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.)