I know some of the kids near me and they like to come hang out. This one little girl was over the other day listening to music and stuff when she broke down and told me she doesn't know how to read. She says everyone has just given up on trying to teach her. This little girl speaks English perfectly, but it's not her parents first language. I went to the girls mother to ask if she minded my spending some more time and sort of creating a schedule to help her daughter learn to read. The mother was very grateful and says she knows her daughter can't read. So, how do I teach a kid to read? I took a few of the neighborhood kids to get their first library cards. My little friend took out 15 books she wished she could read. I told her we would get through them together. I did ask the librarian for some guidance which was somewhat helpful. But I'm not a teacher. I just have a young, wonderful little lady asking me for help. And I know something like this can change her life. Any tips or similar experiences you want to share are welcome. Thanks.
Encouragement goes a long way. I did not do much, but I did help a young lad who stayed at a campsite I worked on for a long time. He already knew the alphabet, though, so it was just me and him reading some sentences. Whenever he said he couldn't continue or tried to give up, I encouraged him to keep it up, and he did. I was lucky to have a kid that wanted to learn. So when they grow tired or think they can't handle it, try to encourage them to continue. Tell them about the success they've made and such and that will give them a bit more hope. I'm no expert and no teacher, but I think if the kid wants to learn and has the time and resources to do so, a helping mind can absolutely aid them.
Can she read in her parents' language? The OP implies not but if she can that makes a difference. Does she attend school? Reinforcing the same things as her teacher is often recommended. And if others have given up, are there any learning difficulties? What's the system there if it turns out she has dyslexia? It's good to have a choice of different reading-schemes. The ones I've liked have been:- Key Reading Scheme; Oxford Reading Scheme; Puddle Lane; Finger Phonics; and Ant & Bee and the Little Monsters Word Book (or really any word book, Richard Scarry's Picture Dictionary is also great) It might also be good to get an alphabet poster onto her wall, and as much other background multimedia as possible into the home. If she has her own tablet maybe www.nessy.com which is good for that combination of age group + stage but it costs money. Or things like Alphablocks, Sesame Street, Letters Kingdom If her parents could read to her in English every night in the background, that would help - otherwise I guess bring that into the meetings If you're out and about and want to show how we're always surrounded by written language, maybe play games with street signs or make stories out of the first letters of car numberplates Learning handwriting at the same time is good anyway, but when there is a gap between the age and the stage it lets them be in control or to use the more mature imagination to make their own stories by copying whatever words they need from the word book The reading schemes for most part are full of how-to advice anyway, and following one of those through 1:1 is more than most children get. Other than that it's mainly about co-operating with someone else's kid for sixty minutes.
The girl can't read in any language and her parents can't read in English. I'm actually not sure the family has any books. The girl is in school, but it seems like she slipping through the cracks. The parents are aware their daughter can't read, but they don't know what to do about it. And I'm just the neighbor. I can't and don't want to take on all their issues. But there's no way I'm going to ignore a child who asks me to teach her how to read. It's my mission this summer. Also, thanks for some recommendations. I will look into those.
How admirable of you to take this on. This is a good news story. Truly a gift - giving the gift of reading. As with any learning, if you can make it fun, she's more likely to be engaged. Is there any sort of budget? Maybe pick up some index cards, and print simple words on them. You might even be able to pick up some ready-printed. She can learn the words one at a time and then have some fun putting sentences together with them. Another thing (if there's a budget) is to buy magnet letters and have her arrange them in all different ways to spell out words, see the similarities and differences, and work her way up to sentences. As for books, every child loves fairy tales and nursery rhymes. And there are a lot of "learn to read" books out there. Strengthen Your Child’s Reading Skills With the Best Learn To Read Books
You might try adding phonics to what your doing. That will help her by understanding how to sound out the words she doesn't know as she progresses.
I completely agree about the encouragement. I know this little kid thinks a lot of people have given up on her already and that she's embarrassed and don't think she's smart. She's been hanging around me all summer. I don't mind. She's a great kid. I told her if she stuck with me, she would be reading by the end of the summer. I don't know what will happen exactly, but I wanted her to know I believe in her and I believe she can do this. She's already pretty excited and she does seem to hang on my every word whether we are talking or I'm reading. She's a good kid getting lost or looked over in the system. Can I ask what sort of things you did to help the kid read when you were camping? Were there things you tried that were more affective than others?
I first went through a sentence myself, then I let the kid go through it on their own, letter by letter, word by word. Sometimes I did the reversed and let him start out saying what letters he saw and then stringing them together into words. Letting them do things themselves and succeed on their own can be a great motivator. I only helped out where I was needed. Repetition also seemed to work pretty well. If there was a sentence he struggled with we would work with it a bit extra, not just give up and move on to the next. It was really basic stuff. Remember it is a child learning to read, not a university student learning advanced grammar rules, that comes later in life. But this was a long time ago, this is the basics I remember. Edit to add: He had an older sister which helped him as well. I once saw them sitting in the kitchen together, he on her lap and studying. My heart melted seeing that.
Thanks. There is no way I could ever refuse help to a child that wants to read. When she asked my to teach her to read I was so touched, but at the same time my heart ached for her a little. I agree with you about making the experience fun. I don't want her to get discouraged, but she does seem very motivated to learn. After I read your post I made a stack of index cards. Great idea! Thank you. I have no budget. I'm doing this for free. And, honestly, I'm pretty broke. Having a bit of hard time buying food and stuff at the moment, but I'm getting by all the same. I want this to be a good experience and beneficial to this child. I'm a little unsure how to make sure this is fun. I'm not a teacher and a lot of this is going to be trial and error. The note cards are pretty colors. I took her to the library for the first time and got her a library card. She was so excited. She took out 15 books. I just couldn't put a limit on her excitement about books. I have a feeling I'm going to do a lot of reading this summer. But if you or anyone else has any tips for making this as fun and efficient as possible, I'm all ears. Thanks, everyone.
I'm wondering if I could access it via the library. I really don't have the money to put into something like that even though I bet something like that could help. I just keep wondering what the hell is wrong with her school if she can't read by the forth grade?
A very long time ago, I volunteered with Literacy Volunteers. I ended up teaching ESL, but went through the training for teaching adults to read. Word recognition was emphasized. One exercise involved having the student dictate a short story or essay which the teacher wrote down word for word- nothing fancy, just a few sentences, perhaps, "My name is Maya. When I was seven, we got a dog named Spot. I loved to go walking in the country with Spot. We had many adventures. One day we found a nest of horned larks. HOrned larks nest on the ground." Teacher reads back the essay to the student, pointing to each word. This works forward to the student learning the visual clue for each word, and recognizing when the words repeat in the essay. Next step is dividing the words into flash cards so student hasn't simply memoriazed the essay. Step after that is exploring rhyming words to add to the student's collection of visual clues. "Walk, talk" and "name, blame, came, dame" and "Lark, bark, dark" and so on. This is only one exercise of many, and it has the advantage of giving the student the small triumph of working with his or her own essay. If the child continues to struggle, a genuine learning disability might exist. That moves learning to read into a different realm.
For several years, I taught a locally-developed grade nine science class for students with learning disabilities. Their skill levels were about at a grade 3-5 level. I loved teaching that class! It was so much fun, all hands on. My primary objective in that class was building confidence. Gave them lots of opportunities for successes. We didn't do tests, but I went out and bought individual white boards (at the dollar store for about $2 a board) for each student and I'd use multiple choice quizzes with lots of images projected on the screen and we would do them together as a class. All students would write their letter answer on the white board, then for each question I would call out: Reveal! They loved using those white boards.
You have my utmost respect for this. You really do. I agree with Catriona that there might be a disability.. Kids who tend to fall behind such things is because they often do, and what you're describing is ringing those bells within me. Especially when you say that everyone has given up trying to teach her. It means that there's been lots of effort before. Why did they all fail? It wasn't with reading but I struggled academically my whole life. It was so bad that teachers basically gave up on me. And it wasn't until I became an adult that I started figuring out the study thing just a little. I still struggle but the reason why is starting to be clear. It wasn't "laziness" but some kind of neurological difficulty. My GP thinks that its most likely autism. My lifelong struggle against education has taught me one thing: The public school system is deeply flawed, outdated, and doesn't always offer the support required for children who struggle. Instead, the blame for their under-performance is shifted to the children, and the schools save face. It's never, "We're failing to teach you child." Instead, it's always, "Your child is failing to learn." I'm not saying this is what's going on with that girl but it could be. I wouldn't be surprised. Dyslexia comes to mind, but again, we can't know. But it's so nice of you to teach that kid. It might really change her life. I never had anyone like that growing up. I had to figure everything out by myself. If I did, I feel like I could be so much better off right now. Still, don't feel "pressured" to help. If she really has dyslexia or something that places a learning barrier, getting around that will be difficult. In that case, just keeping her confidence up might be the best thing you can do. Encourage her even for small feats and you might keep her spirit up for long enough until she figures out what that "barrier" is, and how to get around it. Because getting around it is all you can do. A learning disability is forever. I'd say for now, just read those books with her, and see what happens. I'd also say don't jump into the conclusion that she might have a disability too quickly. Teach her like a normal kid for now and see how it goes. And keep us posted!
A thought occurred to me, on something you might try. See if you can get an audio version of any of the books she picked out. Maybe listening and following along will help.
