Two Fledgling Readers’ Hearts Soar,
Mom’s Heart Soars and
My Heart Soars!
I received a beautiful, heartwarming response to my two blog posts on phraseology from a parent educator who is teaching her two young daughters to read with Phonetic Reading with Silent Elephant “e”. Wendy said I could share her email and her daughters’ drawings with you.
Hi Miss Linda,
The girls and I enjoyed learning about phraseology. Here are their pictures as they got more words in the phrase.
FYI the numbers on their pictures represent the number of words they used to explain their picture. For example, when given only “The soft” Zoya added “Panda” and then drew that idea (3 words). When given “the soft yellow” Audrey added “Towel” to explain her picture (4 words).
Your steps really helped them understand why they wanted more words to give fuller meaning to the phrase given.
Then we played around with reading the final sentence with different emphasis and different pauses. This was especially helpful for Audrey as she has more of a tendency to read with even voice and level.
I also wanted to let you know about my oldest daughter’s progress. Last we spoke on the phone, she had just taken the reading test. She took the reading test (STAR 360) in early Jan. and then again mid Feb. (about 6 weeks apart). During those 6 weeks, we focused most of our school time on reading—especially reading a chapter book from the Box Car Children series that was on a topic she enjoys a lot, the ocean. It was around a level 3 on the library AR, which I think loosely correlates to 3rd grade level. It was challenging for her, but she enjoyed it a lot. It took her about 10 min. to read a page when she was really focused.
After the 6 weeks, her results on the test were so improved! The results said she had improved almost 6 months in 6 weeks!!! It says in Jan. she was testing similar to a 1st grader in the 1st month of the school year. She is in 2nd grade. When she retook the test at the end of Feb., it said she was now reading similar to a 1st grader in the 5th month of the school year!!!
I am so thankful for your encouragement and ideas when we spoke in Jan. I continue to see her progress.
Today she was easily able to read her math instructions without me, understand them, and complete the problems correctly without complaining that the words were too hard for her to read.
I’m so glad to see her confidence building--especially with her 1st grade sister testing at a level similar to a 2nd grader in the 7th month of school.
They both really enjoy writing letters and notes to people while we drive, and they ask me how to spell words. However, they are able to get very close to the correct spelling when I challenge them to sound out words for me.
I’m so thankful for the solid foundation your program has given them and their continued progress.
Thanks again for your encouragement and support.
Wendy
You can image the joy in my heart as I read Wendy’s email. My heart sings with her daughters’ progress.
Aren’t their drawings sweet, and very meaningful?
When you have your children draw a picture that explains a phrase, suddenly the words in the phrase become pictures in their mind and their comprehension grows quickly.
Add to that, practicing reading as though in a conversation, both their comprehension and fluency flourish together.
As your children begin using phraseology in their reading, they begin to see and hear a difference, and they begin to feel more confident in their reading and their comprehension.
They begin to see themselves as a competent reader and a competent learner.
Watching their progress will make your heart sing.
Keep a song in your heart,
which is easy to do when your children feel so good about themselves.
If you have further questions about teaching phraseology, feel free to contact us.