Struggling with Fluency
In my two previous blog posts, I shared how Josie and one of my seven-year-old students had opened my eyes by sharing with me what happens to the words on the page when they are reading. Since this revelation, I’m feeling even more joy in my teaching.
I feel like I’m meeting each and every student exactly where they are because I’m listening more carefully, asking the right questions and teaching them using Phonetic Reading with Silent Elephant “e”.
I’m continually amazed and pleased that Silent Elephant “e” alone has made such a difference in their lives and that my asking the right questions has sparked a different awareness in me, making me an even better teacher.
A few days after my little seven-year-old student told me about letters jumping around the page, I asked my ninth-grade dyslexic student to explain what she saw on a page of printed material.
I had been trying many teaching techniques to help Ahva develop fluency in reading, as she would physically tense up and her breathing became extremely labored. Her anxiety and tenseness were palpable. It contributed to her choppy reading.
I had her read sentences several times stretching out vowel sounds to give her more time to think about what the ending sound in a word was and more time to contemplate the next word in the sentence.
She unconsciously began bobbing her head slowly with every word. When I mentioned that to her, I had her put her hand under her chin so she could feel the bobbing.
When the bobbing subsided, we began working on phraseology (My next two posts are about teaching phraseology.). I taught her how to find prepositional phrases in sentences.
As she is in Part 14 now, I had her read the following sentence: “The lanky man in the dark blue suit was hurriedly walking toward the cashier at the counter to deposit money in his savings account.”
We discussed that our brains always strive for meaning. Our brains naturally break sentences into phrases: “The lanky man - in the dark blue suit - hurriedly walked - toward the cashier - at the counter - to deposit money - in his savings account.”
I taught her to focus on the questions her brain would naturally ask as it sought meaning in what she was reading:
· What about the lanky man?
· What is he in?
· Where did he walk?
· Where is the cashier?
· Why did he go to the bank?
· Where is he depositing his money?
She did begin to read more fluently, but she couldn’t read a phrase smoothly that was longer than three or four words, even though I encouraged her to try to smoothly combine two short phrases in one breath.
I would have her read each sentence several times to practice. After reading a sentence several times, she ultimately read it smoothly as if in conversation.
However, I was still concerned that she would need multiple repetitions of a sentence to reach conversational fluency.
That is when I asked my awesome, conscientious ninth grade student to explain what she saw on a page of printed material.
She explained that she could see a space of about 1.5 to 2 inches clearly and all around that space of clarity everything was distorted and stretched!
Again, I was stunned!
I asked her, “Is that why you only read three or four words smoothly and then have a long break before the next three or four words, and after practicing the sentence several times you appear to read it smoothly, because you have it memorized?”
She smiled at me a little shyly, and said, “Yes. Now you understand.”
Her brain is focusing on printed materials in a hyper focused way, much like a magnifying glass, where the center is super clear, but the periphery is distorted.
I sat admiring this young woman for her tenacity and positive mindset. I was in awe. I shared with her how Josie and my seven-year old saw print. I think she felt relief that she wasn’t alone and that someone understood and was there to help.
I asked Ahva if she would share her story with you.
In her own words:
“Before I first came to tutoring with Linda, I just avoided ever reading on my own or in front of people. If I ever did read, within an hour I would get dizzy and have to stop. It was hard for me.
I would panic if I were called on to read in class. I’d feel sad about it afterwards and think I was just dumb or not trying hard enough.
I would try to read. It felt like the words were always moving depending on where I looked on the page. Due to that, I would start to read and get two or three words read and get stuck on each group of 3 words that followed.
Now that I’ve been working with Linda, I have improved hugely. I can now get through sentences without freezing. My head hurting when reading has almost completely gone away. I am now willing to read in front of people!
I am VERY happy with where I am now in reading, and I am very thankful for having Linda help me through it! Not to mention she is a very good and kind woman whom I am very happy to call my friend!”
Ahva, 14 years old
I am so proud of her for being able to share her story with us!
NOW, I am offering you a challenge along with myself: If our students/children are struggling with reading IN ANY WAY, let’s ask each of them to tell us what they see on a page of writing. We do not want to put ideas into their heads, but we do want to understand how they are processing printed material, especially if they are struggling.
Please share your experiences with me. With your permission, I’d love to pass along your experiences, successes and thoughts. We have so much to learn from our children to help us become even better educators!
If you are questioning whether someone in your life is dyslexic and you’re not sure what to do, feel free to contact us.