Oct. 2, 2007 - Carnival of Homeschooling #92 is up
The 92nd Carnival of Homeschooling is up at Tami's Blog.
The theme is fall, I'm glad it's fall, too, hopefully the weather will seem like fall here soon.
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Oct. 1, 2007 - MWIA Contest
I'm interesting in getting a feel for how MWIA scores correlate with Reading Grade Level scores and number of sight words taught. So, I'm giving away a bunch of stuff to entrants in my MWIA Contest.
The MWIA ( MWIA online here ) is a powerful tool that can determine who can benefit from phonics instruction. It measures reading speed of common sight words vs. simple yet less common phonetically regular words. Anyone with more than a 15% slowdown could benefit from remedial phonics training. I recommend Blend Phonics, my online phonics lessons or Webster's American Spelling Book (The Blue Backed Speller) for remediation if scores indicate a slowdown of more than 15% or if the student is reading below grade level.
To enter, you need to find a child or some children (the more children you find, the greater your chances of winning!) and give them the MWIA ( MWIA online here ) and a quick reading grade level test called the Wide Range Reading Test. You also need to try to find out the approximate number of sight words they have been taught, although I will accept I don't know as an answer. I don't need their name, but I do need to know their grade level, and if they are a boy or a girl. Entries must be e-mailed by midnight pacific time on the 20th of October.
There are 3 categories: homeschooler, parent, and teacher. You may enter any of the 3 categories, but you need 5 children's scores for every entry in the teacher category. You will get one chance at winning for every complete set of scores entered (for every complete 5 sets of scores for the teacher category.) Your chances of winning depend on the number of children you can find and test and the number of entries received. Winners must send me an address if they wish to receive their prizes.
Here is a sample entry:
1. Child's Grade Level: K
2. Boy or Girl: G
3. Child's Score on the Wide Range Reading Test: 41 (use letter names for line one, stop after they miss 7 words in a row, then count up the number of words they read correctly, that's their score. 41 would be grade level 4.1, please send me the raw score, not the grade level.)
4. MWIA I (use the 50 word part I for K - 2nd grade, the 220 word MWIA II for 3rd grade and older): 50 Holistic words, 48 seconds, 50 Phonetic words, 50 seconds, Holistic Errors, 1, Phonetic Errors, 2, Phonetic
Corrected 2 of 2 (I will use MS Excel to compute the actual wpm and slowdown. You can do the math on your own if you wish, but I just need the raw scores.)
5. Sight words taught: 1 (yes, you can and should teach this few sight words, see how to teach "sight words" phonetically here ) And, a ? is an acceptable answer for this category if you don't know and can't figure out an approximate number by asking the student. Any word taught as a whole with a flash card should be counted towards the number of sight words.
6. Category entering: homeschooler
All scores must be e-mailed by midnight on the 20th of October to be eligible for prizes. I will have Excel randomly pick the winners from all complete entries. However, after the 20th of October, I'll still collect
data if you want to send some, I'm always interested in data, I used to work as a statistician in the Air Force before I was promoted to Mom. If you have any questions about the contest, post the question here in the comments or e-mail me at liz91 at thephonicspage dot org (use @ for the at, a period for the dot, and no spaces.) Please put the words "MWIA contest" somewhere in the e-mail subject line. Also, please put the words "MWIA Entry" somewhere in the subject line when e-mailing entries, e-mail entries to liz91 at thephonicspage dot org (use @ for the at, a period for the dot, and no spaces.)
Now, the part you've been waiting for...the prizes!
For the homeschooler category, I have the following prizes available:
1. A Beka 11/12 Book of the Revelation Exams/Quizzes/Reviews, c. 2004--teacher book only, but you could teach from it, it tells you which chapter of Revelation matches up to the material.
2. A Beka, Genesis 11/12, c. 1997. Book + Test/Quiz/Review manual
3. A Beka 10 Bible Doctrines for Today, c. 1996, test/quiz book only
4. A Beka 11/12 Life Management Under God, c. 2003, book + test/quizzes
5. A Beka Kings of Israel series, 2 book series:
1st book: A Beka 9 United Kingdom, Kings of Israel A
2nd Book: A Beka 9 Divided Kingdom, Kings of Israel B
6. A Beka Kings of Israel series, 2 book series:
1st book: A Beka 9 United Kingdom, Kings of Israel A
2nd Book: A Beka 9 Divided Kingdom, Kings of Israel B
7. A Beka Kings of Israel series, 2 book series:
1st book: A Beka 9 United Kingdom, Kings of Israel A
2nd Book: A Beka 9 Divided Kingdom, Kings of Israel B
8. Alpha Omega Lifepack Bible 7 in Box, includes tests, I didn't see an answer key
9. Switched On Schoolhouse Science 10, Teacher manual + CD, in box
10. Saxon Math 7/6, c. 1997, student book only
11. Phonics Readers (like Bob Books, but in color), Modern Curriculum Press, set A1 (short vowels), 10 books + teacher guide
12. A Beka A Handbook for Reading, 1988--Old, paged dog eared, well loved--still a great method (a little different from the current A Beka Handbook, but has all the phonics info you need to teach.)
13. A Beka A Handbook for Reading, c. 1995, well loved, pages falling out, same as 2006 version, a few pencil marks at end
14. A Beka Primary Bible Reader, c. 1995
15. A Beka 3.8 Pilgrim's Procress, 1997, excellent condition
Pick any 3 A Beka Readers, except Flags Unfurled counts for 2 picks (6 more prizes):
a. A Beka 2.1 Open Doors, 1994, many fun 1950's style pictures, good shape but cover bent
b. A Beka 2.8 Growing Up When Jesus Lived, c. 1988, pages a little light brown
c. A Beka 2.9 All Kinds of Animals, c. 1988, some spotting, answers marked in pencil
d. A Beka 3.1 Footprints, c. 1986, a few fun pictures
e. A Beka 2.7 Sivler Sails, c. 1986, great book for boys
f. A Beka 1.4 Open Windows, many fun 1950's style pictures, a non-PC Indian story
g. A Beka 1 Fun With Pets, top of binding torn
h. A Beka 2.5 Paths of Gold, c. 1986, lots of Biblical stories
i. A Beka 2.7 All Things--Even Frisky, c. 1991, good condition
j. A Beka 2.10 All Kinds of Animals, c. 1988
k. A beka 2.9 Growing Up Where Jesus Lived, c. 1988
l. A Beka 1 Fun With Pets, c. 1994
m. A Beka 2.9 Growing Up Where Jesus Lived, c. 1988
n. A Beka 2.8 Growing Up Where Jesus Lived, c. 1988 (same book as 2.9, different cover.)
o. A Beka 2.8 Growing Up Where Jesus Lived, c. 1988
p. A Beka 1 The Bridge Book, c. 1994
q. A Beka 4.3 Flags Unfurled (counts as 2 picks), c.1995, excellent condition, like new
For the parent category (remember, if you're a homeschooler but like these prizes better, you can enter this category instead):
1. 2 plastic star wars toys (Picture here, the cube on the left shows Yoda on one side and Darth Vader on the other, there is a mirror or something reflective in the middle)
2. In plastic with Wal-Mart tag DVD, Rudolph The Red-Nosed Reindeer
3. In plastic with Wal-Mart tag DVD, The Polar Express
4. 11 sets of old metal army men purchased at a German flea market, first 4 winners get to pick 2 sets, the last winner who wants army men gets the remaining 3 sets (Not recommend for children under 3, small pieces break off and they may have lead in them, I have no idea) (Pictures here)
For the teacher category (anyone who can find and test at least 5 children can enter this category, one chance of winning for every 5 complete entries.):
1. A $25 gift certificate to Chili's, also good at Macaroni Grill, On the Border, or Maggiano's
2. A Homedics Model PA-100 Professional Percussion Massager. Used twice for 30 seconds each time, last 30 seconds a week ago to make sure it had survived our 5 moves in the last 5 years (Actually, I think it's only a few years old, so it probably has only had to survive 2 moves.) (Picture here)
3. In plastic DVD set of Magnum P.I., the complete first season
4. Small flower bowl-bucket thing, made in France, purchased at a flea market in Germany, top mark on bottom of bowl states, "Porceirine artistique F. M Limoges France" and the bottom mark states, "Label De Qualite" (it is actually quite lovely, see the pictures here, now you know why I'm having a contest instead of selling on e-bay.) You also get a free small rubbermaid size 1 container with this for shipping purposes!
5. Small heart bowl with image of lady on it purchased at a flea market in Germany (again, it is actually quite nice, too, see the picture here)
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Sep. 30, 2007 - 91st Carnival of Homeschooling
I enjoyed This Carnival, especially the entry The Power of Color, we'll be using green ink for all our rote memory tasks from now on, just in case, it did seem to help.
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Sep. 15, 2007 - Pollard's Synthetic Phonics--Singing, Spelling, fun pictures
Pollard's Series is a very delightful method, and I'm glad Google Books has scanned the whole series. I was made aware of this program through Geraldine E. Rodgers' "The History of Beginning Reading," available online in e-book format from author house.
If you want to use song and fun to teach, this is a free way to get that! All you need to get started are her Manual and her "First Book for Little Folk." However, she has several other nice books available for more advanced work. A full listing of the program is available on our Phonics Page in the Phonics and Spelling Book section, scroll down to “Synthetic Series of spelling and reading.” Be sure to do some spelling and boardwork (slatework) first before starting to read from the reading selections.
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Sep. 15, 2007 - Blend Phonics
Don Potter has recently been using Blend Phonics with a lot of his students. While the method was designed for a full classroom, he has also been using it during one-on-one tutoring. It's an easy to use method that older brothers and sisters can quickly learn to help teach. Don has also been adding in oral spelling, first of words alredy taught, then of words not yet taught but made up of sound that have already been learned.
Blend phonics is one of the easiest phonics methods to use for beginning students. You can use Blend Phonics for remedial work as well. Don't let its small size or simple format deceive you, it's a very powerful method. Plus, it's free online from Don Potter!
In using this method, it's easiest to use a slate. We're currently using a small whiteboard we use as a slate with our work on Webster, it's much more interactive and useful than working on paper. Webster's focus on spelling has really helped improve Mary's spelling, and we've only completed the firsst 4 lessons in the syllabary!
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Sep. 4, 2007 - First Day of School
We started school today. Locally, students have been in school since 15 Aug for the Catholic school and 20 Aug for the public schools. I always thought school started in September (It did growing up and also in Virginia where we lived a few months ago) so that's when we started.
Mary read Genesis 1:1 “In the beginning God created the heaven and the Earth.” She had no problem reading this. We have divided out beginning into syllables for her before, now she can read it on her own without the syllable division help.
Then, I read to both Mary and David from Genesis 1 & 2 from “The Rhyme Bible.” It is amazingly Biblically accurate for its grade level and rhyme patterns, and has nice pictures, too.
After that, Mary and I worked on letter sounds with David.
Then, David played with trains from a box of toys that has been put up for a while.
Mary worked on her 1 addition facts. She has trouble with the “hard” ones, 1+5, 1+6, 1+7…Jeff and I joke that she’s going to score 1000 on her SATs, 200 on Math and 800 on English.
Then, we had a short break, memorizing the “hard” ones made her tired.
Now, it was on to reading/writing/spelling with Webster. We worked through Lesson 1 and 2 of the syllabary, I formatted them with a larger font size than Don Potter's Excellent Version of Webster. I also made them in all uppercase--we're working in all uppercase until she has B and D firmly in her mind. Also, uppercase letters are easier to write legibly. (She does know her lowercase and can read from that perfectly, in fact, Genesis 1:1 was in lowercase.) She did very well on them, although I had to keep correcting her about using long a instead of the a in ma--I had explained that these were syllables and in syllables, a has its long sound. As examples, I showed her BA BY and DA VID. After we finished reading the syllabary lesson, I had her go down and do just all the a's again (BA, CA, DA, FA, KA, GA, HA, MA, NA, RA, TA, WA.) MA and DA are especially hard for her to say with the long a sound. She also had a bit of trouble with soft c (CE, CI, CY.)
Then, I wrote BA BE BI BO BU BY and had her copy it neatly, saying the sounds as she wrote. Then, I dictated HA HE HI HO HU HY, sounding out for her only the 2 or 3 she couldn't figure out how to spell on her own. She did a great job figuring most of them out on her own.
One more break.
Then, science. I read about butterflies from A Beka Grade 2 Enjoying God's World Science Reader. I learned a few things myself, like the difference between a moth and a butterfly (a moth rests with its wings flat, a butterfly with its wings together. Butterflies have a chrysalis, moths a silk cocoon. Moths have thicker wings than butterflies. One fact I did know: moths generally fly at night, butterflies during the day.)
Then art. David got to do art, too. We painted butterflies using coloring sheets from primarygames.com. My artistic talents are very low, Mary's butterfly looked better than mine. Mine did look better than David's, however!
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Aug. 29, 2007 - Carnival of Homeschooling, number 87
Carnival of Homeschooling, number 87 is up.
The Deputy Headmistress has the "order they came in my inbox" edition. I've had weeks and days like that, too, I'm sure we can all relate.
Here it is: Carnival of Homeschooling 87
Enjoy!
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Aug. 22, 2007 - Homeschooling Carnival 86
The Carnival is up.
Enjoy!
Carnival of Homeschooling, number 86
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Apr. 28, 2007 - Can I Have a Quill Pen With That? Using Noah Websters Speller in Todays Home School.
Generations of American children successfully learned to read and spell using Noah Webster’s “Blue-Backed” speller. For centuries before that, children successfully learned to read and spell using the syllable method. Like classical education, Webster’s Speller remains a great way to teach a child. Don Potter has recently finished a user friendly version of Webster's 1824 Speller with accented syllables in bold.
Webster’s Speller teaches phonics using the syllable method. Syllables that end in a consonant have a short vowel sound: ab, eb, ib, ob, ub. Syllables that end in a vowel have a long vowel sound: ba, be, bi, bo, bu, by. Students should be able to sound out and spell all the syllables in the syllabary (Lessons 1 -12, page 15 – 16) on their own before they move on to learning words. Have them spell using magnetic letters if they are not yet old enough to write well.
Developed for use in one-room schoolhouses, Webster’s Speller is an excellent choice for today’s homeschooler. Young students can study the syllabary while their older siblings work on the word lists for spelling and reading practice and on the reading selections for reading practice and moral guidance.
As Geraldine Rodgers says in her paper, Why Noah Webster Was Right ,
"Noah Webster was right. The first thing to teach little children is how to spell orally and then how to read, by their letter “sound,” long lists of multisyllabic words in English. “Meaning” should have nothing whatsoever to do with the initial stages of literacy. However, once the children's decoding has become automatic, they have become independent readers and are then ready for reading “meaningful” texts. As was true for little Webster-taught children before 1826, children can then pick up the Psalms in the Bible and read them fluently - or can read anything else, for that matter."
Don Potter spent many hours making Noah Webster’s syllable method available for easy use in digital format for those of us in the 21st Century and would be interested to hear of your progress with this method. You can test your child’s reading grade level up to 6th grade here at Don Potter’s Web page, and for grades 8 – 12 here at my phonics web page. You can also chart their progress with the MWIA, a test to determine the degree of “whole word dyslexia.” A student trained with a good phonics program and with no sight words (read more about how to teach “sight words” phonetically here) should have no whole word dyslexia at all. You can post your experiences and questions about using Webster's Speller in the comments here.
I plan to use both Webster’s Speller and A Beka for our 5 year old this coming school year. And yes, you can mix phonics programs! As long as you use good phonics programs that teach in an explicit, systematic manner with a minimum of sight words (or better yet, avoid sight words altogether), teaching a variety of phonics programs will merely deepen your student’s understanding of the sound spelling patterns of English, improving their reading and spelling abilities. Although the font size in Don Potter’s update of Webster’s Speller is quite an improvement from the original, it is still a bit small for a 5 year old. We will use our modern day slate, a magnadoodle, for practice with the syllabary and the words in Webster. I will write about our experiences with Webster's method here.
And yes, if you wish, you can get a quill pen with this. Colonial Williamsburg has quill pens available for a reasonable price online.
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Feb. 13, 2007 - Scientific Management in Education
One of the Google Book Search links I found while researching the history of reading instruction was Joseph Mayer Rice’s 1912 "Scientific Management in Education." It also has some educational thoughts that are interesting. While the basics of the 3R’s can be agreed upon by almost all, and Christians would add the Bible as a foundational document, the other areas of education depend on your Worldview, your interests, and the interests of your student.
Here are some quotes from the book that made me think:
“The number of recitations a week in a subject must be determined by the amount of time required for brain cells that have been in active operation fully to recover their strength, and again be prepared for the process of assimilation. If they are set to work earlier, they labor under unfavorable conditions, and less will be accomplished in a given time than if the recuperation had been complete.” (Rice page 59)
This quote from Rice on page 42 is applicable not just to education, but how we live our lives as well. Little things do add up, I find that hard to keep in mind myself sometimes:
“The importance of such questions of relative values becomes strikingly apparent when we consider that thirty-five minutes a day is equivalent to an entire year out of eight devoted to elementary education.”
I also liked this quote on page 56:
"When I speak of incidental instruction, I do not mean that satisfactory results might be secured if a branch were left to take care of itself. Incidental instruction, to be worthy of the name, is not a laissez-faire system, but must be as carefully planned and as thoroughly and systematically conducted as if the subject were separately taught. If the teacher, for instance, should act on the theory that, in time, the pupil would learn to write neatly and legibly just because he writes, and accordingly would accept manuscript in any form in which it was presented, she would not be imparting incidental instruction, but would simply be neglecting penmanship.”
And finally, on page 57):
“The arrangement of a school programme on a purely logical basis may involve, therefore, an enormous waste of time, for more reasons than one. In a recitation sixty minutes in length, twice as much ground can be covered, it is true, as in a recitation only thirty minutes in length; and again, in four recitations a week in a given subject, twice as much ground can be covered as in two. It is not, however, the number of ideas presented to the child, but only those assimilated, that count.”
Rice’s book is worth reading through. I know that I learned a subject more thoroughly when I was interested in it and when I spent little bits of time on it daily or weekly spread out over a period of weeks or months. Cramming for tests worked well for things I didn’t care to learn long term, but was not really an efficient mode of learning.
On a related note about efficient modes of learning, I took an Engineering Mechanics class where we did boardwork throughout the lesson. The instructor would teach for about 20 minutes, then we would all get up and do a problem on the board. He would correct our errors and explain any confusion. Then, he would teach a little more and we would do another problem. When taught with this method, I did quite well in a subject that did not come naturally to me. Unfortunately, I did so well I got promoted out of his class and into an advanced Engineering Mechanics class where the teacher did not teach this way. It took me a while to figure out that I really didn’t understand Engineering Mechanics, and I only ended up passing the class with the help of some friends and a lot of studying for the final exam.
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Feb. 13, 2007 - Google Book Links, History of Reading Instruction
If you haven't tried Google Book Search, it's great! I've been updating my History of Reading Instruction with all kinds of links to books from the 1800's. It's a powerful tool--I found more stuff in a few hours than after a full day at the Library of Congress. It's amazing how easy it is to find what you're looking for when you can search the full text of thousands and thousands of books.
You can see how it works here, many of my links on The History of Reading Instruction go directly to old books.
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Nov. 15, 2006 - Why and How Not to Teach Sight Words
Sight words can contribute to problems learning to read. Just like whole word methods, they promote looking at the word as a whole instead of sounding out from left to right. I have tutored several young children who had troubles because they had been given too many sight words in their phonics programs.
You can learn more about sight words and how easy it is to learn to sound out all but 2 of the 220 most commonly taught sight words here: Sight Words
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Nov. 7, 2006 - Teach a Child to Spell the Easy Way
Learning to spell with phonics is easy. Why learn hundreds of random words when you can learn the easy way, just learn a few spelling rules and the sound spelling correspondences of English. Easy Spelling with Phonics
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Nov. 7, 2006 - Teach a Child to Read
You can teach a young child to read. It's easy. Teaching A Beginning Reading Student
