gdetch.htm/19DEC2001
Guide for the
Teacher
Before you begin.
Read each day's programme through before you start,
the day before, to make sure you have all the materials you need. If you are
worried about doing something wrong, or that will conflict with the teaching in
the school, read ‘The modern ideas are ‘dead wrong’’
before you begin.
This book gives you ideas and a programme,
but use your own ideas too. Throughout the whole programme, both you and the
pupil should be enjoying yourselves. Pour out the praise endlessly.
If the pupil gets stuck or makes a mistake, avoid
saying "No" or "That's wrong". See if any of it is right.
Say, "Let's try again,", "Have another look" or perhaps
"Slow down." Later on, in spelling, say, "You have got six
letters right, in the right order, and now you need just one more letter to get
it right. LISTEN to the word again .... Now ‑ where have you lost a
sound? Where would you need to add a letter in your spelling? Which sound,
which letter?" Comment on all the things that are right; do not praise
without justification, but find something to praise. If it is “Just one
of those days", LAUGH and say, "Well, tomorrow is another day."
Aim at about 30 minutes a day, but this is not
rigid. Use your judgment. Some good days may allow an hour, other days ten
minutes, but try to do a bit each day, even if it is only a game. Varied
activity extends the span of attention, the lesson: handwriting, spelling,
reading rules, Hangman, anagrams, story, etc.
Give the pupil as much time as he needs to puzzle
out a word. (For convenience, I use 'he' for the pupil and 'she' for the tutor,
but I have known some excellent father teachers.) For some children some steps
may be slow. If you can see that there is a block, tell the word and go on, but
telling the word is a last resort, a very rare event. We are trying to convince
the pupil that he can read the words. Telling a word tells also that adults,
readers, read words and not the learner. Telling a word may also give the
impression that reading must be fast. In the end it will be, but someone
learning HOW to read needs time. There is no hurry.
I do not teach a then b then c,d,e
because this makes b and d very close together. I present
first (in cat, dog) four letters that start with the same action as c,
and then o. Get d well learned, starting with up‑and‑back‑round...,
b is left nearly
to the end teaching it with the "|" letters h k..b, and this
prevents b/d confusion. I leave q to the end because there is no simple 3‑letter
word with a q.
Using the letter cards
is a painless way to improve spelling. The pupil can pick out letters for
sounds he can hear, and instead of red ink on mistakes, you just have to
rearrange letters, or let him re‑arrange them, or take out wrong letters,
and leave a space for a missing letter. He then has to listen to the word and hear
how the spoken word does not match (Felicity Craig uses the word 'tally') the
letters he has chosen, and to hear
what letters he needs to
provide the missing sounds. This is the best kind of phonological awareness,
listening to the separate sounds in words, rather than the bigger units of
onset and rime.(See The Myths Item 10)
WE
READ WITH OUR EARS. WE SPELL WITH OUR EARS.
This programme is multi‑sensory, that is to say that while the pupil is looking
at the letter with his eyes, he will sound it with his voice and thus hear it
with his ears, and write it or go over it with his fingers using his muscles.
This helps to prevent fidgeting, and helps concentration. By using all his
senses (except smell and taste!) you never need to worry about his strengths
and weaknesses.
The pupil will learn letters one at a time, and at
the same time will write them,
Varied activity extends the span
of attention, the lesson: handwriting, spelling, reading rules, Hangman,
anagrams, story, etc.
Teachers do not need training; they just need common
sense and the will to TEACH (not to help, encourage, facilitate, but
specifically to TEACH) reading bit by bit, and not think of guessing as playing
any part.
Teach the pupil to sound
out the new letters in the current step by positioning their tongue etc. (These
positions are described in the step for the letter concerned).
Teach them to blend the
sounds into words.
Teach them to break words
down into sounds which they can then spell.
Writing
Before the pupil starts to write, make sure that
they have the correct pencil grip the first time they hold a crayon or
pencil. The thumb and side of the long (middle) finger do the gripping, with
the index finger sitting loosely on top. PREVENT bad habits. If pencil grip is
a problem, you can get a good, cheap plastic, triangular pencil‑grip from
N.E.S. Arnold of Nottingham or Taskmaster of Leicester. Left‑handed
writers will probably need to have their paper more slanted (left side higher)
than the right‑handed people.
Teach the pupil to write each letter of the
current step by going over the large letters with pencil,
Have the pupil write them separately or go
over them with his fingers using his muscles.
Show how the letters for this step are made up of
straight lines and parts of a circle.
Letter Shapes
and Names
Teach the pupil the
shapes and names of the 26 letters as they arise in each step.
Give the pupil each letter being taught in the current step to match up by its shape, then give him all the letters he has learnt so far to match up by their shape.
(If you set your printer to landscape then a print
of the large card in landscape format may do the job.)
a b c d e f g h i j k l m
n o p q r s t u v w x y z
or if you prefer, arrange the letters in an arch
like a rainbow, with a bottom‑left, m at the top and z bottom‑right.
Have ready the 26 letters on letter cards. (You can use letters cut from a printout of the cut letters web page)
Ask for a volunteer to find on the large card the
letter the teacher displays. This will attract the concentration of the class,
and can go on until the children grasp the idea and have experienced success ‑
and PRAISE.
Seeing the 26 letters shows him that learning the
letters is finite; the pupil can see how many he has to learn altogether. One
boy learning sight words asked his mother how many words there were, and when
she replied, "Oh, I don't know ‑ thousands!" he gave up.
You can use these letters and the large card all
through the programme.
Other activities for use in each step as
appropriate
(Varied activity extends the span of attention.)
The main lesson
Reading rules
Hangman
Anagrams
Story
The activities are the same for all the Steps 1 to
77. You teach something, then you do the pencil work, then
you play the 3 games and work through the "Is It?" first for reading,
then back to front for spelling. That's it!
How long should the pupil spend on each
activity? Well, I run an hour's lesson, say 10 minutes checking on
the previous work, homework, then 20 minutes teaching the next chunk and having
the pupil do one or two words from each worksheet, or column, then we play
games for the last 20 minutes or so. But I do not think we should tie this
down, be too prescriptive. Teachers will find th eir own way - so long as
the games are seen as useful. Some parents come to me and say "Johnny was
very busy. We've done
the writing but he had not time to play the games" and I could scream!
Once you say "Do it this way" they never try anything else! And once
they get the feel of the programme, they can very well invent their own games,
keep it free , flexible. Also keep it simple and as brief as possible.
How much time do I recommend. A
Spalding programme in America recommends three hours a day! Marva
Collins has children reading "in a month or two" - they go hammer and
tongs at phonics and not much else, till the kid can read.
With my private1-1 pupils I have an hour a week (no matter how young), plus
homework about half an hour a day. This varies,
some good days they can do an hour, some bad days only 10 minutes, but
SOMEthing every day. Teachers using this in schools would have the
Literacy Hour, supposedly 60 minutes, but that can be in 2-3 sessions through
the day
(which is a good idea). We just provide the programme, content and materials
and leave
it to the teacher. You don't like being told what to do, anyway!
ă Copyright 2000 by Elliot Right Way Books
where copied or adapted from “c-a-t=CAT”. Other material ă copyright 2001 by Mona
McNee