update on the update

1.  first graders love recording what they read.  now i'll have to see if they can do it independently (during the literacy center time) without breaking anything.  2.  The computer dictionary definitions were too numerous and thus too hard for my fifth grader.  I got him a simple thesaurus where he has a lot of words to choose from to help him with meaning.  Also, he says knowing antonyms helps him understand the meaning.  Then he has to learn the skill of choosing among  multiple meanings and being careful of words that sound the same.  Today he confused 'distant' with 'distance' and 'participant' with 'participate'.  So now i want to see if the computer dictionary might be good as a thesaurus instead of him using the book one.  The book has a small number of vocab. words.  So that's what i'll do tomorrow morning.  3.  I'm still trying to get stupid Narrator to work.  It's supposed to be sooo eaaasssyy.  Can i shoot myself now?  Tomorrow someone said they'd help me at 3:00, so we'll see what happens.  My daughter is using the Mac's crappy text-to-speech to help her with proofreading.  I think it helps her because i heard her using it when i wasn't around.  microsoft word is supposed to have free speech to text, which i will investigate if i haven't gone awol over narrator.  i don't know if mac has something similar.  4.  as for my dyslexic student- no one in the building has specialized training in the orton-gillingham method/spin-offs. and her teacher isn't 100% sure she would benefit from it.  so she and the principal agreed i could ask for a teacher i know from the middle school who is knowledgeable and experienced teaching dyslexics to informally evaluate her.  but i have to follow the "chain of command" and speak with her caseworker to get permission first.  so that's what i have to do tomorrow.  have you noticed everything is still anonymous?? have you noticed i'm not speaking in my official capacity as a teacher? i'm protected by the first amendment.  now why would i be worrying about such things? this is where you need experience in the public school system to answer that question.  i am enjoying teaching more this year.  i'm learning a lot and i have great students.  i think i am helping most of them.

up date on project.

i will be giving the franklin talking dictionary and the ell paper/cd-rom dictionary to the fifth grade teacher today.  i talked with my dyslexic student's mom yesterday- i just happened to catch her in the hallway.  she said her whole family has always had problems learning to read.  she wants her child in a special services school where her son is.  her son went from (in the way she described it) 'reading 2 letter words to reading 5 to 6 letter words'.  she said our school district doesn't want to do this since it is more expensive to bus the child all the way down there and pay tuition.  but her daughter needs it.  i'm not trained in the wilson method or other proven methods to help dyslexics.  i'm learning on the fly and her child deserves better.  i already talked to the aide in the room about this and will talk to the classroom teacher today  (i don't think that teacher or the reading coach have special training to help dyslexics).  i would like to add that it is my understanding that this blog is protected by the first amendment.  i am not talking here in my official capacity as a teacher.  all people in this blog are anonymous. 

lots of things to do all at once

why do i think i'm going to have time to do all this stuff? 1.  found out a little about the text to speech function on microsoft word- so i want to have that enabled for the dyslexic student in my elementary school.  then it would be nice to do a video to youtube showing dyslexics how to enable it on their pc's.  i have a mac and text to speech is just a matter of highlighting text and pressing ctrl and enter.  although i just did that here and it didn't work. ? anyway, the narrator text to speech program on microsoft word sounds more human-like than the mac.  2.  talked to a spec ed teacher from another district who is also a member of the democrat club here.  she is an angel and went through with me her methods of teaching reading to dyslexics.  it's a combination of linda moodbell and wilson and some learning center workshop stuff she picked up. so i'll try that.  3.  then there is the english language learner dictionary project.  i have an ex-student in my elementary school who exited from my program when he was in second grade.  he was doing well at that time and loved to read.  i heard rumblings that he wasn't up with the other kids in third and fourth, but now in fifth i'm really concerned.  what happened?  so anyway, i bought two ell dictionaries with cd-roms and i'll have him try them both out and he can tell me which one he likes the best.  there is a possible third as well.  and the franklin talking dictionary, even though it doesn't have a lot of vocab in comparison, is also something i want him to look at. so that's project number 3. 4.  do a video of my middle school ell students teaching a lesson in their language in a before/after format.  before they'll do it like the majority of middle school teachers here do it- no thought for the ell student.  in the 'after' version they'll also teach in their language, but with supports.  oh well, i think we need a break from persuasive letters after doing 4 in a row!!!!!!!!!! might as well clown around a little and maybe actually accomplish something in the real world instead of the test-practice world. project 5: keep up with the include grant teachers and pop into their classrooms to give them my 2 cents.  we had some nice discussions these past 3 days. project 6: make more dvd's of the abc picture/handmotion thingy and the kindergarten sight words thingy and do a first grade vocab one.  get in touch with the parents and show them how the kids should use it at home with white boards and markers. project 7 try to get over this cold fast because my appetite is increasing while my energy is de- and that is a recipe for f-a-t.  project 8- learn how to burn dvd's faster.  project 9:  call the ex- ell student who is at college now and ask him for advice.  i had him in middle school and he was really struggling.  how did he do it?  what advice does he have for other ell students?  well, it's good to have projects.  as one of my x's said, better to shoot high so that when/if you miss the mark, you still hit something.  PS duh alert.  my mac text to speech is working- i just had the volume turned all the way down.

learning by sight word first of by sounding it out first- many can move between the two with little problem

so from what i've read and from my own experience, it seems that teaching by the sight word method can hinder the ability to blend by sound, at least in some children.  however, i don't think this is universally true. for one, it is standard practice in the district where i teach to teach letter sounds along with sight words in kindergarten.  the majority of the kids do alright with this mix of methods.  also, when i was teaching english in taiwan, which is mandarin speaking, i taught my students to sound out words using phonics, and the vast majority could do it even though they had been learning chinese characters by sight/rote for years.  now chinese children first learn the blend sounds using a pronunciation system called pinyin in china and zhuyin in taiwan,  so their first exposure is to sounding out words.  they then switch to sight 'character' memorization, and many are taught all their english vocab using the sight word method.  even with those habits, they can switch to learning to blend with phonics.  so it seems to me that many students can switch between the two methods.  but i still believe there is a vulnerable population that can not switch. more on this later.

first experiences with reading via sight word method can lead to dyslexia?

now i am very interested in finding out one possible cause of dyslexia could be early exposure to the sight word method of reading.  

teach english dyslexics exclusively by the sight word method?

maybe if phonics is just not working with a student, they should be taught exclusively by the sight word method the way chinese children learn chinese characters:  strictly by repetition:  writing the word over and over. 

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