Diary of a Mad Orton Teacher

syllables: ence sauce and nerve

2006-10-02T07:53:00.000-07:00

Interesting discussion about the above syllables with another OG teacher yesterday.

We concluded that cause is a double vowel and nerve is r-controlled. It seems to me that I was told the double vowel and r-controlled classification takes precedence over the silent e, because their pronunciation is directly related to that, and not to the fact that they have e at the end. I don't like the idea of another category for the following reason.

Long ago, at the Reading Centre in Rochester Minn. I learned the following from Jean Osman. Syllabication is a tool. If it takes on a life of its own, you may have gone into an area that is counterproductive for your student.
She gave 2 examples. The first one - consonant "con-so-nant". If you want to preserve the root 'son' or if your student hears the second syllable as 'son' making it closed, don't get into it as long as he can read and spell the word correctly.
The other example was decorate. "de-cor-ate" If your student hears the first syllable as 'dec' making it closed, leave it alone as long as he's able to read and spell it correctly. There is nothing to be gained by correcting him.

Suggestions for Further Reading: Syllables Plus and Advanced Syllable Plus by Joan Menke Stoner.

C. Wilson Anderson:
Quoted in VAK Tasks, EPS, 1987

English is a very rich language that has borrowed heavily from other languages, and syllables from other languages don't always fit neatly into the English syllable patterns. This category includes polysyllabic syllables or complicated syllables such as 'ence' and ical, bene and circum, which are usually taught as if they were a single syllable, but technically are not. Since people like things neat and tidy, there has to be a category that is a catch-all so that every syllable has a place to be, just like a mechanic's tools! The plus syllable is the place you put anything that you don't know how to sort. Your teacher will be very interested in the syllables you place in the plus category. Remember: when in doubt, put it in plus.

Much as I greatly respect C. Wilson Anderson, I just can't imagine any teacher who would teach 'circum' as one syllable. Also, if it's at that point, it would not be an effective use of time for any of the students I see.

My concern is that once your student knows there are some syllables that don't fit neatly, he'll start lumping many syllables in the "don't fit" category, rather than stopping to figure them out. In my opinion, it's better to give him only syllables that he can categorize in a straightforward manner - and for those that don't fit, introduce them without the syllabication element.

If you want him to practice classifying words, it makes sense to give him words that he can classify, not oddities. One of the first things I ever learned when I did my Orton training is that the last thing an LD student needs is a teacher who tries to make the work 'more interesting' by adding in other elements.

For example /ence/ ance/ ical/ are all items that I call simply "little parts that come at the end of words, but not really suffixes." I don't give them a name. They are in my students' card packs and are introduced and practiced in the regular way. I haven't had a problem with it yet.

r-blends and r-controlled vowel blues

2006-09-29T06:27:00.000-07:00

I just heard Rob Bartlett singing a funny blues song on the radio and it stuck in my mind - hence today's title.

I've screwed up royally with student #1 and this title expresses my thoughts perfectly. It's entirely my own fault, and now I have to deal with it.

Long ago, when I first started with this student he was pronouncing the/r/ as /er/, as most children do who have been taught by a teacher who has no real understanding of the phonology of English. In other words, as we say in Orton circles, every child who comes through the public system.

At the beginning he had virtually no phonemic awareness at all, and every sound had to be completely integrated as though it was a second language for him. Through every one of the basic single consonants, he had to be shown where to put his tongue and then to equate it with the shape he was writing etc. etc. Then he would forget by the next lesson, and would be looking at, and sometimes even tracing, for example /n/ and saying /p/ and it all had to be reviewed again. So because everything was such an uphill battle for him, I allowed the /r/ pronounciation to go unchecked as /er/. I wanted him to have some success and I just couldn't keep picking at every little thing. Plus, I reasoned that it often happens that they learn what to be aware of themselves as they get more into the work. Just another example of the Orton adage that the world is full of 'nice and well meaning teachers' who do everything for the student's self esteem except teach him what he needs to know.

So that was the trap I fell into, but I will say in my own defense, it's the first time I've done so.

Anyway all seemed OK and although this guy is by far the most phonemically disadvantaged student I have ever worked with, he made progress, slowly with lots of repetition and ms. practice, but progress nevertheless, and I was pleased.

But it was all a delusion, a sham. Fate was waiting for me just around the corner with a nasty slap in the face in the form of /ir/.

I introduced /ir/ and he learned to write it in the regular way by saying it, tracing it, writing it in isolation, then in words, lots of games and reinforcement. Then he wrote his own story about Irving's Thirty First Birthday.

Just when I thought he had it mastered and could move on, I realized, simply through a fluke in choice of words for his dication, that he perceived it as exactly the same sound as a beginning r-blend. Why this hadn't come up before in our lessons I'm not sure. I try to use a variety of words containing everything we've worked with to date, but this time, I must have just missed using any r-blends.

What a set back! And for this particular student it was very unfortunate because everything, even the fairly easy to distinguish sounds, all take so much effort on his part. So how to address this confusion??

We tried with mouthforms over a couple of lessons - still the same red flag phrase "they all sound the same". I created a board game where for every square he landed on he had to say 2 words playing off one sound against the other, eg "dirt and drit". This was mildly successful, while the game was being played, but he couldn't seem to take it into another context. He seemed to have to have the 2 words in order to tell which one was correct and he was unable to call them up himself. After a couple of weeks of this (that was 6 lessons for this student as he was coming 3 times a week) in desperation, I dropped the /ir/ altogether and went back to learning - and pronouncing correctly - the consonant r blends. Although it took a lot of time, he got it, (or I thought he did) and I eventually moved ahead and did /ou/ and a couple of other items, constantly circling back to be sure. I fully believed it was OK.

But here it is again /ur/. Now, I'm (we're) faced with weeks of going over this again. The question is should I just drop the r-controlled vowels altogether and continue with other phonograms. There are plenty that I still haven't introduced yet that he really needs to know. Or should I go back and get it right for sure this time. Of course, I know what Dr. Orton's answer would be. But I may only get to see the student for another few months. The classroom teacher (typically) seems to be of the opinion that he can function without many more remedial pull outs. Might it not be better in this situation to go ahead and get him comfortable working with some phonograms that he is able to grasp fairly easily?

Even Dr.Orton himself couldn't remediate a student that he wasn't seeing.

Well, I've learned a valuable lesson through this. Never, ever again, no matter what the circumstances are, will I allow /er/ to pass for /r/. No matter how many other sounds need attention, no matter how frustrated my student gets, or how down-on-himself he feels, this will never happen to a student of mine again.

Week 2

2006-09-26T13:19:00.000-07:00

Week 2:

Student #1: Introduced /ur/. New work is always difficult for #1, but he's not nearly as defensive about it as he was. It takes ages for him to become even partially competent with any new concept so I'm prepared to be on this phonogram for some time. I made a little card game with all the usual suspects - turn hurt burn nurse etc. I also added urgent, furtive absurd and survive. At one time the kids all knew the word "surprise" right from grade 1. Now they don't. It's one of the indications that we're finally moving away from whole language in the school system.

I also gave #1, the prefix "sur". He's started French this year so that won't be too difficult for him to grasp. I was a little dismayed though that he had difficulty in verbalizing the meaning of the prefix 'dis' which was his most recently introduced prior to this. So I will have to make sure we do lots of work with that.

#2: What a brilliant kid this is. But so incredibly ADD. I have the ch/tch exceptions on a card "much, such, rich, which" and it's always part of his visual drill. He said "I've got another one for you. It's sandwich". But this kid is almost completely out of his depth if not working one on one -- and even then -- it's iffy. Today I introduced the second sound for /ow/. Asked him what he would say if I picked the /w/ up off the paper and stuck the sharp points in his arm. Response was perfect. He's reading a book in class that is fine content wise but way over his head in terms of decoding, specially to work independently. So we continued with "Get Set", from the Merrill series. It was no trouble for him and that's what I'm aiming for. He needs lots of practice to achieve automaticity at this level. He's bright enough that if I can get him to think of reading as more or less effortless, he'll be self-motivated to jump into more complex text.

#3: This guy is very very slow, but I think going to be fine. Of course he is just starting to learn the column 1 rules, and they are still very shaky, but in contrast to a student such as #1 (above) he can hear all the sounds separately and distinctly. He just hasn't been shown how to work with that information. In addition to the 2 OG lessons per week, he is withdrawn by the sped teacher for an hour each day and she works one on one with him. What is she doing? The ever popular "dolch" list of course. I need to ask her to lay off that until he's really got the sound-symbol thing down pat, as that will do nothing at all for him in a remedial sense, and probably seriously add to his confusion, but I will have to pick my moment.

#4. I went to withdraw #4 from the resource room and the teacher asked me if I would have time to see another student who really needs to "work on her sounds". Of course I told her it was out of the question. I wanted to say "What's stopping you from doing it yourself"? She should be doing that with every student in there in my estimation. They could do it in a group. There are no more than 10 students in that room at any given time adn most of the time they are on the computers. Much as I would love to work with this particular child, if I take on anyone else, the lessons I'm doing with the 4 I have are going to be seriously compromised. If they can get me a parent volunteer to train it may work out. It's been mentioned, but not acted on just yet. As for #4 herself, she knows more than she expresses. She is not good at taking initiative and if no one asks her, she does nothing. But each sound I gave her in the "write sounds" portion, she was able to write - and in all the manifestations we covered last year. In the write words portion, although I had to draw her attention to a couple of missing sounds when she was fingerspelling, she was able to write 10 perfect words. I know she's not independent as long as I'm coaching her with the fs., but she will improve. I know that.

Introducing 4 New Students.

2006-09-23T12:48:00.000-07:00

Well actually, introducing only one new student. The other three are students I've worked with before. For the purpose of this blog they will be called #1, #2, #3 and #4. , with #4 being the new one.

Student #1: My favourite. And one of my all time most challenging in terms of the amount of difficulty he's experienced with phonemic awareness. I started with him in January and continued through to June. Then I worked with him all summer 3 times a week at my house. This has really paid off. He's still not at Grade level, but he thinks he is, and what a difference that makes to his behaviour and general attitude. He's retained everything we've done so far, and I've just prepared his lesson for Tuesday the 26th, which will be the introduction of /ur/. We did /ir/ some time ago, then /ou/ /ea/ and a couple of other completely different things in between so he should be ready to move on without confusing /ir/ur/. Every single phonogram introduced is such a struggle for him. Nothing comes easily. Luckily he's quite mature about taking responsibility for learning himself. The amount of effort he has to put into this work would be well out of the question for every other student I have now, or even that I have ever had in the past now that I come to think of it. Well maybe there was one other student several years ago - but it's rare.

Student #2: I saw this little girl about 4 times at the end of the last school year - and not since. At that time I did very little with her except the column one rules and the short vowel clue words. Although she did not really remember any of the work from last year as soon as I showed her the clue words, for which I always make pictograms, I could see that she recognized them. She was able to write all the sounds from column 1 correctly - with prompting of course for the ce, ci and cy etc. She got the short vowels right but had to look at the pictures to do so. I think she just needs a lot more continuity and practice. She spends most of her time in a 'resource room', and they seem to think that anything I can do will be a help. She'll read - and write - and spell correctly - eventually, but this is going to take a long time. It's not a question of visual, auditory or attentional difficulties. It's a lot more global with this student.

Student #3: This student is so ADD that I told the sped teacher I didn't think there was much I could do for him. However, I'm continuing with him at the request of the parents. He's extremely bright - and if he's focused he picks up information very quickly. I also noticed that he seems nervous which is something that I had not picked up on before although I worked with him twice a week all summer. Both days this week I had to discontinue his lesson before I got through everything - once because they were having a book fair in the gym, and once because of a safety drill. These first few weeks in Sept. are always full of that type of thing. So his lessons for next week will be review of all the column 3 phonograms and their rules.

Student #4: This is my new student. Although the sped teacher had led me to believe he was quite low functioning, I was pleasantly surprised. I did my initial testing and found he could hear all the sounds perfectly with the exception of the /n/in final end blends, and he identified all the short vowels except /i/ and /e/ correctly. He's also prone to reversals, including the ever popular /b/d/ and also /w/m/. None of those discrepancies are significant and I'm looking for him to be another little success story. His difficulty is more visual than auditory and has a lot to do with the fact that no one has ever shown him how to correctly match what is on the printed page with the sound it represents. So that will be happening over the next few weeks. I prepared a lesson for him for Thursday, introducing /w/ and giving him the clue word wallet. (see how the money just fits into the V sections of the W. If you turn it over the money falls out) So that worked well and he got it instantly. But again because of the book fair, he had to leave after writing only 2 words in the write-words part of my lesson. However, the 2 words he wrote, win and wag were perfect.

I also have a potential adult student, but more about that when it's definite.