Kamloops, BC
> 
> 
> ================
> 
> Early Reading Confusions
> 
> Marie Clay, who developed Reading Recovery (a much researched one-to-one
> early grades reading intervention), liked to call them 'tiny tots with
> tangled knots'. This is what I saw with Austin.
> 
> Two major problems -- directionality and blending -- he appears to have
> neither (this as of a few weeks back, the only time I saw him).
> 
> DIRECTIONALITY --  children must have an absolutely grounded sense it all
> starts on the left. Austin randomly grabs some letter in the word and
> "guesses".
> 
> Simple example, common for people to point to the ending of a word -- "you
> need a 's' sound here" or some such. Clay teaches, *always* start with your
> (adult) finger on the left of the word to re-inforce this left-to-right
> directionality (sliding it over while you say the sounds to get to that
> ending). (We also teach chunking -- this was referred to in the workshop
> and would be applicable with longer words.)
> 
> Directionality can be reinforced in this gimmick for teaching how to
> remember b and d -- huge issue that lasts for some kids into even grade
> three and four. I found this method to be far better than the classic
> "bed", a visual device many teachers use -- better probably because of the
> motor and kinesthetic (muscle) involvement in the practice (multi-sensory
> in several ways -- voice, hands, head).
> 
> • get the child (you model) to make with EACH hand the shape we sometimes
> make to signal "A-okay" -- the thumb and forefinger touching tips to make a
> circle, but you must keep the remaining fingers quite rigid and straight up
> -- stress this because it (a) looks more like a b and d but also (b)
> because of the muscular *effort*, the impact on memory is bigger.
> 
> • then you remind the child, "all reading is left to right, right?" and you
> note how their alphabet on the classroom wall starts with a on the left.
> There is, with your hands, an *imaginary* a on the left of the left hand
> that makes a b, and an *imaginary* c in between the hands (prior to the d).
> 
> • you model and insist the child do all these actions -- head nods down
> toward the 'a' (imaginary) while you say "A", then nods down (touching, or
> not) to the 'b' and say "B", then nod to the middle and the imaginary 'c'
> and say "C", then nod to the right hand, the 'd' (touching or not) and say
> "D". Do it slow and even a little exaggerated. (Praise, etc.)
> 
> I have insisted kids practice this, frequently would ask them to show me. I
> observed even kids as late as grade three and four in their reading *and*
> their writing, doing this with their hands down in their laps while they
> tried to remember which was which. Yes be a tyrant about it --  but a fun
> tyrant. :-)
> 
> BLENDING
> 
> I note that Austin seemed to be completely at sea about this. We teach
> children to start at the left and to HUM the sounds together (but you may
> need to spend time learning what "humming" is! -- many kids don't know the
> word, assume nothing). Children often haven't been explicitly taught this
> step, from the separated sounds to (slowly) HUMMING them together.
> 
> First, though, we work on "saying it fast" and "saying it slow". This is
> done through long nonsense words that we rhyme, first.
> 
> "My turn: hamburger, ramburger, famburger... " etc. "Okay *you* pick a long
> word, what shall we try?" (Maybe the child's name, or something else
> familiar -- "Celista" -- whatever.) "Celista, Melista, Welista" etc. The
> child may need a little or a lot of practices to get the hang of this.
> (Then, "My turn: Christmas, wismas, sismas, fismas" or whatever. Etc.) It's
> commonplace that the kids needing the extra help are not at all *flexible*
> with their phonemic awareness (and manipulation) -- (the Anna Banna Bo
> Banna song is a classic and perfect 'game' re this).
> 
> Then you are going to work with "saying it slow" -- make it a game, "I'm
> going to try to trick you" -- "ham......  bur...... ger". Of course the
> child knows you are saying 'hamburger'. Pick a few long words to do.
> 
> Then you will work on single short words (this is all auditory so you don't
> need to restrict yourself to CVC words -- consonant-vowel-consonant). You
> pick a word like "made" -- first completely separate the sounds  mmmm.....
> ay....   d....  and then demonstrate how you will BLEND (use that word)
> them together -- but still quite slowly. (I often get kids, my hand on
> their dominant hand, to slide left to right, across the table or even their
> knee, to add to the kinesthetic factor.) After you use a few simple words,
> switch it up by using the child's name, school name, child's mom's name,
> etc. Get the child to pick some words to try to trick you by saying them
> slow -- if he can't think of a word you can say, "pick a word from your
> spelling" or "pick a word from the title" etc.
> 
> 
> WORD FAMILIES
> 
> Just to note, through all the phonics "wars" etc. -- word families are one
> of the few constants that research has supported (forever). You can make it
> fun by saying, "Okay we need some exercise" and then you are going to
> *jump* to "mad.... sad.... bad.... glad....  had...  "   The kids will all
> have worked with word families but some may have trouble bringing examples
> to mind so you can say, "Okay now we're doing the -at family" -- say a few
> first (four or five), then "Okay here we go!"  Etc.
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