Sandra Dodd

-=-Has anyone been in a similar situation? I appreciate your input.-=-

Lots of people. I've been collecting stories of how children learn to read on their own for years.
http://sandradodd.com/reading

-=Laura is energetic, loud and happy. She has an excellent memory and
doesn't miss a thing.-=-

Don't risk marring that by pressing her to read, and making her feel deficient, or "disabled."

Advantages Discovered from Later Reading
http://sandradodd.com/r/hollydodd

Schools want children to read early. Too early. We could discuss the reasons, but you can probably figure them out. And it's not worth doing. But school creates failures. MANY, many (many) failures. And school creates "non-readers."

There are things on reading on Joyce's page, too., linked down the left side.
http://joyfullyrejoycing.com/academics/reading/learningtoread.html

Sandra

Jenny Cyphers

***My mother-in-law believe that Laura has a Reading disability. She also
believe that Laura memorizes books and guesses at what she reads. She
says that she sees other kids enjoying reading signs out loud. For Laura
it is obvious that reading is painful.***

Has your mother-in-law ever been in a classroom of 7 yr olds reading aloud? It
IS painful and forced. Only a few kids can do it well, and even fewer can do it
under pressure. I don't even remember reading aloud in the classroom until I
was about 9 or 10.

Reading is painful for any kid that is being forced to read and simply can't
yet. The kids that can't, and there are LOTS, in school are put in special
reading programs and caused to feel stupid and inferior for it. If she's
reading some things and enjoying it, she's way ahead of about half of the kids
that are in school that are of the same age. That age, 7 and 8, reading is
highly enforced because once kids hit the 8 yr range, at least in the US, they
use primarily reading as a form of education. It's efficient to make sure that
all the kids can read on their own to make the classroom run better with the
least amount of individual attention.

Since she's not in school, she can have all the individual attention she needs
and requires to learn what she needs to learn. She'll have a better
understanding of reading once she is there and her mind is ready to read. It's
not something that can be forced. It can be faked by kids in schools through
memorization and repetition, but the kid still won't get it before he gets it.


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plaidpanties666

"amyparkington" <amyparkington@...> wrote:
>> My mother-in-law believe that Laura has a Reading disability. She also
> believe that Laura memorizes books and guesses at what she reads. She
> says that she sees other kids enjoying reading signs out loud.

There are so many different ways people go about learning to read! Comparing your daughter to kids who are learning differently doesn't help you see her for who she is. Maybe there's a gentle way to say that to your MIL, or maybe you can tell her "we're using a different approach, please don't interfere".

Some kids (and adult learners for that matter, I used to work in adult literacy) learn by memorizing words, sentences, whole books (or brochures or employment and tax forms) and then re-reading what they've memorized to build up a sense of confidence in what they know before moving on.

Guessing from context cues is a Good thing - but in schools its asigned to the "reading for comprehension" lessons, as if understanding is somehow separate from reading, so parents (and teachers) can get the idea that guessing is bad while sounding out without comprehension is fine. That's a little backwards! but that's how schools teach reading. It isn't necessarily how people Learn to read, though.

> After the meeting with my mother-in-law my husband has been asking Laura
> to read words out loud and sound it out, etc.

For some people, sounding out gets in the way of reading. If you think your husband would be amenable to doing some reading of his own, I'd get something like Much More than Just the ABCs or Literacy Through Play - both of which describe different paths to literacy and why its Not a good idea to either push "sounding out" or be fussy about correcting children when they "mis-read" something (the short answer is that if they care about what they're reading, they'll notice and either ask or self-correct). They're both books derived from research in open classrooms which makes much of the information applicable to unschooling.

---Meredith

chris ester

There is also the Moore's Better Late Than Early books and philosophy that
is also supported by research. Though they are also fairly religious in
context and since their deaths the Moore Foundation seems to have morphed
into a marketing group. The information, while not about unschooling, has
some interesting points and definitely gives sound arguments against forced
education.
Chris

On Sun, Apr 17, 2011 at 6:36 PM, plaidpanties666
<plaidpanties666@...>wrote:

>
>
> "amyparkington" <amyparkington@...> wrote:
> >> My mother-in-law believe that Laura has a Reading disability. She also
> > believe that Laura memorizes books and guesses at what she reads. She
> > says that she sees other kids enjoying reading signs out loud.
>
> There are so many different ways people go about learning to read!
> Comparing your daughter to kids who are learning differently doesn't help
> you see her for who she is. Maybe there's a gentle way to say that to your
> MIL, or maybe you can tell her "we're using a different approach, please
> don't interfere".
>
> Some kids (and adult learners for that matter, I used to work in adult
> literacy) learn by memorizing words, sentences, whole books (or brochures or
> employment and tax forms) and then re-reading what they've memorized to
> build up a sense of confidence in what they know before moving on.
>
> Guessing from context cues is a Good thing - but in schools its asigned to
> the "reading for comprehension" lessons, as if understanding is somehow
> separate from reading, so parents (and teachers) can get the idea that
> guessing is bad while sounding out without comprehension is fine. That's a
> little backwards! but that's how schools teach reading. It isn't necessarily
> how people Learn to read, though.
>
> > After the meeting with my mother-in-law my husband has been asking Laura
> > to read words out loud and sound it out, etc.
>
> For some people, sounding out gets in the way of reading. If you think your
> husband would be amenable to doing some reading of his own, I'd get
> something like Much More than Just the ABCs or Literacy Through Play - both
> of which describe different paths to literacy and why its Not a good idea to
> either push "sounding out" or be fussy about correcting children when they
> "mis-read" something (the short answer is that if they care about what
> they're reading, they'll notice and either ask or self-correct). They're
> both books derived from research in open classrooms which makes much of the
> information applicable to unschooling.
>
> ---Meredith
>
>
>


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