Blog Post for September 23rd: Learning to Read with What You Already Know

The article this week that struck me the most was the article "Letting Go of Letter of the Week". I remember when I was in kindergarten, and I struggled with our "letter of the week" workbooks. My mother read to me outside of class and let me look at pictures which I loved, but I found looking at a workbook dedicated to the letter "P" boring, time consuming, and not very helpful. Reading how Bell and Jarvis understood that some kids learn differently was a breath of fresh air. I admired their abstract way of teaching such as when they used their students names and linked them to letters of the alphabet. Not only is that an excellent way to teach words, but also a way to interact their students with each other. The only question I had is, what if students had the same beginning letters of their name? Or what if no students in her class started with the letter "Q"? How would she handle that?

I also admired Bell and Jarvis' approach to teaching children how to write. My third grade teacher Mrs. Plummer took a similar approach allowing us to write down poems she wrote on the board any way we wanted, whether through drawing out what we thought the poem meant, writing it word for word, or basically interpreting the poem however we thought we would remember the poem best. Donna taught her students that scribbling, doodling, writing, and drawing are all perfectly acceptable ways to write in their journals. My question to her would be, how do you know if your students were really challenging themselves? Or how would you grade fairly with the students who were really trying to write?

http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=pLJe7IQtoeM  - here is a really interesting video a learning disability specialist made on teaching her students to put words together!

Bell and Jarvis. "Letting Go of Letter of the Week".
http://www.pinterest.com/pin/145944844148070279/