Garbanzo Toons

Professional Development

As part of our professional obligations in the state of Michigan, we teachers have to take a certain number of "professional development" hours. Usually they are provided by the school district during professional development days and after school meetings. I don't do too well at these any more. I usually spend the day tuning out or drawing pictures. It's not that the presenters are bad (some are - some aren't) but as I've explained in previous posts, it's the same old crap repackaged - and repackaged - and repackaged.

During the last PD day, I took notes. Here they are:

I said over and over and over again, this meeting's going to be a drag.

By ignoring effective teaching strategies, we are subject to another useless workshop on a reading instructional technique that will make no difference in student achievement, and that will be replaced a few years down the road with the next latest and greatest reading program. It will be under the aegis of the next reading guru. It will have most of the same elements of Reading Workshop (the current latest and greatest - H.) because Reading Workshop has elements of previous programs. It will pay lip service to the phonetic component and it will make no difference at all.

We aged veterans will sit through these workshops wondering why those administrators in charge still buy into this madness. Why do they insist that THIS TIME things will be different. This time student achievement will skyrocket.

And a few years down the road, when we are still having staff meetings - the topic being "how can we increase flagging student achievement?" nobody will make the connection: same techniques, same refusal to begin at the beginning, same refusal to explicit phonics, same dismal results. We will find the holes in the method. They were obvious from the beginning.

New (?) technique - leveled books - but nobody asks if it wouldn't be more effective to give students the ability to figure out the majority of words.

Now we've been given a program that calls for a huge number of books, but we don't have the money.

Is this another example of more money being poorly spent?

Personally, I'd like to have thousands of books, but if we can't, a few excellent titles that teach reading and content would suffice.

Riggs - so much cheaper and more effective.

Colleges are teaching this stuff too. Must be on a carpet (another crutch?) for "turn and talk."

Constant talk of leveled books low enough in each class instead of - how do we improve skills? Oh yeah - guided reading. (a bit of sarcasm there - H.)

Conference on modifying the program. We have to modify it right out of the gate? Is this really what we want?

Stigma of reading groups now becomes stigma of leveled books.

After the meeting I unloaded on a co-worker. He's heard my rant before, and he was willing to spend a few minutes listening to m vent my frustration.

At least we didn't have to do anything on chart paper.

Labels: education, failed reading programs, Riggs Institute, teacher education, teaching

posted by Harry @ 6:45 PM 5 comments

Harry Opens His Mouth

Monday is staff meeting day. This past Monday, we had grade-level meetings. The fourth and fifth grade teachers met at one of the elementary schools to discuss curriculum; what's working and what's not working. It was a chance to sound off on the lameness of Everyday Math, and to discuss how the rudiments of this year's latest and greatest reading program, Lucy Calkin's Reading Workshop is going. Since most of us have only been trained on one minor portion of it, and others were awaiting more training, there wasn't much to discuss. But we did get to talk about the carpets each class received in order to help implement this new, latest and greatest reading method.

Labels: education, Riggs Institute, teacher education, teaching

posted by Harry @ 8:01 PM 6 comments

How Words Cast Their Spell

I have a friend who teachers higher level math at a local big-time university. Sometimes we talk about the current state of education. He turned me on to this article from the current issue of American Educator. I highly recommend it to those of you who are interested in reading, writing, and spelling instruction. I knew most of this stuff already, and you homeschoolers probably know it too. But to see it expressed out in the open, without apologies, as if it's become OK to challenge the educational status quo; that was exciting!

Here's a lengthy excerpt. It's a lengthy scholarly article, but I highly recommend reading the whole thing . . . if you're interested in teaching reading. The only quibble I have is that the pace they recommend can be a lot faster, as it is with Riggs.

More recent studies, however, do not support the notion that visual memory is the key to good spelling.6 Several researchers
have found that rote visual memory for letter strings is limited to
two or three letters in a word.7 In addition, studies of the errors children make indicate that something other than visual memory
is at work. If children relied on visual memory for spelling, regular
words (e.g., stamp, sing, strike) and irregular words that are
similar in length and frequency (e.g., sword, said, enough) should
be misspelled equally often. But they are not. Children misspell
irregular words more often than regular words.8
So, if words aren’t memorized visually, how do we spell? That
will be thoroughly explained later in this article. For now, here’s
the short answer: Webster was right not just on the importance
of spelling, but on how to teach it too. Spelling is a linguistic task
that requires knowledge of sounds and letter patterns. Unlike
poor spellers, who fail to make such connections, good spellers
develop insights into how words are spelled based on soundletter
correspondences,† meaningful parts of words (like the root
bio and the suffix logy), and word origins and history.9 This
knowledge, in turn, supports a specialized memory system—
memory for letters in words. The technical term for this is “orthographic
memory,” and it’s developed in tandem with awareness
of a word’s internal structure—its sounds, syllables, meaningful
parts, oddities, history, and so forth. Therefore, explicit instruction
in language structure, and especially sound structure, is
essential to learning to spell.

Don’t Students Learn to Spell through
Flashcards and Writing Words?

Given both the widespread belief that English spelling is irregular
and the previous studies that stressed visual memory for words, it’s no surprise that many teachers teach spelling by writing
words on flashcards and exposing students to them many
times or by having students write words 5 to 10 times. Unfortunately,
the effectiveness of such methods is not well established.
In contrast, studies show that spelling instruction based on the
sounds of language produces good results. For example, to test
whether a visual approach or language-based method is better,
researchers taught spelling to typical second graders using two
different methods: a visual method and a method in which students
focused on correspondences between sounds and letters.10
After administering lists of words as spelling tests, these investigators
drew the attention of the visual group to their errors, wrote
the correct spellings on flashcards, and showed children the correct
spellings. In contrast, the children in the language-based
group were given instruction on the sounds involved in their
misspellings. The group that received the language-based spelling
instruction showed significantly greater progress than the
visual group. Similarly, another researcher, after examining five
successful spelling instructional approaches for children with
learning disabilities, observed that the successful programs had
one thing in common: they were all based on structured language
instruction that explicitly taught principles like soundletter
correspondences.11 Researchers also have found that
second and third graders at risk of literacy problems improved
their spelling (as well as their word recognition, handwriting,
and composition skills) after structured spelling instruction
based on the concept that speech sounds are represented by
letters in printed words (i.e., the alphabetic principle).12 And a
series of studies showed that training in phonological awareness
(i.e., awareness of the sounds that make up language) improved
the spelling and reading of children in low-income, inner-city schools. The training was especially effective among the lowestperforming
children.13 In sum, these and other studies have
found that effective spelling instruction explicitly teaches students
sound-spelling patterns. Students are taught to think about
language, allowing them to learn how to spell—not just memorize
words.

Labels: education, reading, Riggs Institute

posted by Harry @ 2:27 PM 6 comments

On Teaching and Tutoring

They tell you that all children are different. And they're right. I'm spending mornings this summer as I do every summer, tutoring children in reading. I teach reading phonetically. As it should be taught. There are objective standards that have to be met by each student. Unlike the crap that we are supposed to teach in school, I can explain to a parent exactly where a student is, what they've learned, what they need to learn, and what kind of difficulties they are having if they are having difficulties. And the kids are privy to this knowledge too. They know what they need to do. There is no deciphering of nebulous subjective semi-standards. Nobody in the public school system in this country wants to hear that. That's OK. They will continue to create my clientele.

Dealing with children one on one, it becomes apparent early on, how well each student will be able to pick up on what I'm teaching. It has to do with different factors. How good is their recall? Some students start off having a tough time remembering all four sounds of the first phonogram. I've spent upwards of fifteen minutes with some students repeating those four sounds with them until they can repeat them on their own. Then they can begin writing and repeating. The good news is, even with these slow starters, once they've had enough practice, their memory improves. It gets - not necessarily easy, but it does get easier.

How hard are the students willing to work? Some will do everything I ask without complaint. Others begin whining and moaning as soon as they walk in the door and don't stop until they walk out. Some work for a while and then want to give up. Almost all students complain that their hand hurts the first few sessions. We do a lot of writing.

Are the parents willing to bring their child to my house on time for every session? No explanation needed.

Can the parents afford to bring their child until they've learned what they need to learn? I don't live in what you would call a wealthy area. My school is in an area that's even less wealthy, and that's where most of my tutoring students come from. Depending on how quickly their child learns though, it could end up costing a lot of money. On the other hand, some who cry poverty drive some pretty expensive cars. Some smoke. Almost all have cable TV or satellite TV, video game systems, and other things that I would consider nonessential when your child needs to learn how to read. I do occasionally offer discounts and on a few rare occasions, I have taught for free. But that is strictly at my discretion.

Some students have problems with reversals. Because I was trained how to do it (when I learned to teach Riggs ) I can fix those reversals. Sometimes that takes a few minutes. Sometimes it takes weeks or months of monitoring and frustration, but it does get fixed. In the public schools teachers are trained to refer that problem to the special education department, thereby insuring that it remains a lifelong disability.

Some students show such remarkable improvement just from learning the phonograms, they don't stick around very long.

One of the students I'm teaching now, breezed through the phonograms, learning the first 55 of them in a week and a half. He's got phenomenal recall. He's going into sixth grade, and he's reading on about a second grade level. As bright as he is, I've had to let him know that the third grade animal book he was reading was below him and he needs to stick his nose into some chapter books. Like so many kids today, he's bright but lazy. And he's past the age where he wants desperately to read. I think his father will give him the kick in the pants that he needs to move him along.

Another student is a foster child going into third grade. Think of him as being rescued. He's got difficulty speaking clearly. He doesn't use all of the sounds because he has difficulty pronouncing all of them. This caused him to have a really tough time with some of the phonograms. Sometimes he got angry at me, but he kept on working. He wants to read. We are now learning spelling and I think there may be some hearing issues too. He sounds out his words like he's supposed to, but then can't put the sounds together. For me, this is something new. I've been having to figure out how to make this work for him. Since in tutoring it's much easier to tailor each lesson to the individual, I was able to slow him down and we are taking extra time to address problem areas. He's going on vacation next week and that worries me. I don't know how much catching up we'll have to do when he returns.

I can do some individualizing in the classroom, but it takes a lot more effort. I also use my bright students to reteach slower students. It's always a tremendous amount of work. And sometimes my patience does wear thin. Over the years I've had to learn to be really patient. After all, that student who isn't getting it is as frustrated as I am. He wants to do well and is operating to the best of his abilities. I have to remember that and save the ranting for after the lesson is over and I am someplace alone.

All in all, I've learned more about teaching and how to teach since I've started teaching the Riggs method than I ever could have learned otherwise. The currently accepted reading and phonics "experts" like Patricia Cunningham and Lucy Calkins don't even know as much as some of the second and third graders that I've taught about the English language.

Labels: reading, Riggs Institute, teaching, tutoring

posted by Harry @ 7:00 PM 4 comments

A Great Teacher Died

This past Saturday, July 2, 2005, Myrna McCulloch died. Chances are you've never heard of her. And that's a shame. Teachers are rarely mentioned except in the context of our failing public schools or unless they do something horrible. Teachers who daily battle against failure, illiteracy, and the bureaucracies of the educational establishment are among the unsung heroes of society and our civilization. Myrna was one of them.

On occasion we do hear about the exceptional teachers. On a local level, a great teacher may get written about in a local newspaper. Sometimes great teachers get movies made about them; Marva Collins and Jaime Escalante come to mind. There should be a movie about Myrna.

Myrna was a classroom teacher many years ago, but went a step further and in 1979 began the Riggs Institute. She named it after her mentor, Oma Riggs, who studied under Romalda Spalding who worked with Dr. Samuel T. Orton and Anna Gillingham. Through the Riggs Institute, thousands of teachers (including me) have been trained in the Riggs method using her instructional manual, The Writing and Spelling Road to Reading and Thinking. By creating the Riggs Institute and training teachers in this phonetic language arts method, she spent her life fighting illiteracy, and demonstrating that the educational establishment is wrong in pandering to failure by promoting ineffective teaching methods.

She showed anyone who would listen, that there is a more effective way to teach children, that we don't have to accept the failure of our public schools, that "learning disabilities" have been oversold and overstated, that the real problems are "teaching disabilities", that is, teachers are not trained properly. She showed that elementary school students who have been properly taught can read and comprehend far beyond what we expect from children today, even if they come from a "disadvantaged background", live in poverty, or are a member of a minority group. They can also spell accurately and become excellent writers. They can succeed. The crime is that so few in the teaching profession have bothered to listen.

I never met Myrna in person. We held lengthy email correspondences, and spoke on the phone a few times. Her focus on quality education and knowledge of her subject was inspiring. She had the answers to all of the questions, and expected the the people who trained teachers in her method to also have all of the answers and maintain her high standards. Yes, she set very high standards for teachers, students, and herself. But we can only get the best from ourselves and our students if that's what we expect.

Anyone who is concerned with education should be thankful that Myrna was here, and was on our side. There will never be a movie about her, but I will do my best to honor her memory by continuing to teach her method, which she detailed in her manual, The Writing and Spelling Road to Reading and Thinking.

Labels: education, Myrna McCulloch, Riggs Institute

posted by Harry @ 11:31 AM 0 comments

Macbeth for Kids

I've been reading Macbeth with my fourth graders. The real Macbeth by Shakespeare, not one of the many children's versions. I teach in a small "urban" district, one beset with all of the maladies of other "urban" public school districts. But I was determined that we would read Macbeth. After reading Romeo and Juliet with a group of fifth graders a few years ago, I knew it was possible.

First, of course, I had to teach the class to read. I did it using The Writing and Spelling Road to Reading and Thinking, published by The Riggs Institute. It was a struggle, but it paid off. While not everyone is as fluent as I'd like, we're reading Macbeth, bit by bit, every day. The exciting thing is that most of the students are enjoying it. We stop a lot to discuss things like plot, character, and "what did he just say?" I've read this play before, I've got my heavily annotated edition, and I do a lot of explaining, except for the dirty parts. We just pass over those.

I'm amazed almost daily at how well some of my students are understanding the motivations of the characters, what they're thinking, possible future plot directions, and themes. Some of the essays they've written about the play have shown remarkable perception. Some haven't.

Either way, it sure beats the stuffings out of reading the district approved dreck the rest of the fourth grade is subjected to.

Labels: education, Macbeth, Riggs Institute, Shakespeare

posted by Harry @ 8:27 PM 2 comments

How to Teach Children to Read, Part 2

According to the educational establishment, you teach children to read by exposing them to a variety of great literature, have them do a lot of writing, and even let them make up their own spelling. It's called, Whole Language. Over the years, they've come up with lots of different programs that show teachers different Whole language ways to teach. Actually, there are only a few ways and they've been repackaged and recycled over the years. The Whole Language proponents claim that these methods, properly taught, will get children to read and to love reading.
So one has to ask, after many generations of Whole Language teaching methods, why is American society becoming continuously less literate? Ah, claim the Whole Language proponents, students watch too much TV, play too many video games, they are victims of poor parenting, not enough money is going to the schools, they have ADD, ADHD, dyslexia, and other learning disabilities.
Don't you believe it!
After 16 years of elementary classroom experience, I can tell you that students aren't reading because they aren't being taught correctly. Students have to begin at the beginning with a strong phonetic foundation. English is a sound/symbol language. The letters are symbols for different sounds. These sound/symbol relationships have to be taught. Some students can figure them out on their own, but many can't and don't.
By beginning with phonics, I don't mean worksheets where students have to guess that the first letter in cup and cat is "c". I'm talking about intensive study and lots of, you will excuse the expression, drill and practice until students know what sounds the letters and letter combinations make. This can actually be done for most students in only a few weeks in first grade. Drill and practice is not the only teaching method, but it should be part of a teacher's bag of tricks.
The best phonetic method I've found, and I've done a lot of research on this is, The Writing and Spelling Road to Reading and Thinking, published by the Riggs Institute, www.riggsinst.org. It begins with students learning the sounds discussed above, then using those sounds to begin spelling. Anything a student can spell, they can read. Once a certain number of words are learned through dictation, not copying, through multi-sensory study and practice, students begin using these words in their own individually decodable sentences. This leads to reading, and finally in lesson 46 to the reading of "real books".
There is a lot more though. This is an entire language arts method covering two years of grammar and writing, and four years of spelling, that when taught properly (take the training, it's worth it) advances students way beyond what is traditionally taught in a public school classroom.
That was the short version. In addition to parents and teachers studying the Riggs website, I also recommend www.coreknowledge.com, and the book, The Schools We Need, and Why We Don't Have Them, by E. D. Hirsch. When he described teacher education, it read like he was there with me in teacher's school. Also, Marva Collins' Way, by Marva Collins and Civia Tamarkin is highly recommended.

Labels: E. D. Hirsch, education, Marva Collins, phonics, Riggs Institute

posted by Harry @ 6:17 PM 1 comments

How to Teach Children to Read, Part 1

When I graduated from Teachers' College (I'm not mentioning which one), I thought that they had taught me the current best teaching practices. After all, these were the experts. They had experience in the classroom, they had done research, and so they must know what they're talking about. I hope I'm less naive now than I was then.

My first clue to how wrong they were, should have been my first year as a teacher when I was describing to a 30 year veteran the latest and greatest in just learned, current educational thought. We both laughed when she told me that's exactly what she learned 30 years before, but it was called something different.

I didn't catch on to the joke until years later when I finally became frustrated at the constant failure of students to pass standardized tests in our "urban" school district even though I and the other teachers were doing everything we had been taught to do by the educational experts. After another staff meeting where we tried to come up with new strategies for success, I suggested that we visit "urban" schools that were successful. I had heard about them, but had never seen one. I was told by one of our administrators they didn't exist.

I was losing my naivete at this point, and thanks to the Internet, I was able to do my own research. I ordered a book by Samuel Casey Carter at The Heritage Foundation www.heritage.org (and yes, I know they are a 'gasp!' conservative organization) called: NO EXCUSES, Lessons from 21 High-Performing, High- Poverty Schools.

I read it, visited some of the websites listed in the book, followed links to other websites, ordered samples, made phone calls, and finally bought everything I needed to teach The Writing Road to Reading, by Spalding, a phonetic language arts method based on Orton-Gillingham. I was urged to take the training but instead bought a Spalding how-to book put out by another publisher, since school started in two weeks, and I had just been moved from fourth to fifth grade.

I didn't realize how well Spalding worked until January of that school year when one of my students who was at a second grade level coming in sounded out a three syllable word. In the spring the class read Romeo and Juliet (the actual play, not a kid's version). When I finally took the training, I realized what an awful job I had done in teaching Spalding, but it still worked better than anything I had done before.

I continued my research, and found The Riggs Institute www.riggsinst.org, who publish The Writing and Spelling Road to Reading and Thinking. It's based on Spalding, but it's a more complete language arts method. I moved down to second grade to teach that. Parents were nervous at first, because while other classes were writing papers using "invented spelling" (a method that actually slows down learning) my class was starting at the beginning, learning letter sounds and letter combination sounds. Eventually though, the parents were loving it, raving about how their second grader was reading better than older siblings and cousins, and having to help these older students with their reading.

I took a Riggs training, and then did an in-class practicum. I taught these second graders again in third grade, and at the end of the year we read, THE LEGEND OF SLEEPY HOLLOW by Washington Irving. As with my fifth graders and Shakespeare, we read the real Legend, not a dumbed down children's version.

Stay tuned for part 2 and find out why Riggs works, and other methods don't.

NOTE: If anyone can offer me a dumbed down explanation of how to do the link code, you step by step as if I didn't know anything, I'd appreciate it.

Labels: education, No Excuses, phonics, Riggs Institute

posted by Harry @ 9:40 AM 1 comments