by Sarah Major, M.Ed
One fall day, I was working with a few kindergarteners who had been identified as at risk for learning to read. They were sitting in little chairs staring at me blankly. The activity I’d planned involved making words out of only the 8 sounds they had learned thus far. My hopes were not high as we sat there sizing each other up.
“Find a spot by the whiteboard," I told them." You can see that each of you have a set of little flags.” I had printed the letters A, T, F, C, S, O, M and P on sticky notes, one set for each child. I helped each child find a place by a set of flags, but my hopes had plummeted, and my expectations were low.
“Listen to this word, and then sound it with me. Cat. C – A – T.” Blank stares; no response. Desperately I said, “Find the flags that have the sounds in cat and put them in front of you on the whiteboard. “C-A-T,” I sounded once again.
Just when I thought nothing was going to happen, the children slowly turned to face their flags and began sounding softly, pulling down the flags and arranging them to look like this:
CAT
WOW! I asked the children to put the flags back and we did next word: “Pat. P-A-T,” I sounded slowly. “Now, sound it with me and find each flag as you do.” And they found all the letters as we did word after word. By November, these children who were considered to be the most at risk for reading were at grade level. What made the difference was the multisensory approach, an approach that experiences like these have taught me is best practice for any beginner.
Some elements that made the program truly multisensory and worked for these children include the following:
• We taught letter sounds instead of letter names to keep things simple since words are made of sounds not letter names.
• We taught only 8 sounds at first because this allowed children to understand the process of reading while only having to manage a few facts.
• We taught each of the eight letters using illustrated stories that tied the sound of the letter with the shape.
• Children practiced shaping the letter with a full body motion as they made the sound of the letter.
• Children closed their eyes to visualize the letter, then wrote it while verbally sounding.
• Children had time to deepen the lesson by drawing what they heard in the story after it was over.
• Children had frequent practice with making the body motion while repeating the letter sound.
• Using small words, children would sound together as they body spelled the word.
• Once children had learned to make a word using their 8 sounds, we showed a stylized version of the word with embedded images so that they could easily understand that the word could be recognized on sight, that it was made of sounds they knew, and that it communicated meaning.
• We used concrete materials as children learned to manipulate the sounds to make words. (See the flag activity above).
• Children practiced reading using books with text that used only the 8 sounds and a few sight words.
Once the children were fluent with reading and manipulating the sounds of those first 8 letters, we were able to add the remaining letter sounds and sight words with ease. This experience confirmed for me the value of using a truly multisensory program to prevent learning difficulties and encourage reading success for every beginner.
Sarah Major, CEO of Child1st Publications, grew up on the mission field with her four siblings, all of whom her mother homeschooled. As an adult, Sarah homeschooled a small group of children in collaboration with their parents, and has taught from preschool age to adult. Sarah has been the Title 1 director and program developer for grades K-7, an ESOL teacher, and a classroom teacher. As an undergraduate student, Sarah attended Wheaton College in Wheaton, Ill. and then received her M.Ed. from Aquinas College in Grand Rapids, MI. In 2006 Sarah resigned from fulltime teaching in order to devote more time to Child1st, publisher of the best-selling SnapWords™ stylized sight word cards. In her spare time Sarah enjoys gardening, cooking, pottery, quilting, and spending time with her family.
One fall day, I was working with a few kindergarteners who had been identified as at risk for learning to read. They were sitting in little chairs staring at me blankly. The activity I’d planned involved making words out of only the 8 sounds they had learned thus far. My hopes were not high as we sat there sizing each other up.
“Find a spot by the whiteboard," I told them." You can see that each of you have a set of little flags.” I had printed the letters A, T, F, C, S, O, M and P on sticky notes, one set for each child. I helped each child find a place by a set of flags, but my hopes had plummeted, and my expectations were low.
“Listen to this word, and then sound it with me. Cat. C – A – T.” Blank stares; no response. Desperately I said, “Find the flags that have the sounds in cat and put them in front of you on the whiteboard. “C-A-T,” I sounded once again.
Just when I thought nothing was going to happen, the children slowly turned to face their flags and began sounding softly, pulling down the flags and arranging them to look like this:
CAT
WOW! I asked the children to put the flags back and we did next word: “Pat. P-A-T,” I sounded slowly. “Now, sound it with me and find each flag as you do.” And they found all the letters as we did word after word. By November, these children who were considered to be the most at risk for reading were at grade level. What made the difference was the multisensory approach, an approach that experiences like these have taught me is best practice for any beginner.
Some elements that made the program truly multisensory and worked for these children include the following:
• We taught letter sounds instead of letter names to keep things simple since words are made of sounds not letter names.
• We taught only 8 sounds at first because this allowed children to understand the process of reading while only having to manage a few facts.
• We taught each of the eight letters using illustrated stories that tied the sound of the letter with the shape.
• Children practiced shaping the letter with a full body motion as they made the sound of the letter.
• Children closed their eyes to visualize the letter, then wrote it while verbally sounding.
• Children had time to deepen the lesson by drawing what they heard in the story after it was over.
• Children had frequent practice with making the body motion while repeating the letter sound.
• Using small words, children would sound together as they body spelled the word.
• Once children had learned to make a word using their 8 sounds, we showed a stylized version of the word with embedded images so that they could easily understand that the word could be recognized on sight, that it was made of sounds they knew, and that it communicated meaning.
• We used concrete materials as children learned to manipulate the sounds to make words. (See the flag activity above).
• Children practiced reading using books with text that used only the 8 sounds and a few sight words.
Once the children were fluent with reading and manipulating the sounds of those first 8 letters, we were able to add the remaining letter sounds and sight words with ease. This experience confirmed for me the value of using a truly multisensory program to prevent learning difficulties and encourage reading success for every beginner.
Sarah Major, CEO of Child1st Publications, grew up on the mission field with her four siblings, all of whom her mother homeschooled. As an adult, Sarah homeschooled a small group of children in collaboration with their parents, and has taught from preschool age to adult. Sarah has been the Title 1 director and program developer for grades K-7, an ESOL teacher, and a classroom teacher. As an undergraduate student, Sarah attended Wheaton College in Wheaton, Ill. and then received her M.Ed. from Aquinas College in Grand Rapids, MI. In 2006 Sarah resigned from fulltime teaching in order to devote more time to Child1st, publisher of the best-selling SnapWords™ stylized sight word cards. In her spare time Sarah enjoys gardening, cooking, pottery, quilting, and spending time with her family.
Child1st Publications, LLC
www.child-1st.com
704-240-9957
1379 S Aspen St
Lincolnton, NC 28092
