By Lois Letchford

Living in Brisbane, Australia, my six-year-old son, Nicholas, failed first grade. The effects of going to school showed themselves through his quietness, his bitten fingernails, and the daily wetting of his pants. His teacher shouted at him for his slowness, his withdrawal, and his inability to follow the “simplest instructions.” Testing revealed he could read ten words, displayed no strengths, and above all, had a low IQ. The prognosis was dire.

An opportunity arose for our family when my husband was offered a 6 month study leave in Oxford, UK.  For our family this was a bit like déjà vu as my husband had completed his PhD there and where our eldest son was born.  This trip allowed him to investigate the flow over the roofs of model buildings in the Oxford Large Wind Tunnel to better understand the mechanisms that lead to failure.

Planning to use this time to work with Nicholas in a one-to-one setting, I set myself up with a series of books entitled, “Success for All.” With a new environment and time on our side, what could go wrong.  Well…isolated words on every page and no pictures did nothing to assist me in my teaching or Nicholas’s learning to read.  It was an abject failure, and I was no better than his first-grade teacher.

Faced with a blank slate, and no excuses, I thought about Nicholas’ strengths. I knew he could rhyme words and see patterns in words and his environment. With only these known skills, I thought about writing simple poems based around consonant-vowel-consonant letter patterns and rimes. I chose words which rhyme with bug, such as mug, lug, tug, and rug. 

 Moreover, most poems for children are structured around a rhythmic pattern that Nicholas could easily detect.   And, of course, poetry is a joy to read and easy enough that Nicholas could meet immediate success.                       

What a mug of a bug

 he is to lug his rug along the kitchen floor.

Doesn’t he know his rug will tug

           his good things out the door?

Together we talked about the meaning of the poem, found the rhyming words, and finally made illustrations for each poem read. The illustrations for the Mug of a bug poem began using different colored paper to create the bug and its rug, as our enjoyment for learning intensified.

The transformation in our little classroom was instant- no longer did I expect Nicholas to read anything. I read to him. One success led to another. And another. Everyday Nicholas was excited to read and play with yet another rhyme.

“I have a fun poem for you today, Nicholas,” I said.

“The cat in a hat sat on a mat with a rat and a bat.

Well, fancy that!
That is just not possible.

There might be one scratched cat, no rat or bat and one messy mat!” I read.

Nicholas sat, silently; his eyes fixed on the paper.

When Nicholas failed to comprehend, his immediate response was withdrawal.

My mind spun. “What do I have to do?”

“Nicholas, let’s act out this poem. What animal would you like to be?” I questioned. “The cat, the rat or the bat?”

“I think I’ll be,” decisions take Nicholas a long time, “I’ll be the cat!”  he says with a slight grin.

“Okay, I’ll be the rat,” I continued.

“And I’ll get a stuffed toy for the bat,” he says as he ran off to find an appropriate animal.

He returned proclaiming “I’ve got a hat and a mat and a bat!”

Well this showed he was thinking.

“Now we can act the poem out,” I suggested. “What happens if a cat, a rat and a bat were in a hat together?” I asked standing beside Nicholas.

“They would fight!” he replied instantly, laughing. The lesson provided loads of chuckles and giggles.

I was learning about teaching as Nicholas was learning to read. It’s now an enjoyable experience for both of us.

Although the words are easily decodable, inference occurs at all levels of reading. Readers must make inferences in order to comprehend.  We continued to recite our poems from memory as we walked his brothers to and from school. Later in the day we read them from the printed page. 

Each day we worked to retrieve and read those rhymes. His brain was being lined with language and making connections between words and pictures. Using poetry, which at the early stage is short, repetitive, and focuses on rhyming, there is often the clear purpose of creating an overarching image.  This allows the reader to feel they can grasp the image or message, however “silly”, quickly and enjoy the experience through the rhyming sounds they make in speaking the poem. In effect this image or message “cocoons” the reading experience and with repetition strengthens the understanding of the “whole” while building out the letter and word components.

The next step of finding rhyming words, allowed Nicholas to see and hear the pattern and actively encouraged him to recognize and manipulate the spoken parts of words. Finally, poetry allows for easy segmenting of words into their individual sounds. Each interaction with letters and sounds provided opportunities for strong foundational letter-sound associations, and helped Nicholas with many aspects of learning to read, thus the sounds “cocooned” within the whole, the rhyming pattern, and the individual word.

Every day a new poem helped Nicholas make tiny, but significant, steps forward learning to read.

After completing many poems using short vowel sounds, we moved on to more complex sounds — the oo sounds, as in cook, look, and book, captured my imagination. My focus turned to Captain Cook, the last of the great explorers. As an Englishman, he completed the mapping of Australia thereby presuming the founding of yet another British Colony. The words were simple, the ideas complex.

Captain Cook had a notion,

There was a gap in the map in the great big ocean.

He took a look, without the help of any book

Hoping to find a quiet little nook.

Captain Cook had a notion,

There was a gap in the map in the great big ocean.

He took a look and filled a whole book

That caused the world to look.

Living in Oxford and visiting museums, we encountered maps from the 1550s – ones that did not include our homeland – Australia

“Look, Nicholas,” I said, “there’s a gap in the map. There is no Australia.”

Our learning took a turn from writing simple word poems to writing poetry as an inquiry project.

I read books, all kinds of books, and turned my learning into poems for Nicholas. I found this was the best way for him to access information, and poetry made for easy repetition, for questioning and further tapping into his curiosity. Together we began to question – what knowledge did Captain Cook have when he left England for his explorations in the Pacific Ocean?

“Who came before Captain Cook?” Nicholas asked one day.

“That’s easy,” I replied. “That was Christopher Columbus.”

“And who came before Columbus?” he questioned.

I stopped. I was stunned.

Such a question had never entered my imagination, and for the first time, I knew my son did not have a “low IQ.” His questions told me he was assembling and processing information.  He was “thinking.”

Being in Oxford, with the world of libraries and maps at our fingertips, we searched for answers. Viewing maps in the local antique map shops aided our search. Discovering that Columbus’s travels were based on the maps of Ptolemy, led us to visit the Bodleian Library of Oxford University, hunting for more answers.

Our investigation began in the gift shop, where a lady eagerly awaited our questions.

“Do you know where we could find a Ptolemy map?” I questioned, with an anxious Nicholas by my side.

The lady turned away from us, leaned against the counter, and scratched her head. Her eyes scanned the bookshelf. Finally, she bent down and retrieved a large, blue-covered book.

“This is a new book in our collection,” she said as she carefully placed it on the counter. “It’s a book of Ptolemy’s maps and is only recently printed. Does this work for you?”

Nicholas and I gasped.

“Yes,” I replied as Nicholas grinned and nodded.

Adding positive, enriching experiences to our learning enhanced Nicholas’s curiosity.

Our time in Oxford was completed with a memorable visit to the British Museum to see Captain Cook’s original maps which capped our epic inquiry project.

Returning to our home in Australia, Nicholas once again attended our local school. I was feeling on edge when I met with the school counselor.

“Nicholas learned so much! I wrote poetry and he was so excited by our learning,” I gushed.

“Well,” she replied, “he’s still the worst child I’ve seen in twenty years of teaching!”

Shocked, I left the room with my tail between my legs.

This was not the end of the story, just the beginning of a new chapter.

But what I found from this work with Nicholas was that poetry can be a wonderful entry point to literacy for children, especially the ones who find reading difficult.    Poetry is fun to read.  Poetry is easy to learn to read.  Poetry contains word patterns that lays the foundation for phonics.  Poetry is meant to be performed fluently and expressively, so it must be rehearsed (repeated reading).  Poetry for children is easy to find, it is easy for parents and teachers to write, and it can be a great way to get children themselves into writing.    In addition, poetry can lead to much deeper readings, explorations, and discoveries as it did with Nicholas’s study of Captain Cook.   

Advice for parents whose children are like Nicholas:

Write for your children – write about their everyday experiences – what they see, hear, eat, or watch.

Write where you are with what you have.

Create books about their life.

Place the child as the central character of their story.

Take pictures to complement your writing.

Write in short sentences or poetry format.

Read and re-read to and with your child.

Recite the sentences or poems.

Record their reciting and send it to relatives – if possible, ask relatives to respond.

If a child has a challenge recalling a particular sound, find words and objects which include it.

Write and read every day.

Remember:

Learning is emotional, as well as cognitive.

When learning is painful, sadly, that’s what children learn.

When children are laughing, learning happens with ease.

Once the process begins, one never knows where it ends…

Postscript

Nicholas Letchford learned to read, thanks to his mother Lois and many fine teachers. Indeed, learning to read was only the beginning of his journey. In 2018, Nicholas earned a doctorate inApplied Mathematics from Oxford University in the UK. Lois became a readingspecialist in 1997, teaching children who had been left behind. She has also written about her and Nicholas’s journey to literacy in her inspiring book “Reversed: A Memoir,” which can be ordered through any bookseller.

Grab a copy of Reversed: A Memoir to read the full story at https://amzn.to/3d2cNg5

Reversed: A Memoir is her first book. In this story, she details the journey of her son’s dramatic failure in first grade. She tells of the twist and turns that promoted her passion and her son’s dramatic academic turn-a-round from “dyslexic” to PhD from Oxford University!

By Lester Laminack

One morning at breakfast I noticed Steve, with coffee mug in midair, staring through the windows into the woods behind our house. I sat quietly watching him for a moment. Then, without shifting his gaze, he spoke aloud.  “I’m so impressed by the fearlessness of squirrels. They just run to the end of the branch and leap with no fear of missing the next branch, no fear that branch will not hold them.”

I’ve thought about those squirrels and the idea of fearlessness. Squirrels make branch-bridging-tree-travel look effortless. Indeed there appears to be no fear at all. But is it fearlessness that leads them to move quickly, gracefully even, through the trees? Or does that freedom and grace come from another source? Is it confidence? Skill? Practice? Or something else? At what point do baby squirrels become those confident, graceful branch-bridging acrobats? Are they trained by their elders? Is it a matter of natural agility, instinct, and genetics? Or is it that great skill developed over time builds confidence. And that confidence fuels practice which in turn builds competence.  And that competence reinvested in authentic use yields performance that appears effortless, or dare I say, fearless.

My thoughts shifted to both teaching and learning. When we see someone doing something so well that they don’t even seem to think about it, we can quickly fall into the trap of believing that it must be easy. It is likely that you have experienced this phenomenon yourself. Those DIY shows for home improvements are led by individuals with a passion for the work, extensive knowledge, much practice, and experience with both failure and success. Those hosts break the project down into small steps with the camera fading in and out between steps. The episode makes a project appear to be manageable and accessible to the novice. The show gets you engaged and energized so you make the trip to your home improvement store, purchase the supplies, return home and fearlessly begin to make that magic makeover yourself. Then it suddenly becomes more complex than you had imagined. You can’t remember the sequence of steps involved. You watched the show in under an hour but forgot to factor in those captions on the screen signaling a four-hour wait for stains to set and sealers to dry. Your project doesn’t turn out quite right and you have to call in someone to help. You get frustrated. You vow to never attempt another DIY project. You proclaim yourself “not the handy type” or “just not good at this sort of thing.” You become skeptical of those DIY programs. Your experience shapes a portion of your identity, and unless you have a new experience–one with success–that identity may become a permanent thought that limits your willingness to even attempt another DIY project.

Consider the possibility that teachers can be like the hosts of a DIY show. Like those hosts we have a passion for our work, extensive knowledge, much practice, and experience with both success and failure. A competent teacher can make any task seem accessible. A teacher’s demonstration can make something seem easy, effortless, natural. Yet, when the novice student fearlessly attempts the task and is met with less than stellar success there may well be a sense of frustration, even failure. That experience may come with a resistance to make another attempt; an ego protecting wall saying this stuff is useless in the real world. I fear that too often we teachers meet those reactions with an attitude that is less than supportive and understanding. I fear that, as teachers, we forget we are the hosts of the DIY show and our students are the one’s with wide-eyed eagerness who can be easily disillusioned.

Do not misunderstand me here. I want fearless learners. I want us to encourage our students to jump in and have a go, to attempt without fear of failure. But, how do we have that without squelching their desire to try or instilling a belief that they aren’t capable? Consider this again, great skill developed over time builds confidence. Small successes build confidence. And that confidence fuels practice which in turn builds competence. And that competence reinvested in authentic use yields performance that appears effortless, or dare I say, fearless. Now, let’s think about what it takes to reach the point where students are willing to invest time building essential skills, knowledge, vocabulary, and processes that will give them the confidence needed to continue.

It has been my experience that there are at least four essentials:

• Trust
• Feedback
• Vision
• Tenacity

I believe that learning hinges on an established relationship between teacher and student where there is trust. Students must trust that they are allowed to attempt without the expectation of perfection. They must trust that you and their peers will support them in their attempts, no matter how shaky. They must trust that it is natural and expected and accepted that learning is a series of repeated attempts with growth over time.

I believe that trust builds with feedback that speaks to strength. Students need to hear what they are doing well as a context for suggestions for improvement. I believe that students need suggestions in small digestible bits that they can implement to experience growth and success. I believe such experience leads to receptivity to additional suggestions, in fact, they may well seek them out.

I believe that success brings confidence that engenders the competence to imagine more, to develop a vision for the work. The ability to envision allows the student to imagine not only what comes next, but also to imagine how all the steps fit together and become the whole. Vision, in my experience builds and becomes clear with experience, knowledge, language/vocabulary, success, feedback, and trust.

And that leads us to tenacity, the ability to stay with the task and cope with the small stuff along the way.  Tenacity, in my experience, is fueled by vision. One must have a sense of purpose, a sense of the outcome, a sense of how to get there, before the willingness to stick with it emerges.

Fearlessness may be the wrong word for squirrels and learners. But that graceful movement sure looks fearless to me.

Lester’s books are on Amazon!

Learn more about Lester Laminack, check out his website!

Follow Lester on Twitter @lester_laminack

By Cameron Carter

As teachers, we make thousands of decisions a day. We often reflect on these decisions and wonder, “Was the decision I made the right one?” or “How could I have done things differently?” We continually question ourselves in order to grow.

Just as we model what we teach to students, it is imperative to model how to be a reflective learner, especially in the areas of reading and writing. Reflection can be directly linked to critical thinking and creativity, which outlined by Battle for Kids, are the top 21^st century themes for every student around the world.

Connect Reading and Writing Through Reflection

I’ve stated in prior blogs, “Reading and writing are interconnected processes woven together like a beautifully, intricate spider web.” Reading and writing are not rivals or isolated islands. I’ve been asked, “What’s your specialty, reading or writing?” My response is always the same: both. In my philosophy of literacy, I cannot, and will not, separate the two. Yes, I have strengths in reading, and yes, I have strengths in writing, but I would never think to place one above the other.

A powerful tool that is embedded throughout reading and writing is reflection. Teachers can model reflection orally or through written expression. Reflection will look different for each and every learner.

In our first grade classroom, we use the Units of Study as our writing framework and resource to dive deeper into the genres of narrative, informational, and opinion writing. In each genre, students revise their pieces using the rubric and checklist created by the Teacher’s College Reading and Writing Project (TCRWP). In doing so, the students reflected upon the goals set by TCRWP, and decided to use their own language to create the goals connected to the particular genre we were writing.

The students, each with their own special “magic number”, reflected on each goal as they moved through the checklist evaluating if they were in the “Not Yet”, “Starting To”, or “Yes!” column. Students reflected with me during conferring time, and students also reflected with one another. On some days, students even reflected independently. We had many conversations regarding the writing process, using this statement: “Writers are never done; they’ve just begun!” First-grade writers knew that the checklist was a continuous, flowing anchor, which allowed and encouraged them to move their Post-It note to where they were in their writing pieces.

Each and every day, we come together for our “Share” portion of “Writer’s Workshop.” This is when most of the power of reflection comes into play. Students share what is going well for them during their “work time,” and they share challenges they are facing in certain areas of their pieces that connect to the student-created checklist of goals. It has been incredible to see, over time, how students have grown in sharing honest reflections that truly improve their writing.

Not only have we applied reflection within our Units of Study writing time, we’ve also embedded reflection when writing pieces that connect to a read-aloud. For example, this week, students inspired me to read aloud, How to Catch a Snowman. The students chose the read-aloud because it was a new arrival from Scholastic. After reading, we reflected on what should inspire our writing. The students decided they wanted to write a “How-to” piece–their own version of How to Catch a Snowman.

The voices of the students were strong, as they reflected on the important writing goals that should be connected to this writing piece.

As one can see, the writers chose goals that also connected to their prior writing experiences, such as unfreezing a character (adding dialogue) and using the signal words (first, next, then, last) to show a sequence of events.

In today’s busy world, reflection is more important than ever! We must model reflection for our students, just as we model how to read fluently or write expressively with detail.

Reflection helps us grow! Therefore it should be woven daily into reading, writing, and all content area lessons because reflection guides students’ process and supports growth across the curriculum.

Cameron Carter is a first-grade teacher at Evening Street Elementary in Worthington, OH. He is the former Elementary Lead Ambassador for the National Council of Teachers of English and the current Elementary Liaison for the Ohio Council of Teachers of English Language Arts. Cameron has a Masters in Reading and Literacy from The Ohio State University.

To continue learning with Cameron, follow him on

Twitter @CRCarter313

Facebook @EduCarter10

and

YouTube

By Gary Armida

As an English Teacher, I believe that the single most important thing we can do for our students is to arm them with the skills to use their voice to make a difference in the world. It is difficult in today’s world where kids are constantly being told that they are too addicted to their technology, they are lazy, and they aren’t as good as the kids from previous generations. Of course, that’s a lie because every previous generation was told the same thing.

And, truthfully, the world needs them to not only believe in their voice, but to use it now.

All year, I have struggled to get my freshmen to believe that they are more than those stereotypes. They truly don’t believe they can make a difference. And, I feel that they are probably symbolic of the majority of kids their age.

January 6, 2020. This might have been the date all of that changed for our class. 

My plan was to launch another argument writing unit. We had previously gone through the basics, but this time I wanted them to realize the importance and why we’ve spent so much time going through argument writing techniques, why we stressed narrative writing as a way to argue, and why their words matter.

So, I decided to launch the unit without any tricks. I decided to do what I feel I do best and something that was impressed upon me by a former student, Phoenix Dalto, during his Tedx Talk; I decided I would start this one by just talking with them.

I didn’t know where this would lead, but I knew that if I could get them talking, we could tap into their passions.

“What are some things you wish you could change about school?”

That wasn’t the greatest opening and it showed. A couple of kids responded with the usual homework, start time, and “teachers who don’t care” answers. I did spend a couple of minutes talking those through, but I could tell we weren’t locked in yet.

After a couple of more tepid questions, I finally hit one, “What are some things that scare you?”

30 students, almost in unison, responded. 

“World War Three”

And, there it was. 30 kids, either speaking or nodding along with that fact that they are scared about what a war would mean for their world. After hearing what they knew–they actually knew quite a bit–and how they felt about the key players involved, I asked them where they got their information from.

“Twitter.”

“Instagram.”

“Snapchat.”

“Tik Tok.”

Truthfully, their news sources are a lot like mine. I get my news, leads to articles, and leads to news videos from Twitter. Most of their information comes from Instagram and Snapchat, but I was surprised about how many Freshmen have a Twitter account.

We had common ground. We find our news on social media. They didn’t believe that they were consuming news, but they knew quite a bit.

The next day, I asked them to take out their phones. We were going to take 20 minutes to go on our social media accounts. Their task was to find news items that interested them, scared them, made them angry. It could be in any area of interest. If they were into sports, find an issue in sports. The few students who didn’t have a phone were given a chromebook so they could go through their feeds. And, the couple of students who didn’t have social media were tasked with searching the web for their issues.

There was a lot of World War Three talk, but some interesting topics about equality, the Australia fires, global warming, the impeachment hearings, drug abuse, technology tracking, overuse of medication, sleep time and school performance, and poverty were being discussed as they scrolled through their accounts.

My point to them was that they were more aware of things than they are given credit for. Sure, their “dances” on Tik Tok take up a lot of time, but they are now, hopefully, aware that they are consumers of news.

Now, I have two other important tasks. First, I have to get them to see that they can make a difference in these issues. Second, I have to get them to see that they must consume news with a critical mind.

I decided to take on the first one right away. Again, it was a simple conversation, no gimmicks.

“You all realize that you can make an impact on these issues? Each one of you can add your voice to the fight. Each one of you can make a change. Writers are the ones who inspire change. Look at history. People are moved by words. Change happens with great words.”

One young lady responded. “Armida, nobody listens to us. We are just 9th graders.”

I was hoping to hear that.

“Ok, go on your social media account. Find some information about Emma Gonzalez and Greta Thunberg.”

Some of them had heard of Greta Thunberg, but most haven’t. After a few minutes, they were talking to each other.

“Trump is making fun of her.”

“Damn, she spoke in front of that many people.”

I heard Emma Gonzalez’s speech being played. 

“These are just two examples of people your age making an impact. Age doesn’t matter. It’s the message. It’s the belief that you can make a difference and have to make that difference. Do you really think their voices aren’t being heard? Politicians are talking about them, some good, some bad. But, they know who they are. Why can’t you do the same?”

The bell rang. They left the room, thinking about that.

For the next couple of days, we examined how arguments are made, specifically discussing the three appeals: ethos, pathos, and logos. It’s important for them to realize that writers and news organizations employ these techniques to move people or to get them to agree. One group activity crystallized it for them.

I divided the class into three. Each group had an appeal. Their task was to argue against me reversing my “no homework” policy and giving them homework every single night. They were given 20 minutes to come up with their argument and could use any resources they wanted. The logos group started doing research. The ethos group, to their credit, found the studies by Stanford University and Yale University. Each of those groups presented some compelling facts. The Pathos group did a skit. It was dramatic; kids were pretending to cry about how they had no life, no friends. It was all because of homework. The audience was hysterical. I was hysterical. The pathos group “won” best argument by a class vote.

Teachable moment time.

“So, the last group won even though they had no facts, no evidence? What’s that say to us as writers?”

“That we have to get people to listen to us before we give them the facts.”

Ok, maybe that wasn’t what I was truly hoping for, but they are in the right ballpark.

Another student.

“People like the drama. We didn’t even listen to the facts.”

Better.

“Ok, so how do we, as citizens of the world, use this?”

“We have to cut through the B.S. so we know what the issue really is.”

Microphone drop.

So, now we are ready to move forward. It won’t be easy to undo the stereotypes that are forced upon them. There will be days when the lesson falls flat or they aren’t as passionate. But, it is too important to not keep going. Our job is to give them those tools, the writing skills, and the confidence to go out in the world and make a difference.

In the coming weeks, we’ll continue to examine the news, to dissect it not only for content, but for how it’s constructed. We’ll find an issue we are passionate about. We are going to start a class blog so they can publish their words after going through all of our revision processes.

We are also going to learn that argument comes in many different forms, so they will use their social media to take their words and transform them to fit their social media feeds. And, most importantly, this group of freshmen will learn that their voice matters. Truthfully, the world needs them to realize it.

I believe they will.

Gary ArmidaEnglish Department CoordinatorFieldstone Middle School

Follow Gary on Twitter @GaryArmida

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