Teaching Children to Read-All5

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started out in life as a little drawing of an ox's head and horns.

Who used this little picture?

The accountants and merchants who lived in the city of Ugarit, on the Eastern end of the Mediterranean Sea.

What did they use it for?

They used it to keep track of how many oxen people bought or sold. At least this is the theory most people quote.

So what happened?

Ugarit's Southern neighbors, the Phoenicians, fell in love with this little ox head. So they started using it too.

Later, some of the Phoenician scribes probably thought it would be easier to draw the ox tally's with only three brief

lines instead of drawing the more complex ox's head every time. In the name of making the ox counting process

quicker and easier, then, these scribes changed the ox head drawing into just three brief lines.

What did they call their three line ox head?

Why an "aleph."

Because in Phoenician, "aleph" is the word for "ox."

In effect, then, the letter "A" started out as an Ugaritic accountant's drawing of an ox head, a character they called an

"alphu." Later, their Southern neighbors, the Phoenician's, changed this ox head into a kind of short hand for an ox

head, which they called an "aleph."

What happened next, though, was truly amazing, and no one quite knows how it happened. People began to use this

little picture not only to count ox heads but also to represent the "ah" sound of the ox head word; "aleph."

Modern linguists call this process of association, "acrophony," and it means that the word the drawing represents, the

"aleph" for instance, comes to mean the beginning sound of this word.

This, then, is what happened to the Phoenician "aleph." It came to represent the "ah" sound.

What happened next?

Well, Phoenicia was a trading city, and they traded a lot with their Western neighbors, the Greeks. And some these

Greek traders feel in love with the little ox's heads too. So when they returned home from their trading voyages to

Phoenicia, some of them brought with them this new way of representing sounds on paper. Or on clay tablets, to be

more accurate.

Eventually, some of the older, wiser Greeks realized the value in this way of recording ideas. So they created their

own system of characters. How? By appropriating the Phoenician "aleph" as the first letter of their own alphabet.

In the process, like the Phoenicians before them, they renamed this letter with a Greek word. This time, though, the

word didn't mean "ox" but rather, they simply made up a word, one which began with the same "ah" sound.

What did they name this letter?

"Alpha."

Many years later, Greeks began to settle in West Central Italy. Eventually, enough of them lived there long enough

for people to refer to them by a new name; the "Etruscans." They kept a lot of their Greek heritage, though, and so it's

no surprise that the Etruscan "alpha" looks pretty similar to the "alpha" of their earlier Greek relatives.

Finally, when the Romans conquered the Etruscans, like many conquering peoples, they decided to destroy any

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evidence that there ever were any Etruscans. Which is pretty much what they did. Except for the Etruscan alphabet,

which the Romans appropriated for their own use, ironically on their monument inscriptions.

So there it is. The story of how the letter "A" was born. A nice, brief, visual story.

Now think for a moment about this story and about how children would probably react to it. Can you picture a group

of little five year olds sitting in a circle in rapt attention listening to the story of how "A's" were born? I can. In fact,

I've told a lot of adults this story and they almost always react the same way; the have an wonderful "aha."

Do you want to see if this "aha" has just happened to you? If you do, all you have to do is just ask yourself this

question:

Do you think you'll ever forget where the letter "A" came from?

I would guess you won't forget. Not now, and not ever. And if teachers were to teach children to read this way;

meaning, if teachers were to teach kids that three thousand years ago, the letter "A" represented the head and horns of

an ox; how long do you think they'd remember?

More important, do you think these kids might feel their curiosity aroused, and want to know where the rest of the

alphabet came from?

Here again, you can test this out on yourself.

Do you find yourself now wanting to know where the rest of the alphabet came from? For instance, would you like to

know where the letter"B" came from?

If you do, I'm not surprised and in fact, awakening this "desire" is my whole point.

Thus, learning to read is supposed to be a wonderful and exciting time, a time when children want to discover and fall

in love with words. They're also supposed to discover how words can connect them to other kids from the past.

Simply said, teachers are supposed to use this time to create a desire to learn to read in children.

So what makes kids connect to words in this way, in a way in which they want to learn more?

Learning visually with stories; in other words, being taught to see the pictures these letters represent.

More over, they are also supposed to be taught to draw these pictures on the screens of their own minds. And on

paper. Why? Because by drawing these pictures on the screens of their own minds, these letters, and the words they

form, come alive.

This, then, is what I'm suggesting. Making letters and words come alive in "living" kinds of pictures is what inspires

children to want to learn to read. And write. And this is also how kids in the present can learn to connect to kids from

the past. And to the lives people once lived. And to the world all children share.

OK. So kids would probably be better off learning the alphabet if they were taught where the letters came from, the

visual origin of the letters. What about reading, though? Am I saying words have to have pictures too?

Yes, I am. Before I discuss this idea, though, indulge your curiosity for a moment. Take a look below at the pictures

for the letter "B," which also started out in life as a little drawing.

This time, the little drawing represented a house floor plan of sorts, four walls and a doorway.

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So Can Picturing Really Be This Important?

So now, can picturing what you read really be as important as I'm saying it is? Here again, you can begin to test this

theory for yourself, by asking yourself a question.

What is the letter "A" a picture of, a floor plan or an ox's head?

Introduction The 2 Ways to Learn Mental Reading Visual Reading Picturing is Learning

Should you have wish to send me comments or questions, please e-mail me at

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This page last updated on

April 6, 2004

Getting Children to Want to Learn to Read: Learning a Visual Alphabet 2004, Steven Paglierani. All rights reserved

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Teaching Children to Read: Picturing the Two WaysConventional Learning (memorize) vs. Emergence (visualize)


Recognizing the Two Ways to Learn to Read

There are probably an infinite number of ways to teach reading. Even so, certain teaching methods work better for

teachers simply because these methods more closely mimic the way we first learn as babies.

OK. So this makes sense. Use human nature to design teaching methods. Unfortunately, this logic is easier said than

done. Why? Because by five, most kids have already lost access to some of their senses. In effect, they have already

incurred wounds to certain senses and so, have become less sensitive to these senses. An example?

Some kids are said to be "visual" learners. Some are said to be "auditory" learners. And some are said to be "tactile"

learners.

Unfortunately, people do not see these conditions as injuries but rather as each child's nature.

It this true? I believe not. In fact, I am certain that all young children incur injuries to their senses which make them

less sensitive to some senses than to others. No surprise that by five, most children have developed biases toward

their less less injured senses.

How do children respond to these sensory biases?

They favor teaching methods which focus on their least injured senses. Which means they miss out on much of the

nature of what they are being taught.

Is there anything which can be done to change these biases though?

Yes, there is. In fact, in the past nine years, I have repeatedly been able to help people who say they are not visual

learners to use visualization to heal. In fact, I have been able to help people with all of the learning-sense biases touse vision to heal.

It seems, then, that while children do in fact experience injuries to their five senses early on, injuries that bias their

learning style, that seeing things on the screen of the mind is a way for people to bypass these injuries.

This, then; visualization on the screen of the mind; is what I see as the "natural way" for children to learn. And what

every baby has in common. Enter Emergence.

Emergence is based entirely on examining peoples' abilities to draw on the screen of their minds. In fact, this ability

is at the heart of how we help people to heal their injuries, including injuries to their senses.

How? We focus entirely on what is visually missing rather than on what is visually present, on what they can't see

rather than on what they can see..

What follows, then, is a brief explanation of how this focus applies to teaching children to read, and how by focusing

on what is visibly present, most teachers actually prevent children from learning to read more than teach them to read.

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Learning to Read Mentally

What you see above is a drawing of a four-step sequence I call, "Learning to Read Mentally." The four steps are: [1]

recite, [2] memorize, [3] recall, and [4] interpret.

Now if you are a teacher and have never heard of this sequence, please don't be surprised. No teacher is ever taught

this sequence is what they are doing.

Despite not being told, though, most conventional reading teachers do use this sequence to teach children to read.

What is important to note here are the two parts which teachers are aware of, the [1] recite and the [4] interpret

parts. Conventional schools call these two parts, "reading" and "reading comprehension."

What makes noticing these two parts significant?

They are the only two "visible" parts. This means they are the only two parts schools acknowledge and grade.

Again, what is important to see is, only the two visual parts; the [1] recite and [4] interpret parts; are graded. This

means neither of the two non-visual parts (the [2] memorize part nor the [3] recall part) are ever acknowledged or

taught.

What makes this omission so important?

Basically just one thing. That children who are taught to read this way are rewarded more for successfully

regurgitating words rather than for visualizing what they read.

So what's the big deal?

The big deal is, children taught to regurgitate words more resemble parrots than readers. Why? Because the actual

sounds they see and speak become more important than what those sounds represent; meaning beneath these words;

the living pictures. This makes most of what we speak, read, write, and hear verbal rather than visual.

So OK, is this really so important?

Yes it is. Why? Because "if you didn't picture it, you didn't say it. Neither did you write it, or read it, or hear it."

Can this be true?

Try it for yourself.

Try talking face to face to someone you love, a young child preferably.

Now ask this child if he or she wants "to understand what you're saying." Make sure you're looking eye to eye now.

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Did you get a blank look looking back at you?

Of course.

Now ask, "do you want to cuddle?" This time, though, look at this child and picture what you're saying as you say it.

So, OK. "Understand" is a big word and "cuddle" is not. Even so, try to picture the word "understand." Now don't be

surprised when you, yourself, can't picture a thing.

The word "understand" is a hollow word. In fact, not only is this word a hollow word, it's also a non-visual word, at

least, for most folks.

Children do not understand non-visual words. [Not picturing what I've just said?]

Children love cuddling. [Seeing a picture now?]

Seeing words on the screen of your mind is what makes words come alive. It's also the missing piece in traditional

teach-children-to-read methods, with a few exceptions, of course.

These exceptions aside, though, schools neither teach nor acknowledge the two visualization parts of reading, this

despite the fact that visualizing what you read, write, speak and hear is what brings it to life.

How about the few children who do picture what they read? How do they fit into this picture?

They will be the kids about whom teachers will say, "they have the most reading and writing aptitude." Sadly,

because all babies start out in life as visual learners, all kids have this same potential in them. But because children

are taught to mentally learn to read, picturing what they read happens only by accident, if at all. This means it is also

only by accident some children will learn to love reading.

Ironically, what could change this would be if teachers did focus on the two parts which go by unnoticed, on the

"memory" and "recall" parts. Why? Because they are the only two parts of reading which make words come alive.

And because what children are actually taught is to focus more on correctly parroting sounds than on visually

grasping what they read.

Learning to Read Visually

When teachers use the principles of Emergence to teach children to read, children get taught, right from the start, that

picturing words is the learning priority, rather than memorizing the sounds. Thus, right from the start, children get

encouraged to notice when they have "lost the picture." They are then taught to stop reading when they have not

pictured what they have read, and if necessary, to ask the teacher for help picturing whatever words they can not see.

Later, because children have pictured what they have read rather than simply to have spoken it out loud, they can

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easily use their imaginations to "step back into what they pictured." Here, they can speak personally about what they

saw, because they themselves are in the picture.

Important also is the fact that because children taught this way get to create their own pictures from what they read,

reading for them more resembles listening to an old time radio broadcast than just listening to someone else say

words. Thus, these children get to play an active role in their reading experiences and because they do, these children

learn to love reading. And want to be taught more about it.



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April 6, 2004Teaching Children to Read: Memorize vs Visualize

2004, Steven Paglierani. All rights reserved

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Teaching Children to Read: Learning to Read Mentally"Parroting" as the "Death of Learning"


What is "Learning to Read Mentally?"

What do I mean by "learning to read mentally?" I mean asking students to learn to read by memorizing rather than by

visualizing. In essence, this practice forms the basis of most conventional learning-to-read skills and of most learning

skills in general.

Right from the start, now, let me admit my bias.

I see asking children to learn anything by memorizing as a fundamental error in teaching, especially in cases wherein the

students are being asked to learn the basics of a language.

Please know, the language I am referring to may be a language of words or a language of numbers. In either case, though,

I see asking children to use memorization to learn any language as a fundamental error.

Why am I saying this?

Because I believe memorization kills the student's love of learning. And the teacher's love of teaching. Further, I see these

losses as very unnecessary in that another, more authentic style of teaching exists; visualization.

My point?

I believe learning by memorizing is a poor substitute for this more authentic style of learning; learning by visualizing.

What makes me believe this?

To begin with, let me ask you. Have you read the opening article in this series wherein I suggest teaching children the

alphabet visually? If you have, then you have experienced this difference in action. Now consider this difference once

more.

Picture yourself sitting in a first grade classroom, sitting at your desk.

What kind of a desk are you sitting at? An old carved wooden desk? A white formica and chrome modern one? Whatever

the case, I ask that you actually picture the desk you are sitting at, as picturing is what will allow you to see the truth in

my words.

Picture you at your desk again. Now picture, in front of you, on your desk, a sheet of three lined manila paper.

Can you see this piece of paper? It's the kind of paper children learn to write the alphabet on, the kind with solid and

dashed light blue lines going across it.

Can you see your sheet of learning-to-write-your-letters paper?

Now imagine you hear your teacher telling you that, today, you are going to begin to learn to write the alphabet.

What will you have to do?

Imitate on your three lined paper, what she has written on the blackboard; her version of a letter "A."

Of course, she does not actually tell you in this way. Rather, she tells you that you will be practicing the letter "A" on

your paper.

Even so, what she is saying is, you will be repeatedly imitating, on your sheet of learning-to-write-your-letters, what you

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see on the blackboard in front of you.

What fun.

Can you now picture yourself in this scene? I can. In fact, I can still picture myself actually doing this.

My most basic feeling? Aloneness. And a bit intimidated. Mostly, though, I feel unsure as to whether I am doing it right.

Are these feelings unusual?

I would think not. In fact, I would guess that most children, when being asked to imitate a teacher's work, feel similar

feelings. After all, a teacher is the expert, judge, and approval giver to children. And by age five, most children see

"doing it right" as being profoundly important to their being loved.

Have you ever felt, while you were learning, that your "being loved" was at stake? I certainly have. And I would think

most children, to some degree, regularly and frequently feel this same pressure. Sadly, most people never realize this

connection exists between imitating and "feeling loved," this despite our knowing the old cliche, "Imitation is the

sincerest form of flattery."

Now bring your mind back to the classroom scene and to having just been asked to practice writing the letter "A."

Again, picture your desk and your sheet of learning-to-write-your-letters paper.

Now ask yourself this. What do you feel as you begin? Do you feel you will need to keep doing it until you "do it right?"

If you are like most kids, you will feel this pressure, the pressure to perfectly imitate your teacher's "A."

Now return to this scene once more, and imagine you and all your classmates have now begun "practicing."

Imagine now that your teacher is walking around your classroom, glancing down at all the children's work. At times, she

stops and compliments certain children, her compliments audible to the other children.

How do you interpret these compliments if you are one of the complimented children?

How about if you are one of the children who did not get complimented?

Finally, consider what these compliments appearto be based on.

To most children, these compliments appear to be based on how well the child has mimicked the teacher's writing, in

other words, how well the child has "parroted" the teacher.

Very quickly, then, "parroting" becomes the child's test for whether his or her work was done correctly or not. In time,

this test will become this little boy or girl's test to know if they have learned anything or not.

"Parroting" as "the Death of Learning"

To me, the story I've just told you is filled with the smell of death. What has died? In many of these children, their love of

learning, and more specifically, in this story, the children's love of learning to write.

In the classroom we have just imagined, then, I believe many of the children would have left school that day already

having begun to lose their love of learning to write.

How many of these children?

In my opinion, many of them.

Does this actually happen this way though?

Yes, it does. In fact, it happens a lot more than we realize. Worse yet, what children learn more than anything else is in

scenes like this is that "parroting," at first their true test of whether they have done it right or not, eventually becomes

their test for whether they have actually learned anything or not.

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Does any of this ring true for you? Do you want to see for yourself? Try asking yourself the following question.

What is your personal test for knowing if you have learned something or not? Is your test if you can successfully

regurgitate someone else's work?

If so, please know, you are in the majority, as most children, and most people in fact, believe"parroting" is "learning";

that "regurgitating" is "knowing."

Please now ask yourself this question once more. And look deeply and personally.

What is your personal test for having learned something?

My test?

My test is different. And simple.

My test is, "can you picture what you have just learned?

In other words, my test to know if I or anyone else has learned something is, can you visualize what it is you believe you

have just learned?

In the next section, I'll offer some evidence that this test is really the true test, along with some suggestions for a betterway to teach reading, beginning with teaching children to create a "visual pronunciation key."

Are you ready? In order to be, you will have to, as the best kindergarten teachers say, "put on your learning cap."

Ready?



([email protected])


April 6, 2004

Teaching Children to Read: Mentally Learning 2004, Steven Paglierani. All rights reserved

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Teaching Children to Read: Learning to Read VisuallyCreating a "Visual Pronunciation Key"


Learning to Read Visually

In the last section, I defined "learning to read mentally." Essentially, I told you it means learning language skills by

memorizing. Or through "parroting," to be more visually exact.

What kinds of things are children asked to memorize?

Pretty much every basic language skill there is, from the alphabet, to the sounds we use to construct our words.

These letters, and sounds, together form the basis of all of our language skills.

Speaking of sounds, do you know what experts call the sounds which make up a language?

They call them, "phonemes." And phonemes are the basic building blocks of all words, even the words you hear in your

head.

Now to get an idea of how important these chunks of sound really are, go back for a minute to your unabridged

dictionary. Now page forward from the beginning until you find a page on which they've writtten the "pronunciation

key."

Did you notice where, in the dictionary, this page occurs? It occurs, of course, at the very beginning. Why? Because it is

the key to how each and every word in the whole dictionary sounds. Every word.

Pretty important, yes?

What is also important is that this list of letters, and how they are pronounced, is a good example of a language skill

children normally learn through memorization. Sadly, because memorizing is how children are asked to learn this

information, most people never really retain these "keys," let alone see the beauty in them. And if you want to understand

why they never retain them, picture the following.

Why Memorization is Temporary

Picture an etch-a-sketch pad, you know, the rectangular toy on which children can draw or write and afterwards, erase

what they've written by lifting the plastic sheet on which they wrote.

I picture mine being light gray plastic with a light gray sheet of plastic film on which to write.

Now picture yourself writing the whole pronunciation key on this screen.

Yes I know he pronunciation key is complex and so, this will you take a long time. Even so, picture yourself doing this,slowly and carefully, copying everything you see in the dictionary pronunciation key list to your etch-a-sketch pad

screen.

Now picture yourself done. And proud of yourself.

And you should be. You just worked hard.

Now consider that I ask you to memorize something new, something like the "eight times table." What do you have to do

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now?

You must, of course, make room for this new information. How? By lifting the plastic page on your etch-a-sketch pad.

Unfortunately, as soon as you do, you lose all your hard work. But what the heck. You have no other choice. There is

simply no other way to write the new information.

This process very much resembles what happens when we "memorize" information. How so?

Whenever we memorize, we write whatever information we want to remember on our mind's short term memory screen, a

sort of one page mental scratch pad. Unfortunately, because this mental screen has only one page, in order to memorize

any new information, we have to first clear away any old information.

In the case you have just pictured, then, wherein you wrote out pronunciation key, this means all the work you just did

would have to be erased.

This is how learning by memorization works. Memorization uses a temporary, single-page screen of the mind which you

must erase every time you need to remember new something new.

How is Learning by Visualization Different?

How is learning by visualization different?

For one thing, when you learn by visualization, you use an area of the mind which has unlimited screens. This meansnothing you put there ever has to get erased. In fact, scientists tell us this is actually true.

So what happens when you add visual information to what you already know?

Whenever you add new visual information, what you add gets amended onto what was already there. The point? Our

minds store what we visualize permanently.

So if what we visualize gets stored in our minds permanently, why can't we access all this information?

We can't access it all because visual learning is state dependent. In other words, in order to access what we saw, we must

first be in the state of being we were in when we first recorded the information. Why? Because along with the visual

information we record there we also record what we felt as we watched this information.

In a way, then, this experiential information is sort of like the time code that gets recorded beneath every frame of a

movie. It is also how our minds index what we see. Thus, similarly to how we must be on an index page in order to read

what's on it, we must be on our mind's experiential index page.

How do we do this?

We do this by visualizing where and when we first learned the information. In what state? In the sate we were in when we

first learned, when we were babies and before we knew words.

Elsewhere on the site, I refer to being in this state as being in "baby consciousness." Literally, it is the same state in which

we lived and learned in for the first several years of our lives, our primary learning state.

This state is also the state in which we learn visually. And also the state in which we experience learning as fun.

So What Do Children Learn When Asked to Memorize the Pronunciation Key?

So what do children learn when asked to memorize the pronunciation key?

They learn how to temporarily mimic these sounds and even then, only when necessary, such as when their grades

depend on this. Other than in these times, though, pretty much no one pays attention to this list of sounds, including

English teachers.

Do most children ever genuinely learn this key then?

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Not really. In fact, see for yourself. How many ways can you pronounce an "A" in English? Most dictionaries list either

three or four.

Now actually try doing this. Without looking, how many ways can you pronounce an "A?"

Now a confession.

As I was writing this article, I realized, I did not know this information either. In fact, the only time I can ever remember

even looking at a pronunciation key was a few years back when I became curious about foreign languages, especially

those with a different alphabet, such as Greek and Russian.

What I realized from doing this was, learning any language begins pretty much with the same two tasks; learning to write

the letters of the alphabet, and learning to speak the sounds these letters represent. Why then do I not know a single

English-speaking person who can actually list the English pronunciation keys from memory. Not even half the list. Not

even a small part of this list.

But can knowing these keys really be as important as I'm making it sound?

It is if you want to read out loud with confidence. Or learn from a dictionary. Or speak to your boss or to another

professional.

It's also important if you want to write a letter or a paper for school. Why? Because editing what you write requires that

you pronounce these words in your head. Thus, even in your head, you can hear words confidently or not.

OK. Reading out loud. Yes. Speaking to your boss? OK. Writing papers? Yes. But dictionaries?

Yes. Dictionaries. In fact, although most people do not use dictionaries regularly, these books are supposed to be our

reference guides to even to our native tongue. And again, where in the dictionary are the alphabet and the pronunciation

key listed?

Both are always found in the same place. They are found at the beginning.

If this is the case, then, and if understanding a language begins with these two things; with the alphabetand with a

pronunciation key; why, then, do so few people ever learn both? How, in fact, can we be overlooking something thisimportant?

Learning by Rote is Boring

I think we overlook it because most of us have been asked to learn pronunciation keys by rote, which is simply yet one

more way to refer to learning by memorizing. Further, because everything we learn by memorizing gets erased, learning

anything by rote is a royal pain in the butt. And boring.

Necessary though? Yes, at times. But boring none the less.

What is really important to note here is, because most people find this way of learning boring, most of us memorize only

what we need to in order to be able to pass tests. And since the pronunciation key is not something on which we normally

get tested, few, if any of us learn it let alone retain any of it.

So here are my questions. Would young children be better off learning this key right along with the alphabet? Could

young children even be taught this information? And if so, is there a better way we could be teaching children the

pronunciation key?

Would young children be better off learning this key right along with the alphabet?

I think this is a necessity.

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Could young children even be taught this information?

I believe so. Yes.

Is there a better way we could be teaching children the pronunciation key?

Again, I believe so. What follows, then, are my suggestions for how children could be taught the pronunciation key. As

you might guess, my suggestions, like those I've offered for teaching the alphabet, are visual.

Try reading these suggestions. Then, see for yourself how they've affected you. How? By seeing if you don't find

yourselfwanting to learn more about the pronunciation key.

I did.

And if you do too, perhaps young children would feel this desire as well.

A Visual Pronunciation Key

If you look up at the image I've placed above, what you'll find is a modified version of the first "A" in my dictionary's

pronunciation key. As you can see, there is a bowl shaped curve above this "A."

What does this "bowl" represent? One the four ways English speakers can pronounce this letter. At least, according to

this dictionary. Thus, in this dictionary, this "A," which some people call the "soft" "A," has an up-turned curve above it

to indicate this is the"A" we use when we say the word, "hat."

"Hat."

Of course, no dictionary uses anything like the little pink shape I've added above the "bowl" shaped line.

Why have I added this? To make this pronunciation key guide mark resemble a "hat."

Why make this mark more complicated than it already is?

Because making anything into a recognizable shape makes it easier to learn. And easier to remember. Visual learning,

remember.

So now, for just a moment, imagine you are seven, and that you are sitting in a semi-circle of seven year olds facing me

and a blackboard. Imagine too that today, I will be teaching them, and you, all about dictionaries and about what they can

teach you.

You hear me ask, "Who can tell me what they can learn from a dictionary?

Of course, someone says, "You can learn how to spell words."

Then, someone adds, "... and learn what those words mean."

Then someone really smart says, " You can sometimes also learn where the word came from; its original language and

what it first meant."

"Hmm mm," some say, and a murmur goes through the group.

Then no one speaks.

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Why?

These three things are all we usually know to use a dictionary for; [1] spelling; [2] meaning; and [3] origin.

"What about number 4?" I ask. "

"What's number 4?"

"Pronunciation."

"Pronunciation!," everyone yells laughing. "Yuck!"

Now, can you picture children actually responding this way? Of course you can. And yet, if you picture a child in a

classroom who has been asked to read out loud, you get an immediate sense of how important really pronunciation is:

Most kids struggle with it terribly. In fact, I'd bet most adults have the same or similar feelings. Most people dread it.

Is this dread really necessary though? Isn't there a way to teach pronunciation wherein learning to pronounce words

becomes fun?

Yes, there is. Visual learning, remember.

Now let's look at what learning the pronunciation key could look like, if we were taught it visually, in a way in which

learning it was fun.

"Word Families Wear the Same Hat"

So there it is again, the soft "A," the "A" with the curved line above it. Already, I'd bet you can tell me what it sounds

like, just from what I've told you already.

If you've forgotten, allow me to remind you. It's the "A" we say when we say the word, "hat."

Now I'll let you in on a secret. First, take a look at the shape of the hat above this "A." Now the secret. You can always

tell which family of "A" sounds an "A" belongs to by looking at the shape of the hat it wears. For instance, the "A's" who

wear soft hats all sound alike. Want to see?

I've placed a family photo of the soft "A" family below.

Notice they're all wearing the same hat. Except of course, for the "A" in "also." Somehow the "A" snuck in there, just like

people sometimes do sneak into other peoples' family photos. Except for old flat head, though, all these "A's" wear the

same hat.

This means they all talk like each other, meaning they all sound similar just like real people do in real people families.

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So what other hats can "A's" wear? Well, let's see. There are four all together.

I've drawn the second "A" hat below.

...and this "A" sounds like the "A" in "hay. And in "pay." And in "today."

And if you want to see what this "A's" family photo looks like, I've placed it's family photo below.

And what about the third "A?"

This is the "rare- bare- hare" "A." And the "caring mare" "A."

This "A's" family photo is next.

And the fourth "A?"

The fourth "A" is the "A" we say when we say the word, "ha!" And "pa." And "ma." And "father." And all these "A's"

wear the same family hat too. They all wear hats that looks like this.

Finally, this fourth family of "A's" is pictured below.

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Sound like a lot to learn? Yes, it is. But what if you had been seeing these "hats" since you were five or so. Do you think

you would have trouble pronouncing "A's?" I doubt it.

Lastly, to show you how easy it could be to learn about letter "A" hats, I've placed a photo of all four below. In it, I've

lined up all of the hats on a shelf in a"A" kindergarten cloakroom.

Final Words on "Hats"

Obviously, what I've just introduced would take a lot of work to design. And to put into practice. Even so, how much

work is it to go through a whole lifetime being afraid you'll mispronounce a word?

In truth, then, despite the fact that many of us cringe when asked to read out loud for fear we'll mispronounce a word,

most of us never realize how important this key is let alone that if we knew it, we could read with confidence.

Why do we not realize this?

Because we do the same thing we when we were did back in school. We, like our teachers, avoid being in these situations

as much as we can.

Now do me a favor. See if you've forgotten which hat the "A" in "hat" uses. Try it. I doubt you have. It, of course, wears

the first "hat," which by now you know is called, the "soft" hat.

There is, of course, one final test to see if all this really works.

The test?

Ask yourself, now, if you feel at all curious as to how many hats "E's" can wear. And "I's." And O's." And U's."

A hint. Fourteen hats in all. Now can you guess which of these letters wears the most "hats?"

For this answer, you'll have to wait 'till another time. Unless, of course, you now feel drawn to go get your dictionary and

see for yourself.

If you do, please do.

Oh, and one more thing.

Just in case someone out there tells you there are more than four ways to pronounce an "A," know that they are right.

Almost, anyway. You see there are four ways to pronounce an "A" as a letter "A." However, there are also times when a

letter "A" is pronounced like another letter, for instance like an "O" with a pointed hat.

Thus the "A" in words like "awl," "talk," "audio," and "awful" is written as a letter "A" but spoken like a pointed-hattedletter "O." And if we were to want to teach children this, you might show them something like the little drawing I've

drawn below.

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And just in case you are interested, here's what some of the rest of this family looks like:



([email protected])


April 8, 2004

Teaching Children to Read: a Visual Pronunciation Key 2004, Steven Paglierani. All rights reserved

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Teaching Children to Read: the Two Styles"Picturing" is "Learning"


"Parroting" vs. "Picturing"

Two kinds of learning, each with it's own test to see if you have learned anything. Parroted imitation. Creative

visualization.

Now the important question.

Aren't you imitating when you visualize?

The answer. No. Why? Because this is simply impossible. All human beings draw as differently on the screens of their

minds as they do on paper. In fact, no human being draws the same learning the same way twice, no matter what the

medium. This makes it even more unlikely that two people will ever visualize the same learning the same way.

Herein, then, lies the truth about reading and about creativity in general.

How many of us are creative? All of us. Each and every single human being is filled to the brim with creativity.

How can I say this, what with so few people evidencing this idea?

Because we each, in our own ways, picture whatever we know. We picture words. We picture feelings. We picture

people. We picture life. More so, every time we picture, we picture differently. Except, of course, when we have been

injured, in which case, we can no longer picture as our ability to create pictures has been BLocked.

Can you now see how so many words we read, write, and say to each other are actually "empty words."

"Empty words" are simply words people speak about people, places and things whom they can no longer picture. And

how do we lose this ability?

Sadly, the very people from which we learn words often injure us the worst. How? By reinforcing, whether through

grades or through personal force, that we should conform to the world as we entered it, rather than to do what we came to

do: make it a different and better place.

Can you now see how testing children for how well they imitate is an inauthentic test for learning? No surprise so many

people place so little value on schools and teachers, and in fact, so little value on learning itself. We do not learn in most

schools and from most teachers. Why? Because most schools and most teachers teach by memorization rather than by

visualization. This means most children learn to prefer imitation over creation.

To me, teaching children that "learning" is "being able to successfully mimic others" means we kill the creative spirit in

most of the children we teach. Sadly this often happens at the very times when our future young Einstein's and Ben

Franklin's would be most inspired. Speaking of which, have you ever noticed in the writings of such men and women that

the greatest geniuses literally speak about having visualized in their greatest moments of discovery?

I call these experiences of personal creativity, "emergences," and I believe they are the only proof of learning. True

learning, then, always includes something which is personally creative, even if only in the way we picture it. In fact,

before I go, allow me to tell you about an experience I had with a therapist / teacher, an experience in which I struggled to

keep someone from killing my love of learning.

Sadly, I had no idea this was even going on at the time.

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Why Reinvent the Wheel?

A few years back, I met a therapist who seemed to be a warm hearted, open man. On seeing this, I felt drawn to him and

to have him join our Emergence Teachers Group, a group which meets and explores Emergence once a month.

When I asked him if he'd like to join, he wisely asked me what Emergence was like. After all, what healthy person would

join a group without first knowing what it was about.

When I began to tell him, though, I repeatedly felt flattened, and despite trying for more than an hour to get across the

good in what I do, I left having failed to get across a single point.

Naturally, I felt down. And sad and defeated in fact. And to be honest, I knew that the size of my reaction could not

possibly be coming just from him. He had not said one unkind word. At least none I could picture as unkind at the time.

Days later, when I began to come out of shock, I remembered his closing comment to me: "So and so has already done

this, so why are you reinventing the wheel?"

Seven months and several more failed attempts later, I had an emergence about what was happening. I realized my

feeling so defeated had been coming from my hearing this therapist repeatedly reduce my work to what he already knew,

this despite the fact that he had never read a single word I'd written nor personally investigated any of the truths I had

expressed. And on top of his insults, he had repeatedly added, "why reinvent the wheel."

Honestly, these interchanges hurt me so, I lost sleep over them several times. Finally, an answer came to me in a dream.

So what would I say to him if I were to see him today?

If he were to ask me me, "Why reinvent the wheel?," I'd answer, "To become a wheel maker."

This is what emerged in me; that we are all wheel makers including him. However, like the little boys and girls who lose

their ability to believe and enjoy this creativity, I could see he was doing to me what had been done to him, that indeed,

he was one of the very children I had been trying to champion.

What emerged in me, then, was the idea that no one becomes a "real" wheel maker or anything else authentic without first

having experienced the discovery process for themselves. Further, this holds true for all learning, whether this be learning

to read and write or learning to see the world in new ways.

Do you want your child to learn to read? Your child must reinvent words. Do you want your child to learn to write, thenyour child must reinvent writing. Why? Because the beauty inherent in reading and writing becomes visible only in the

creative processes these arts embody.

Teach a child to reinvent words, you inspire them to create their own. Teach a child to parrot words and you kill his or

her creative possibilities. And any joy he or she may have been feeling.

The choice is up to you.

And me.

Up to us, really.

Let's be there for the children.

Good luck,

Steven

P. S. You may have noticed, I deliberately left pictures out of one of these five articles; the "Mental Learning" article. Did

you feel them missing? I did.

And if you did, I've included one more picture below to make up for the which was missing.

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