It Doesn't Have To Take 6 Years for Them to be Reading on a 6th Grade Level

Today I’d like to share more of my experiences with Phonetic Reading with Silent Elephant “e”® and continue my thoughts on why I am realizing it shouldn’t take 6 years for a child to be able to decode 6th grade reading words.

Over the last 12 years that I have taught reading, writing and spelling with Phonetic Reading with Silent Elephant “e”®  it’s been my experience that children master phonemic awareness and learn all the phonics rules and are able to apply the phonics rules to fluently decode 6th grade words by the end of their 2nd grade year - about 8 years old. In other words, it takes about 2 years to achieve reading 6th grade words.

Further, Silent Elephant “e”®  was written so this goal can be achieved with only 2 hours of instruction per week. Again, that’s what my data is showing because I only meet with my students for 2 hours a week. Of course, if they spend an hour per day learning with Silent Elephant “e”® , they will be decoding words at a 6th grade level even sooner.

Why would this be true? Why is this my experience over and over?

Well, they learn so easily and quickly because they are learning the way they learn best, through whole child/whole brain, multi-sensory activities and processes that stimulate all parts of their brain for both learning and retaining what they have learned. These whole child/whole brain, multi-sensory activities and processes are embedded into every moment of their instruction in Silent Elephant “e”®.  My experience and data share the results.

I can hear some of you thinking, “But my child struggles with reading. It’s so difficult for him/her!”

If your child has a learning difference, multiple learning differences or any learning struggles, it may take longer for him/her to reach that 6th grade word recognition level.

But, you can rest assured that he/she will attain that level with Silent Elephant “e”®  faster, more steadily and with more fun than with any other reading program. This is because they will be learning using all their senses (multi-sensory) therefore connecting their learning in all parts of their brain. In the case of dyslexic learners, it activates under stimulated parts of their brain and makes learning and retention of learning much easier.

This has been my experience with Silent Elephant “e”® : it may take children longer if they have learning differences, but they get there and they have fun getting there.

Let me share an example. I have been tutoring an ELL boy for 3 years who has multiple learning differences and speech and language processing disorders (one can barely understand his English or his native tongue). He is also considered to have an extremely low IQ.

When he came to me halfway through his 4th grade year, he wasn’t reading at all. He didn’t know letter sounds or letter names. He was illiterate and basically non-verbal.

Today as I write this, he has mastered phonemic awareness and knows all letter sounds and letter names. He has mastered the 700 High Frequency Fry Word List. He fluently reads simple to complex words, such as: so, ran, sphinx, squint, certain, cage, hurry. He reads words with single consonants, consonant digraphs and consonant blends, words with hard and soft “c” and “g”, words with long vowels, and words ending with “y”. He knows how to read and write (spell) words with the suffixes -s, -es, -ed, -ing, -er, -est, and -ly . He knows when to change or not change “y” to “i” and how to change “f” or “fe” to “v” when adding a suffix. Further, he is formulating answers to high level thinking questions.

When this beautiful boy, who has a goal of becoming a police officer, first came to me, his teachers were sure that he’d never learn to read.

That thought crossed my mind from time to time also when we first began, but I knew I couldn’t give up on this sweet, hard-working boy. He certainly isn’t giving up! Like I said, I knew he WOULD take longer than 2 years because of his learning differences and his language processing difficulties, but I had faith he would get there because of my experience with Silent Elephant “e”®.  We started out very slowly and have slowly picked up speed.

He’s now reading early readers’ books. You should see the smile on his face as he shows me a book he’s read: one about veterinarians, one about astronauts, one about Ninjas, one about dinosaurs. He beams with pride! He is feeling the freedom and joy of reading.

His dad, who had been told his son would never read, says over and over to me, “You, Mrs. Jones, you are really teaching him to read!”

I humbly thank his dad and I think to myself that I’m so glad I wrote Silent Elephant “e”®.  It has been the steady, consistent, multi-sensory instruction his son needs to understand language and learn to read.

From my experience with other students, I know that now that he’s almost finished with Part 10 of Silent Elephant “e”®, his reading growth will speed up! I can’t wait, I can already see his face beaming with both pride and relief. He realizes he is succeeding. He is feeling the joy of reading.

This fall he headed off into seventh grade with more of a feeling of confidence and that he has a future than he has ever felt. He’s still not reading on grade level yet, but he knows he is moving there, however long it takes.

This young success story has not been my only student whose parents were told their child would never read. Last year, I had a fun experience with one of my then 9th grade boys admitting to me with both embarrassment and pride that he got caught red-handed reading his mom’s text messages. A year before that, he was a nonreader.

He hadn’t meant to snoop into his Mom’ phone, he just started reading, got caught up in what he was reading, didn’t even realize that he was reading so effortlessly, and didn’t even think about the fact that he really shouldn’t be reading his mom’s private messages. 😊

His mom told me later that she didn’t know whether to be excited and happy, because he was actually reading and engaged in reading or to be upset because he was reading things she hadn’t planned on him reading. In the end, she was thrilled!

He shared, “I wasn’t trying to snoop. I just started reading and I got so excited that I couldn’t quit. My mom was stunned!” He asked me immediately to give him a reading assessment to see what reading level he was on which, of course, I did. We celebrated the growth he’s made in ONLY 9 months.
In January, this now 16-year-old, 10th grade student passed his driver’s license test with 100%! He and his family went out to dinner to celebrate. He was beaming with pride when he told me!

Let me go back to where I started today, it’s been my experience with Phonetic Reading with Silent Elephant “e”®  over and over these past twelve years that when you teach children, especially struggling children, the way they learn best with whole child/whole brain, multi-sensory activities embedded into every moment of learning, it doesn’t take 6 years to be reading at a 6th grade level. The average is 2 years, and that’s the average!

Those who don’t have learning differences learn more quickly but EVERY SINGLE ONE will succeed. That’s been my experience. And I LOVE it!

Check out this blog post to enjoy a young one who flew - She Was Reading at a Fourth Grade Level at the End of Kindergarten.  There are also many more success stories here on my blog.

Follow us on TikTok @silent.elephant.e 😊.

Contact us at silentelephante@gmail.com

February is a Special Time of the Year

 Every February I do a quick mid-year assessment to make sure that my kiddos are making good growth.

It’s true that as we work together every week, it’s easy for me to see their strong progress as ongoing assessment is built into Phonetic Reading with Silent Elephant “e”®, but, it is extremely important for my kiddos to see their progress in GRADE LEVEL NUMBERS, something that makes sense to them. 😊

Most kiddos learning with Silent Elephant “e”® are often not aware of the amazing progress they are making. This is because every phonics skill in Silent Elephant “e”® is taught using their whole body within a fun, memorable lesson that makes good sense to them. The lessons are also organized in such a way that a new skill logically builds upon the last skill(s).

As they progress through Silent Elephant “e”® at their own pace, they attain success and reach mastery through the controlled vocabulary for each phonics lesson. Reading, writing and spelling become comfortable and they begin to relax, to enjoy learning and to believe in themselves that they are totally capable of learning to read, write and spell.

When they see their progress in print and hear me telling them how good they are doing, they have an even stronger feeling of success.

This is especially true of those who have been struggling the most.

They LOVE seeing their progress in numbers on their progress record page. They LOVE hearing me tell them about their progress.

Because I tutor, most of my students are profoundly dyslexic with other learning differences as well. They know what it feels like to not be able to understand what is being taught. Every single one of them has known struggle and disappointment in trying to learn to read, write and spell.

Finally, with Phonetic Reading with Silent Elephant “e”® they’re beginning to realize that they won’t be struggling forever. This is life changing for them!

Furthermore, they are realizing they can even have fun learning to read, write and spell.

They become happier, less anxious, more hopeful. They become more eager to pay attention. They begin to see success without struggle.  They feel and are in control of their learning. This usually begins within the first 6 weeks with Silent Elephant “e”®. ❤️

So, I don’t assess just for myself 😊; I assess for them too. They need to see the numbers rising on their progress record chart.

In the last couple of weeks, my students and I have had fun sharing their success over the last year as we did their assessments. I watched their eyes sparkle, and their faces break out in smiles of pride.

Here’s an overview of their progress since last February ‘23:

• 2 students have achieved 3 years of growth.

• 5 students have achieved 2 years of growth.

• 4 students have achieved a half year of growth. These 4 are newer to Silent Elephant “e”® and have multiple learning differences. They are just getting their feet under them. 😊

• 3 students are soon to graduate Silent Elephant “e”® reading at a college level.

No matter how profoundly dyslexic they are or how many other learning differences they have, they have all made great progress!

As we finished talking about their successes, every single one of them smiled with pride and eagerly said, “Mrs. Jones, let’s get going!” They are all happy and ready to continue their success.

They ALL see, or are beginning to see, themselves as capable readers and spellers who can write anything they want to write. It feels like freedom to them.

They see a future without struggle. Their whole life has turned around.

It makes the heart sing out loud.

If you are interested in becoming a Silent Elephant “e”® tutor contact me. It’s a fun, very rewarding way to bring in extra money.

Contact us at silentelephante@gmail.com or nina.silentelephante@gmail.com. We do have answers for your questions.

Silent Elephant “e”®-ing - It's a Thing. :)

 Silent Elephant “e”®-ing  

The more I teach with Silent Elephant “e”®, the more I’m beginning to feel like Silent Elephant “e”® is a verb. 😂

I know that sounds a little crazy, but it’s true, the more I teach with Silent Elephant “e”® the more I feel like I’m Silent Elephant “e” ®-ing. 😂😂

Let me give you a little background to where this happy, but little bit goofy, feeling is coming from.
 
“Learn – to learn” is a verb, an action word.
This means learning is an active process.
To learn, action must be happening.
 

It’s true that part of the activity or action of learning is happening in the brain unseen, but for our brain to engage in the process of learning, our senses must get involved.

Let’s look at this.
Obviously, our senses of sight and hearing are a major part of learning to read, write and spell, but actually our other senses of touch, taste and smell all have a part in our learning process. Furthermore, when ALL our senses and movement get involved, learning happens faster, is deeper and is more easily transferred into other concepts and subjects.

There’s just added power when we involve the whole-child/whole-person, all our senses, in the learning process.

Now, let’s go visit that sweet young man Xander again. (Here's the link to Xander's other email.:)

As you will remember, I shared Xander’s interaction with Silent Elephant “e”®’s Phonemic Awareness Caterpillar/Train Game that uses color and movement to identify sounds in words. There was a moment when Xander had such a firm grasp on identifying individual sounds in spoken words that he transferred his knowledge into a new way of showing his comprehension.

Remember how he jumped up and shot off to bring his toy cars in on the learning. He had mentally processed, comprehended that individual sounds make up our words and that in the game, the sounds could be represented by colored squares, or toy cars, but it didn’t change the individual sounds in the word.

Let’s look at what Xander was doing, how he was active and interacting with his knowledge, and how his senses were involved to activate his brain. Xander was:

• using his sense of hearing as he listened intently to each sound his mom said,

• using his sense of sight as he watched his mom’s mouth move as she said each sound,

• using his sense of hearing as he carefully listened to his own voice saying and identifying each sound he heard,

• using his sense of touch and movement as he slid his colored squares in place to indicate the sounds he heard, and

• using his senses of sight and hearing to decide that his game board was correct, whether his answers were indicated with colored squares or toy cars. 

True, he didn’t use his senses of smell or taste in Silent Elephant “e”®’s Phonemic Awareness Caterpillar/Train Game, but these two senses are integrated throughout Silent Elephant “e”®.

True deep learning that transfers easily and swiftly into other concepts and subjects involves ALL the senses; it involves the whole learner.

Now do you see why I giggle to myself when I find myself thinking that I am Silent Elephant “e”®-ing as I sit down at the computer to meet one of my students?

Every one of the lessons in Silent Elephant “e”® is centered around the whole child in front of me and how he/she learns.

Furthermore, Silent Elephant “e”®-ing is just plain FUN!

Contact us at silentelephante@gmail.com or nina.silentelephante@gmail.com with any questions.  

Teaching Multiple Ages is EASY and FUN

Meet Xander who was beside himself when he got to join in the Silent Elephant “e”® lessons with his sisters. 

It was a very happy day for Xander when he was able to begin HIS Silent Elephant “e”® reading lessons like his two older sisters. He had watched his sisters have so much fun learning to read. He had even been able to join in some of the multi-sensory introduction activities like writing his letters in pudding as they practiced their sight words, but finally the day had come when HE got to have HIS lessons to learn to read, write and spell.

He eagerly listened to his mom explaining phonemic awareness with the Caterpillar/Train Game and the colored squares. He listened intently as his mom said the sounds in “cat”, he repeated them listening intently to HIS voice and then carefully moved the colors squares to indicate the number of sounds he was hearing. He beamed with pride!

Suddenly he had a great idea! His brain was transferring his knowledge! He shot off to his room, returned with his toy cars, began lining up his tiny cars to match the colors of his squares, and moved his CARS to indicate how many sounds he was hearing in a word.

He was having FUN while learning and transferring his knowledge.

Learning to read, write and spell should be fun and Silent Elephant “e”® is all about the fun of learning!

Silent Elephant “e”® teaches entirely using multi-sensory and whole-body instruction, so children are actively learning at all times.
 

Xander is Wendy’s third child to begin learning to read, write and spell with Silent Elephant “e”®.

Wendy has honed her method of teaching 3 different ages at the same time and making sure they are always successful. Silent Elephant “e”® makes this easy for her.

Here is the Silent Elephant “e”® method for teaching multiple ages:

Since every Silent Elephant “e”® lesson has leveled materials, begin every new concept with the multi-sensory introductory lesson with all your kids. This gives them a sense of learning community as they are actively learning the same concept. 

1. After the active multi-sensory introduction, move your kiddos to their personal practice pages which are leveled:  

• Level 1 introduces the phonics rule – these practice pages are for your child that is just beginning to learn to read and who are beginning Silent Elephant “e”®.

• Level 2 provides developing vocabulary and independence in using all the phonics rules – these practice pages are for your child that has completed Level 1 and is reviewing each phonics rule.

• Level 3 contains multi-syllabic words for advanced independent reading using the phonics rules – these practice pages are for your child that has completed Level 1 and/or Level 2.  (Some children can move right into Level 3 upon completing Level 1. Other children may need more review after completing Level 1, so it’s best to have them excel in Level 2 before moving to Level 3.)

You and your children will enjoy success and the fun of learning together!

Wendy KNOWS when each of her children have mastered a concept, and she knows if she needs to reteach a concept before moving on because continual assessment is a built-in integral part of Silent Elephant “e”®.  It’s easy for Wendy to meet each of her child’s individual needs to be sure they are succeeding.

And they ARE succeeding!

Her 7-year-old won an award for reading the most books at her library this past summer and
her 9-year-old is blazing a trail through Nancy Drew mysteries. 😊
And Xander is eager to join them to blaze his own trail.

Contact us with thoughts and questions.

silentelephante@gmail.com or nina.silentelephante@gmail.com

When Learning is Fun, It’s Easy and It Stays!

 The eyes of the young boy hunched over his last worksheet in Part 14 moved effortlessly word to word. His hand stretched into the colored pencils spread in front of him with a smooth motion as he chose the next color he needed to mark the decoding in the next word.

Shaun quickly and confidently used different colors and different symbols to mark prefixes, suffixes, root words, consonant digraphs, consonant blends, consonant twins, the sounds of “c’s” and “g’s”, vowel diacritical markings, syllable division and accent marks.

He did all of this from memory.

By repetitively using colors to mark prefixes, suffixes, root words, consonant digraphs, consonant blends, consonant twins, the sounds of “c’s” and “g’s”, vowel diacritical markings, syllable division and accent marks, Shaun easily put the “puzzle pieces” in a word together to find meaning.

The Silent Elephant “e”® colors and phonetic markings Shaun chose to indicate how to decode words are not random markings taught in isolation.

Instead, the phonetic markings and the colors used to mark them are the logical outcome of the fun, multi-sensory activities that Shaun experienced as he learned each phonetic concept. More importantly, he had fun learning the concept and the markings, so they were easy to remember.

These activities included acting, puppetry, cooking, games, singing and many other multi-sensory activities that set the phonetic concepts firming in multiple parts of Shaun’s brain. In Silent Elephant “e”®, every phonetic concept is introduced with a multi-sensory activity.

As he finished his worksheet, he began to glow with pride and as he raised his head, his bright smile beamed at me. He was proud.

Shaun was so calm, so in control, so meticulous and so very pleased with himself as he flew through that worksheet marking word after word, reading each sentence effortlessly with expression and comprehending completely.

He knew that he knew how to decode and read every word on that page, and he knew that he comprehended everything he read.

He also knew that just two years before, he wasn’t even able to read at a first-grade level and now here he was reading at a 9th grade level, 4 years ahead of his grade level.

He knew school was easier now and getting easier all the time.

He also knew that he is profoundly dyslexic and that learning to be calm and focused had been hard. He knew that learning to read, write and spell through fun activities in Silent Elephant “e”® had not only helped him find calm in learning to read, but helped him understand what he hadn’t been able to understand before. 

Looking up from his worksheet, his bright smile told me the truth of all of this.

Let’s ask those questions that come to mind: Why was Shaun able to make such fast progress with Silent Elephant “e”®? Why was this profoundly dyslexic young boy able to move from primer to 9th grade in two years?

It’s because Silent Elephant “e”® is experiential, it’s multi-sensory, it’s fun.

It teaches the whole child through fun activities that activates all parts of their brain through their senses, thus “wiring” their brain with memories of these fun activities and with knowledge learned during them to decode and mark unfamiliar words. It teaches the way children learn best -through fun experiences.

Long after he completes Silent Elephant “e”®, Shaun’s brain will retrieve memories of the fun activity he experienced while learning the phonetic markings associated with each  learned phonetic concept. His brain will retrieve this knowledge when he needs to decode an unfamiliar word, even as an adult.
Shaun’s anxiety is gone; he will always feel confident that he has the skills to support him as he moves into high school, college and adulthood.
 

When children learn to read, write and spell experientially through fun, meaningful, multi-sensory activities, learning WILL be FUN AND FAST and WILL STAY with them.
Furthermore, YOU have fun teaching!

Contact with any questions at silentelephante@gmail.com

Yummy Cookie Science!!

Can you believe it?
Here we are in the midst of the holiday season and things are speeding up.

Sometimes it feels like our kiddo's learning gets pushed to the back burner at this time of the year, but it’s so important to keep their learning active. Long periods not focused on what they have learned and are learning makes it hard for them to retain the information, especially if they have dyslexia or any other learning difference.

Here are ideas centered around the fun of baking holiday cookies which takes the fun of learning into life knowledge areas as it keeps what they’ve learned active and growing.

THE SCIENCE OF COOKIES

The science of cookies is both yummy and “Wow, so that’s how cookie dough becomes cookies in the oven? I didn’t realize all of that!” 

1. This video brings all the steps happening in the oven from cookie dough to yummy cookie into view with simple explanation and art. It’s fun for every age. I enjoyed it.

2. This article adds to the info in the video. It goes into greater depth about exactly what is happening to that cookie in the oven. It gives you a lot of background info and will be perfect for your older kiddos. 

3. Practicing reading and phonics – 
   When your dough is becoming cookies in the oven, you could use the above article for reading and phonics instruction. Have your kiddos mark the vowels, digraphs, blends and syllables, then read the article. 

4. The science - 
   Comparing and contrasting the information on the video with the article sets their new science knowledge more firmly in their brains. 

5. The next exploration into cooking science could be, “How does it get from raw ground beef to a hamburger on my bun?” or “How does is get from raw turkey to something we can’t WAIT to enjoy.” This exploration opens so much more science. 😊

  We’ve done science and reading, let’s take cookie baking into math. 

1. This recipe gives you both the standard and metric measurements for making the cookies.  

2. This opens wonderful discussions and comparisons between the two. 

Now let’s think Social Studies -
This recipe also opens comparison of cultures and countries. It’s from Great Britain, and the cookies are referred to both as biscuits and cookies for both countries. This opens the doors for learning about another culture, another country and how their customs are different from ours even though they are English speaking.

Have fun with these three. It’s been fun finding them for you.
I can’t wait to hear about your experiences. Feel free to send photos.

Enjoy your children’s bright-eyed eagerness as you make memories this Holiday season.

Contact me here with any questions and to share your holiday ideas. :)

Who Wouldn’t Want to Practice Spelling in Pudding!

Who Wouldn’t Want to Practice Spelling in Pudding!

I received a fun, fun email from Wendy, a homeschool educator, after she read the blog post entitled “Ten Fun Spelling Activities”. (link here)

“We had a fun time practicing our spelling in pudding. Even Xander who is only 2 and a half years old was able to join in the fun. Thanks for the great ideas.

They all licked their fingers! Each ended up liking a different flavor. We had chocolate, vanilla and butterscotch.

We were practicing the words from the end of Part 4 (Silent Elephant “e”®.) First, they copied the spelling words from the board where I had written them. Then they worked as partners reading a word and sounding it out for the other to write.

The last 2 words were challenging for them, but I think the pudding partnering will help them remember “phone” and “phonics.”

Even Xander learned how to draw a circle in his pudding. 
It was great fun for all!”

Isn’t that a fun, lovely story—extremely educational, too! The children were learning using all their senses: seeing, smelling, tasting, touching, and listening to Mom and their partner—their whole body involved!

I loved how Wendy included her young son in the activity! What a wonderful idea to have him draw shapes in the pudding.

Young children can draw lines that curve; lines that squiggle; lines that go up, down, or across; lines that are straight; lines that zigzag, etc.

I included “phonics” and “phone” in that relatively early phonics lesson on consonant digraphs because children need to be able to read those words early on in first grade. I know they are challenging, but I agree with Wendy that writing in pudding, or another medium will aid in their retention of meaning and spelling of their words.

These pictures of Zoya, Audrey and Xander giggling and laughing while having so much fun learning together, brings joy to my heart!

I hope you try it with your kiddos and send me pictures!

Any questions, contact us here: silentelephante@gmail.com       nina.silentelephante@gmail.com

Sentence Dictation - a POWERFUL Tool in Spelling, Here's How to Use It :)

I Love Learning to Spell using Sentence Dictation!

Spelling can be fun! And when we connect their spelling with their phonics, ALL students, struggling and non-struggling, connect both sides of the sound/symbol relationship coin! Reading and spelling makes sense. (In my last post shared the connection between spelling success and their phonics. Here’s the link.)

Connecting spelling to their phonics applies to ALL learners:

• struggling learners,

• non-struggling learners, and

• gifted learners.

  ALL children deserve to understand how reading and spelling are connected.

As mentioned in my last post, it is essential that their spelling instruction correlate with phonics instruction. They need to understand the connection of decoding (reading) and encoding (spelling the words they’ve learned to read as they use them in their writing).

One of the most important spelling components I included in Phonetic Reading with Silent Elephant “e”® is sentence dictation.

In Silent Elephant “e”®, sentence dictation connects decoding and encoding with comprehension in one meaningful activity that they enjoy and that is consistent throughout Parts 3-14.

As I have mentioned before, this consistency in instruction of connecting phonics, spelling and comprehension is vital for dyslexic learners but truly important for ALL learners.

To make sure your kids connect the relationship of decoding and encoding, sentence dictation does not occur in Silent Elephant “e”®  until children are fluently reading the sentences on their Partner Practice pages and have discussed what the sentences are about with you or their partners.

This ensures that they are not trying to learn to spell/write a word that doesn’t have meaning for them. This is so important, because if they are trying to spell/write a word they don’t know the meaning of, it will only cause them confusion and frustration, and they will find spelling difficult if not impossible.
 
When your kids fluently read and comprehend the sentences on their Partner Pages in each phonics lesson, they are ready to move into the encoding (spelling) part of the lesson—sentence dictation.

Here are a few steps that will ensure your child’s success in sentence dictation when working with their partners or you. Teach these skills before jumping into sentence dictation:
 

• Take turns reading a sentence to their partner. You may be their partner. This necessary step works on decoding and promotes active listening. If you are their “partner”, have them read the sentence to you and then you read the sentence to them having them actively listen as you read.

• Discuss the meaning of the sentence by sharing what they are picturing/imagining in their brain—comprehension. They could even draw the sentence, as drawing will activate more parts of their brain thus promoting greater comprehension.

• Take turns reading the sentence one more time.

• Have them turn their Partner Practice page over.

• Take turns repeating the sentence from memory, first together, then separately. Have them think about what the sentence and words look like when they say the sentence and listen to you say it. This works on both auditory and visual memory. If they need to review the sentence again, they can turn their Partner Practice page over.

• Only now do they begin writing. This, of course, is encoding as they are thinking, “What sound am I hearing and what letter(s) do I use for that sound when I’m writing?”

• If you are their partner, have them dictate the sentence to you and you write it. You are modeling for them.

• When you’ve finished writing a sentence, have them first proofread their own work and then proofread their partners/yours. They proofread by:

• Checking for space between words

• Checking for a capital letter at the beginning of the sentence

• Checking for an end mark—a period, question or exclamation mark

• Checking for capitalized names

• Checking for spelling accuracy

• Last, have them proof their work for accuracy by looking at their Partner Practice page. Celebrate with a high-five for their good work. Smiles all around!

  As you can see, decoding and encoding skills utilized in sentence dictation engage numerous parts of the brain:

• Visual processing, visual sequencing, and visual memory

• Auditory processing, auditory sequencing, and auditory memory

• Tactile handwriting skills

• Comprehension of text

• Analytical thinking--comparison of decoding and encoding

 Sentence dictation is a fun activity that children enjoy doing together without being completely aware of all the elements enhancing their learning—they just have fun and learn to share and support each other as they read and write.

I encourage doing sentence dictation several times a week. You and they will see the difference in reading, spelling and comprehension very quickly.

If you have further questions about spelling the Silent Elephant “e”® way, contact us at silentelephante@gmail.com or nina.silentelephante@gmail.com.

Phonics and Spelling go Hand-in-Hand :)

Phonics and Spelling go Hand-in-Hand 

On Tuesday, October 24, Nina did a Facebook Live on the subject of spelling. She began by sharing how our amazing brains process written language. We know more and more about how our brain works because of fMRIs that neuroscientists are using to study how it functions. She continued by explaining how reading and spelling are connected, 2 parts of the whole for understanding written language, like two sides of a coin. (Here's the link to the video.)

Let’s pull those thoughts together here.

The first thing to understand about spelling instruction is that it must be taught concurrently with phonics instruction. While your young ones are learning a particular phonics rule and utilizing it in learning to read, they need to be applying that very same phonics rule in learning to spell. When they learn both at the same time, both reading and spelling make sense. They have confidence in both areas.  
Here is why reading and spelling need to go hand-in-hand:

• They are like two sides of a coin forming written language.

• They both represent sound-symbol relationship—reading on one side of the coin and spelling on the opposite side of the coin.

• Reading is a decoding skill; spelling is an encoding skill.

Decoding is translating printed words to sound and meaning; whereas encoding is the opposite—using sounds to create printed words.

Let’s make a point of this again. Their spelling instruction must correlate with their phonics instruction.
Unfortunately, many spelling programs often introduce a new phonics rule and the exceptions to that rule in the very same lesson.

And worse, often there is no correlation between phonics (reading) instruction and spelling instruction, because they are seen as two totally different subjects.

This lack of correlation between reading and spelling and the introduction of the rule and the exceptions in the same lesson creates confusion for all children.

It’s worse for a dyslexic learner or any struggling or multi-language student who is working hard to comprehend an abstract phonics concept. It almost makes it impossible for them to internalize and master the phonics rule being taught, much less understand the exceptions. And spelling, the other side of that coin, can sort of drop out of sight in the confusion.

This is why Phonetic Reading with Silent Elephant “e”™ teaches reading and spelling together. We understand how the brain reads and spells.

With Phonetic Reading with Silent Elephant “e”™, you’re able to relax and expertly teach each abstract phonics rule through sequentially organized, multi-sensory, whole-body lessons guiding your young ones to a concrete understanding of each phonics rule for reading and spelling.

You’ll watch your kids feel so confident in their understanding of a phonics rule that they will eagerly accept the challenge to spell words that follow that rule.

Since Silent Elephant “e”™ was created so all learners could learn spelling along with reading, we provide you with lengthy leveled word lists (Level 1, Level 2 and Level 3) moving from simple to complex for every phonics lesson. These word lists for reading, spelling and vocabulary development are an integral part of each phonics lesson in Silent Elephant “e™. They provide you with NUMEROUS words focused on each phonics lesson’s objective—words to use for word recognition, for vocabulary development and for individualized spelling lists.

Spelling is important and all children, struggling or not, can be successful when we connect it to their reading and teach it the way their brains learn.

Join us on our Facebook page, Silent Elephant e, LLC Group, for more discussion on teaching spelling and everything reading related. 

Contact us at silentelephante@gmail.com or nina.silentelephante@gmail.com

12 Wonderful Years of Changing Lives - so beautiful!

YAY for DATA! 12 Wonderful Years!!

This is so good! So fun to share!
I have 12 YEARS worth of Silent Elephant “e”™ data. 12 years! I’ve been watching Phonetic Reading with Silent Elephant “e”™ truly change children’s lives (and their parent’s lives!) for 12 YEARS!

During those years, I’ve taught preschool through high school students who were struggling to read, write and spell. Some were staffed into special education. I have also had a few students who were not struggling at all but whose parents knew about Silent Elephant “e”™ and wanted their children to have a solid foundation in reading, writing and spelling.

My students have included those with:

• Dyslexia

• ADD or ADHD

• Speech and Language Disorders

• English Language Learners

• Autism

• Hearing Impairments

• Down Syndrome

• Dyspraxia

• Microencephaly

• Central Auditory Processing Disorder

• Low to Extremely Low IQ

• Other Learning Differences

• Those with No Learning Differences

I share all their differences, because IN SPITE OF their differences, they have ALL SUCCEEDED in becoming fluent, confident readers, writers and spellers. Some needed the gift of time, to move at their own pace slowly but steadily, which is a powerful component of Silent Elephant “e”™. Some quickly moved through the entire program. ALL HAVE SUCCEEDED.

Are you ready to be impressed by the 12 years of data, the quick, amazing progress my kiddos are making in a short amount of time?

Over the last 12 years, students learning with Silent Elephant “e”™ just 1.5 - 2 hours/week, on average:

• Advanced 1 grade level for every 2.8 months of instruction. (Think of this: my students are not taking a school year to advance a grade level—they’re advancing multiple grade levels in one year.)

• Advanced to their age-appropriate grade level in 9.9 months (some in as little as 2 ½ months). (Some of them were 2-6 years behind their grade level when they began learning with Silent Elephant “e”™.)

• Many advanced 4 grade levels with 6 months of instruction. (😊 Wow!)

• Mastered Part 1, Phonemic Awareness within 3 months. (In 3 months, they understood the basics of written language and were ready to fly!)

In these last 12 years, 11 of my students have successfully exited out of special education which is unheard of. All eleven of them are now competent, confident students who are having a good time in school, learning easily and proud of themselves.

Also in these 12 years, I have been able to support parents and teachers in their decision to refrain from placing a child in special education because the student was being tutored using Phonetic Reading with Silent Elephant “e”™ and both the school and the parents knew the success of Silent Elephant “e”™ students.

I’m so pleased to share all of this with you! I’m so proud of all those whose lives have been touched by Silent Elephant “e”™ (students and parents) from the beautiful, profoundly dyslexic young woman in her senior year of college majoring in neuroscience who is not struggling to the sparkling little one who began second grade reading on a sixth-grade level after two years of learning with Silent Elephant “e”™ beginning in her Kindergarten year.

If you are wondering how Silent Elephant “e™ can support your children as their (and your) comprehensive pre-school to college reading, writing, and spelling program, call me at 208-859-4406 or email me at silentelephante@gmail.com.

Let's Talk About the Sequence of Phonics Skills - this might be surprising :)

“I like that I have a sequence (of phonics skills).
I don’t have to wonder about it anymore.”

This came in response to my last post which shared the importance of ensuring that we don’t have any phonics “floaters” in our “sea of floating isolated facts”. (If you missed that post, here it is.)

As I began writing Phonetic Reading with Silent Elephant “e”™, it brought into play my experience teaching in the classroom. During those many years, I had the opportunity to teach with many reading programs.

Here’s an interesting fact: they didn’t all have the exact same sequence of phonics skills. 😊

Yes, of course, they all began with the simplest concepts, probably short vowels, but after that they would shift around somewhat. Often, they would mix in concepts that were not yet taught. As you can imagine, throwing in words with concepts not yet learned is confusing to ALL kids, but to those young ones, or multi-lingual ones, or dyslexic ones or ones with other learning differences, it wasn’t just confusing, it was a BIG problem. In their confusion, they would begin to have phonics “floaters” moving into their “sea of floating isolated facts”. As I shared in the last email, we can’t have phonics “floaters” -  it's a BIG problem.

Therefore, it was important to me as I began writing Silent Elephant “e”™, to know how our brains learn most effectively, to know my learners, and to know how those with learning differences process learning.

It was important to me to have a sequence for learning phonics skills for ALL children:

•  a sequence that was all inclusive

•  a sequence that was easy for every learner to understand and process

• a sequence that was systematic, progressive, and logical for every learner.

Understanding how children, ALL children, learn helped me develop Silent Elephant “e”™’s phonics sequence which is a little different.

Of course, it must begin with simple, short vowels, but immediately it takes a turn. No, the turn isn’t to include something they haven’t learned yet, but instead to teach the vowels in a different order than every other reading program.

When you explore Silent Elephant “e”™,  you will immediately notice that the short vowels are presented differently. They’re not in our old a, e, i, o, u order.
 
Instead, they’re in an order that is the most effective order for ALL children to learn to read, write and spell short vowel words. It’s an order that produces the least amount of possible confusion, even for children who are new to learning English or have learning differences.

This order has proven very successful. Every child who has experienced beginning reading, writing and spelling with Silent Elephant “e”™ has started with this solid foundation that set their journey on stable footing and they never looked back whether they were new to English, had learning differences or not!

Now, add to this that Silent Elephant “e”™ teaches them the way they love to learn and learn best with complete engagement in every step of learning. No wonder every single Silent Elephant “e”™ child has been successful. And some of these kiddos, as I have shared, were never supposed to ever learn to read!

Speaking of celebrating! Two more of my students, both high school students, are no longer in special education. They are confident, happy and eager for school every day. OH, yes, they’re both profoundly dyslexic.

Like us on Facebook, Silent Elephant “e”, LLC Group. Let’s get our Facebook group up and active and answering questions you may have about teaching reading, writing and spelling and Phonetic Reading with Silent Elephant “e”™.

Contact us at silentelephante@gmail.com or nina.silentelephante@gmail.com

Have You Ever Had This Experience? I Bet You Have! :)

Have you ever had this experience? I bet you have!

For a couple minutes, think about when you were in school--whether your school was a public school, or you were homeschooled.

Think about a subject, concept or skill you were taught that just did not connect with you. It was something you learned, but it never had any real meaning for you or to you.

You learned it because you were taught it, and so it became an isolated fact for you that sort of floated around in a sea of other isolated facts or factoids. It had no real connection for you. You really didn’t care about it. It just floated around with all the other disconnected facts.

Then later, maybe a long time later, as you lived your life, you suddenly realized this floating subject, skill or concept was beginning to take on meaning for you. It began to “come alive” for you because of something you had or were living through that began to connect it with other subjects, other skills, or other concepts you knew about, understood fully, and had interest in.

Suddenly this isolated floating concept moved out of your sea of nebulous facts and became not just something you learned but knowledge that you could use and wanted to use.

What were some of those floating facts that became important for you?

I ask you to take this goofy little journey with me because we ALL have this sea of floating nebulous concepts and facts. Some of us have larger seas than others of us. 😊 It depends on how we were taught, how we connected what we were learning.

Another reason for our goofy journey is this:

It’s OK for some concepts to become floaters without real harm to our learning. You probably have the dates of wars floating around. 😊

BUT, it’s very detrimental for some concepts to become floaters! In fact, if some concepts become isolated facts with no connection, then other learning is halted!

Some concepts need to be taught to ALL children in ways that activate and integrate the learning immediately. Some concepts can’t wait for months or years to become a part of our children’s working knowledge.

Phonemic awareness and all phonics concepts are such concepts.

Phonics concepts can be vague and yet it is absolutely important that they are learned in a precise sequential order to ensure true learning at the time they are taught. They must be taught so the concept becomes useable knowledge immediately.

That can sound like a BIG job! 😊
It’s not as big a job as it is a process that needs to be well thought out to ensure their success.

It was one of my students who made me think of sharing this with you.  He was having a very difficult time writing words that contained new phonics concepts IF he was asked to write the word in isolation. To this day, words in isolation hold no meaning for him.

Yet, 😊, when he wrote these same words in sentences, the phonics rules he needed totally made sense to him, and he spelled the words correctly and wrote the entire sentence correctly. The words had meaning and made connections to his prior knowledge.

For ALL children, words must be connected to their prior knowledge for the words to have meaning so they can easily learn to read, write and spell.

Think about how important phonics concepts are and how ALL children need them to be taught in a systematic, sequential, progressive, sensory engaging format for them to be easily learned. Phonics concepts need to be connected to all their previous learning—RIGHT NOW, not later. They cannot join the “floating facts seas”. If one joins the sea of floaters, learning to read becomes instantly difficult.

This is why when you explore Phonetic Reading with Silent Elephant “e”™, you will find a progressive order that totally engages children in learning every concept. We just can’t have any “phonics floaters”.

Contact me to learn more about how I structured Silent Elephant “e” so every child can easily learn to read, write and spell.

She Improved 5 Grade Levels in 9 Months!! Soon she'll be up to 8th grade level and beyond!

Summer rolled to an end way too quickly. It seems like we didn’t get to do as many things as we had planned -- maybe we had too many things planned. 😉

We’ve packed up and are ready to head back to Seattle until next June.

This is always a bittersweet time. I’m not ready to leave Idaho and yet at the same time I’m so eager to hug my grandkids. And my kids. 😊 It seems like a very long time since I’ve wrapped my arms around all of them.

I did get most of my student’s end of summer assessments finished.

Assessing is such a happy time. Sometimes my kiddos don’t even realize how much they’ve learned and how well they’re reading. I love the way their eyes grow huge, and their smiles explode when they stop for a moment to realize their own progress. It’s a special time.

And -- it’s a time for celebrating for them, for me and definitely for their parents!

Last week I received this wonderful note from Mckenna’s mom, and I’d love to share it with you.  
"Dear Linda,

You have no idea how much we appreciate you…

Jeremy, Mckenna's dad, and I had the best discussion about tutoring tonight (he has dyslexia as well).  He is blown away with how far she has come since last November!
He wishes he didn’t struggle as a child and had had help. We are so happy you can help her down this road! 
So much love,
Brie

In 9 months, Mckenna mastered Phonemic Awareness. She didn’t have Phonemic Awareness 9 months ago. She also improved 5 grade levels in word recognition and 3.5 grade levels in comprehension! Both word recognition and comprehension are at a 7th grade reading level now.

She is so proud of herself, and rightly so.

Within the next 3 months she will be up to grade level (8th grade) and beyond. She is ready to fly!

If you have questions about teaching reading, writing and spelling with Phonetic Reading with Silent Elephant “e”™, email me at silentelephante@gmail.com. You’ll love the freedom of teaching with Silent Elephant “e”™. You’ll love watching them learn to read, write and spell so quickly – all of them. You’ll love it when their eyes grow huge, and their smiles erupt. xoxo

If you'd like to be a part of changing lives with us, talk to me about becoming a Silent Elephant “e”™ tutor. You'll never regret it. 

Contact me here!

4 Factors to Consider when Teaching a Learner with Learning Differences

Sharing 4 Factors to Consider when Teaching a Learner with Learning Differences during the Top Picks Back to School Bash was a blast!

Here are some highlights we covered in the workshop:
When teaching a learner with learning differences, we want to consider these four factors and make sure that we are meeting all of them as we teach.

Factor 1 – Immersion and Engagement – Your learning difference learner needs to be totally immersed and totally engaged in whatever they are learning. Ask this question, “How many ways can we have fun using their five senses, their voice and their body to learn this concept and connect it to what they already know?” 

To internalize the new concept that you're teaching and connect it with all other concepts that they've learned previously they need to be totally engaged with the concept in ways they enjoy. This total engagement and immersion in the fun of learning will activate all parts of their brain and make it possible for them to easily internalize, learn new concepts, and connect the new with what they already know.

Factor 2 – Embedded - To engage all parts of the learning different brain in learning to read, write and spell you want to teach them together. In other words, you want to embed their writing and spelling into their learning to read.

What does that look like? When they are learning a new phonics concept such as /ea/, or even a short vowel sound, they learn to read, write and spell words with those phonics concepts at the same time they are learning to read them. Then they immediately begin using their new words in reading and writing sentences.

Learning writing and spelling at the same time they learn to read makes sense to their learning difference brain that does not separate reading, writing and spelling into 3 separate subjects. 😊

Factor 3 – How the curriculum is set up matter. Is it sequential, systemic, progressive and logical? Does it teach all skills and concepts simple to complex?

This is not only important for them, it’s important for you. If the curriculum you are using doesn’t move sequentially simple to complex as it progressives logically and systematically through the skills and concepts, it will be not only be frustrating to you but chances are high that they will not learn easily or readily, maybe not at all.

Factor 4 – Predictability – For your learning difference learner to learn easily and readily to read, write and spell, you want their program and the way you are teaching to be predictable to them. It is very important to the learning difference brain to NOT have to wonder about how you will be presenting new concepts and skills or about what their worksheets look like.

Their brain needs to relax into the predictable so it can focus on what’s important – the new concept and how that concept relates to everything they have already know.

There’s actually a Factor 5 – This one is also important, maybe the most important. Believing they are going to read, write and spell and have fun doing it! They need to KNOW that YOU KNOW they will learn and enjoy their learning process.

Phonetic Reading with Silent Elephant “e”™ was written around these factors which is why we are watching our students with all kinds of learning differences become completely independent readers, writers and spellers enjoying their freedom to learn new concepts in every subject.

Yes! They still have learning differences, but they don’t struggle with reading, writing or spelling. There’s such freedom in that and it’s such a pleasure to watch their success!

If you have any questions about these 4 factors or Phonetic Reading with Silent Elephant “e”™, call (208-859-4406) or email here silentelephante@gmail.com or nina.silentelephante@gmail.com

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 :).