Finger-point reading is the easiest, most joyful component of reading instruction. It is also the most important, and the most time-consuming. For older struggling readers, it is perhaps the most overlooked. (Note: do *NOT* push reading until your child has made substantial headway in the BLENDING program. Without phonological awareness…
Restarting with H.
I have reconnected with H., whom I worked with over Christmas. Blog posts about our previous work are here. It is a pleasure to see him again. He is much more poised, and looks to have grown inches in the last 6 months. He has been receiving intermittent tutoring, and…
Intervention Ends on Bad Note
Daijon and I won’t be working together any more. I’m disappointed, humbled, and sadder-but-wiser. I wish Daijon success. There won’t be any more posts here for a while. Ping me if you know another candidate.
Day 4 – Using the Word Matrix
Daijon practiced blending /ah/ and /ih/ words for about 20 minutes, rough but slowly getting stronger. But today’s video isn’t about him; instead we demonstrate the Word Matrix tool (part of SPELLING). English spelling builds complex words from bases and a small number of affixes, for example ‘unreportable’ is built…
Day 3 – Breaking into /ih/
Daijon was back today, and AWESOME. We settled down easily to work. He was focused and relentless. You can practically watch his brain forming new connections and skills in this 5-minute video. I’ve been surprised by the support Daijon gets – teachers, social workers, and vice-principals who are determined to…
Day 2 – Challenges with ‘Rag’
Day 2: Yesterday we marched through /ah/ words ending in ‘t’ (bat, rat) and ‘p’ (cap, map), contrasting them without much difficulty. I was sure that we would have no further trouble with /ah/. But I was very wrong. First thing this morning, Daijon fell apart on /ah/ words ending…
Day 1 – Getting to work
Today, 16 June 2015, was our FIRST DAY of training. Daijon read a small text to demonstrate his current skill, which looks to be about grade 1. Then we focused on the sound /ah/ as in Apple. We drilled words like ‘cat’ and ‘cap’, blended and segmented with the word-spinner…
The Summer of Repairing Dyslexia
The ‘Summer of Repairing Dyslexia’ is a ‘Reality TV’ style reading intervention. We are recruiting a grade-8 student with severe reading deficits, and will spend the next four months tutoring him intensively every day for 2-3 hours. We will turn him into the BEST reader in his class, and follow…
