1ST GRADE RETENTION

Dear Joyce,My late wife was a superb first grade teacher. I know because the second grade teachers fought to get her graduates.She often said, “Sometimes they are just babies (not derogatory at all). They need another year to mature. A physician once told me that the cerebral cortex is not fully formed until about age seven. We actual begin reading instruction before their brains are fully formed.I have had students who were failures their first time around and A+ students when they repeated. If parents would put their egos aside and realize that a second grade teacher cannot do justice to her class and also take the time to try to ‘catch up’ a student beginning the year at a grade one level, they would be doing their child a big favor.”I like to discuss the situation with the student. After all, it is his life. I do not expect him to make the final decision, but I like to get his imput. I lay out the facts. Usually the student will say, “I would like to go to second grade, but I can see it would be better if I tried to learn first grade reading again.It is not easy. Feelings can get hurt. But if the adults do not make a child feel he has failed them, retention can be a good decision.Best wishes. Reading ability is memory (for sounds or for whole words).Peace.: I KNOW OF A FIRST GRADE SIX YEAR OLD BOY WHO ATTENDS A PRIVATE
: SCHOOL. HIS TEACHER SAYS HE IS NOT READING AS WELL REST OF HIS
: CLASS. THE SCHOOL PSYCHOLOGIST GAVE HIM A “COMPREHENSIVE
: EVAULATION” USING TEN DIFFERENT EVAULATION PROCEDURES AND
: INSTRUMENTS. HIS VERBAL IQ TESTED OUT AT 122 AND HIS PERFORMANCE
: IQ 113. EVERY TEST GIVEN HIM HE HAS SCORED IN THE HIGH AVERAGE TO
: SUPERIOR RANGE. THE PSYCHOLOGIST IN HER REPORT STATED THAT THE
: CHILD’S WEAKNESS IS IN AUDITORY ROTE MEMORY, IMMEDIATE
: UNDERSTANDING OF ORAL DIRECTIONS, AUTOMATICICY WITH FINE MOTOR
: SKILLS, ENCODING AND RETAINING NOVEL MATERIAL AND THE ABILITY TO
: MANIPULATE PHONEMES. THE SCHOOL SAYS TUTORING THROUGH THE SCHOOL
: YEAR AND INTO THE SUMMER WILL NOT BE ENOUGH AND ARE TELLING US TO
: RETAIN HIM..PLEASE ADVISE.

It depends. It depends on the child’s age, personality, and ability, and it depends on the school’s program.This child has high ability, even by the school’s own measure, and will probably get very bored and frustrated doing the same year over. That can lead to problems ahead, unless the school does something *more* than dropping him back in the same class next year.You said little about the school’s program. **IF** the school has a really good all-around reading program that teaches systematic phonics *and* fluency *and* comprehension, and even so the child is failing, then yes, another year might teach him exactly what he needs. **IF** the school is going to provide real support, intensive one-to-one tutoring at least two hours a week, so he will benefit from the class work this time around, then yes, another year might teach him exactly what he needs.This kind of good program is very, very rare. The majority of schools, public and private, are still using “reading” programs that expect children to catch reading like a disease, by simple exposure (and that is why there is such a reading disaster in this country.)The majority of programs depend far too much on rote memory; they are weak for all children, and especially bad for kids with LD whose weakness is enhanced by such programs. If he has problems in auditory processing and memory, he won’t catch it, will be even more bored and frustrated, and next year will be two years behind instead of one.Arthur’s advice below is the standard party line, “He’s just immature, wait until he’s ready and he’ll catch it.” Well, with LD, you wait and wait and he doesn’t catch it and suddenly those same people are calling you in and saying things about sheltered classes and retardation and so on. Just ask the other parents around here their experiences.Various kinds of tutoring can help; I do direct academic tutoring, teaching reading directly with attention to segmenting and blending etc.; other people use programs which aim to train auditory processing or memory or visual tracking before going into the reading. What works depends on the individual child’s needs and the rapport he develops with the tutor. There is no one right road for everyone.Despite the school’s warnings, six months of good tutoring can make a world of difference in the child’s progress, especially at this age where there is only one grade to catch up and where the child doesn’t have so much unlearning of bad habits to do. Yes, start now. And *after* the tutoring has helped him along, have the child retested by the school and they will make all kinds of excuses, from maturity to their own wonderful program, but who cares.One reason many schools don’t believe in tutoring is that they are following a “more of the same” policy; he doesn’t read from our program this year, so we offer a repeat of more of the same. Yet more of the same in tutoring, of course, is likely to be ineffective again; he needs a different *kind* of tutoring that will address his specific needs.All of this needs to be qualified with all those “if”s; it really depends on whether you have a really good school with a really good program, and a child whose difficulties require exceptional work even after the best reading curriculum — or whether you have the usual school with the usual program and the usual excuses, and they are just hiding their heads in the sand and hoping you and your complaints will go away.The second is more common, but we do have to avoid labelling all schools as dificult; a few do try hard, and a few kids are very difficult to reach.Check into the facts, and look up good tutors in your area.

: The psychologist’s testing you give us does not tell us how far off the reading mark this child is although that can be hard to characterize in a child this young. The testing does tell this child has strong intellectual abilities and that’s good news. However, the list of weaknesses offered is fairly long and the specific weaknesses mentioned are sadly among the most important skills for a young child in school to have.From the list of tested weaknesses, I could understand why this child is having trouble in school. He has fine motor problems, trouble understanding directions in the classroom, trouble with remembering what he’s been told, trouble with spelling, trouble with remembering new information, and he doesn’t get the phoentic code.Those are among the most important primary school skills.Let’s also look at the other side of the coin. What would be wrong with holding this child back? Is he very tall for his age? Is he much older than his classmates? Those are reasons to consider moving a child on.What was said at the end of kindergarten? Is the the second time it’s been suggested this child be held back? Was there any hint at the end of kindgarten that there were possible problems ahead?If he were to continue on into second grade, it would be imperative that he have strong support for his weaknesses. He would need to try to “catch up” in his skills while “keeping up” with his classmates whose skills are constantly moving ahead of him.Will this child’s parents and school be able to provide him with strong support? Clearly, from his strong IQ, he will learn readily if taught properly.Good luck.I KNOW OF A FIRST GRADE SIX YEAR OLD BOY WHO ATTENDS A PRIVATE
: SCHOOL. HIS TEACHER SAYS HE IS NOT READING AS WELL REST OF HIS
: CLASS. THE SCHOOL PSYCHOLOGIST GAVE HIM A “COMPREHENSIVE
: EVAULATION” USING TEN DIFFERENT EVAULATION PROCEDURES AND
: INSTRUMENTS. HIS VERBAL IQ TESTED OUT AT 122 AND HIS PERFORMANCE
: IQ 113. EVERY TEST GIVEN HIM HE HAS SCORED IN THE HIGH AVERAGE TO
: SUPERIOR RANGE. THE PSYCHOLOGIST IN HER REPORT STATED THAT THE
: CHILD’S WEAKNESS IS IN AUDITORY ROTE MEMORY, IMMEDIATE
: UNDERSTANDING OF ORAL DIRECTIONS, AUTOMATICICY WITH FINE MOTOR
: SKILLS, ENCODING AND RETAINING NOVEL MATERIAL AND THE ABILITY TO
: MANIPULATE PHONEMES. THE SCHOOL SAYS TUTORING THROUGH THE SCHOOL
: YEAR AND INTO THE SUMMER WILL NOT BE ENOUGH AND ARE TELLING US TO
: RETAIN HIM..PLEASE ADVISE.

In my opinion, the focus on retention is way off the mark. The focus should be on determining what is holding this obviously bright child back.If I were the parent, I would go to http://pages.cthome.net/cbristol/ to find an audiologist who specializes in CAPD evaluations, and make an appointment. This is a child who might benefit from FastForWord or other sound therapies, and who might benefit from a FM system in the classroom. The problems he is having with oral directions, auditory memory and phoneme manipulation all point to an auditory processing problem, which often also causes problems with balance, rhythm, and fine motor coordination.Tutoring using Phono-Graphix (http://www.readamerica.net) would probably help this child with reading, but it’s also extremely important to diagnose and treat the underlying problems.Retention is an entirely different issue. The only legitimate reason I can think to retain this child is if he’s emotionally and/or physically immature and needs a year to catch up to his peers. He’s obviously not intellectually immature for his age, so his lack of reading skill is (in my mind, anyway) not a legitimate reason to retain him. However, promoting him to 2nd grade in a private school if he can’t read is probably also a big mistake because his self-esteem would likely take a big beating.My daughter was in a private school. In 2nd grade she started coming home from school saying she was stupid because she couldn’t read, and all her classmates could. This was a Waldorf school where reading is *not* stressed until 3rd grade! I started tutoring her at home using Reading Reflex, and then homeschooled her for 3rd grade while we addressed her visual processing problems with appropriate therapies. She’s now 10 and reading above grade level thanks to vision therapy, PACE (http://www.learninginfo.com) and Phono-Graphix. Retaining her in 2nd grade would have been a huge mistake! She’s a bright child who needed therapies and a mode of instruction her school could not provide.Depending on the exact nature of this child’s problems, it’s quite possible that some combination of FastForWord, PACE and/or Phono-Graphix would bring him up to grade level over the summer. The trick is finding the right combination for him, in the right order. A bright child at this age can make incredible progress when his specific needs are met. Academic remediation (tutoring) might not be enough, but a combination of therapies and tutoring could be.Mary: I KNOW OF A FIRST GRADE SIX YEAR OLD BOY WHO ATTENDS A PRIVATE
: SCHOOL. HIS TEACHER SAYS HE IS NOT READING AS WELL REST OF HIS
: CLASS. THE SCHOOL PSYCHOLOGIST GAVE HIM A “COMPREHENSIVE
: EVAULATION” USING TEN DIFFERENT EVAULATION PROCEDURES AND
: INSTRUMENTS. HIS VERBAL IQ TESTED OUT AT 122 AND HIS PERFORMANCE
: IQ 113. EVERY TEST GIVEN HIM HE HAS SCORED IN THE HIGH AVERAGE TO
: SUPERIOR RANGE. THE PSYCHOLOGIST IN HER REPORT STATED THAT THE
: CHILD’S WEAKNESS IS IN AUDITORY ROTE MEMORY, IMMEDIATE
: UNDERSTANDING OF ORAL DIRECTIONS, AUTOMATICICY WITH FINE MOTOR
: SKILLS, ENCODING AND RETAINING NOVEL MATERIAL AND THE ABILITY TO
: MANIPULATE PHONEMES. THE SCHOOL SAYS TUTORING THROUGH THE SCHOOL
: YEAR AND INTO THE SUMMER WILL NOT BE ENOUGH AND ARE TELLING US TO
: RETAIN HIM..PLEASE ADVISE.

Dear Victoria,I have read my post several times, but I was unable to locate the quoted material that you attributed to me.: Arthur’s advice below is the standard party line, “He’s just
: immature, wait until he’s ready and he’ll catch it.”The city where my wife taught emphasized basal reader instruction in the ’50s and ’60s, piloted Open Courts, and then adopted Won-Way Phonics (authored by a former nun and based on the Spalding Method). The program has been renamed Bradley Reading (Maynard, MA).Fortunately, only a tiny percentage of students cannot be taught to read a single word in a lifetime of superb instruction with any method. It is likely that no one will ever be able to read (get meaning) everything.Let’s by-pass the phonics/whole word debate. Let teachers teach reading the best way they can. Then pray that they have the courage to permit their gradutes to take objective tests.Peace.

: Private schools live by their own rules and many of them retain more students than do public schools.

: Dear Victoria,: I have read my post several times, but I was unable to locate the
: quoted material that you attributed to me.____________________________________Arthur — the following is copied directly from your post:”“” She often said, “Sometimes they are just babies (not derogatory at all). They need another year to mature. A physician once told me that the cerebral cortex is not fully formed until about age seven. We actual begin reading instruction before their brains are fully formed.I have had students who were failures their first time around and A+ students when they repeated. If parents would put their egos aside and realize that a second grade teacher cannot do justice to her class and also take the time to try to ‘catch up’ a student beginning the year at a grade one level, they would be doing their child a big favor.”“”“”If this does NOT translate to “Just wait until they grow up and they will catch it” please elucidate what else it could possibly mean._____________________________________________
: The city where my wife taught emphasized basal reader instruction in
: the ’50s and ’60s, piloted Open Courts, and then adopted Won-Way
: Phonics (authored by a former nun and based on the Spalding
: Method). The program has been renamed Bradley Reading (Maynard,
: MA).: Fortunately, only a tiny percentage of students cannot be taught to
: read a single word in a lifetime of superb instruction with any
: method. It is likely that no one will ever be able to read (get
: meaning) everything.: Let’s by-pass the phonics/whole word debate. Let teachers teach
: reading the best way they can. Then pray that they have the
: courage to permit their gradutes to take objective tests.___________________________________Arthur, each time I have seen you post, you have been toeing the party line which we have all heard too often over the past thirty years:”Just wait until they are old enough, they’re too immature” “There are lots of good ways to teach reading, and phonics is *only one way*” “Use the way that helps the child ‘best’ ” * “We are using *all* methods and phonics is only a part of it.”(* I remember a school district where I taught, where they tested all children in special education and all children with reading problems very intensively, for several days, and then placed each child in a reading program chosen to suit the child “best”. The funny thing was that every single child, no matter what the problem or what the test results, was assigned to the “best-fit” reading program of sight-word memorization. The other funny thing was that very few of these kids improved in reading at all in years of this “best” program.)Fellow readers, I put this as a question: How many times have you heard these same things said? Have these programs, programs taught by people who say these things above, helped or hurt your children? What kind of program *has* helped your children?____________________________________________:Peace_________________________________________Arthur, you try to come on as the mature voice of reason, the person wishing us “Peace”, the person who has a God-like view of all our petty squabbles.Well, this is a board of people who have been there, done that. A paternal manner doesn’t impress many of us any more. What impresses us is facts and reality.I await the results of my informal survey above.

Victoria,i agree, retention just makes them a year older and still not reading, retention for other reasons such as emotional etc is fine with me, but to hold a child back hoping he will grow into reading is just wishful thinking, my 16 yo son for example is taking a year off from his high school for enrichment, he goes to college parttime, does Meals of Wheels etc, purely for enrichment, if this is your desire for your child fine,no one grows or emerges into reading except the kids who go to school with good phonological skills in place and I mean specifically blending and segmenting, if these skills are there from the get go, then any manner of instruction in reading will reach these kids, why because they can access the sound code and learn the alphabetic principle, hence they read quickly and efficiently and look like the smart kids in the room,while johnny who cannot blend or segment to save his life looks like the dumb one or as we put it ” too young” for school when in reality his problem is lack of PA skills,he needs to learn to blend CVC words and segment CVC words, simple as that,all those tests the school pyschologist does are a waste of taxpayers money as far as I am concerned, the kid needs to learn to read and reading invloves auditory and visual skills, no getting around it, if you want to read you have to get good at these skills, simple as that.test the child for blending and segmenting, if she cannot do either she needs instruction, not testing of more things, skill instruction, she needs to learn to segment first, then blend, if those two skills can be taught to every 5 yo, i do believe pages such as this one will have little to talk about,now some kids will be slower at these skills but if the skills are taught at age 4 and 5, the chances are better for mastery and automaticity, the code will come with saturation, but the skills need to be taught,can we help the older child, yes but expect a slower remediation, skill practice time has been lost and cannot be made up, except with exceptional dedication and practice, practice, not fancy computer software and etc, just practice of the skills, segmenting first, then blending and for the older child auditory processing or another name is phoneme deletion.when a 4 and 5 yo is taught to segment and blend the reading process is instructive, if you wait till the child is age 7 and not reading, the process is now remediation and harder,teach all 4 and 5 yo to do these skills, some will have them quickly, then these kids can move to reading with the advanced code, the others will continue to get the skill instruction needed and the early age makes it a sure thing, no lost time,but the skill instruction needs to be systematic and sequential and do not waste time doing stupid PA games that do not lead to reading real words,skill instruction needs to be done in the context of whole real words, nothing else, teach segmenting of real words such as pig and blend real words such as cat, do not do these skills for anything other than what they are needed for and that is reading,my thoughts,

I’m sure I’ve posted my story and opinion on this subject before, but it bears repeating.All the students entering KG in our district are tested for placement, either in a conventional 1/2 KG program, or in something they call developmental KG. in Dev KG the students go 1/2 day the first year, pacing instruction a little slower. The second year they go full day, with a more academic approach, and all the specials that the 1st-5th graders have, art, gym and music.Students get tracked into Dev KG by virtue of social immaturity or academic unreadiness, or a really late birthday— July or August. Rarely is a child tracked there that doesn’t belong there.Occasionally, a child who didn’t fit those parameters shows the need for retention, either after finishing the 1/2 day program, or toward the end of 1st grade.That was the case with my 2nd child… there were questions about moving him on after KG, but I sent him on to 1st grade. The summer between KG and 1st we discovered he had a major case of ADHD, and that needed to be dealt with. We also found that reading was appearing to be a major problem. With a lot of questions about placement throughout the year, I asked his teacher in May about sending him to second grade. “He’s made a lot of progress this year,” I said. “Yes” said this kind and observant teacher. “But he’s still in November and the rest of them are in May.”I couldn’t have painted it more clearly. It wasn’t as if he hadn’t passed his classes, he was making B’s and C’s…. but he was capable of so much more.So, I swallowed my mom-ego, and did what turned out to be the best thing for this guy. He returned to first grade the next year, under the care of a teacher who patiently used Open Court to teach her whole class reading.The change in him from his first round of first grade to the second was nothing short of amazing. The B’s and C’s turned to A’s and B’s with very little effort on anyone’s part. That is not to say he hasn’t been challenged. Keeping good grades in reading does require that he work at it, and his teachers have used his strength in math as a tool to help him help others.Despite the fact that he is the oldest in his grade, there are about 20 other kids scattered throught the grade that are also “old”, either by virtue of the 2 year KG, or repeating. They don’t stick out, and there is not stigma.It was the best thing for him…. I highly reccomend it, but not without a lot of thought.I only wish I could have given my first child the same gift. He was as sharp as a tack, but a fidgety, restless kid who could not concentrate in class. (He used to bring all his seat work home so he could do it there.) He always made good grades, although math was always a struggle. He was always a little less mature than his classmates.It was quite clear to me one day at church with my 6th grade sunday school class (he was in 7th at the time).. and he was more at ease with those kids than his own peers. He’s in 10th now, and he usually hangs with the 9th graders, or the 11th graders, not ususally his own age. Retention would have made him more secure.Retain, if that helps, retrain if it doesn’t

Victoria and Lib:Totally agree, my school is using the exact program both of you describe and our kindergarten students are absolutely amazing. We are finding the younger kids are actually much easier to teach the skills of segmenting and blending and are making remarkable progress. We have 150 kdg kids in my school and as of today almost all of them have these skills. We have a few poor blenders but are making progress on these kids with one to one instruction. Watching these little ones read the Scholastic Bob books is such a thrill for me.I am more convinced than ever on the value of a good systematic explicit instruction that teaches the skills in the context of real words with no wasted time on anything that will need to be discarded later. With good instruction from the beginning other issues such as reversals and reading ‘saw’ for ‘was’ seem to be less of an issue when the kids are taught to look at words from left to right and to take notice of each and every letter. I see no guessing with our kdg kids. None. They attack each and every word.Waiting is definitely not good advice. We found our first graders this year who had tradtional kindergarten last year were harder to teach the skills to than our kdg kids. I would even recommend starting at 4 years of age!From what I am seeing at my school start early and start with instruction such as Lib described. I think we may actually teach all of our kdg kids to read. Can you imagine, we have 150 kids going to first grade with a huge running start. I can’t wait to see them next year.kathy

I was very behind as a 1st grader. I started school at five. I was not ready to read. Thanks to my Mom I caught up and excelled by 2nd grade. Yet, socially I was a year behind my peers. I entered college at 17, couldn’t shave till 18. I made high grades and now write reading books. Yet, I was always one year ahead of where I socially belonged. It mattered in everything from tennis and football to dating and driving. Retention in males with what may appear to be a learning disability is not all bad.I am sure I have a 20 pt. plus spread between verbal and performance IQ’s. I am also sure I could be labelled as a this kind of learner or that - I put little stock in sensory labels. In short, retention is a decision which must be made by a caring group - with an eye on the long-range future of its implications.Good luck.

: Discussions about reading always produce many opinions. My own would be I do believe we ask some kids to read too young these days. While certainly some kids go on to have issues with reading, when I was a child we didn’t expect children to be reading as young as we seem to today. In my experience, some kids who present as poor readers in the 1st grade do go on to become competent, even skilled readers. If, though, a child is still reading poorly in the 3rd grade, for sure, it doesn’t bode well for the future and intervention should certainly be given. I would have no problem with remediation or intervention offered earlier though.As to how best to remediate those children who are reading poorly, it’s a good question and not one I know the answer to. I don’t believe there is any one approach or one program that works well for all poor readers. I don’t subscribe much to any “one size fits all” approach. I would certainly offer a child deliberate or alternative phonics based instruction first. Are there really schools which relegate children to sight word memorization only as a remediation in the 1st grade?I have to fall back on the sad example of my own son who was not helped by any phonics based program. I certainly believe that all children should be offered phonics but my son’s sad example won’t allow me to believe that phonics works for every child although I’d like to be wrong about that.Fellow readers, I put this as a question: How many times have you
: heard these same things said? Have these programs, programs taught
: by people who say these things above, helped or hurt your
: children? What kind of program *has* helped your children?: ____________________________________________: _________________________________________: Arthur, you try to come on as the mature voice of reason, the person
: wishing us “Peace”, the person who has a God-like view
: of all our petty squabbles.: Well, this is a board of people who have been there, done that. A
: paternal manner doesn’t impress many of us any more. What
: impresses us is facts and reality.: I await the results of my informal survey above.

What is the name of the program your school uses? How were you able to get it implemented? Was everyone receptive to it?: Victoria and Lib: Totally agree, my school is using the exact program
: both of you describe and our kindergarten students are absolutely
: amazing. We are finding the younger kids are actually much easier
: to teach the skills of segmenting and blending and are making
: remarkable progress. We have 150 kdg kids in my school and as of
: today almost all of them have these skills. We have a few poor
: blenders but are making progress on these kids with one to one
: instruction. Watching these little ones read the Scholastic Bob
: books is such a thrill for me.: I am more convinced than ever on the value of a good systematic
: explicit instruction that teaches the skills in the context of
: real words with no wasted time on anything that will need to be
: discarded later. With good instruction from the beginning other
: issues such as reversals and reading ‘saw’ for ‘was’ seem to be
: less of an issue when the kids are taught to look at words from
: left to right and to take notice of each and every letter. I see
: no guessing with our kdg kids. None. They attack each and every
: word.: Waiting is definitely not good advice. We found our first graders
: this year who had tradtional kindergarten last year were harder to
: teach the skills to than our kdg kids. I would even recommend
: starting at 4 years of age!: From what I am seeing at my school start early and start with
: instruction such as Lib described. I think we may actually teach
: all of our kdg kids to read. Can you imagine, we have 150 kids
: going to first grade with a huge running start. I can’t wait to
: see them next year.: kathy

Dear Victoria,Careful reading of the quoted material in my post (this thread) reveals that the comments were those of my late wife—not my words. I continue to respect her right to have made them, and I believe that what she said happened did happen. Many of her students made excellent growth in reading following first grade retention. The operative factor appears to have been a year of maturity and not the reading method she used.I suspect that my child has a fever. I use a thermometer to test and verify my suspicions. My doctor prescribes a remedy. She tells me to continue to take my child’s temperature to find out if the therapy is succeeding.A teacher suspects that a child has a reading disability. He uses tests to verify his suspicions. He chooses a tutorial program (sound/symbol or whole word) that he is sure will remedy the problem. He refuses to test to find out if his method is succeeding.A prominent sound/symbol reading method advertises a “fail-proof” method. Yet it proclaims that it succeeds with 98 percent of its students (taught 1:1) and 97 percent (taught to an entire class). How does it know this? How does it know that 2 or 3 percent have failed? Why should a fail-proof system have any failures?Good trees bear good fruit. Good reading programs produce good readers. Upon completion of a reading program, a student will be able to select words from the groups of four in each set of parenthesis to produce twelve sensible sentences. She/he will then be able to read the completed sentences fluently to a tutor. (Self-corrections are permitted.)(1) (How, Who, Way, Has) ____ knows (how, who, way, has) _____ he did that?(2) It (say, was, way, saw) ____ not the (say, was, way, saw)_____ they wanted us to use.(3) (Well, Where, Were, Will) _____ (well, where, were, will) _____they?(4) Some (for, off, of, from) _____ the girls got (for, off, of, from) _____ the bus at the fourth stop.(5) (Come, Can, Could, Came) _____ and see who (come, can, could, came) _____ to visit us.(6) Ms. Joan said, “One of you (may, me, my, man) _____ tack the posters on (may, me, my, man) ____ back wall.”(7) Jose said, “You have (are, an, and, many) _____ posters, but I do not have (are, an, and, any) _____.”(8) Come (her, there, they, here) _____. You are never to go (her, there, they, here) _____ again.(9) Did (are, you, your, or) _____ dog get into (our, you, are, or) _____ garden again?(10) (Mr., Mt., Ms, Mrs.) _____ (title given to a woman when she marries) Good says she will talk to (Mr., Mt., Ms., Mrs.) _____ (title for a woman that does not reveal if she is or was ever married) Jean.(11) (That, Which, Them, What) _____ is (that, which, them, what) _____I want you to do.(12) Xavier (want, why, went, where) _____ to find out what they (want, why, went, where) _____ to do.Peace.: ____________________________________: Arthur — the following is copied directly from your post:
: “”” She often said, “Sometimes they are just
: babies (not derogatory at all). They need another year to mature.
: A physician once told me that the cerebral cortex is not fully
: formed until about age seven. We actual begin reading instruction
: before their brains are fully formed.: I have had students who were failures their first time around and A+
: students when they repeated. If parents would put their egos aside
: and realize that a second grade teacher cannot do justice to her
: class and also take the time to try to ‘catch up’ a student
: beginning the year at a grade one level, they would be doing their
: child a big favor.”: “”“”: If this does NOT translate to “Just wait until they grow up and
: they will catch it” please elucidate what else it could
: possibly mean.: _____________________________________________: ___________________________________: Arthur, each time I have seen you post, you have been toeing the
: party line which we have all heard too often over the past thirty
: years: “Just wait until they are old enough, they’re too
: immature” “There are lots of good ways to teach reading,
: and phonics is *only one way*” “Use the way that helps
: the child ‘best’ ” * “We are using *all* methods and
: phonics is only a part of it.”: (* I remember a school district where I taught, where they tested all
: children in special education and all children with reading
: problems very intensively, for several days, and then placed each
: child in a reading program chosen to suit the child
: “best”. The funny thing was that every single child, no
: matter what the problem or what the test results, was assigned to
: the “best-fit” reading program of sight-word
: memorization. The other funny thing was that very few of these
: kids improved in reading at all in years of this “best”
: program.): Fellow readers, I put this as a question: How many times have you
: heard these same things said? Have these programs, programs taught
: by people who say these things above, helped or hurt your
: children? What kind of program *has* helped your children?: ____________________________________________: _________________________________________: Arthur, you try to come on as the mature voice of reason, the person
: wishing us “Peace”, the person who has a God-like view
: of all our petty squabbles.: Well, this is a board of people who have been there, done that. A
: paternal manner doesn’t impress many of us any more. What
: impresses us is facts and reality.: I await the results of my informal survey above.

post to me privately if you want more information about my school and our reading instruction.kathy

: hi Arthur, I certainly have heard all of this from you before, particularly about the program that we all know as Phono-Graphix. You ask me how I know that it works with 98% of my class? Because I give pre and post tests and Informal Reading Inventories after I am done with the program. It is really that simple. But the best way, is to give my students a seventh grade literature book as well as their history book and guess what? They read it! Yes, I have had some failures. One was because the student refused to buy into the program. He was reading at a pre-primer reading program in 8th grade and had heard it all about everyone teaching him to read. There was no reason why he would believe me. I also taught a child (later diagnosed with autism) that could decode but couldn’t comprehend. It was determined that he had CAPD as well but had excellent phonemic awareness. The other student is a girl that is now in vision therapy. Those are my failures in the past 4 years. The rest are reading at or above grade level, some out of special education and others in teamed classrooms. I am only one of the teachers/therapists using the program, but we all have similar results.

: Hi Victoria et all, My daughter was retained in first grade. This was before she was diagnosed with a severe reading disability. This did not help her at all. She never recovered from the retention. She never identified with her new class and this lasted her throughout the rest of her public school life. She was retained because the school said that she was “immature”. One of the teachers told me that she was a slow learner but not to worry, “She is so pretty, she will get by.” I am not saying that students shouldn’t be retained but being retained because they can’t read, is archaic. I have remediated a few students that were going to be retained just for that reason. Thankfully, I remediated both boys and they went on to the next grade and stayed out of special education. Retention is very serious and can have severe ramifications for the family. Retention shouldn’t be used if the only problem is an inability to read. Answer: Teach the child to READ!