Learning to Read through Passions
I love how these stories show the physical and emotional pleasures (for the adults, too!) of learning to read in ways that are so different than in school. However, I also include a story from a teacher that reinforces what is being said about how children learn to read. Also, note how each child described exhibits pre-reading behavior without any prompting from adults and how the adults respond to that behavior: they don't run out a buy a phonics program, instead they simply provide answers to questions when asked, show shortcuts and uses for reading, and keep the pace their children set. —PF
EXCITED ABOUT COOKBOOK . . .
From GWS 46, p. 17.
...Suddenly, we've noticed that Tiffany (7) has a new interest in reading. A few weeks ago, she read four different comic strips from the Sunday paper. She struggled and needed help with most of the words, but she really put forth an effort on her own. Then we noticed that everywhere we went she was trying to read signs. We took a trip to the library and got some beginning readers . . . We returned for more books and she picked out a very special Care Bear book that was much too difficult for her to read, so I would read it to her. A few nights ago she wanted to read to her older sister, Shannon, and she picked the Care Bear book instead of the beginning readers. Shannon came to me and said, "You won't believe the words Tiffany is reading by herself'" . . . Words like: arithmetic, classroom, tomorrow, and television, with very little effort. Tiffany was so proud of herself and was thrilled after learning what commas, periods, question marks, and italicized words meant . . .
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...AND FIELD GUIDES
...When our son John (now 6) was only two or three months old, he would occasionally begin to cry at night and we wouldn't be able to calm him down with feeding or rocking or any of the usual things. The one thing that would stop his crying was to be held to look over our shoulder at the black numbers on a calendar! I guess you could say it was positive reinforcement to us right from the start.
By the time John was 16 months old, he was bringing us magazines and pointing to the letters and hollering until we told him what the letters were. One day to his utter delight he discovered when he turned the magazine upside down the M would turn into a W. He was fascinated by gas station signs and logos of any sort . . .
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READING VIA SONGS
From GWS 35, p. 22
Janey Smith (MO) wrote:
BEST LOVED SONGS OF THE AMERICAN PEOPLE is a wonderful collection, with interesting text, and reasonably easy accompaniment .
. . . A thought—our Sarah, 6 1/2, is an excellent reader. One of the many avenues she's pursued for teaching herself is singing . She loves to sing and this past year has loved finding songs she knows and following the words in songbooks . . .
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A TEACHER ON READING
More from Catherine Wolken (GWS 41, p. 22):
...When I was teaching third grade, I had a little girl in the slow reading class who went along for two and half years completely uninterested in reading. Then one day she discovered horses and became passionately interested in them. In two months she went from the low reading class to the high one . . .
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