An Exciting Discovery

  My sweet fifteen-year-old student kept looking at me with a patient, wondrous smile.

As usual our tutoring session began with us playing the caterpillar and train phonemic awareness games. We proceeded to her word cards from the Fry List -- the 700 most frequently used words for reading and writing. Then we were ready to begin the Partner Practice page that she was on in Part 4:  the suffix -es added to words ending with the consonant digraphs “sh” and “ch”.

When I asked her to take out her worksheet, ‘Carrie’ said, “We didn’t have time to copy the worksheets, so I just put them on my Apple I-Pad.”

“Oh,” I said with a concerned voice. How was she going to mark the digraphs, root words, suffixes and vowels with our colors and our diacritical markings? So, I continued, “Maybe you could write the words on a piece of paper, so you can do all of our colors and markings.”

“I don’t need to do that,” Carrie patiently explained. “I can do all the colors and markings on my I-Pad.”

”How can you do that?” I worriedly questioned.

“I just use my Apple pen,” she replied.

“You mean it will write in colors and make different shapes and lines?”

“Yes.”

Carrie’s eyebrows raised higher and higher with each of my questions. I could see in her eyes and smile that she was delighted at my lack of knowledge of I-Pad’s and Apple pen’s capabilities. She was also proud to be teaching me!

“This is amazing!” I exclaimed. “My other students’ parents would not have to copy the Partner Practice pages if they didn’t want to or if they didn’t have a printer. This is awesome!”

Carrie’s bright, happy smile charmed me! Giggles!

I told her that I would have to share my new knowledge with everyone I knew that was teaching or learning reading, writing and spelling with Phonetic Reading with Silent Elephant “e”™.

I can imagine many of you are thinking, “Really, Linda didn’t know the capabilities of an Apple I-Pad or an Apple pen?”

Yes, it’s true – I didn’t know! Giggles!

But now that I know, I wanted to share with you that your child may enjoy doing some or all their Partner Practice pages on an I-Pad.

Now, you may be wondering, “Why doesn’t Linda put all “Silent Elephant “e”™ on a computer program with learning games?”

The answer is simple. For children to truly learn to read, write and spell while retaining and applying what they’ve learned for years to come, they need to be able to interact with the concept, to be engaged with their teacher/parent educator and if possible other children. They need to both mentally and verbally process and share what they’ve learned with someone. They need to hear and respond to questions like these:

• Why are you using an orange wiggly line under those two letters?

• I know that ‘trip’ can mean going on a vacation. Can you think of another meaning of trip?

• How many sounds can you hear in the nonsense word “fash”? Are any of the sounds a blend? A digraph? Why did you think that?

• What do you think about when adding a suffix that begins with a vowel to a word ending with Silent Elephant “e”? How is your thinking different when adding a vowel suffix to a CVC word?

Children need to be able to share their learning and listen to a teacher/parent educator and if possible, another child share their thoughts.

Children need to be totally immersed in their learning and engaged with another human being using active listening to totally integrate their new concepts into what they’ve already learned.

They need to be actively involved in their learning.

Carrie easily used her I-Pad and Apple Pen to mark all her words and she easily shared her work with me during our Zoom tutoring session, at the same time, she was reading to me, answering questions, asking questions, explaining why she marked the words as she did, and sharing how she knew what a word meant and much more.

She was using her technology to support her active engagement in her learning process.

I was so excited to learn from Carrie that an Apple I-pad and an Apple pen can be used to engage in active learning with their Partner Practice pages. What fun!

Maybe you would like to have your kiddos try it!

Contact me here :).

They Said She Would Never Catch Up in Comprehension

Silent Elephant “e” Has to Disappear!

 A smile brightens my face as I recall the day “Kimberly” excitedly shared her experience of teaching her class my phonics lesson about when and why Silent Elephant “e”™ has to disappear at the end of Silent Elephant “e”™ words when you add a suffix that begins with a vowel.

She beamed as she told me, “My teacher loved the Silent Elephant “e”™ puppet! She thought it totally made sense that you couldn’t make SILENT Elephant “e” talk by putting ‘two vowels walking’ next to each other when you add a suffix that begins with a vowel!”

You might be confused, so let me give you some examples. Let’s take the word “poke”. If you want to add the suffix -s which begins with a consonant, you can just add it on to the end of the root word to make “pokes”. The consonant “s” will not make “two vowels go walking” in the word.

However, if you want to add the suffix -ed which begins with a vowel, you cannot just add it on the end of the root word as it will make “pokeed. Silent Elephant “e” has to disappear, or you’ll have “two vowels go walking” and the first vowel will have to say its name.

If you want to add the suffix -ing which begins with a vowel, you cannot just add it on the end of the root word as it will make “pokeing”. Again, if Silent Elephant “e” doesn’t disappear you’ll have “two vowels go walking” and the first vowel will have to say its name.

This sweet girl is now a 5th grader. She began tutoring with me in late October of her 3rd grade year. She was at an instructional 3rd grade reading level in word recognition but frustrated at a 1st grade reading level in comprehension.

She has dyspraxia. Dyspraxia is a chronic neurological condition where the wiring in the brain is mixed up. People with dyspraxia display different symptoms. Kimberly can easily find and remember details when she reads, but she was struggling putting the details together to make sense of sentences, paragraphs, and lengthy pieces of writing. She struggled to find the main idea in any piece of writing. The educational psychologist that diagnosed Kimberly told me that Kimberly would probably never catch up in reading comprehension.

After completing only 14 months of instruction with me using Phonetic Reading with Silent Elephant “e”™, last March during her 4th grade year, this bubbly, energetic little girl tested out at a 9th grade instructional reading level in word recognition AND comprehension using the Fleishman Oral Reading Inventory!

This is such a joyful example of the power of Silent Elephant “e”™ that teaches each child the way they learn. My heart sings knowing Kimberly is a successful reader. Her world has opened up for her.

Contact me here to explore how you can teach your kiddos with Silent Elephant “e”™ to give them the freedom of a solid reading, writing and spelling foundation that will set them up for life.

Students Becoming Teachers!

Students Becoming Teachers!  

I am continually delighted by the self-pride and self-confidence my students quickly attain when being taught using Phonetic Reading with Silent Elephant “e”! It shows up in all parts of their lives.  

One of the powerful components of Silent Elephant “e”’s program is its home-school connection. 

The children teach each lesson to their parents as soon as possible after tutoring. This teaching mode is much different from the learning mode they just left. When they are the “teacher”, they have to clearly express what they themselves have just learned in a way that another person can understand it and learn it. This teaching mode integrates their own learning to a much deeper level.  

To support this powerful component, Silent Elephant “e” provides parents with:

·       Lesson material explaining the goals and objectives of each lesson

·       The teaching vocabulary specific to the lesson

·       The content of the lesson

·       Questions to ask their child to guide their child to successfully teach the lesson to them at home 

It’s no wonder that after a child has successfully taught their parents each lesson at home, they are perfectly comfortable teaching others. 

They actually speak up in their classrooms and offer to teach their teachers and classmates what they have learned with Silent Elephant ”e” and me.

In my next blog posts I will share examples of my students becoming teachers in their classrooms. I’m so proud of them! My buttons are popping! 

If you have further questions about partner work and the home-school connection in Silent Elephant “e”, feel free to contact us.

Linda Katherine Smith-Jones                            Nina Henson 

“I taught my whole class the “C” and “G” Game!”

“I taught my whole class the “C” and “G” Game!” 

I’d like to begin telling you about my incredible students becoming “teachers” in their classrooms with “Mark.” Mark is a hard-working boy that I have been tutoring for 2½ years. He has finished Levels 1 and 2 and is currently working on Level 3 of Phonetic Reading with Silent Elephant “e”. 

Before he began tutoring with me, he had completed 4 years of public school education, which included 1½ hours of daily personal instruction from a certified special education teacher. He was also receiving services from a speech and language therapist and from an occupational therapist. 

When he came to me, he was frustrated in phonemic awareness (67% on the Part 1) and frustrated in word recognition and comprehension at a Pre-Primer reading level. Mark was a non-reader. His self-confidence and belief in himself were at rock bottom. 

Speed ahead to today where he is receiving special education services in reading for only ½ hour a day and has been staffed out of speech, language and occupational therapy.  

AND he is now reading at a 9th grade reading level!  

He has a completely different picture of himself then he did 2½ years ago. He is now confident knowing that he will always succeed in all of his endeavors in the future.  

Mark is usually quite serious, but one day he came bounding into tutoring with a huge smile on his face! He almost shouted, “Guess what I did today! I taught my class!”

He continued enthusiastically, “We were studying the Geneva Convention. A boy in my class asked my teacher why the “g” in Geneva made /j/. “I don’t know,” she answered, “It just does.”

 “Since my teacher couldn’t explain why the “g” in Geneva made /j/, I told her that I could teach everyone the “C” and “G” Game that you taught me, and then no one would wonder about when to use the hard or soft sounds for “c” or “g” ever again.  

“She said I could, so I did! 

“When I was finished, she said that the was one of the best lessons that she’d ever learned! The kids loved it too! Everyone thanked me! 

“Can you believe it?” 

I looked this bright, enthusiastic young boy in the eyes and said, “Yes, I certainly can believe it! You are extremely intelligent, and I know you are an amazing teacher for your parents! Now I know you are an amazing teacher for your classmates and for your teacher too! I’m so proud of you!” 

For your information:

The complete lesson plans for teaching the “C” and “G” Game are in Part 8.

If you have further questions about partner work and the home-school connection in Silent Elephant “e”, feel free to contact us.

Linda Katherine Smith-Jones                            Nina Henson 

He said nicely, “Actually “ou” makes 6 sounds.”

He said nicely, “Actually “ou” makes 6 sounds.” 

Just last week, “Mark”, my budding young teacher’s mom said, “You need to tell Mrs. Jones how you helped your class and teacher learn all 6 sounds of “ou” yesterday.” 

He looked up at me with pride and sureness. “I did teach everyone the 6 sounds of “ou”, because my teacher said that “ou” only makes the /ou/ sound like in “count”. I nicely told her that actually “ou” makes 6 sounds, and that I could teach her and the class the other 5 sounds if she would like me to. 

“She said I could be the teacher, so I listed the 6 sounds of “ou” with the diacritical markings on the white board. I drew each of the 6 pictures you have on the “ou” poster so everyone could use the pictures to help them remember the sounds. 

“My teacher said I did an excellent job teaching again! Everyone learned the other 5 sounds so now they won’t be confused.” 

He was beaming from ear to ear as he shared, “Everyone thanked me again too!” 

His mom said, “Mark, I think you should be a teacher. You always do an excellent job teaching your lessons to Dad and me. You’re awesome!” 

The student becoming the teacher is just one of the many powerful components of Phonetic Reading with Silent Elephant “e”.  

You as their teacher can relax knowing every one of them will feel the confidence and freedom that they know how reading works, and they know it so well they can teach it. 

The complete lesson plans for teaching the 6 sounds of “ou” are in Part 12. 

The /ou/ poster Mark reproduced from memory on the white board is one of the 44 colorful, instructional posters that are used throughout Parts 1-14 and are also available for purchase.  

As you can see from Mark’s teaching, Silent Elephant “e”’s posters give students a tangible reference point in their learning. One they will be able to use all of their lives.

If you have further questions about partner work and the home-school connection in Silent Elephant “e”, feel free to contact us.

Linda Katherine Smith-Jones                            Nina Henson 

She taught, "“Sh” is a digraph, together they make one new sound /sh/."

She taught,

““Sh” is a digraph, because when “s” and “h” are together

they make one new sound of /sh/.” 

It always makes me giggle and burst with pride when one of my kiddos become so confident in their skills that they become the teacher. It’s such a good feeling, for them, for me and certainly for their parents.  

Silent Elephant “e” is THE program that teaches reading (phonemic awareness, phonics, and comprehension), writing and spelling in a precisely organized, systematic, complete auditory, visual and kinesthetic way that ALL CHILDREN NEED, especially dyslexic and struggling learners.  

It is THE program that makes the teaching and learning to read, write and spell interesting, fun and a sure thing.  

Phonetic Reading with Silent Elephant “e” is tried and true and that became apparent again last week when “Kathy”, the proud mom of “Julie”, one of my students, excitedly shared this wonderful story.  

Julie is in second grade and was on the computer for her reading class with her teacher and classmates. Her teacher told a child who was struggling to read the word “shade” that “shade” started with the blend “sh”. 

Julie raised her hand and her teacher called on her. Julie politely explained to her teacher and classmates that “sh” is not a blend. 

“If “sh” was a blend, it would make the Kindergarten sounds of /s/ and /h/ blended together smoothly. Then “shade” would sound like /s/ - /h/ - /long “a”/ - /d/. 

“So, “sh” is a digraph, because when “s” and “h” are together they make one new sound of /sh/. 

Julie continued teaching, “My tutor says that the letters in blends sound just the same as the sounds we learned for the letters in Kindergarten. 

“But the letters in digraphs make new, different sounds, not at all like the sounds we learned in Kindergarten. Mrs. Jones and I say the digraphs are magical, because the letters magically change their sounds to become digraphs.” 

Julie’s teacher was amazed, “Wow Julie, you explained that very well, very clearly. We’ll never get blends and digraphs mixed up again! Good job!” 

Kathy beamed with pride and shared, “I was so impressed by how politely and meticulously Julie taught her teacher and her classmates!  

“Everything she’s learned from you completely makes sense to her.” (Julie often says during a lesson, “Oh, that makes sense.” 😊) 

Kathy smiled with pride and continued, “Julie teaches Silent Elephant “e” to anyone who will listen: me, her dad, her little sister, her grandma, her friends—everyone! Maybe she’ll grow up to be a teacher.” 

I, too, felt so much pride!  

Julie is a completely different girl than the one who began Silent Elephant “e” 16 months ago. She is severely dyslexic and had already been placed in special education in the early part of first grade.  

What Julie needed to become confident in her reading, writing and spelling was a precisely organized, systematic, complete auditory, visual and kinesthetic program, aka, Silent Elephant “e”.

Students becoming a teacher is a common theme when you teach with Silent Elephant “e”. It teaches the way they learn, so reading, writing and spelling “makes sense” and it is easy for them to explain to others what they understand. Explaining why they know what they know is an integral part of the program.

If you have further questions about partner work and the home-school connection in Silent Elephant “e”, feel free to contact us.

Linda Katherine Smith-Jones                            Nina Henson

Silent Elephant “e” Has to Disappear!

Silent Elephant “e” Has to Disappear!

A smile brightens my face as I recall the day “Kimberly” excitedly shared her experience of teaching her class my phonics lesson about when and why Silent Elephant “e” has to disappear at the end of Silent Elephant “e” words when you add a suffix that begins with a vowel. 

She beamed as she told me, “My teacher loved the Silent Elephant “e” puppet! She thought it totally made sense that you couldn’t make SILENT Elephant “e” talk by putting ‘two vowels walking’ next to each other when you add a suffix that begins with a vowel!” 

You might be confused, so let me give you some examples. Let’s take the word “poke”. If you want to add the suffix -s which begins with a consonant, you can just add it on to the end of the root word to make “pokes”. The consonant “s” will not make “two vowels go walking”. 

However, if you want to add the suffix -ed which begins with a vowel, you cannot just add it on the end of the root word as it will make “pokeed”. Then you will have “two vowels go walking” which will make Silent Elephant “e” have to “talk”.

 If you want to add the suffix -ing which begins with a vowel, you cannot just add it on the end of the root word as it will make “pokeing”. Then you will have “two vowels go walking” which will make Silent Elephant “e” have to “talk”. 

This sweet girl is now a 5th grader. She began tutoring with me in late October of her 3rd grade year. She was at an instructional 3rd grade reading level in word recognition but frustrated at a 1st grade reading level in comprehension. 

She has dyspraxia. Dyspraxia is a chronic neurological condition where the wiring in the brain is mixed up. People with dyspraxia display different symptoms. Kimberly can easily find and remember details when she reads, but she was struggling putting the details together to make sense of sentences, paragraphs, and lengthy pieces of writing. She struggled to find the main idea in any piece of writing. The educational psychologist that diagnosed Kimberly told me that Kimberly would probably never catch up in reading comprehension. 

After completing just 14 months of instruction with me using Phonetic Reading with Silent Elephant “e”, last March during her 4th grade year, this bubbly, energetic little girl tested out at a 9th grade instructional reading level in word recognition AND comprehension using the Fleishman Oral Reading Inventory!  

This is such a joyful example of the power of Silent Elephant “e” that teaches each child the way they learn. My heart sings knowing Kimberly is a successful reader. Her world has opened up for her.  

The complete lesson plans for teaching the Silent Elephant “e” rules are in Part 7.

If you have further questions about partner work and the home-school connection in Silent Elephant “e”, feel free to contact us.

Linda Katherine Smith-Jones                            Nina Henson