"Readicide"

I am currently reading the book Readicide: How Schools Are Killing Reading and What You Can Do About It  by Kelly Gallagher.  It should be a must read for every parent sending their kids to school, no matter what the grade level.  I am about halfway done and it has already hit all so many of the  problems I see daily with my students.

1) Accelerated reading.  This is the ultimate is setting kids up to fail.
2) Completely inane and contrived stories in reading texts.
3) Completely inane and contrived follow up questions with ridiculous multiple choice answers.
4) Novel studies that pick and pick and pick out every minutia in a great story until it becomes completely unbearable to read.
5) Reading logs that want me to record said minutia.  This would seriously tempt me to write crazy things just to see if my teacher read them at all.
6) Teaching kids deep meaningful topics in a very shallow way, super fast......whoosh!........ so there is no time for them to develop an interest in a subject.

It is a very compelling book.  Sadly, for some reason, educational practices are rarely founded as a result of good research, they are founded as fads.  This hurts our kids and it kills their spirit, especially the ones who need help.  Reading this book just put it into an even clearer perspective.

Books and Spinach

I loathe cooked spinach.  When I used to watch Popeye cartoons, I would literally feel like gagging when he'd down the stuff right out of the can.  I avoided it like the plague until I was an adult and had an amazing salad with these tasty green oval-shaped leaves...spinach.  After discovering that maybe ALL forms of spinach aren't abhorrent, about 5 years ago I let my husband convince me to try Italian spinach, covered in cheese and garlic. YUM!

For a lot of kids who have reading issues, books are a lot like spinach.  The thought of reading makes them ill, for some kids, literally, they get so nervous and stressed out, they make themselves sick.  In order to learn to read, you have to read.  If you can get kids reading SOMETHING enjoyable, it is a lot like the spinach - they might be willing to try again and could actually grow to enjoy it!

Once kids hit about 5th grade, I find that kids with reading issues tend to have a hard time finding things to read independently.  They are very conscious of not reading "babyish" things, and it can be challenging to find reading material that is high interest and low stress.  Here are some of my older students favorites...if you have any to share, post them in the comment section!

MCI Leveled Readers  Notice the covers are not babyish, the topic matter is not babyish, but the reading level is about 2nd-3rd grade.

I have bought several of these Graphic Historical Stories from Timberdoodle.  Kids often find the comic book format easier to read and the subjects are interesting and geared toward older kids.  The students really like them and sometimes Timberdoodle has titles on sale for $2.

The Invention of Hugo Cabret was a HUGE hit in the 5th and 6th grade one year.  The book was passed around and around and around.  The librarian ordered more copies for the school.  It was like a dare to finish because it is 550 pages long.  The secret?  Few pages are words, mostly pictures tell the story.  Huge confidence booster to be able to carry around a gigantic book.

Series!  Sometimes getting a kid to like one books, excited them enough to read the whole set.  Rick Riordan has three series, two of which feature Percy Jackson, a dyslexic main character.  Two of the most reluctant readers I know (one who belongs to me) started this series and is now motivated to read every one.  As the series progresses, the reading level gets higher.  Most of the time, the kids don't even notice and are thrilled when it is pointed out to them.

I am not biased on this just because I know the author personally, I promise!  Michael Mullin writes a series of stories called TaleSpins.  They are original, modern twists on familiar fairy tales written in verse.  Verse! Yes, they rhyme!   Young adults love them because they are edgy, honest and a little dark.  Young adults who might not love to read love them because they are edgy, honest, a little dark - and SHORT.  Characters stand out because they are smart, quirky, and nonconformist.  One of them, Princess Penny, is also....guess what?  Dyslexic! Mike is working on his next book, a twist on Jack and the Beanstalk.  I am looking forward to that one -  I always thought the Giant got a really bad rap!

A cushy sofa and fuzzy blanket go a long way to encourage reluctant readers :)

Accommodations..fair or unfair?

This summer I began the paperwork to get Ryan officially registered for accommodations for his College Board tests.  I had heard scary things about the College Board being very tough on students and forcing their parents/advocates to jump thru flaming hoops to receive the necessary help.  I dislike both flames AND jumping, so I sent off my chunk of paperwork fully expecting to have it returned and rejected.  I was thrilled when the letter read he could have double time on all tests for his high school career.  PSAT, SAT, ACT and any AP tests he might take.  Almost immediately I realized I probably didn't ask for enough since it came through that easily....but right now it is ok.

Overall, there is a misconception about accommodations for kids who need them.  There are educators and parents who feel that they give an unfair advantage to those receiving them.  In fact, there is no advantage to giving extra time to regular learners,  Students who have been diagnosed with a reading disorder increase their scores substantially (e.g., 13th percentile to 76th percentile) with extra time, typical readers when given extra time on exams barely increase their scores (82nd percentile to 83rd percentile).*  It will be interesting to see how Ryan does.  He took a practice ACT last March and scored a 15 - not one part was complete, he ran out of time on ALL the parts.

School is no different.  Many teachers simply do not understand how to make the necessary accommodations for their students.  Most are fairly simple.  Let students listen to recorded textbooks and novels.  Allow the child with dysgraphia to type his writing assignment instead of writing it by hand - even the first draft.  A student with processing issues can do a timed math test - but instead of grading it, have them draw a double line where they were when time was up and encourage them to get farther the next time.  Give the child with auditory processing issues ( or the kid who can't.stop.talking. to save his life) his own phonics phone for reading and spelling.   Parents and advocates, make a list of what your child needs and be prepared to negotiate hard to get them!  LDOnline is a great resource for parents to educate themselves about this topic.



Here is my favorite guy, Rick Lavoie, talking about FAIRNESS and LD modifications.  

* M. K. Runyan, The Effects of Extratime.  In S. Shaywitz & B. Shaywitz, eds., Attention Deficit Disorder Comes of Age: Toward the 21^st Century; Austin, Texas: Pro-Ed, 1992.

Repeat This 10 Times......

If I google "cures for a messy desk", google tells me to "clean it up myself by buying organizational products" in about 100 different ways.  I have all those products, and my desk is still a trainwreck.  Those who know me, know this is no exaggeration and it is a direct reflection of the zillion thoughts that bounce around in my head every day! Currently, I have 3 clay apostles I am supposed to be making for a friend in various stages of undone-ness ( don't read this, Kim), a shower curtain I plan on transforming into a curtain, a stack of papers that need to be filed, packing tape, a pair of broken glasses, 1/2 a stack of UNO cards, and a pile of dead pens that don't work but I haven't managed to bring to the trash.

If you google "cures for dyslexia", you will also come up with many things.  Colored glasses, colored plastic overlays, nutritional cures, reverse psychology and even Scientology.  Save your time, your money and your energy.  Repeat this 10 times.....

If your child has been diagnosed as dyslexic, he/she needs to be instructed with a  Simultaneous Multi Sensory Structured approach.  Period.  Repeat this 10 times..... Research has been backing this up for about 50 years.

 Do some kids benefit from the colored overlays?  Sure.  Do some kids benefit from added Omega 3's and nutritional supplements?  Absolutely.  But they must also have the appropriate instruction.  Repeat this 10 times.....

The difficult part of that is two-fold.  It is hard to find a properly trained instructor AND it is expensive.
There is no way around either.  Repeat this 10 times....

To find a tutor, call your state's branch of the International Dyslexia Association, they have a list of properly trained professionals.  If you are fortunate enough to live in a place that has a Scottish Rite, they have an excellent program for remediation.

Testing, testing, testing, now what?

So you suspect something is not on track with your child's reading, you have your child tested and find out there IS a problem.  Now what?

This is where things often get delayed.  Finding the right help, getting teachers to listen and work with you, getting family members on board and dealing with the emotions of the process.

The reality of the situation is that as a parent you will need to prepare yourself to be your child's advocate.  You will need to read and inform yourself about topics you know nothing about.   You will need to realize that most teachers haven't been trained to recognize or treat dyslexia - and that applies to special ed teachers.  You will need to know what exactly your school district considers appropriate intervention and be prepared to tell them why it is NOT appropriate.  You will need to decide what you are willing to fight for and what you are willing to compromise on.  You will absolutely need to thicken your skin.

  I have personally been told by people in my school district that...
1) I worried wayyyyyyyy too much about the fact my kid couldn't read.
2) I wasn't working hard enough to teach him to read.
3) I was damaging his self esteem by working with him and it would be much better to put him in school where he didn't feel so much pressure.
4) I was unrealistic to think that he might be able to read at grade level, not every kid does, you know.
5) He may be just faking not being able to read to get more of my attention being I had "so many" kids and all.
6) Anyone can pay a psychologist to write up anything about their child so a private diagnosis is suspect( as opposed to a public school district who can write what they want because they DON'T want to pay for it? Grrrrr)

Most of the parents I speak to have similar stories.  If you have one, please post it!


Wrightslaw is an excellent website that is invaluable to parents navigating the waters of special ed, dyslexia, ADHD, anything.  It is broken down into categories and easy to read
Their information on navigating IEP meetings is excellent.  I wish I had known about this website before my first IEP meeting, it may have gone......ahem, better.


How can I get the school to provide an appropriate program? 

The Sisyphean Task

I love Greek Myths.  I love how the Greek gods are all just a bit whacked and mete out their kooky brand of justice all over the cosmos.  Hercules gets to clean out filthy horse stalls as part of his 12 labors.  This cracks me up every time. Is cleaning out stalls  REALLY as horrible as killing the Hydra or kidnaping Cerberus?  Maybe not, but certainly has to be more humbling.  And who can forget Sisyphus, doomed to spend his eternity pushing a boulder up a hill and watching it roll down?  My kitchen is like that - just as I get it clean, a wave of hungry teenage testosterone zooms thru and I start again at the bottom.

For kids who struggle with reading issues, school is a lot like their rock.  They get to go each day to a place where the main focus is on the one thing they don't do well.  And when they don't perform, very often they get to lose the parts of the day that don't include reading and that they probably enjoy - recess, art, music, etc. Then they get to come home with homework that takes them 2x as long as other kids, go to bed, and start the cycle over again for 180 days, years on end.  For 12 years.  Awesome, right?!  Ugh.

Rick Lavoie does workshops for parents and teachers pointing out the Herculean task their children face every day trying to keep up in school.  Showing HOW kids think and learn differently.  I always hope I never did any of these things teaching lower grades, but I know I have.  When you know better, you do better, now I DO know better.

The sound quality is not great on this clip, but the message is important.

Testing, testing and testing!

Strep tests are pretty straightforward.  The doc swirls a gargantuan q-tip around the back of your throat, you gag and glare at him...and if gunk grows in the petri dish, you have strep.  Take your meds, soon you are back to normal.

Unfortunately, that is not how dyslexia testing works.  There is no one test that determines a person has dyslexia, it is a combination of scores and weaknesses that determine a diagnosis.  Dr. Sally Shaywitz compares it to obesity or hypertension - there are varying degrees and rather arbitrary cutoff points.  This is where it gets sticky in schools.  If a child misses the "cutoff" for a diagnosis, there is still an issue, but it remains untreated.  When Ryan was tested, our county wanted there to be a 20 point difference between performance and IQ.  His decoding and processing scores were very low, but other non-related scores brought up his average so he didn't technically qualify for extra help, even though he has what is called the "double deficit dyslexia".  This is not uncommon, but it is a burden for schoolkids who struggle to read.

A psycho-educational evaluation is needed to determine a diagnosis.  Because there is no magic "score", but a pattern of weaknesses that point to dyslexia, the tests can be subjective.  Finding someone who is experienced in testing for language disabilities is a must.

An intelligence test is administered ( usually the Wechsler).  This tests verbal comprehension, perceptual reasoning, working memory and processing speed. People with dyslexia have an average to above average intelligence - it is not the IQ that interferes with learning to read.  Underlying issues in working memory and processing speed will show up in this part of the test, both which interfere with reading and learning.

One of the most popular tests used to detect dyslexia is the Woodcock Johnson Word Identification Test.  basically, reading words in isolation, starting with one syllable and getting progressively harder.  The scores are compared to others in the same age range.  The Woodcock Word Attack Test is a test of decoding nonsense words - plerp, fronkett, etc.   Very intelligent children who read poorly must memorize many words as a coping skill - this test takes away that advantage with the nonsense words.

I have been very fortunate to find psychologists who specialize in language and reading disabilities and can explain the tests and read between all the lines to give me quality reports and explain what needed to be done to build up their weaknesses by using their strengths.

I have spoken to many parents who are reluctant to test their kids because they fear a diagnosis will label them negatively.  Being labeled " dyslexic" by a psychologist is usually a relief to kids who have been calling themselves worse.  Trust me, kids know they are the worst reader in class, they know their younger siblings are reading faster than they are.    Being labeled "dyslexic" gives a parent power to fight for the education their child deserves and the accommodations to be made for that child to succeed while remediation is taking place.   There is really no downside to a diagnosis!

Learning Times Tables...Success!

I have a list of topics to bring up this month, but today I am just excited about something.

For a lot of kids, dyslexic or not, learning times tables really is the pits.  I loathed doing them with my own kids and between some ideas I learned in my training and our math curriculum which I loved, loved, loved, Math U See, we managed.

I have a new student who is convinced for several reasons ( tomorrow's post) that he can't learn them at all.  We have had some real success in a short time using these three ideas.  Try them with your students or your kids and let me know if anything was helpful.

The first thing we did was fill in a blank times table grid and he was able to see that in fact, he knew more than he thought he did and he was willing to give me a chance.  DeMato wins half the battle!!!

The fact is, most kids rapidly learn 0,1,5,10,2 and in this case, he knew the 3's.  This is what his chart looked like when we were done.    This wasn't for fluency, he would bomb a timed test in a minute.  But if you know 2x3, you know 3x2.  Lots of kids don't understand this concept and the visual of the graph helps.

Flash cards are not helpful for many kids.  Think about it.  When they are learning to memorize, you show them the fact, not the answer.  So their brains build a picture of  7x3=
Blank.  When they close their eyes, they see 7x3=                     .  When they see a problem on paper, they see 7x3               , and the brain has nothing to add to that, especially under pressure or if there is a processing issue.  Your goal is to have them see 7x3=21.  So while they are LEARNING, flash the fact with the answer.  When they become confident, then flash blank cards.

Most kids catch on fast if you start with the answers on the cards.  My student needed more.  So I did what anyone would, I YouTubed. (Yes, even though I am a professional educator with special advanced training in Simultaneous Instruction for Language Arts, I desperately scan YouTube for ideas upon occasion. Don't judge me.) LOL

I found Mr. Numbers Right Brained Math.  It seemed complicated, but it involved drawing and writing the correct 7 answers, which meant my student could use the big whiteboard and move around while doing the drawing and if nothing else, would give him a positive experience which he desperately needed.

As he was working thru it with me, I began to see the genius in it.  Math is pattern, here was a pattern.  Once he got the pattern, he could fill in the correct numbers (math facts) and he started to from a vision of the answers in his brain ( not from his fingers), all on a neat grid where he could pull from when needed. Once he could fill the chart in his head, I started writing down the facts and he filled in the answers.  He noticed that it contained an odd-even pattern ( which helped with the 21, 28 , 42, 49).

Honestly, we worked on it for twice for about an 1 hour.  Last night, he did a "pretend" timed test and got them all right.  He even made a mistake ( 7x3=28) and when he got to 7x4, he went back and corrected it.  SELF-CORRECTING!  A TASTE OF SUCCESS!  A happy night for everyone.

The 2's and 8's share the same patterns, so they will be next.  Since he knows the 2's anyway and the concept of " Magic Math", I am hopeful he will succeed quickly.





















 Times table grid

Janet

I had written the first paragraph last night...received news that changed the focus....

It always sounds a rather noble to be an advocate.  People advocate for all kinds of things and they do it in large exciting ways.  Think of Mother Theresa advocating for the poorest of the poor, Dr, Martin Luther King, Jr., Nelson Mandela...the list goes on.  No matter what you think of their ideas or what they advocated for, you know they were real game changers. On a smaller, but no less important scale, are parents and teachers who fight 

for our kids to receive an appropriate education.  One such person was a woman named Janet Camp.

Janet was the supervisor at the Center for Dyslexia at MTSU.  The Center helps parents in Tennessee find resources in their area and also tests kids for dyslexia.  I had sent Ryan's paperwork to the Center some weeks before.  The expected wait time was six months and in the meantime, I was testing the waters on my own.   After a particularly infuriating discussion with our county's school psychologist, the phone rang, and it was Janet.  Because Ryan had been tested appropriately and thoroughly, she didn't feel he needed any more testing and called to see what help I might need.  Divine intervention.  I literally burst into tears, told her about the call I had just had with the psychologist, the meeting with the school that left me infuriated and the horrifying fact that my first grader was starting to read better than Ryan and he was starting to get discouraged. 

She did not try to calm me down.  She let me blow my top and then said kindly and simply, "You have been given very poor information, Mrs. DeMato, you should be upset."  She proceeded to give me the news that Ryan had what is known as the "double deficit dyslexia"(poor decoding WITH poor processing) which makes remediation more difficult  She even told me not to worry about him not liking to read, he may not ever develop a love for reading.  I hung up with a renewed sense of hope and purpose.  Yes, you read that correctly - she gave me worse news that I had and yet I hung up HOPEFUL and ready to move ahead. 

 That is the power of a true advocate.  She didn't tell me things would work out the way I wanted or that it would be simple but she gave me a vision of where I needed to go and how I could get there.   In the end, I found Ryan a wonderful ,properly trained tutor and then enrolled him in the Bodine School.  When he began working with his tutor, he was in 3rd grade and read  at about a Kindergarten level. After 4th and 5th grade at The Bodine School, he was reading on a mid- 6th grade level.  Janet was the catalyst that set things in that forward motion.

When I attended my first Tennessee IDA board meeting in 2010, I was regretting my decision to say yes. I was in way over my head and nervously  gig when I saw Janet's name on the list.  I introduced myself to her, she remembered who I was and in a ten minute conversation made me believe I really was a fine choice for the Board.  And she was very happy to hear that Ryan DID like to read after all!  

When Janet ended up with cancer, she decided to give up the 1-800 hotline she had developed for the IDA.  I ended up with the job and like usual, wondered what the heck I had signed up for - I certainly was no Janet Camp and didn't know a fraction of what she knew.  I called her several days later and in her usual lovely way told me how pleased she was when she heard I had the job and I was to do it my way, update her notebook, whatever I saw fit to do, I should just go ahead and do.  As usual, I felt a ton of weight being lifted off my shoulders after a conversation with her.  

I got word this AM that Janet passed away last night.  We all knew it had been  coming, but that never makes it better. She truly embodied the spirit of 

advocacy and will be greatly missed by all who knew her.

Eternal rest grant unto her, O Lord, and let perpetual light shine upon her.   May she rest in peace. Amen.