November 7, 2024
Reading Readiness: Reading Instruction (7/8)
Transcript
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Intro
We thank you for joining us for this series with reading specialist and Mason educator Donna Johnson. Let’s listen to her experience and advice.
Better Late Than Early
Donna: Some parents notice that their children didn't seem ready even at age six and that decoding doesn't seem to click at seven, eight, or nine. Is this in conflict with what's being recommended by the Reading Panel or is the trajectory of their development just delayed? For example, are there other foundational skills, such as sensory integration, that need to take place first?
This is where I refer to this book again, 1975, Better Late Than Early by Raymond and Dorothy Moore, who are both deceased now. They still have a foundation, I just looked it up to see. This book, back in 1975, detailed substantial evidence that it's better to wait until children, they said, are eight to 10 before they start formal schooling. If you look at the back of this book, there are lots of studies in here. They explain how each of the senses develop during childhood, including sight and hearing. At the time they wrote their book, they felt that other early childhood experts were starting to see that formal instruction in reading should not happen too early. Well, we know what happened with that. Nothing. I mean, there's people that want universal preschool, so kids can learn to read earlier.
"No research documents long-term gains from learning to read in kindergarten."
And I was just, I just paged through this the other day and it's just, shaking my head, because they knew better then and they know even more now. And we're still pushing kids to read at such an early age. This had to do with homeschoolers, mostly, I guess, because other people aren't going to keep their child home. Especially a boy, because they should be running around and working with their dad outside, I guess. But you're not going to keep your child home until eight years old and then put him in school, but they're basically saying that if you did that, they'll catch right up. So, it's clear, though, that children can learn to read at earlier ages, but the Moore’s just felt that other early childhood experts agreed with them that you should wait for formal instruction in reading and not start it too soon. But our school system rests on the foundation that earlier reading instruction is better. These authors made the argument that children could learn to read more efficiently if we wait until their physical senses are more properly developed.
This book never was updated and there is language in it now that is a little offensive to us, especially about children with disabilities because ‘mental retardation’ was still the term that we used then. And so there's a little bit of that in here, but it's just interesting to look at that. I'm not suggesting necessarily that people read it, just to know that years ago people knew better.
Current Research
This is now more up to date research from an article I read. No research documents long-term gains from learning to read in kindergarten. Actually, by the end of third grade, early readers have no advantage over later readers. Research shows greater gains from play-based programs for preschool and kindergarten than a more academic focus. Play is so important. And I didn't, I could not include every detail here, but it talked about how when you play and manipulate blocks and toys, you start to realize, even though you're a child not consciously thinking of it, that an object can represent something and that leads eventually to a written symbol representing a sound. So, just lots of important reasons to have time outside, too, and a lot of play time.
"Research shows greater gains from play-based programs for preschool and kindergarten than a more academic focus. Play is so important."
We know this when we think about certain things. Children follow the same path for development in a lot of ways, but not the same rate. And the example in the article I was reading talked about walking. Some children walk at nine or 10 months. Some don't walk till 14 or 15. And we don't get in a panic about that. We know that walking can be early or late and it's all normal. And that an early walker is not a better walker than a late walker. And in the same way, an early reader is not going to be a better reader than a late reader, as long as they both learn to read and that you didn't start before they were developmentally ready and interested.
Common Core
The Common Core standards have made this worse. There are almost 100 Common Core standards for kindergarten. Preparing children to read has become the dominant activity in most kindergartens and most public elementary schools. They divide their time mostly between math and reading. There's a little bit of science, there's a little bit of social studies, we get sent to art and music, and hopefully have some recess outside, but it's almost all reading and math.
I wrote down just a couple of the kindergarten common core standards. The people who came up with those in one summer without any of that being piloted - it’s still unbelievable to me that that happened because it didn't come through schools. It came through state legislative groups. And it happened so fast. And so many of those standards are not - there’s omissions and there's things that are just too hard, but in kindergarten - here's one of them: "With prompting and support, identify basic similarities in and differences between two texts on the same topic." What? So, I don't know. "Class, today we're going to identify basic similarities and differences in these two picture books." I don't know, but that's, they can't do that. Another one: "Participate in shared research and writing projects." The other thing we start too early is too much writing, too much writing with a paper and a pencil. But because of whole language, they had to go along with invented spelling, too, because they weren't teaching phonics.
"We know that walking can be early or late and it's all normal. And that an early walker is not a better walker than a late walker. And in the same way, an early reader is not going to be a better reader than a late reader, as long as they both learn to read and that you didn't start before they were developmentally ready and interested."
I smiled at one thing. A 2013 study that I looked at from Early Childhood Research Quarterly, they conclude by saying, “this research suggests some focus on teaching reading early should be relaxed.” Is that how you're going to say it?
The Day it Clicks
Then I looked into something that was new to me, because we went to the Minnesota Christian Home School Conference, because we were on that board a long time ago and they always let you come if you want to, if you were a board member and so because we have been for years, we did. And I went to a presentation from a presenter who was talking about math instruction. She had a child that couldn't catch on to math until 20 or something. And she mentioned the myelin in your brain. And I thought, I don't know. So, I looked this up. The process of myelination. So, we know a nerve is a bundle of axons. The myelin sheath is a soft white material that forms a thick layer around the axon that is connecting the two dendrites, I think, together. I made a picture of this, so I could remember. The synapse is where two nerve cells connect. So, there's the nerve cell, the dendrites are the little, I don't know, arms or legs or whatever that go out and connect them to the next one, and they connect at synapses. And the axon is the part that connects them. And it can be long or short, different lengths. Myelin is the substance that covers that axon that connects the two nerve cells. The myelin sheath is a soft white material that forms a thick layer around the axon, the connector, and helps transmit electrical impulses. Just like rings on the bark of a tree, the myelin sheath covers the axon in layers of lipids. The myelin covers are not continuous and have small gaps. So, in my little picture, there's a nerve cell and a nerve cell, and they're connected by the axon, and you can see these little sheaths with little gaps between them. If a nerve is like an electrical wire, then myelin is like the plastic insulation surrounding the wire. It prevents signals from leaking while being transmitted in the nerve. Not all nerves are myelinated because myelination takes a lot of space. So, for instance, in your brain, the neurons are all close together. The synapses are close together. And so, you don't want all these layers taking up a lot of space. If they aren't myelinated, you can fit more axons, the connectors, into a particular space. Most neurons in the brain have synapses close to them, so myelination is not really useful for short distances. There's nothing to protect if they're right next to each other.
As we learn a new skill, repetition and practice increases the extent of myelination around the axon. A thick myelin sheath increases the speed with which neurons transfer and interact, in turn making us better at all sorts of tasks, such as motor skills, reading, memory, language, and more. Any skill you can think of relies on repetition and myelination. Okay, so I know that a task relies on repetition. I just didn't know it also relies on the myelination that increases every time you do it.
The process of myelination starts around birth. It's most rapid in the first two years of a baby's life, you can see why - they’re learning so much. It reaches phases of completion at around 30 years of age. So, I don't know if she was saying for sure in this presentation or that that can be one reason that with some children, that process isn't finished. They just can't, they need more practice, or their body needs to do more of that myelination process. I'm not sure.
But there are children that all of a sudden something clicks. And if you knew the day that was going to happen, you could teach it the day before. And we don't know that, I guess. But we also know when we're way too early and a child is way too frustrated with something that we're trying to get them to do. And we need to back off a little bit. And I think we have to be sensitive about doing that because none of us learn when we're being forced to and we start to resist.
"None of us learn when we're being forced to and we start to resist."
Danielle: I always remember, I can't remember which volume it is, but there's somewhere where Mason talks about that the student should be able to see definite progress in their lessons. Right. And you can just see that in a student. When you're going, you're working on this and they're just not making any progress. You just see what it does to them.
Donna: Yeah, it's too discouraging. It's hard to imagine the pressures that public school teachers are on because they have to cover the next standard because it's going to be on the state test.
So when you have the privilege of working with a student that you can be more sensitive to what they're ready to, that is a blessing to you and to them. And sometimes it's just taking a break and going back to it later. But there needs to be time to learn the basic skills that you need. And it's going to be a different amount of time for different kids. And you don't know when they're learning a new word and putting it into their brain if it's going to take five times looking at it or 50. But it can't be under pressure.
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