Engage Your Brain!

What to do when Johnny gives up, Part 3

Ensure his success

If we can get a child who has failed repeatedly to try one more time, it is supremely important that he achieve success with the new approaches to learning you are using. What follows are some suggestions for ensuring success for your failing child.  Choose tasks carefully:      Choose a book very carefully when you have a child read, so that the language in the book is familiar to him. If the books contains sight words ( see our Easy-For-Me books ), teach the sight words first using the stylized sight word cards. Then when it is time to read the book, lay the necessary sight words on the table in front of the child and let him begin to read. If he comes to a word he does not recognize on sight, just point to the correct stylized sight word on the table. Don't make him wait. During subsequent readings of the same book, the child will know to refer to the stylized cards if needed. Let him initiate turning over the cards to the plain side once he's sure he's not going to need the picture again. Be absolutely certain he understands the task:      I recall being in graduate school, sitting in class, and the prof quickly giving verbal directions - comprised of words I recognized, but the combination of those "known" words made no sense to me. I am not an auditory learner. I would scan the room and note that most people set right to work and this knowledge increased my sense of panic and frustration. I had heard the words, but did not make any sense out of them. As an adult, I knew enough to ask a neighbor or ask the prof for clarification. A child, however, will not necessarily know how to help himself. Some children absolutely must have a visual (chart, diagram, words written, etc.), the goal stated clearly, and time to clarify before they can proceed with assurance with the task. (See a graphic about visual learners/multisensory learning here:) Teach with visuals and graphics Teach with stories Teach with patterns Teach with movement Teach by relating lesson elements to known objects     An example:      When you teach a child the meaning of a fraction, even a young child can understand this concept if you use graphics. Use known objects as well. Draw a horizontal line. Say, "This is a table." Draw two legs. Draw a box under the "table" and say, this is the drawer where I keep my tools. Inside my tool drawer, I have six tools: a hammer, a saw, a screwdriver, nails, a glue bottle, and sandpaper. I am going to build a birdhouse. I will put the tools I need on the table. To build a birdhouse, I will use the saw, the hammer, the nails, and the sandpaper. I have six tools, but I will only use four today." As you are talking, write a 6 under the table and a 4 on the table. Do all of the above in each lesson:

To deepen the experience and to make it unforgettable, actually act out this experience with your child. Get a toolbox to place under his desk. Have him count the tools in it and then select a few for a specific project. Only after he's acted out the problem should you transition to symbols on the paper.

Our Alphabet Tales follows beautifully the teaching elements suggested above. Check out sample stories here :  scroll down until you see the cover of the book, then click on that cover.

What to do when Johnny gives up, Part 2

Do something radically different:

When at first we don't succeed with a child, we must NOT try and try again using techniques that have already failed to bring good results! This is like shouting in someone's "good ear" so they will understand you when you are speaking a language they do not understand. (This has happened to me). Instead, try some radically different approaches, and thus avoid bringing renewed failure to the child. What follows are some ideas on how to approach the same ole' stuff in a radically different way.

If a child cannot decode:

     Do it backwards: Use our stylized sight words first and abandon decoding for now. Some children learn best from whole to part instead of from part to whole. IE: learn the whole word, then break it down into its parts rather than having to manage many many sounds and then learn how to arrange them into a meaningful word. Some children need to see the point of what they are learning; what all the bits are going to mean in the end, and if they just have to learn what to them seems like myriad sounds and letters, they will feel swamped and lost. If they can learn some words using the stylized cards, they will understand the reason or goal behind learning and manipulating all those sounds and symbols.

If a child cannot order sounds/letters correctly when writing:

     Give him something tangible to relate the new concept to. For instance, if you want him to write "cat," hold up three fingers and point to each finger while you pronounce each sound in the word. This will give him a visual map of the sequence and location of the sounds, as well as the number of sounds involved. A visual, tangible object acts as an anchor and will organize the bits of information nicely for him. (Do not use letter names, as we do not say letter names inside a word. We say only sounds). If the child omits a sound or reverses the sounds, do not spell the word, rather, refer back to your finger map and have him watch as you sound together again. Finally, he should say each sound in "cat" as he writes each letter symbol.

In these illustrations, we have mapped three-letter and four-letter words. Note that the word is mapped so that the child facing you can see the correct sequence. If the child omits a sound, refer to the finger that represents that sound. Have the child sound with you. Be sure that he sounds each sound outloud as he writes. This practice of fingermapping and sounding combines several modalities into one simple yet powerful teaching practice. Sounding while writing combines the auditory with the visual and kinesthetic modalities. There is a direct tie between the letter being written and the sound being spoken and heard, and the visual the child is seeing himself write. This is really good stuff!

If a child cannot pass a spelling test:

     Rather than giving him a set of random words to study, choose words that have something in common, such as a sound spelling (ex: --ay ending). Giving him a pattern that is common to all the words will teach him far better than not. Then go further and try and arrange the spelling words in a sentence that uses them all or most of them. For instance, for "--ay" words, "Say, I may play in the spray all day, Jay." or "The jay may lay in the hay by the bay today." If he colors the "ay" part of each word, you will be adding a visual anchor to that sound spelling that will simplify his task greatly. Let the child illustrate the spelling words sentences. The act of memorization will be submerged under the alacrity with which the brain tunes into the visual and rhythmical elements in the activity. Those pathways to the brain are so much more positive and productive for a child.

If a child is struggling with math facts:

     Utilize different modalities: Rather than cutting his required problems in half (so that he has half the misery instead of the whole thing) use pictures and patterns to teach the facts rather than simple memorization or tedious counting up. For instance, when teaching sums, do the sums that equal a particular target number rather than mixing up the sums.
     Example: Rather than doing 2+5, 3+6, 1+4, etc, with the child monotonously counting fingers or dots to arrive at the answer, teach the sums to 6 (for example) together, and in a pattern: 0+6, 1+5, 2+4, 3+3. Better yet, use your fingers to map the problems just like you did in sounding out a word. Group all the fingers from one hand plus the thumb of the other hand to show 0+6. Next, hold the five fingers from one hand away from the thumb of the other hand to show 1+5. Two thumbs touching with four fingers together maps 2+4, etc. When you have finished mapping 3+3, there is no more! Give him plastic chips and two bowls and challenge him to find any more combinations that equal that target number. See if he concludes there are no more combinations.
     Write the sums in a row and see if the child identifies the pattern in the array of sums:
0     1     2     3
6     5     4     3
If you start with the zero and move to the right, then hop down and to the left, the numbers are progressively getting bigger. Even numbers will always have a same number on the far right, while odd numbers won't.
0     1     2     3
7     6     5     4

Use a "math version" of fingermapping for math facts: Listen closely now as I say the next thing because it is really radical. Having a child do beginning computation by counting up, counting dots, counting on his fingers, etc., is not going to help him understand number combinations, will not help him gain the sense of the "how many" of a  number, will not allow him to absorb patterns in numbers. In fact, those practices of doing early computation will, in the long run, slow him down. When he reaches 3rd grade and is given timed tests, or math work that requires a rapid use of computation facts, these early means for coming up with an answer will not serve well. In addition, many children who learned to compute in those ways keep on doing it that way through high school.

     Do it in a radically different way: Let the child learn to compute using visual/kinesthetic patterns. Start out with preschoolers by playing lots of dot games, such as Dominoes. These visual number games will provide an important background in number sense (or the "how many is five" sense we want the kids to have). When it is time to compute, use real, visual tools again. Introduce the basic math facts using finger mapping again. For visual learners or right-brained learners who cannot memorize and do not respond to drilling of facts, fingermapping is a life-saver!

     Use something familiar: The child's own hand is very familiar to him. He knows from a young age that he has five fingers. When you show a sum on his own five fingers, there is no chance he will drop one of the elements. Because his hand is a shape/pattern unique to him, seeing a sum on his own hand will provide an instant visual of the problem he is working. Do the sums that equal four as an example. You and the child will hold up four fingers. Rather than asking the child to count his fingers, ask him to guess how many he has up. He needs to rely on his visual sense now. To show him the sums that equal five, you will model moving one finger away from the other three while you say, "1+4 is 5." If you flip your hand over, he will see that that same array of fingers shows "4+1 is 5." Next, separate two fingers from the other two. Say, "2+3 is 5." When a child is solving computation problems urge him to make the problem on his hands and see the answer, rather than counting up. The next step is for him to visualize his own hands making the array. Soon he will not have to make the fingermap, nor imagine the fingermap. See the illustrations at left:

For sums higher than 5, simply use two hands. 6 is a hand and a thumb, 7 is a hand    

                          plus two, 8 is a hand plus 3, 9 is a hand plus 4, and finally, 10 is my two hands!

 

What to Do When Johnny Gives Up - 1

Let him lead (put him back in charge of his world)       When a child has given up, it is because he has failed frequently enough that he will fight doing anything that might produce another failure. He simply cannot afford to fail again. The resulting behaviors should not be our focus. A child who refuses to face failure again will display various behaviors; an "I don't care" attitude, acting outrageous, attitude of rebellion, "laziness," among them.

     Our attempts to correct or punish those secondary behaviors will simply produce new problems. Instead, we must zero in on the underlying sense of discouragement and helplessness and purpose to do anything in our power to help.

     We would like to share some activities with you that will help the child feel more in control of his learning. It is all about choices you give him. None of this is rocket science, but hopefully it will give you some more ideas!

Learning Sight Words ~ use the pocket chart sized cards:

*Ask the child how many words he wants to work on first. Follow his lead as to the number chosen.

*Ask him to go through the deck and choose the sight words he wants to learn. Again, let him choose.

*Ask him how long he needs to learn the words. If he is the one choosing, he will be far more likely to follow through. Ask if he has anyone at home that will check him on his words.

*When you play a game with him using the sight words, let him ask you to give an answer each time you ask him to. For instance, play BINGO with his group of sight words. Let him answer first, but then let him do the calling. If you purposely miss a word now and then, let him correct you. After all, he will be reading the words and that is what counts.

*If you are doing a one-on-one with a child, offer choices of 2-3 activities, all of which are good and in line with what he needs, but let him choose the one he'd prefer to do. There are many ways to learn/review sight words, and letting the child choose will go a long way towards his active participation.

*Put the group of words he is learning on the table in front of him. Model for him putting together 3-4 words to make a phrase. Put the cards in order in front of him while you read what you made. For example: "Come play with me." These are all words from List A. Let him have a turn next. If he can put two words together that make sense, praise him. Example: "Jump down," or "Come here."

*Using snack baggies, put 3-4 word phrase in a baggie and ask the child to unscramble the phrase. If you think he needs the prompt, point out the first word in the phrase. When he has put the words in order, let him read them to you. Now it is his turn to make a phrase for you. When you are putting the words in order, model for him your thinking process about the order you are choosing so he can learn from you. Talk about what makes sense or what can't make sense in the order of the words.

*Choose several words from the child's current group and let him write the words on plain note cards (or you do it, depending on ability level of the child and his level of discouragement). The task will be to match the plain words on the notecards with the stylized sight words in a short a time as possible. Let him practice once first to get the hang of the game, and then ask him when he's ready for you to time him. Let him also time you doing the same activity.

Some activities you may offer the child as a means of reviewing sight words:

1- Put together a short phrase with some of his words then illustrate what he "wrote" using his favorite art materials. Let him tell you about what he drew.
2- Have him choose 2-3 of his words to re-stylize in his own design. Encourage him to share his thoughts as he stylized the words.
3- Use plain words and stylized words in a Memory game.
4- Put all his words in an array on the table in front of him (let him make the array) and give him an attractive object to act as marker. Call out a word at a time and have him put the marker on the word you called. (Or use as many markers or chips as there are words). If you call the word "play" and he marks "funny," ask him to give you the first sound of the word he chose. ("ffff") Ask, "Can this word be 'play' if it starts with "fff?" Let him try again, thus prompting him to watch for initial sound.
5- Orally do sentence completion. You will say, for instance, "I want to _____." You want the child to finish the sentence with one of his sight words. If he chooses "play," you will say "great job" and then let him have a turn if he wants one. If his answer is "funny," and he correctly reads the word, let that turn into a chat about comprehension. "Does 'I want to funny' make sense? If not, what other word can we use that might make more sense?"
6- Play a game where you call out a word from the array in front of him and he quickly finds it. Then he will call out a word for you to find. This game should move as quickly as possible. An alternate version is for you to ask the child to point to a word he knows and read it to you.

 

A Flash!! or a Drill?

All Kinds of Brains:

If we know there are no two brains alike, that there are many types of learners, and that there are multiple pathways to the brain, why so often do we present new material to all children in the same way? Kids don't learn to read in the same way. What works fine for some children does not work at all with others. The argument that rages between phonics people and whole language people is missing the point. Neither option is enough on its own. There are ways of teaching that create a flash of understanding, an ease of learning, an indelible memory created. Unfortunately all too often we don't use those ways of teaching.

How Reading is Traditionally Taught:

When we teach reading in the accepted way, we teach children their letter names (ay, be, see, dee), a corresponding sound (ay says a as in apple), how to put those symbols in a correct sequence (abcdefghijklmnopqrstuvwxyz), (so far we are memorizing still, right?) then we add some rules for decoding (i before e except after c, most of the time), memorization of sight words (words that appear most frequently in all texts for children), and we add to this the expectation that children will successfully memorize endless sequences of letters (spelling) which they will use correctly in their writing.

The Results:

A quick glance around a typical school will show us the results of teaching all children this same way. In each classroom, there are a handful of children who just absorb all this sequential stuff as though through their pores. These are the children who can see a word once and just remember it. They would learn to read if you stuck them in a paper bag with a stack of books. They would figure out the pattern and the code for reading. Another group of children work at learning to read and do ok with it, but many of them do not enjoy reading, and many don't understand what they are reading because they are so focused on the task of recognizing the words and saying them correctly (which is what they think reading is). Another group of children lags sadly behind the rest and this group begins to struggle and then fail in any discipline that requires reading. The final group of children just don't make it. A lot of testing and sorting goes on, children are identified and named by the skills they do not acquire and they are often removed from the regular classroom and are sorted into small groups where intensive efforts commence to help them learn to read.

One Way That Does Not Work:

The one thread that runs through every part of the traditional process of learning to read is memorization. This is really the culprit; not the design of the child's brain. Those children who are labeled as "learning disabled" or "severely learning disabled" MIGHT actually be more accurately identified as:

• one who cannot memorize strings of symbols or rules
• one who learns far better with visuals, global maps and patterns
• movement is the key to learning and remembering for this child
• seeing the WHY behind the learning is critical to knowledge acquisition for this child
• sequencing is hard for this child
• needs to see correlation between previously learned material and new material
• must have more than one pathway to the brain for knowledge acquisition
• needs to tie new learning to concrete, known objects
• this child remembers when the "rule" is embedded in a story
• this child has to do and say it in order to learn - not listen or watch it done
• this child cannot make good sense out of auditory instruction (listening)

Differentiated Instruction?

In the effort to reach all these various types of learners, schools are moving towards small group instruction, instructional goals for each student, differentiated instruction, interventions planned for each child in each area of failure. I've been there and have done that. How was it? Hmmm. I spent more time filling out forms, writing plans, documenting, etc., than I did in preparing engaging lessons for my students. I HAD to fill out the paperwork in order to keep my job, and when time ran out, unfortunately lessons were less than scintillating. I didn't feel very good about this.

Are There Magic Bullets?

I've worked with children in various settings; small group resource and special ed, individual interventions, ell, regular classroom, looping 1st-2nd, and tutoring. The arena that afforded me the least amount of freedom to follow the learning I saw happening was the regular classroom. After my last two years of teaching in the regular classroom, I took serious inventory: how every single child did during the year (progess, lack of progress, areas that were strengthened, areas that still were not strong enough), how I planned instruction, how I balanced demands placed on me by the district and administration, and most importantly, how various parts of the instructional day paid off in terms of huge growth. I was able to identify the practices in my classroom that resulted in enormous gains for all the children, and sadly was also able to quickly identify which "lessons" resulted in no gains or minimal gains. When I had reflected on all my experiences with children, some specific ideas gelled for me based on the years of research with real kids. Are there magic bullets for teaching all children? I truly believe there are. The best thing about these "magic practices" is that learning is far more rapid and effortless for the child.

High-Yielding Practices:

The "magic bullets" or the teaching practices that yielded the highest results include: (double click on visuals to enlarge them)

• Use of visuals integrated into symbols in order to access the visual cortex - totally powerful and effective in most children. Visuals with symbols embedded in them are "snapped" like a photo and are recalled intact later. Here is an example:
• Fronts of cards show the word embedded in an image, while the backs show the plain word in the same font, include a body motion to accompany the word, and finish with the word used correctly in a sentence which will aid in comprehension.

The alphabet can be taught by embedding visuals with the letters. The upsidedown umbrella not only relates the shape of the letter to a known object, but also provides a visual reminder of the shape of the letter. The accompanying jingle provides a rhythmic hook for memory for those children who learn best via rhyme and verse.

• Use of Stories along with visuals to convey ideas we want the children to learn. Instead of memorizing the fact that lowercase b has the "bulb" of the letter pointing to the right, while the lowercase d points to the left, we use a visual AND a mini-story.In the first visual, children see a bed they can make with their hands to show how b and d are formed. In teaching children to recognize their ABCs and remember the associated sound, rather than memorizing and then chanting this information, we use Alphabet Tales, a full color book of stories that explain exactly why each letter came to be formed as it is. Once children hear the story and see the visuals, they do not forget.    In the second picture, the visual shows the backwards J having a sharp point that will POP the O, while in the lower visual, the sharp point on the J is turned safely away from the letter that follows it. In the third visual, there is a combination of body movement, visual, and "jingle" to help children remember the difference between the words Me and My. I found that many of my beginning readers stumbled over this issue. The visual and motion used a few times ended that problem. The story implied in all three of these visuals of course lies in the simple explanation of the visual. The children are not being asked to just remember verbal rules.

• Use body motion along with visuals and stories to engage the cerebellum as frequently as possible. In the example of the bed and of the ME and MY words, the children are using their own body to mimic the shape of the concepts they are being asked to learn. The sight words and alphabet also rely heavily on body motions which help those very kinethetic learners store and retrieve information. Here is the body motion for C.

• Use fingermapping to help children correctly sequence sounds in a word as they are writing. There will be another strand that goes into a lot more detail about what fingermapping is and how this helps many children who struggle with sequencing. Helping children SEE the sequence of sounds/letters makes them able to correctly write the word. They will not leave out letters, use incorrect letters, nor reverse letters. Fingermapping to these children is as powerful as seeing a visual map is to people who simply cannot recall verbal directions to a new location.

• Use whiteboards and markers daily to help children learn new concepts in reading. Use of whiteboards rather than pencil and paper is pretty self-explanatory. Some children don't mind using pencil and paper, but for those who struggle with fine motor skills, whiteboards and markers are wonderful. Every single day I spent 15-20 minutes with the class on the rug in front of me teaching the new concept for the day in reading. Anything I taught them, they wrote. For kids who are very kinesthetic, writing is a must. Our practice was for me to say the word we were talking about, sound the word out together (auditory), then while the kids sounded the word again, they wrote each sound on their board. This practice sounds like a too-simple-tp-be-powerful practice, but I have to say that this ranks right up at the top of my short list of very effective practices. Kids HAD to be engaged, HAD to be attending to the lesson, they had to work out meaning, they were using all their modalities at one time, so there was no child left behind in the learning!

• Teach using patterns. For many children, just remembering a detail about how a particular word is spelled is nearly impossible. If you teach a particular sound spelling such as AY, don't teach it using one word in isolation. Generate a whole list of words containing that sound spelling and then have your children sound and write them on their white boards as you lead them through that exercise. One of the hardest concepts for struggling readers to grasp is that a specific sequence of letters doesn't always sound the same. Take OUGH, for instance. OUGH sounds like UFF (tough, rough, enough), like O (though, although), like OW (in drought, slough), like OT (ought, bought, fought, thought, brought), like OFF in cough. If you teach the words in a pattern, using a visual and a sentence, the children will never forget the words that sound alike. For example: The Ot Brothers story: "I THOUGHT they OUGHT to have BROUGHT the candy they BOUGHT, but instead they FOUGHT for more!" Let the children draw a quick picture of stick figure brothers in a big knock down drag out battle for the candy! Another story: My Dog RUFF. "My dog is ROUGH and TOUGH ENOUGH!" Draw a great watchdog type with big teeth showing. In the top illustration, the lesson taught was that A by itself sometimes sounds like AH. All four words contain that sound spelling, and the visual invokes memories of nights when the child might have asked for a drink of water while delaying bedtime! In the bottom example, the pattern is ERE words. I taught the children that the ERE is like a baloney sandwish, the e's being the bread and the R being the baloney. If you had the HHH sound at the beginning, you have the word HERE (pointing to the floor adds the kinesthetic element to what is already auditory and visual). To the word HERE, you add a T to make THERE, and W to make WHERE. At this point the children have already learned their digraphs...using visuals!

Our website has many teaching tools that address teaching to all the modalities. Visit us now and see the difference it will make in your teaching to teach once and address all the particular needs of your learners. Do you prefer to FLASH or DRILL?

Useful links: Download SWlist.pdf this list identifies the 306 stylized words we offer. Try Before You Buy sample Sight Words. Sample Activities to teach sight words. Description of the sight words available. Alphabet products. Decodable Books. Easy-For-Me Teaching Posters. Check out the Sight Word Landscapes and Borders.