Spalding Educaton

[belinda]

Spalding Education

Has anybody had any experience with their kids being taught literacy by the "Spalding" method? What did you think - was it any good or just some wacky way to teach a kid to read.

I've got one son (6) in grade 1 who is having trouble with learning to write/read/spell. He is really bright otherwise (recently had his IQ done to check - no results back but he was doing problems for grade 5s and 6s).

Anybody have any suggestions???

 

[Chris Haynes]

Never heard of it...

But I have heard of 6 year olds having trouble learning to read and write. It is not a natural skill with everyone. For some kids it does not "click" until they are 8 or 9 years old.

In other words: Don't panic.

Spend your time reading to him, and helping him with his school work in a low pressure environment. Take him to the libary and let him choose things HE wants to read (for instance, if he likes Star Wars, check out DK picture books on the Star Wars universe... lots of pictures and some words).

 

[bruto]

From the little I've read about it it doesn't sound too bad - it seems like a mixture of many different things. Certainly the idea of writing as a path to reading has been successful for many.

One of the things I think that really sets kids off wrong with early reading is the disconnect between what they are reading and writing and what they are speaking and living. I've known a number of children who took a long time to realize in a meaningful way that the language they read is the same one they speak. It seems obvious enough to us, but for many kids, the artificiality of the texts they learn on make reading a foreign language, and because of that they don't realize the potential power of reading and writing.

I'm not advocating the whole method she used, but if you get a chance, read Teacher,[/] by Sylvia Ashton Warner, in which she recounts her experiments in getting Maori children to read, largely by letting them choose the vocabulary they will use in writing. The kids chose their own "key words," and with them they were able to write about what they found important.

I had first grade in Detroit, in 1953, and they taught "whole word" reading. I was totally at sea, failing miserably. My parents figured out that I wasn't stupid, so they taught me with phonics and real words in real sentences like the ones people speak (Oddly enough, a five year old does not run down the street yelling "See. See dick run. Run, Dick, run." ). It didn't take long.

I second Hydrogen Cyanide's suggestion of letting the child choose. Even things you hate or find inappropriate, repetitive, banal etc. If he's not learning disabled, chances are he'll learn quickly enough if it gives him power to do what is important to him.