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In elementary school, I already had plans to become an elementary school teacher. When I discovered one of my new friends was having problems learning to read, I appointed myself his official after school tutor. As I assisted him, I began my education as a teacher.
In 1975, I graduated from Virginia Wesleyan College, Norfolk, Virginia, with a B.A. degree, and certification to teach preschool through grade seven.
I then became involved with many areas of education; finally, I decided to learn more about persons with special learning needs. I graduated from Lynchburg College with a master’s degree in teaching learning disabilities and emotional disturbance.
Throughout my entire career in education, I have successfully helped many students with their reading problems.
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I have always enjoyed books and reading. I never understood why some of my friends found it so difficult to learn to read. Later, while I was teaching elementary school, I found that the reading system presented in the regular textbook was not working for some of my students. They didn’t learn the concepts involved in decoding words. Later, in an attempt to help a woman who had never been able to learn to read throughout her entire school career, I became involved in writing, visually decoding, and sounding letters and words, she began finding reading success for the first time. As I continued using my method, I taught using hearing, saying, writing the letters, visually decoding, and finally sounding the words. Students with the most severe language problems began learning, and those with milder problems improved rapidly. I have successfully used my method with students with many and varied learning problems, and with multiple texts. This book is organized in vowel sound patterns, with the vowels in the order they appear in the alphabet. |
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Research shows that a student who has reading problems has difficulty utilizing the decoding area of the brain. Because the student has problems manipulating the sounds of a word within the decoding area, the word is unable to be processed into the automatic recognition area of the brain. Thus, the student is unable to use the retrieval and comprehension features within that area. (Shaywitz, 2003). Some languages show a transparency between the written spelling and the pronunciation of words; there is close match between symbol and expected sound. My experience teaching reading is that many words in the English language are more translucent in this area; at times the words become almost opaque! One example of lack of match between symbol and usual sound is the frequently-used word, “busy,” where the b is the only letter that matches the usual sound. The person who reads naturally is able to make sense of the confusion between symbol and sound for these words. But unfortunately for many students with reading disabilities, confusion reigns. The student who has difficulty decoding unknown words, also has problems with reading comprehension and reading rate. Reading problems also affect spelling and writing. The student has difficulty meeting age-level language arts expectations.
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Research has found that, "when writing by hand, the movements involved leave a motor memory in the sensorimotor part of the brain, which helps u______________
Now struggling learners have another option if they wish to increase reading comprehension using The Sounds Of Words! The book, which originall______________
Students with problems learning to read will often have problems with comprehension for single alphabet letters and their sounds. The Sounds of______________
What does the parent/teacher do when the reading selection requires the learner to use comprehension for homonyms? Learners with decoding probl______________
Here are some thoughts related to Earth Day: Clean energy sources and uses prevent Earth's atmosphere from becoming polluted and overheated. T______________
Were you aware that April 12 was National Drop Everything And Read Day? That day is Beverly Cleary's birthday, and since children love her book______________
The reading book was a good choice for P. Page by page, she read aloud each selection. She took a copy of each page to practice reading for fl______________
Because P was reading material with ungraded vocabulary, she was encountering some complicated words. I was using the term "complicated" when t______________
P came to me with a little book of poems that she wanted to learn to read. She knew how to read some words, but had difficulty reading a senten______________
When helping a struggling reader improve reading skills, it is helpful not to encourage her/him to rely on context to figure out the word. The ______________
At http://Facebook.com/thesoundsofwords ______________
Every word is decodable. The natural reader is able to look at a word, pronounce it, read it, and understand it, because she/he has been able t______________
Help students make "sound sense" of any word they need to read. ______________ |
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