Testing... testing

We recently completed the Peabody test, our standardized test requirement for homeschool. Something that really struck me this time in light of this blog was that Spelling was entirely separate from Reading on this test. Thinking back, this also is true of other tests we have used. Spelling is such a fascinating sport. I call it a sport because I really enjoy the Scripps National Spelling Bee and got a real kick out of the documentary Spellbound. It is interesting to me how these master spellers study the history and origin of words in the English language and how this history is reflected in phoneme patterns. These teenagers have spent countless hours of intense study on words. Then a few days ago a fellow homeschooling mom posted a link to this video on Facebook. It went along with my train of thought perfectly!

But back to the Peabody, the two Reading sections on the test are Vocabulary and Comprehension. Understanding of phonics is definitely important for the vocabulary section. If reading were a three-legged table, phonics and phonemic awareness are two very important legs of the table. But they cannot hold up the table alone. I watched my son take the Peabody for the second year in a row. For the second year in a row, he blew me away on the vocabulary section. And it isn't his score that blows me away. It is his process that fascinates me. It goes something like this: look at the word, sound out the syllables, think if they are close to any words in his vocabulary. Often the words on the test are difficult to sound out. The only way a child would know the word is if it is already a word they have heard. This is the same in reading.

I attended a wonderful conference where I had a great discussion with a reading tutor who has been teaching reading for about 1,000 years (I don't know her true age, but I'm fairly certain that she would agree with me based on our short discussion ;)) She applies a similar philosophy to the one used by foreign language learning programs and that is "hear it, speak it, write it, read it." Children need to hear a word before they can say a word and they need to be able to say the word before they can read it. I would put the writing part last, especially with young children in their native language.

Good reading skills definitely help with writing and spelling. I'm sure we've all spelled a word on paper and looked at it to see if it "looks right." Even spelling bee champs do this mentally. Reading comprehension also involves creating a mental picture of what you are reading, especially in the Peabody test. Just as picture books help youngsters with comprehension, creating mental pictures helps increase comprehension. It was interesting to watch my son analyze the pictures in the Peabody test to see which one matched the section he had just read. I could tell which vocabulary words got him hung up by which of the four pictures he chose. I could also tell when he struggled to hold his mental picture in his head and when looking at the pictures.

Testing is a fascinating process. It doesn't tell all, but it tells an awful lot. And not necessarily about the subjects it is testing. It may tell more about a child's attention to detail and attention span than about their spelling skills. It may ask about things they haven't covered well or things that are especially easy for them. As a parent, I get more value out of the process than the final result. Which is the same reason I enjoy reading. The process IS the final result: enjoying a book and learning what it has to teach you. If it helps improve test scores, that's just a bonus.

Mom, how do you spell DOUGH?

I find writing even better than reading for teaching phonics. It's a slower process, which allows more time to think about letter sounds and talk about rules without getting frustrated and losing comprehension. Here are two examples from our morning:

My 4-year-old daughter is very motivated to learn to read and write at the moment. This is not always convenient, but I try to drop what I'm doing to sit and help her when she is interested. Knowing that reading and writing get me to stop what I'm doing and pay attention to them gives my kids a positive attention-getting strategy; I think that's another reason my kids love to read and write. Today she was writing something about a wizard whose wand didn't work (today's letter focus suddenly became W). Instead of just telling her the letters when she asks me how to spell something, I say the sounds slowly and try to help her remember which letter makes that sound. The process of remembering how to write a letter requires a different kind of recall than seeing the letter and knowing the name and sound. This type of practice cements the letters and sounds in the young reader's brain. Writing also helps set sight words in concrete. As kids get more confident in remembering the letters and sounds, it is fun to have them try to sound out words on their own and praise them for how many sounds they recognized, even if it's just the first sound or the Z in the middle of WIZARD.

My 8-year-old son d-r-a-g-s his feet when I ask him to write. I try to give him writing projects that he will enjoy, but I often miss the mark. Writing about his pet cockroaches or his team of super dogs (stuffed animals) have been winning topics. Writing about field trips or what he learned from the Disney Imagineering science video (today's project) tend to be more of a struggle, but I know they are important for retaining what he has learned. During today's journal writing activity, he asked me how to spell DOUGH. I had to ask, "Which kind of dough... doe, do or dough?" :) Then he asked me how to spell HIGH, qualifying it by saying he knew how to spell HI. These experiences are rich vocabulary builders, opportunities to learn about parts of speech, and discover more complex phoneme patterns. The way I choose to do spelling is to take the words that he struggles with and turn them into his spelling words, adding other words that may share the same pattern. For example, next week's spelling list might include HIGH, LIGHT, SIGH, FLIGHT, DOUGH, THOUGH, DOE, WOE. (Woe would be fun to use in a sentence. "The work my mom gave me filled me with woe." I think I'll have to use that.)

Bee Gee

This morning my son was reading aloud to me from the Star Wars Craft book I had picked up at the library (that book could be an art curriculum for an entire school year) and he got to a step that included "Bee Gee" fabric. Hmmm... I thought... quickly ruling out the idea of 60s rock band patterned fabric, I realized he meant BEIGE! Oh, yes, good old beige. We've had to drill this new word all morning, as he'd obviously been reading it wrong to himself for a while. This reinforced to me the idea of having your child read aloud to you or to their siblings while you are listening, even when they are fluent readers and it seems easy enough to let them read silently to themselves. And proves once again that sounding out, while helpful, has its limitations.

Dictionary skills can come in very handy when children get to higher reading levels. When they are reading more complex texts, they will encounter difficult words that are unfamiliar. A lot of online dictionaries even have an audio pronunciation that you can listen to if the dictionary symbols are difficult. Reading is a great way to expand vocabularies at a higher reading level because books and news articles often use words that are not used in ordinary conversation.

Here is a handy resource if you'd like to know more about phonemic awareness (knowing the sounds that are made by combinations of letters). There are 26 letters in the English language, but check out this list of sounds. http://www.edalive.com/wp-content/uploads/2010/09/BTRS-Phonemic-Foundation.pdf

That Darn English Language

Have you been singing the ABC song since your baby could sing? Have you been looking for letters, pointing them out and naming them? How about practicing the sounds they make? Wonderful! This is beginning phonics! Maybe you've even been sounding out simple words: ME, CAT, DOG, MOM, DAD. Great! You can then look for those simple words in books and have your child read them. You can even find many books that are written almost solely with simple words that your child can sound out. (Often these books are terribly boring and make no sense, so beware!) These are very important reading skills. Your child may then begin learning combination sounds like TH, CH, SH, OO, and the silent E. Amazing! There is so much to learn!

Then come even more complicated rules and all the exceptions to those rules. Gee whiz! Could we have a more complicated language? English is one of the more difficult languages to learn because of its complexity and the sheer number of words that have variations in meaning, are spelled the same but pronounced differently, or sound the same but are spelled differently. I know you know all of these things because you are reading this right now. And you don't need to think about any of those rules, do you? That is because you are a fluent reader. You have been speaking and reading English long enough that you no longer need the rules. Your brain focuses mainly on the beginning and ending sounds and context clues when reading.

But back to our young readers... how do we help them with the craziness of the English language? I cannot recommend the "sound it out" approach. Yes, it can work. It is obviously helpful to know the general rules and sounds that letters make. But this strategy for figuring out unfamiliar words quickly becomes very frustrating for the child and for the parent or teacher! It is usually more effective to memorize some of the most common sight words (remember those books they memorized from infancy). Then when the child comes to a word they don't know, have the child guess, based on the beginning and/or ending sound of the word and, most importantly, the context of what they are reading. This means they have to be thinking about what they are reading and gaining meaning from the words, not simply decoding sounds. And gaining meaning is the entire goal of reading!

This is also why I advocate turn taking while reading. Remember round robin reading as a child when you went around the classroom taking turns reading a sentence or paragraph? Maybe you were the slow reader and hated reading aloud or maybe you were the fluent reader and wanted to read the entire thing so you didn't have to wait for the slower readers. Whichever child you identify with, the idea behind this approach is that the more fluent readers will model for the others. They will keep the flow of the text moving and hopefully everyone is listening and gaining meaning. The slower readers still get practice reading aloud without the frustration of having to read the entire text. Parents can take turns reading with their child to gain the same effect in a more safe, comforting environment.

There are huge benefits to continuing to read more challenging material aloud to your child for many years to come. In college, I loved when our Children's Literature teacher would sit us all on the floor and read wonderful picture books to us. I remember the tears in my eyes as I listened to her read books like "The Dead Bird" and "Pink and Say." Aside from sheer enjoyment, listening expands a child's vocabulary as they hear unfamiliar words. When they encounter these words in their own reading, they will be prepared for them. Audio books can be a nice tool if you do not feel comfortable or confident reading aloud. You can also take advantage of story time at your local library or bookstore.

Heading to your library or bookstore can double as an outing that will bring up topics for conversation. Talking with your child is just as important to reading success as reading aloud. The reason reading to children is so powerful is that books tend to use new words that we don't encounter in everyday situations. So in that vein, you can help your child's reading success by bringing different vocabulary words into conversation or imaginary play. Explore the world, get into new situations, visit unique places: museums, fairs, fire stations, the post office... exposing your child to new terminology and giving them hands-on context for these unfamiliar words. Have them tell someone about their experiences to reinforce their learning. Later, when they are reading to themselves, they will know those words based on their beginning and ending sounds and the context in which they appear.