Case Study For Teaching Reading

A nine year girl was brought to me because she was bottom of her class in reading and writing. I started her on the blackboard and found she wrote ‘m’ for ‘w’ and when I said it was the wrong way round she wrote the whole word

backwards, perfectly. Also she could write using both hands but she favored her right hand. I didn’t ask if she was dyslectic and I didn’t mention she could use both hands for writing. Once kids have been labeled that follows them around for the rest of their lives. I let it ride and never said anything.

The girl had no idea about coding I would say a simple word and she would write a completely different word on the board. She was learning all words by sight and she was getting them all mixed up.

Her mother wouldn’t let her do the coloring in shapes, she said it was too childish. Quite possible, but the kid was tall and skinny and had long fingers so I would think her fingers would be pretty weak.

Anyway I started her on the words she was learning in school. I set up the whole word in sandpaper letters and let her trace the words while she was saying the phonic sound.

She knew phonics, but she knew them too well. She could easily say the phonics to make up the words but she didn’t say them fast enough to sound out the word. And that was the main problem. She would be saying each separate phonic sound, therefore she couldn’t hear the complete word she would only hear each separate phonic sound.

So I had to speed her up and that was quite difficult as she had already set the pattern her mind. It took a while but after she could run all the different phonic sounds together she could sound out the word. Once she had sounded out the word she knew what it was.

For more information about phonics courses I recommend including a Montessori course see our Teaching Reading page.

Thank You

All the best teaching your children.

Peter Legrove English Teacher

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