The Scribe's Pen

Sometime between the fourth and fifth year of my life words ceased to be unintelligible squiggly lines and circles on a page and became things that meant something.  Letters became sounds and sounds become letters.  I had learned to read…however primitively…I could read!   It was an amazing time for me.  A whole new world had just opened up and I was enthralled.  This breakthrough was aided in part by my great aunt Wilda who was pursuing a Master’s degree in Education.  She was writing her master’s thesis on phonics, and I was one of her test subjects.  She would bring out this box of wonderful word-sounding games and records, and over the course of weeks or months…I’m not sure exactly how long she worked with me…I learned first to sound out words and then recognize the letters that made up those words.  Magical…truly magical to a little girl in the fifth year of her life.

Because I was a late October-born child (the 21st)  and to qualify for kindergarten you had to be born by October 18th of your fifth year I didn’t get to go to kindergarten until I was nearly six years old.  I was very bummed about that.  I missed going to kindergarten by three little days,  but eventually,  my day to start school arrived.  Within a few weeks of starting kindergarten I was tested and found to be reading at a 2nd grade level.  I remember multiple teachers coming to me and asking me to read for them.  My mom was called and asked what she had done to advance my reading skills to such a high level.  Had I been to preschool?  “No.”  Had I been tutored?  “No.”   She told them about my being a test subject in a phonics study which only garnered more interest by teachers some of whom poo-pooed the phonics experience (they were not believers in the phonics way) and some who were very impressed by the then emerging phenomenon of phonics.   I think there was even talk about advancing me at least one grade, but further testing revealed that I wasn’t as advanced in some other areas, most importantly, math (math was never my friend) and so it was decided that I was to stay in kindergarten.

Maybe I was gifted in the reading and writing area…maybe phonics advanced me beyond that of other kindergartners…maybe it was both?  Whatever the cause it started my love affair with words.  Today, I’m still amazed at “magic” of seeing a child learn to read and write.  I’m not a teacher.  I’m not even a mother, but when I see a child beginning to master the art of the written word I’m overcome by a sense of nostalgia and awe.

One of my favorite blogs is Confessions of a Pioneer Woman.  She is a homeschooler, and in her blog she often highlights of some of her favorite homeschool blogs.  She featured one last week which totally illustrated what it’s like to be a child learning to read and write.   While most teachers would immediately break out the red pencil on words that were spelled incorrectly (based on the sounds) this homeschool mama completely grasps how important (and entertaining) the learning process is.  Most teachers focus on the perfecting accomplishment of spelling words correctly, but the process of “sounding” is very important.  This is coming from a girl who learned to read by phonics and didn’t grow up to be an incorrect speller. Quite the contrary…I usually aced…or close to aced…most spelling tests I ever took.   The “sounding out” stage is very important.

So, this blog post delighted me in more ways than one!

Illustrate and Write

Nov. 5, 2009

(Posted by: Heather L. Sanders of Oh My Stinkin’ Heck)

Following Christmas during our last “school year” I noticed Kenny had gained confidence in sounding out, and attempting to write, short captions beneath his drawings and color pages. In response, we cut out some of our curriculum’s “assigned” Language Arts work to begin our own daily “Illustrate and Write” page instead.

What did we cut out?
At the start of last year we spent multiple days reviewing Sonlight’s spelling words (write them BIG, write them “small”, etc…), we began to work them on Mondays only. I would still enter the lists at Spelling City, and when it interested Kenny (which turned out to be about 3x a week), he would review them on his own through the various games they offered. (I posted my review of Spelling City in a previous post here if you are unfamiliar with this FREE online spelling program.)

We also merged his Handwriting and weekly Copywork into one assignment. I felt it was far better for him to neatly copy one or two sentences from one of his independent readers, mimicking correct grammar, than to write “E” and “e” 25 or 30 times down a page.

What we discovered?
He learned his Spelling words faster.
His Handwriting improved.
And? The daily “Illustrate and Write” turned-out to be the most enjoyable and comprehensive way to introduce new words, correct spelling, and naturally introduce grammar.

Go figure.

I didn’t tell him what to write about. After he gathered his supplies, he would twist circles in his chair, staring at the wall or ceiling, and chewing the end of his pencil. Then, not unlike a jack-in-the-box, he’d POP UP, pull-up to the table, and begin.

“puekepolls rea goweng to ther homs bkus tha got in a fit”
(Porcupines are going to their homes because they got in a fight.)

I LOVE watching the written word develop in my children, but even more, their excitement when I can actually READ what they wrote without their assistance.

I will admit, without the illustrations, I might have needed a bit of help here and there…

“the monstr monstrs win tha aer babes tha wil be aerrete to go away and tha cots a Lot uv fod and win tha aer odrr tha cats mor fod.”
(the monster – monsters when they are babies they will be all ready to go away and they catch a lot of food and when they are older they catch more food )

“Crss rae rilee coll But wen evrr thea run aott uv gass thea rilee run autt uv gass and I men it.”
(Cars are really cool But whenever they run out of gas they really run out of gas and I mean it.)

You might notice at this point I was not making any corrections.

“fictheeg wieh my DaD is alot uv fun and oens huct 5 fithcc and I cot 5 fithcc”
(Fishing with my Dad is a lot of fun and once hooked 5 fish and I caught 5 fish)

I wanted nothing more than to release him to illustrate and write.

“Dinusors ahr cool and tha livd a log tim a go but tha ahr ded.”
(Dinosaurs are cool and they lived a long time ago but they are dead.)

In just a few short weeks he began to add capital letters at the beginning of sentences and periods at the end. This was something that naturally moved into his writing from what he gleaned in his Independent Readers and Copywork (I did/do correct his Copywork). So exciting!

He wrote.
I read.
That was that.

Summer came and went. Kenny did a lot of writing on his own throughout the summer. Like the girls, he kept a notebook to use when we went for long car rides, ran errands, when he went with me to get the oil changed, or on our nice and quiet days at home…his writing improved over the summer months – something I noticed immediately at the start of this year’s Illustrate and Write pages.

“DaDDy in his suprman costum is rillee funee Becuss he follD me to the Beb and he syed do Your schollwrck”
(DaDDy in his superman costume is really funny because he followed me to the bed and he said do your schoolwork)

At the start of this year I began writing the corrected spelling of words just above or below his words so he could see them.

“Scool is rilly fun and cis we are home scoold I thec that do weng homescool is evin more fun for me.”
(School is really fun and since we are home schooled I think that doing homeschool is even more fun for me.)

The first time I wrote corrections on his paper he didn’t seem to mind, but I noticed he was agitated the second or third time. When I asked him why he was upset, he didn’t quite have the words to put to it. After discussing it with him I realized his root frustration – he didn’t like that he couldn’t get the words RIGHT on the paper the first time.

“I looooove sharks becoss they can suyim really fast. there really dagris but evrebute nos that speshule the fich.”
(I looooove sharks because they can swim really fast. they’re really dangerous but everybody knows that especially the fish.)

For a few weeks after this discovery he would tell me what his Illustrate and Write was going to be about and asked me to write the correct spelling of several words on the page so he could write it correctly the first time. Sometimes I wrote them ON the page and other times, jotted them down on a scrap paper.

“What I like ubaot the cheplen at the old haos is that it whas very baose, but I actsudetly (not on a bet) got my hed stuck in the spregs.”
(What I like about the trampoline at the old house is that it was very bouncy, but I accidently (not on a bet) got my head stuck in the springs.)

Of course, there were still corrections to be made and he began to realize there would always be new words to learn – that mistakes were okay – that even Momma had to look up words in the dictionary!

This is when I began to attach a notebook page for him to rewrite the misspelled words.

By the way, “Goob” and “Woob” are monster names…in case you’re wondering.

Many of the words he rewrites are not typical “first grader” words, but I figure since he can READ them and he WANTS to know how to spell them, there is no reason to hold back.

And so I don’t.