What Are Your Plans For Next Year

Planning for Next Year—Now’s the time! 

This is one of my favorite times of the year. 

The sun is warm, the flowers are bursting out. It could be the perfect time of year.  

Within this past year I have had the pleasure of meeting many of you at conferences and/or visiting with you on the phone and/or through emails as I shared Silent Elephant “e”. 

I have many fond memories of our discussions. You had thoughtful questions. You were eager to learn about Silent Elephant “e” and how it could be an answer to many of your concerns.  

Since then, I have often thought about those thought-provoking conversations. I so appreciate your dedication and love of your children—whether your own beautiful sons and daughters you are teaching at home, those you are tutoring, or that classroom of sweet faces that you greet every morning.   

As April finds me smiling and enjoying the blooming tulips and cherry trees so fresh and ready for the sun, it also finds my mind leaping ahead. 

With these fresh eyes, my mind begins to envision the next year. 

I know I’m like you – we see the smiling happy faces of the children we love. We envision our children/students striding easily with self-pride through the next school year. We feel our hopes and dreams for them. We see them gaining vital information and skills to carry them successfully forward. 

We imagine them in their future—happy, successful, confident.  

While everything is fresh in my mind at this time of year, I love reflecting over the school year. My reflections guide my decisions about how I’ll actually accomplish my hopes and dreams for next year.  

Although it’s exciting to plan for the coming year, I must plan carefully right now. I encourage you to do the same: plan carefully right now. 

You want to begin next fall fully equipped—feeling like there is no question that you will be achieving your dreams for your children.  

This makes stopping, reflecting and considering purchasing Silent Elephant “e” an important step to take.  

You want to procure the BEST materials to accomplish exactly what you intend! 

I wrote Phonetic Reading with Silent Elephant “e” to be THE BEST phonemic awareness, phonics and spelling program! 

I wrote it to be the program that I always wished I had had throughout my years of teaching:

·       One that would teach me everything I needed to know in order to be the BEST, most effective educator.

·       One that would ensure that ALL, let me say that again, ALL of my students would quickly, successfully and confidently learn to read, write and spell at or above grade level. 

I wrote Silent Elephant “e” for you too! 

My years of data compilation prove that Phonetic Reading with Silent Elephant “e” truly is the BEST phonemic awareness, phonics and spelling program! 

With Silent Elephant “e” you can expect your children to:

·       Advance 1 grade level for every 2 months of instruction

·       Advance to their age-appropriate grade level in 4 months (some in as little as 2.5 months)

·       Advance 4.5 grade levels with 6 months of instruction

·       Master Part 1, Phonemic Awareness within 3 months

Then there is this statistic that always fills my heart with pride: in the last five years, 9 of my students have successfully exited out of Special Education!

This really is special. Being staffed out of special education is pretty much unheard of. All 9 of these students are now competent, confident students, eager about learning and proud of themselves and their accomplishments.

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”. 

Are you visualizing your children’s heads held high, eyes sparkling with confidence, faces full of self-pride?

I am! I know you are! 

I also know that right now, at this time of the year, you have questions. You are wondering what to do differently next year. 

Call us! We have expertise in teaching ALL students including gifted, at-risk and dyslexic. 

Together we will sort through your questions, lay out a plan to achieve your hopes and dreams, and see if Phonetic Reading with Silent Elephant “e” would be the best fit for these plans. 

We will love visiting with you!

If you are questioning whether Silent Elephant “e” is the comprehensive reading, writing and spelling program that will fit your needs, contact us. We have answers for your concerns.

Linda Katherine Smith-Jones                            Nina Henson

Set Yourself Up For Success - For Relaxed and Confident Teacher and Learning

Relaxed and Confident Teaching 

When I’m teaching children with Silent Elephant “e”, I feel relaxed and confident that every detail has been taken care of. 

Of course, I know that I wrote Phonetic Reading with Silent Elephant “e” to do just that. 

I wrote Silent Elephant “e” to be THE program that sequentially addresses reading from phonemic awareness forward leaving nothing to chance. I wrote it to be easy to teach with. And even though I wrote it, I have to say that I LOVE the calm and confident feeling I have that the exact learning needs of those I tutor will without question be met. 

Silent Elephant “e” makes it easy for you to meet the individual learning differences, developmental levels and needs of all your students.  

I have mentioned before that I have used multiple reading, writing and spelling programs during my teaching career in public education and that I NEVER felt 100% confident in any of those programs. Every program always had several weak spots.

Therefore, I wrote Silent Elephant “e” to be THE program for reading, writing and spelling—THE program that teaches children and adults to read, write and spell the way they learn using experiential lessons that stimulate all parts of the brain—lessons that engage all learners. This is especially important for students who are dyslexic or struggling in any way.

I wrote Silent Elephant “e” to be THE program with NO WEAK SPOTS.

My hope for you is that you have this same feeling of ease and sureness that I feel when teaching with Silent Elephant “e”.

Now is the perfect time to ask yourself questions to explore just how confident you are feeling about your reading, writing and spelling programs whether you are teaching a classroom, homeschooling or tutoring.  

If you are concerned about the program you are using, about how you are teaching, or are wondering how you can be more effective this year than last, contact us.

We can help you ensure that every student in your care is successful.

P. S. The fact that 9 children are no longer on the special education roles makes me proud enough to pop and then add to them all the other students whose lives that have been completely changed because of Silent Elephant “e”. I can’t stop smiling when I think about it.

It makes me stop and realize just what an amazing program Phonetic Reading with Silent Elephant “e” is!

I’m so proud of it. I’m so glad I took those 1000s of hours to write it for you, for me and for all the students in our care.

If you are questioning whether Silent Elephant “e” is the comprehensive reading, writing and spelling program that will fit your needs, feel free to contact us. We have answers for your concerns.

Linda Katherine Smith-Jones                            Nina Henson

Answering Your Questions About Tutoring

Your Questions about Tutoring Answered 

To answer some questions that might be bubbling around in your brain about joining our Silent Elephant “e” community of tutors that are changing lives, let me tell you a little about my tutoring business. 

First question: “What does your tutoring day look like?” 

One of the perks of this job is that you can set your own schedule! I regularly tutor Mondays through Fridays, but on occasion I have tutored on Saturdays and Sundays. On some days, I begin tutoring at 9 A.M; on some days, I finish tutoring at 9:15 P.M. I create my own schedule around my family and other projects I’m involved in.  

Presently I am choosing to tutor 48 hours a week because I love tutoring and I have students who really need the systematic, multi-sensory teaching that Silent Elephant “e” provides.  

My full-time schedule is absolutely my choice because I’m my own boss. Silent Elephant “e” is my personal at-home business. I could tutor less hours, but the time flies by as I’m having so much fun watching my students realize how smart and capable they are and seeing that spark in their eyes when they learn something new.  

I personally love tutoring from my home when possible, as I don’t have transportation issues: slow traffic, being out on icy roads and sidewalks, and loss of teaching time while driving.  

Now, of course, because of COVID, I have completely transitioned to tutoring online using Zoom and have been over-the-moon happy with the continued success of my students. This opens up our ability to tutor from anywhere. I presently am tutoring children in three states. 

You might wish to tutor at a student’s home or a public library. I do not recommend tutoring at a coffee shop. Most of my students struggle with attention issues and would find it extremely difficult to focus outside of a quiet environment. 

Personally, I’m charging $35 an hour. If I did the driving, I would charge more. Check with other tutors in your area to determine your fee. One note: I do not charge for the first hour, because I want that time to be used as a relaxing time to meet my new student, to meet my student’s parents and to enjoy getting to know each other. Children truly begin to relax during this time and are much more comfortable the next time we meet when I want to begin assessing them. 

Since it is MY business, I have the freedom to take time off when I want. As my students’ progress is so strong, I am not worried about taking a week off. I know when I return, their skills will remain strong, and we will move forward. Also, because Silent Elephant “e” is ensuring that my students are progressing, their parents are relaxed about my taking time off. 

It’s a win, win, win – for my students, their parents and me.  

Second question: How do you find students to tutor?

I volunteer at my neighborhood school and have met many teachers there who refer their students’ parents to me. I am listed as a tutor with surrounding school districts and with the International Dyslexic Association.  

In the beginning, I only had a couple of students, but my business organically grew to full time because the success of my students got around and more people began to request me.  

Third question: How much will you invest to begin a Phonetic Reading with Silent Elephant “e” tutoring business. Here are the details:  

The full program cost is $2217.

This is what you will receive when you purchase:

·       Your teacher’s copy of Phonetic Reading with Silent Elephant “e”, A Phonetic Reading Program for ALL Learners of Any Age Particularly Dyslexic or Struggling Readers containing over 1800 pages of instruction in 14 user friendly spiral bound books

·       Over 100 instructional videos that I created so you can have an at-your-fingertips reminder of how to teach the lessons

·       44 colorful posters

·       The picture book My Awesome Grandma 

There are a few other materials for you to make or collect before beginning tutoring:

·       Magician hat

·       Elephant hand puppet

·       Magic wand

·       Tiny star wands: 1 doz. pink, green, blue, silver

·       1 set of cat toy mice

·       1 individual hand-held mirror (check the Dollar Store)

·        Make twenty-one 1” colored copy paper squares; three squares of each of the following colors: red, orange, yellow, green, blue, purple and brown and laminated them

·       Plastic zippered bag to store the 21 squares

·       Copy the 6 game boards from Part 1and laminate them

·       Pocket folder per student

·       1-3 oz. paper cup per student

·       Box of 8 Crayola colored pencils per student

·       Two boxes of 8 Crayola water markers

·       Copy the 6 paper masks from Part 4 and laminate them

·       Set of orange, tactile, glittered construction paper letters for consonant digraphs for Part 4 

There you have it!

You will be able to start your Phonetic Reading with Silent Elephant “e” tutoring business for a little more than $2217. 

To quickly enhance your teaching of Silent Elephant “e” and to support you in setting up your business, purchase my 9-hour virtual personal workshop for $1000 or get a group of friends to take the workshop together and share the $1000 cost. You’ll have FUN learning together! 

That’s not much to start up a business and, as I have shared with my own tutoring business, that amount is easy to recoup in a very short time.  

Fourth question: What if you have already purchased Silent Elephant “e” and want to take the workshop?  That’s an easy answer, just contact us and we’ll get you in.

Last thought from some happy parents:

“It’s hard to describe how much this program has helped our daughter with her reading. In the relatively short time, she has been working with this program we have gone from taking hours of fighting and struggling to read books below her grade level to a girl who is comfortably reading books at or near her grade level and actually starting to ask to read to her younger brother. We could not be happier with the results so far and excited to see how much further this will go.” Kristina and Derek

If you are questioning whether Silent Elephant “e” is the comprehensive reading, writing and spelling program you’d like to purchase, feel free to contact us. We will also gladly answer any other questions you may have.

Linda Katherine Smith-Jones                            Nina Henson 

There is an Enormous Need For Tutors

Ever Thought of Becoming a Tutor? 

Many of you have expressed an interest in becoming a Silent Elephant “e” tutor. I am excited about this opportunity for you and for the students you will be tutoring. 

There is an enormous need for tutors! An enormous need for tutors using a program that is really going to work for those they tutor! I have a waiting list for children and adults who would like to begin tutoring with me.  

Imagine the already struggling student who, because of the number of kids in his/her class (the average class size in America is about 22 primary to 25 secondary students), has never received enough one-on-one time with the teacher. 

An instructional class period in reading, writing, or math lasts for 45 to 55 minutes. A lesson begins with a teacher presenting the lesson objective and content followed by students experiencing learning and enriching activities through guided practice. The teacher then summarizes and concludes the lesson presentation. At this point, the students have about 15 to 20 minutes to complete independent practice demonstrating their learned skills. 

During that independent practice time, the teacher will be able to devote less than one minute per student to answer individual questions and provide individual help to those who did not quite understand the concept. 

Imagine the struggling students that are never receiving enough one-on-one time with the teacher to completely grasp the concept. They continue to fall behind lesson after lesson, concept after concept, year after year.

This is why so many students need extra, individually personalized help with their studies after school hours. Many parents are desperate to find a good tutor using a proven successful program that is really going to work for their children.  

I would love for you to be the one to provide that much needed and much appreciated help at the same time as you earn extra income to help pay off student loans, pay bills, save for your child’s college education OR just save for that fun vacation you’ve been dreaming of! 

It’s a win-win-win! You enjoy tutoring and watching your students succeed while adding to your monthly income, they are succeeding and feeling confident in their learning and progress and their parents are relaxing knowing their children are in good hands with Phonetic Reading with Silent Elephant “e”, a proven program.  

Beginning your tutoring business with Silent Elephant “e” is simple. 

1.    Begin by purchasing one copy of Phonetic Reading with Silent Elephant “e”, A Phonetic Reading Program for ALL Learners of Any Age Particularly Dyslexic or Struggling Readers. Yes, ONE copy is all you need to help preschoolers to adults! You will be able to print individualized practice papers for each of your students.

2.    You will need a few supplies: a magic hat, a magic wand, an elephant puppet, colored pencils, colored markers, 4” X 6” note cards, toy cat mice, and a few other inexpensive supplies.

3.    I suggest purchasing the 44 colorful posters. The colored posters truly aid retention of lesson content by ALL learners! I use the posters all of the time with every student. (See my post How to Use the Posters and Why They are Important.)

4.    I suggest purchasing my picture book My Awesome Grandma as it solidifies learning of consonant digraphs and it’s FUN too! (See my post My Awesome Grandma Picture Book.)

5.    You may also wish to purchase the instructional videos of me teaching each lesson. My brother-in-law and I had so much fun making the videos for you! Just pop in a video, watch a lesson, and you are set to go!

6.    Register for my virtual Zoom workshop where I’ll teach you everything you need to know to expertly teach with Phonetic Reading with Silent Elephant “e”. It’s worth every penny, I even teach you how to set up your business. 

That’s it! That’s all you need to purchase to start your tutoring business.

My next blog post will tell you about my 9 hour on-line personal training for parents, teachers and tutors.

If you are questioning whether Silent Elephant “e” is the comprehensive reading, writing and spelling program you’d like to purchase, feel free to contact us.

Linda Katherine Smith-Jones                            Nina Henson 

Analogies Open Doors to Their Learning

Analogies Open Doors to Their Learning 

The use of analogies in learning is powerful. They give our learners tools they can identify with and use to help them process new information more easily. 

I love Sayra’s analogy that I shared in my last blog post (Now You’re Telling Me I Have a Bunny in My Brain?) for two reasons:  first, it’s an amazing analogy, so “kid friendly”, and second, I love rabbits!

 I have raised rabbits and adored them, even when they ate many of the flowers in my garden! 

Sayra’s analogy is so imaginative and clever and I am so pleased that she allows me to share it with my students. Her “tiny bunny in our brain” takes my kiddos into a whole new world in their imagination. They have a “new friend” supporting their learning that they can talk to, listen to, encourage and soothe.  

I begin sharing the tiny bunny analogy by reading an old book I have about rabbits that shows crosscut drawings of rabbits’ burrows. We learn about how rabbits make their tunnels and how they know exactly where each tunnel leads.  

We draw rabbits and their burrows and share the many things about rabbits we enjoy. Of course, I have many stories to share.

I have them draw their tiny bunny so it “comes alive” for them and we discuss what their bunny likes to do and likes to eat. We are personalizing their bunny, which helps them feel closer to it and strengthens their use of this analogy.  

I sometimes pat my kiddos on the head pretending I’m petting their bunny while saying, “You are such a smart, wonderful bunny! You know exactly where to find the sound of this letter combination.” 

I tell them to pat themselves on their head, too, imagining they are petting the bunny in their brain and talking to their bunny saying, “I love you! You are so smart! We work together to learn! We are SO good. We never give up on each other!” 

I remind them how they can truly focus and how natural it is for their brains (their bunnies) to find commonalities and patterns, to draw conclusions, to sequence, to analyze, to synthesize and to evaluate.  

We practice being truly focused and quiet while sensing how their teeny bunny feels relaxed and peaceful which makes it very easy for it to find commonalities and patterns and, therefore, the perfect place to store new information.  

We draw their bunny digging a tunnel and nest for the new information and talk about how it knows exactly where it put the information.  

Because many of my kiddos struggle with anxiety and low self-esteem, we practice realizing that when they feel anxious, it means their cute bunny is nervous and running around. 

I encourage them to imagine petting, cuddling, loving and cheering on their teeny bunny to find the carrot, apple wedge, pellet, watermelon rind, letter sound or word without giving up.  

I encourage them to teach their bunny that it knows exactly which tunnel to go to because it is making connections with their prior learning.  

Then we practice helping the bunny know exactly which tunnel to go to so it will find stored information. I have them draw their bunny calm and confident as it moves down a tunnel and stores new learning or retrieves a letter sound or word.

My kiddos giggle with the thought of petting and encouraging their teeny tiny bunny. They begin to smile and relax, and THEY persevere! 

As they become comfortable with the idea of a teeny tiny bunny digging tunnels and building nests to store information, I show them pictures of real brains on the Internet. 

I teach them about the neurons in their brain. I teach them about how one neuron connects to another, which is similar to how their teeny tiny bunny’s tunnels connect. I teach them that when they learn something, their brain has made connections or pathways between neurons.  

I tell them, “Each time you practice a skill, you’ll remember how to do it and you’ll be able to do it faster than you could before. You get better and better! Every time you practice, you strengthen your neuron connections.” 

We talk again about the importance of truly focusing so they aren’t activating too many neurons at one time and confusing their own learning. We talk about the importance of being quiet, breathing deeply and knowing they are building connections and pathways between their neurons so remembering what they have just learned will be easy.

I tell them, “Be good to your brain! Challenge your brain! Love your brain! Pet that bunny!!” 

Now over to you…

Please email or call (or send photos like below) to let me know how either or both analogies are working for your kiddos.  

These bright smiles are telling the whole story.

Their mom sent photos of their work with the chest of drawer analogy and shared how using the analogy is helping them understand how their brain is categorizing. I so love their happy faces!

If you are questioning whether someone in your life is dyslexic and you’re not sure what to do, feel free to contact us.

Linda Katherine Smith-Jones                            Nina Henson 

Now You are Telling Me I Have a Bunny in my Brain!

Now You are Telling Me I Have a Bunny in my Brain! 

In my previous two Brain blog posts (Wait! I Have a Chest of Drawers in My Brain? , Yes There is A Chest of Drawers in Your Brain!), I shared how I use my analogy of a chest of drawers to simplify how our brains work and help children relax and realize THEY are in control of their brain, and therefore, THEY are in control of their learning. 

Not long ago over lunch, my dear friend Sayra shared her successful analogy.                                               

Sayra shared how she explained our brain to her son Matthew when he was young and struggling with learning to read. She shared that Matthew is dyslexic and that this analogy helped him relax into learning to read more easily. It helped him feel in control of his reading.  

Sayra shared that she made up a story for Matthew about how we all have a tiny bunny inside our brains. This tiny little bunny is our very good friend and helps us with our learning by moving around in the tunnels of information in our brain.  

This is the story Sayra’s used to introduce her analogy:  

One day when a little boy was playing in the woods, he saw a little, brown cottontail bunny. He watched the bunny as it hopped along the trail. Suddenly the bunny disappeared! He looked and looked but couldn’t find it anywhere. 

He went home to tell his mama. His mama had an animal book, so they looked up bunnies in her book. “Bunnies make burrows,” the book said. 

The little boy learned a new word – “burrows”. He wondered what burrows were. “Burrows are the homes of bunnies,” his mother read from the book. “Bunnies build nests underground. They sleep in the nests and raise their babies in the nests. They dig many tunnels to connect their nests. They dig at least two doorways. Bunnies are very good at making tunnels and nests.”  

The little boy’s mother looked at him with a smile and said, “Son, your brain is sort of like a bunny’s burrow. It has tunnels and nests and, just like the bunny, you make new tunnels and new nests when you learn new information.   

As you learn new sounds for letters, learn new words and read stories, you are making familiar places in your brain for those sounds, words and stories.  

A bunny making a nest for her babies is just like YOU making “nests” for letter sounds, for words and for stories.

 When you practice your letter sounds, your words and read a story over again, you use the very same tunnels to your nests - just like a bunny uses its same tunnels and nests. The tunnels and nests become very familiar as they feel like comfortable places. The tunnels and nests become easy to find.”

 His mama encouraged her little boy to pretend he had a smart, little bunny in his brain helping him learn.  

The little boy loved bunnies and he loved thinking about the clever, little bunny in his brain helping him learn to read! Soon he loved to read because he practiced each day with his bunny. His mama was so proud of him! 

Sayra continued to build her analogy by having Matthew imagine his tiny, smart bunny in his brain helping him learn something new. His bunny was right there with him. 

She had Matthew imagine just how clever and helpful his little, learning bunny was and how it knew every single tunnel and every single nest in Matthew’s brain.

 She shared with him how reading would become fun and easy because his bunny knew all the familiar tunnels and nests and how to connect all of Matthew’s old learning with his new learning.  

They talked about how his little bunny loves him so much and is SO HAPPY to help him, but sometimes his little bunny needs a little help from Matthew.  

Sometimes his sweet, little bunny would get over excited or nervous and start to run through the tunnels not knowing which way to go. 

Sayra shared with Matthew that he would always know when his bunny was running anxiously through the tunnels because Matthew would feel his bunny’s worry and nervousness. When Matthew felt worried, nervous or like he couldn’t remember what he had learned, that was the time his bunny needed HIS help. 

She taught him to sooth his bunny by saying loving words to it when it felt nervous or couldn’t remember. She taught him to pretend he was holding his anxious bunny in his arms while saying encouraging words. 

She had Matthew teach his bunny how to slow down, breathe deep and relax and that when Matthew relaxed, his bunny would know exactly which tunnel was the right one to use to get to the right nest. After all, HE had dug all the tunnels and built all the nests. He KNEW where everything was. 

Sayra shared that her analogy was extremely helpful for Matthew and that it helped him realize that he was in control of his own learning.

I love Sayra’s analogy! It’s so “kid friendly”. 😊

In my next post, I’ll share how I use it with my students and how I extend it into the science of our brain.

If you are questioning whether someone in your life is dyslexic and you’re not sure what to do, feel free to contact us.

Linda Katherine Smith-Jones                            Nina Henson

We Created A Workshop Just For You

We Created A Workshop to Make Sure You Know Exactly How Silent Elephant “e” works -

Your Success is Importance to Us  

With the goal of ensuring our children’s and students’ success in mind, I designed a comprehensive 9-hour online workshop so I can effectively instruct you on how to teach Phonetic Reading with Silent Elephant “e” right from the comfort of your own home.  

You will learn how fun and easy it is to ensure that your children and students are thoroughly and systematically learning phonemic awareness and phonics quickly while having fun – even electronically. 

During our 9 hours togetherl (click here for details), we will cover everything you need to begin teaching anyone from preschoolers to adults to read, write and spell with Phonetic Reading with Silent Elephant “e”, A Phonetic Reading Program for ALL Learners of Any Age Particularly Dyslexic or Struggling Readers! 

With Silent Elephant “e”, everything you need will be at your fingertips. You’ll have the textbook, posters, picture book and videos as your incredible teaching tools with precisely sequenced, step-by-step, easy to follow directions guiding you to ensure the success of ALL of your students at their personal pace. During the workshop, we will cover how I use all of these components to ensure the success of my students.  

It’s important to me that you know the quality of the program you will be learning and teaching. Let’s review some of my Silent Elephant “e” data. 

These are some of the outcomes you can expect with students of all ages with all types of learning differences:

·       Progress one full year in reading with every 2 months of instruction with just two one-hour sessions per week

·       Advance to their age-appropriate grade level in 4 months (some in as little as 2.5 months)

·       Advance 4.5 grade levels with 6 months of instruction

·       Master Part 1, Phonemic Awareness within 3 months.

Just think—because you will be teaching your kiddos every day, not just two days a week, you could double their learning and progress! 

More data that makes my heart sing:

·       Our Silent Elephant “e” students’ lives begin to change immediately. ALL students begin to experience success right away. Even within the first couple of weeks of tutoring, profoundly dyslexic learners and struggling learners begin to feel differently about themselves and begin seeing themselves as able and successful readers, writers and spellers.

·       In the last eight years, 9 of my students have successfully exited out of Special Education! I’ve said this before, and I’ll say it again: this is unheard of! 

This short workshop will take you from:

“I’m not sure how to teach reading, spelling and writing.

What if I mess up?

What if they don’t learn?”

To:

“This is doable.

I have the tools.

I have the knowledge.

I CAN successfully teach reading, writing and spelling while having lots of FUN.

My children and students will become successful readers, writers and spellers.

I KNOW where to go for support.

I’ve got this!

What a relief!”  

When you have completed the workshop, I will certify you as an instructor of Phonetic Reading with Silent Elephant “e”. 

You will be able to confidently and easily teach not only your own children and students, but you will be certified to tutor hundreds of children and adults. You can begin your own tutoring business from home! 

Click here to see our workshop page.

Last thought—I always want to be available to promptly answer your questions, but if I’m tutoring, I’ll refer you to my editor and colleague Nina Henson.  She taught with me for twenty-five years. She knows Phonetic Reading with Silent Elephant “e” in her sleep!  

You can email me at silentelephante@gmail.com or call me at 208-859-4406 or call Nina at 208-860-3125 or email her at nina_henson@yahoo.com.

We look forward to helping relieve some of the stress of this time by helping you relax and achieve success in teaching reading, writing and spelling using Phonetic Reading with Silent Elephant “e” with every child your heart touches! 

You are in our hearts and our minds. You are important to us! 

Linda Katherine Smith-Jones Nina Henson 

“Don’t worry, Mary! I can help.”

Now is the Time To Be a Silent Elephant “e” Tutor! 

Yes, now is the time!  

It is THE time for educators to reach out to children and adults (yes, adults too) through video communication technology such as Zoom to teach reading, writing and spelling using Phonetic Reading with Silent Elephant “e”, A Phonetic Reading Program for ALL Learners of Any Age Particularly Dyslexic or Struggling Readers. 

I never realized how grateful I would be to be able to teach children from a computer screen! When I had to tell the parents of my students I could no longer invite them into my home for tutoring, I was so downhearted. I was worried my kiddos would lose ground in their learning. I was saddened that I would not be seeing their sweet faces and watching their eyes pop in an “a-ha” moment.  

Then my son suggested I just take my tutoring online using Zoom. I had never heard of Zoom and was a little unsure. Within one day, he had me all set me up to tutor 19 children! I was back with my kids watching their smiles of learning! 

I am so grateful for this fun learning experience. Everyday I appreciate seeing delighted smiles on my beautiful students’ faces! I’m so happy to hear their joyful voices when they say, “Hi, Mrs. Jones!” I know they can see and feel my love for them in my eyes and in my voice! 

Homeschool educators, here is my thought for you at this time when your friends, neighbors and relatives may be juggling more balls than they ever thought they ever would and feeling great stress in their lives—reach out to them and offer them your expertise at this time.  

Since you already teach at home and know how Silent Elephant “e” supports you in making sure your children learn, I encourage you to think about how you could teach your children and other people’s children together using Silent Elephant “e” on Zoom or another platform.  

This idea burst forth into my brain a few days ago as I was teaching one of my students, “Carol”, an “ou” lesson in Silent Elephant “e” on Zoom. Carol’s mom, “Mary”, appeared on the screen close to the end of the lesson time. Mary’s face was showing her stress. “I’m sorry to interrupt your teaching time, but I really need your help! 

“Carol’s second grade teacher sent a note telling parents that they need to teach their child how to spell words with “ie” and “ei” in them. 

“I tried to teach Carol the best way I could, but after a half hour of struggling with both of us becoming extremely frustrated, we were almost in tears.” 

“Don’t worry, Mary! I can help.” I comforted her.  

“I can teach Carol how to spell words with “ie” and “ei” using the fun “ie/ei” lesson in Part 12 of Silent Elephant “e”. We’ll have lots of fun, because each of the six rules has a silly song to sing! The songs will definitely help Carol remember how to spell the words. 

SO, YES!

Homeschool educators you are an extremely valuable resource to your neighbors, friends and relatives right now. Reach out to them!! They will love, love, love you! 

AND, oh, classroom teachers, my heart goes out to you!

I know that you are deeply missing your kiddos.  

I also know that many of you have babies, toddlers, preschoolers and school age children of your own that you suddenly have to care for and teach while teaching your students on-line. 

I know too that you are so concerned that you are providing the best educational environment, the best educational instruction and the best educational practice materials for your much-loved students and your own much-loved children. 

With Phonetic Reading with Silent Elephant “e” you can rest assured that you are teaching lessons that are researched based using Structured Literacy. You will be able to use direct instruction to explicitly teach phonemic awareness, phonics, orthology, morphology, semantics and syntax while pulling in your students’ background knowledge. Further, Silent Elephant “e” will guide you to meet the individual reading, writing and spelling needs of both your classroom students and your own children you are now teaching.  

Silent Elephant “e” is powerfully effective for ALL learners K-Adult —especially those with learning differences such as:

-Children with Dyslexia

-Children with ADD or ADHD

-Children with Speech and Language Disorders

-English Language Learners

-Children with Autism

-Hearing Impaired Children

-Children with Down Syndrome

-Children with Dyspraxia

-Children with Central Auditory Processing Disorder (CAPD)

-Other Learning Differences 

Silent Elephant “e” begins with phonemic awareness as the basis for understanding reading and how it “works”. Upon mastery of phonemic awareness, children are prepared to succeed in phonics, the most effective way to teach reading. Phonics rules are taught in a progressive sequence that builds one phonics skill upon another. Each multi-sensory lesson engages the “whole learner” through active participation using stories, puppets, plays, magic, food, drawings, writing, and games enabling students to make sense of the abstract rules of phonics through fun, engaging and memorable lessons. 

To make it even easier, all lesson plans are precisely organized with step-by-step “cookbook” directions. All lessons have at least three carefully designed practice papers that you can email to the parents of your kiddos to ensure that your students have plenty of practice to reach mastery of the skill you have taught. 

I am so thankful to be able to tutor my students using Phonetic Reading with Silent Elephant “e!  

And I am SO thankful that I now understand how easy it is to tutor online with Silent Elephant “e”. Six months ago, I would never have considered it and now it is a wonderful success.  

I still get to see their beautiful smiles and the sparkle in their eyes when they reach that special “Oh, I get it!” moment.

 We still give each other “high fives” and “fist bumps”—just on the computer screen now! Giggles!

 We give each other “computer hugs”! And yes, those “hugs” feel good, because we know they’re filled with LOVE! 

I still am a valuable part of their lives. My kiddos know I care about their education. They know I love them!

If you are questioning whether Silent Elephant “e” is the comprehensive reading, writing and spelling program you’d like to purchase, feel free to contact us.

Linda Katherine Smith-Jones                            Nina Henson

We Tutor Successfully From Anywhere

As We Now Know, We Can Successfully Tutor From Anywhere!

And Everyone Still Loves Tutoring! 

A couple of months ago, an older eight-year-old brother (whom I also tutor) came along with Mom to pick up his younger six-year-old brother.  

“Hi “Steven”, it’s good to see you!” I called out.  

He returned a, “You too, Mrs. Jones!” accompanied by his bright happy smile. 

“I bet you came along just to get one of my delicious chocolate chip cookies. That’s why everyone comes to tutoring,” I kidded him. I always give them a chocolate chip cookie at the end of our tutoring sessions.   

“Oh, no, Mrs. Jones. We come to tutoring because we love you!” 

Talk about melting my heart!  

“Oh!” I exclaimed as I gave him a big bear hug. “That makes me feel so good! I love you with all of my heart too!” 

I thought of Steven as I was virtually hugging one of my kiddos this last week at the end of our tutoring session on Zoom.  

I truly miss physically hugging all of them, but the children and I still feel the love! I can see it in their eyes at the end of each session; I know they can see it in mine. 

Last weekend a parent texted me to say that her husband had been furloughed from his job for a year, so regrettably they would need to end tutoring. I called her right away. 

As soon as “Amy” answered, I exclaimed, “I love tutoring “Maggie”! I want to keep tutoring her. She’s making so much progress and is feeling so good about herself.” 

I could hear and feel the conflict in Amy’s voice as she shared, “Yes, she is feeling so much better about herself! Just yesterday when she had Zoom time with her teacher and classmates, her teacher asked the children to share what they were doing that was making them proud of themselves.  

“Maggie told everyone she had just finished learning 700 words (the Fry List) in tutoring, and two weeks ago, she finished the caterpillar and train games that helped her to learn to hear ALL of the SOUNDS in WORDS!”  

I was so proud of Maggie for being so confident that she shared her success with her teacher and classmates. She had just passed Phonemic Awareness Assessments Part 1 and Part 2 with 100% accuracy! There’s no question that she now hears every sound in every word. 

Amy continued, “Maggie went on to tell her teacher and classmates that her tutor said she was going to BLAZE through phonics now even faster than she was learning it before! 

“She is so proud of herself!” 

I said, “Amy, that’s exactly why we cannot end tutoring. We can’t stop just when Maggie is feeling her success and is poised to become a strong reader. You do not need to pay me. Just please let me keep tutoring Maggie.” 

I could hear Amy take a long deep breath and relax, “Oh, Linda, I cannot thank you enough! We’ll pay you just as soon as we can.” 

“Please, don’t worry about paying me,” I replied. “It’s my honor and privilege to teach Maggie! I’m so excited about her progress. I can’t bear the thought of her not getting to continue on in her success. 

I love all of you, and I’m sending you all BIG HUGS. I’ll see you Monday.”

This is one way I can help my kiddos and their families at this time.

My students’ successful future is very important to them and to me.  

I can’t bear the feeling of them not succeeding because they aren’t able to pay for tutoring at this time.

If you are questioning whether Silent Elephant “e” is the comprehensive reading, writing and spelling program you’d like to purchase, feel free to contact us.

Linda Katherine Smith-Jones                            Nina Henson

Yes, There’s a Chest of Drawers in Your Brain!

Yes, There’s a Chest of Drawers in Your Brain! 

My last blog post entitled “Wait! I have a Chest of Drawers in My Head?” explained how I help lessen children’s frustration and fear when they feel as if they don’t have control over their own learning.  

I start by talking about our amazing brains and what they do for us every day. Together we explore our five senses as I guide them to the realization that their senses and their brain work together. 

At this point, I introduce my analogy of the “chest of drawers in their brain”. This analogy is fun and silly and activates all parts of their brain with the use of imagination, story and drawing. It gives them a “tangible, seeable” way to understand how their brain naturally works, and they begin to “see” how they actually have control of their learning. 

 I begin by asking my kiddos to imagine the memory part of their brain being divided into drawers much like the chest of drawers in their bedroom. I have them draw their chest of drawers and share what‘s inside each drawer.  

We then spend time imagining how each letter sound has its drawer in the chest of drawers in their brain. Each combination of letters making a special sound(s) has its drawer. Each word has its drawer. Each phonics rule has its drawer. We draw and label lots and lots of drawers!  

We image all the drawers our brains would have and laugh at our silly images and drawings.  

Suddenly the realization of the enormous task their brain is required to do, and does daily, in order for them to remember what they’re learning bursts into their consciousness. I begin to see fear creep into their eyes. 

This is when I assure each child that THEY are in control of ALL those drawers just like they’re in control of where they put their socks. I assure them that the drawers are not random and stacked in the crazy ways we’ve been drawing them.  

I remind them that it’s natural for their brain to find commonalities and patterns, to sequence, to draw conclusions, to analyze, to synthesize, and to evaluate and that their brain has been doing this since before they were born which means THEY have been organizing the “drawers” in their brain all along.  

I assure them that since they are an expert at finding commonalities and patterns, at drawing conclusions, at sequencing, at analyzing, at synthesizing, and at evaluating, they have been and will continue to choose the perfect “drawer” for everything every time. 

Further, since THEY are choosing the perfect “drawers”, it’s easy for them to remember whatever they want when they want it. I assure them they know where everything is. 

Together we imagine how their brain has organized their “chest of drawers” and has been putting all their learning in the perfect places (drawers). We draw this organized chest of drawers. 

This drawing helps me emphasize that since THEY alone have been using their five senses, collecting information and storing it, THEY ALONE are in control of their brain.  

We laugh and have fun imagining someone like their parents, teachers or friends trying to put things in their brain.  

To support their feelings of “ownership” of their learning, I share that they may get excited, nervous or worried and feel like they can’t remember an answer or concept, but the truth is always there – they always have been and still are in control of where they stored that answer or concept and they stored it in the perfect most logical place. 

To strengthen their understanding and feeling of control, we continue by talking about how they can have greater control over their five senses and how that would give them even greater control of their learning.   

We talk about how we wonderful humans have the control to truly focus on what we see, what we hear, what we smell, what we taste, what we touch!   

We explore that TRULY FOCUSING means putting their WHOLE attention to what they are learning or doing. We practice truly focusing so they begin to feel how, when they do truly focus, their mind slows down, they relax, they breathe comfortably and they really observe (hear, taste, smell, see, touch – think about) what they are focusing on.

 As they practice, they relax even further and begin to feel how natural it is for their senses and brain to work together. We talk about how when they truly focus their mind stays on subject and naturally begins to make connections. We practice noticing this.

I encourage them to practice TRULY FOCUSING at home and school and to share their successes when they are with me.  

They soon realize that when they truly focus, they remember what they are learning.  

As we continue working in Phonetic Reading with Silent Elephant “e”, I frequently stop in the middle of lessons to reinforce that they are truly focusing. I ask them what they’ve just learned and how it connects with what they’ve already learned. I ask them questions that help them realize that they are the learner and they are in control.

 Questions like, “Where did you put this new sound? Does it go beside the drawers with the consonants sounds or the sound a cow makes?” They laugh and explain, because they know.

 I’ve taught this lesson to children for years. It’s a fun, silly way that guides them to understand they are in control of their learning.

 I LOVE watching them relax as we play with the chest of drawer analogy. I notice the shift in how they hold their head, how they walk in the door. I smile as they approach a new concept with confidence, a feeling of control.

 My chest of drawer analogy has been very successful, but thanks to my dear friend Sayra, I have a new analogy that sets their imagination playing with a whole new image. My kids love it.  

You will, too!  I’ll share it in my next blog post.

If you are questioning whether someone in your life is dyslexic and you’re not sure what to do, feel free to contact us.

Linda Katherine Smith-Jones                            Nina Henson

WAIT! I HAVE A CHEST OF DRAWERS IN MY HEAD?

WAIT! I HAVE A CHEST OF DRAWERS IN MY HEAD? 

Children who are struggling with learning often believe they have no control over how or what they learn. 

They sometimes think, and feel, that learning happens to them by magic. 

They think they learn new things magically or magically don’t learn new things. 

They begin to feel frustrated when they realize that even though the magic doesn’t work for them all of the time, it seems to be working for their classmates all of the time.

Their feelings of frustration and disempowerment build as they realize their friends are reading so much more smoothly than they are reading. They often sit in class wondering how their classmates know words so quickly when they struggle with each word.  

Their answer is – “The magic just doesn’t work for me. I’ll have to deal with that.” 

When children come to me for tutoring, they’re struggling to learn to read, write and spell. Their confidence in themselves as a learner is at rock bottom! They are sure there is something wrong with their brain—they are stupid and dumb. (Their words, not mine.) They are certain they will never learn to read, write and spell like their peers.  

It’s painful to watch them approach my front door the first time they come for tutoring. Their heads are down. They shuffle their feet up the sidewalk while being prodded by their parents, “Hurry up!” They begrudgingly sit on a chair or on the loveseat in my office. They barely (if at all) make eye contact with me. 

Luckily I have a golden retriever named River. He is my service dog, so I begin our first tutoring session showing the children all of the tricks River can do and all of the tasks he does to help me. We talk about their pets, animals they know personally, and/or animals they wish they had for a pet. River breaks the ice for us. I can visually watch my kiddos beginning to relax. 

After meeting River and learning about his job, we share our favorites: favorite color, favorite healthy food, favorite snack, etc. When I broach the subject of their favorite subject in school, I watch nervousness and shyness creep back in.  

I return to subjects of ease as we continue by sharing our interests and hobbies: sports, music, art, animals, and outdoors. My kiddos begin to relax again. 

Then I ask, “Do you like to read? Do you like to spell words? Do you like to write?” 

Their nervousness immediately returns. They’re mostly quiet—not wanting to share their struggles. But a few have told me they like to write, and they love when someone reads to them. 

Within the first weeks of tutoring, I begin talking to my children about how they learn—how their brain works. I share that their brain began working while they were still inside of their mom. They could see, hear, smell, taste, and feel touch before they were even born! Once they were born, their learning continued as they gathered more and more information using their five senses. We talk about their senses and how wonderful they are.  

I share that our brain receives messages from our senses and interprets them by finding commonalities, patterns, drawing conclusions, sequencing, analyzing, synthesizing, and evaluating. I share that our brain just naturally finds connections. In other words, through our senses our brain is finding meaning in our world. Our brain then stores these meaningful messages in an organized manner in what we call our memory. 

At this point I begin to use an analogy to further teach them about their brain and how they learn. All struggling readers benefit from using stories and/or developing images in their mind that help them make connections and understand concepts.  

In the next blog post, I will share with you exactly what I mean when I say, “There’s a chest of drawers in your head!”

If you are questioning whether someone in your life is dyslexic and you’re not sure what to do, feel free to contact us.

Linda Katherine Smith-Jones                            Nina Henson

The Perks of Being A Silent Elephant “e” Tutor

The Perks of Being A Silent Elephant “e” Tutor 

As you know, Phonetic Reading with Silent Elephant “e” is the program that teaches learners the way they love to learn. It is systematic, language-based, multi-sensory, and FUN! It’s fun for learners and teachers! It engages the whole learner and accelerates ALL children’s learning, even if they are dyslexic or have any other learning difference. Learning to read, write and spell with Silent Elephant “e” is a given.

If you are considering purchasing Phonetic Reading with Silent Elephant “e”, now is the time.

When you have Silent Elephant “e”, you have all of your step-by-step, thoroughly researched lesson plans at your fingertips and with the online 9-hour workshop you can relax and know you will truly be ready to enjoy teaching with Silent Elephant “e” as right before your eyes you watch every child having fun rapidly and easily learning what just a short time ago, they struggled with.

Here’s another bonus!

When you purchase Phonetic Reading with Silent Elephant “e” and become a tutor, you will have our support as you set up your business and begin tutoring.

Further, I will share:

·       What I have learned about becoming and being a tutor

·       My tutoring agreement form letter that outlines my expectations for parents and for students and my goals for my students

·       My form letter that I give to parents at the end of a school year showing their child’s progress as demonstrated by their child’s recorded assessment results

·       The opportunity to be a member of a closed Facebook group to answer questions and learn from each other on a weekly basis.

·       What I have learned about the tax advantages of having a home-based tutoring business.

(See our workshop page) 

I whole-heartedly love tutoring each and every one of my students with Phonetic Reading with Silent Elephant “e”! 😊

As the saying goes: “once a teacher, always a teacher” is true for me. I can’t think of anything more rewarding to do in my retirement years than tutoring my students! I love them all and am so proud of their progress! I would love it if you would read some of their parents’ testimonials on my website.

AND, MY FRIENDS, I HAVE TO END WITH THIS:

If YOU became a tutor, WE would be one step closer to fulfilling my dream to help ALL children become confident, successful readers, writers and spellers! This is a very exciting thought!

Get together a group of friends who are interested in becoming a Silent Elephant “e” tutor to share the $1000 cost of the 9-hour on-line personal training class. Have FUN learning together!

If you are questioning whether Silent Elephant “e” is the comprehensive reading, writing and spelling program you’d like to purchase, feel free to contact us.

Linda Katherine Smith-Jones                            Nina Henson

Not JUST a Picture Book - MY AWESOME GRANDMA

MY AWESOME GRANDMA

In my last blog post, I shared the educational reasons and “power” of my Silent Elephant “e” posters. 

I want to let you know that included with the purchase of Phonetic Reading with Silent Elephant “e”’s posters is My Awesome Grandma picture book. 

Just like my posters, My Awesome Grandma is not “just a pretty face”! I wrote it to engage children in a fun, educational, magical story promoting instant recall of the magic of consonant digraphs. 

I had an incredible time creating this story and collaborating with Brandin Hurley, the illustrator, determining exactly what the book should look like page by page.  

Just as I did with my Silent Elephant “e” posters, I wrote My Awesome Grandma to make the vague concept of consonant digraphs “tangible”. It can be confusing when 2 or 3 letters are combined and given a sound that is completely different from any of the individual letter sounds children learn in preschool and Kindergarten. Now, a child must disassociate their original learning of those letters’ individual sounds and give these new “sets” of letters their own unique sounds.  

As I began to ponder activities to help my students get a solid grasp of consonant digraphs, I kept falling back on my own love of the “magic” of these letters that could join together and produce totally different sounds. 

This made me smile. As I pondered further, the story of My Awesome Grandma emerged. 

Through this “magical” story and the activities I created to go with it, my students develop a firm knowledge that when you put two or three particular consonants together to form a consonant digraph, they magically make a new sound—their own unique sound.  Yes, consonant digraphs are MAGICAL!  

And so is Grandma! 

Brightly painted whimsical drawings of Grandma’s childhood accomplishments and her dream of becoming a dancer with the Rockettes draw children into this amusing story. 

Unfortunately, Grandma wasn’t tall enough to be a Rockette, and as this reality set in, she took it upon herself to do the only thing logical, to study magic with the hopes that one day she would be able to magically make herself taller. 

In the meantime, Grandma became a teacher and unexpectedly found her magic skills were especially useful in her classroom. (Wouldn’t they be!!) 

Then one fateful day, while performing magic during after school hours to prevent her students’ disappointment in the outcomes of some of their science experiments, her grandson, Andrew, unexpectedly discovers that Grandma can actually change one animal into another! 

At first Andrew is frightened, but soon his imagination goes wild as he “sees” ALL of the possibilities of Grandma’s magical skills! He makes a request of Grandma - to make him the tallest boy in the world, which has exciting and startling outcomes! 

As I mentioned in my post about my posters, My Awesome Grandma and the activities written for it activate all parts of the brain making it easier for children to develop automatic recall of all consonant digraphs. 

Children enthusiastically participate in the follow-up activities—animal mask making, play-acting using a magic hat, a magic wand, the animal masks and orange, alphabet letters that magically change their individual consonant sounds into consonant digraph sounds. The playfulness of these activities and the happiness experienced by children promote immediate recall and ensures long-term retention of the story and consonant digraphs. 

With the use of the story and activities around the story, children relax and enjoy the “magic” of something becoming something different. They let their imagination play and they let consonant digraphs “make sense” in the process.

For more information about My Awesome Grandma, feel free to contact us. You can purchase My Awesome Grandma separately. Click here for the store.

Linda Katherine Smith-Jones                            Nina Henson

Silent Elephant “e” Posters are Not JUST for Their Good Looks!

Silent Elephant “e” Posters are Not JUST for Their Good Looks!

I was recently asked, “Why should I buy Phonetic Reading with Silent Elephant “e”’s posters?” 

My Silent Elephant “e” posters may seem like an “after thought” to make Silent Elephant “e” “prettier”, and although they do make Silent Elephant “e” “prettier”, there are solid educational reasons and research behind each and every one of the 44 posters I created. 

One of the most powerful educational reasons is that ALL children, especially dyslexics, ELL/ESL or any student with a learning difference, need colorful, visual, kinesthetic, concrete methods using stories, plays, puppets, magic, games and tangible items such as food, clay, and personal drawings and personal writing in order to make concepts clearly conceptual and comprehensible. Further, concepts visually represented through drawings using bright, vibrant colors activate parts of the brain to develop automatic recall of the concepts represented. 

Although this is true of any concept being presented, it’s especially true of vague, abstract, intangible concepts such as phonics rules. Without personal interaction with phonics rules, learners find them difficult to comprehend and remember, and as new rules are always being introduced, the concepts they are trying unsuccessfully to understand begin to stack up. The learner will begin to feel like the process is hopeless.     

Children learning through Silent Elephant “e” draw upon their five senses and whole body to understand the relationship of a phonics rule to its application in reading words. 

In Silent Elephant “e” the phonics rules are represented visually on large posters using bright, lively color. To further activate the brain, each poster is presented with written stories, skits and whole body, multi-sensory activities that involve the learner even more deeply with the concept. The vagueness slips away, and the learner is developing something “tangible” to hold in his/her memory.  

With Silent Elephant “e” each phonics rule is introduced by a teacher led fun, exciting, multi-sensory, memorable learning experiences utilizing the posters.  

Following this whole-body experience, children draw their own poster pulling into play their kinesthetic muscle memory furthering their automatic recall of the information contained on the poster. At this point the phonic rule is tangible and they have muscle, visual and story memory to fall back on as they read. 

Continuing and reinforcing their clarity and understanding of the rule and how to utilize it in their reading, the children take their poster home to share with their parents as part of the home-school connection built into the Silent Elephant “e” program. They are always eager to share both their artwork and their knowledge.  

As they continue to move through Silent Elephant “e”, it appears that my students have memorized the posters and they have. However, it is much more than memorization. They have internalized the concepts; they’ve learned them. They now own the phonics rule.

From this point on whenever they approach an unknown word, they can “fall back” on their knowledge of the concept story, activities and their personal visualization of the poster giving them self-confidence to fluently decode the words. 

I watched Jamie demonstrate his knowledge of the hard and soft “c” and “g” phonics rule when decoding an unknown word. He paused a moment to draw in the air with his index finger the digital number 2 that he drew on his poster while visualizing where the vowels go on his imaginary 2. He then quickly and accurately decoded the word. 

Ten-year-old Alex took his knowledge into his classroom. He drew from memory the content of Silent Elephant “e” posters to share with classmates to help them understand a phonetic rule they were struggling to remember. 

I use these vibrant colored posters everyday while tutoring students from home. I have some posters displayed all of the time and pull out others when needed by an individual child to focus on his/her specific lesson. 

How you display them depends on your particular needs TO DIFFERENTIATE INSTRUCTION. You can:

·       Display all posters all of the time

·       Display particular posters for as long as your students need them

·       Display only the ones you are using for a particular lesson 

However you choose to display the posters, I guarantee your children will not only enjoy them, but will frequently gaze at them to solidify their phonetic concepts becoming a part of them. 

So, you see, my Silent Elephant “e” posters were not an “after thought” but instead are a vital part of my program that engages the whole learner to ensure success.   

To check out 5 examples of my Silent Elephant “e” posters, click here https://www.silentelephante.com/program/. 

For those of you curious about the content of each poster, I have included a detailed description below. The description shares the content of the posters and the part of Silent Elephant “e” they were created for.  

Posters 1 & 2: Visual representation of Silent Elephant “e”’s content guiding children and adults to form a broad understanding of the program’s topics and how each skill will relate and connect to another 

Posters 3-9: Use with Parts 3-14: Short vowels; Visual image of how the jaw moves when making the short vowel sounds; Illustrations of my spider plant story to use throughout the program for all suffix lessons 

Posters 10-11: Use with Parts 5-14: Consonant blends; Three sounds of the suffix -ed 

Posters 12-16: Use with Parts 6-14: Words ending with double consonants; ô sound; Long double “oo”; Short double “oo”  

Posters 17-24: Use with Parts 7-14: Silent Elephant “e” words 

Posters 25-28: Use with Parts 8-14: /oi/ sound; “C” and “G” Game boards 

Poster 29: Use with Parts 9-14: The “Band-Aid” Sound of /ou/  

Poster 30: Use with Parts 6-14: “y” at the end of words 

Posters 31-33: Use with Parts 11-14: R-controlled vowels 

Posters 34-37: Use with Parts 12-14: 6 Sounds of “ou”; “al” Words; 5 Ways to Make ô; 6 Sounds of “ie” and “ei”  

Posters 38-44: Use with Parts 13-14: Dividing words into syllables

As always, we are happy to answer your questions through emails or on the phone! We’re always eager to visit with you.

If you have further questions about Silent Elephant “e”’s posters, feel free to contact us.

Linda Katherine Smith-Jones                            Nina Henson