Dear Reader, I’m still editing this page — please overlook typos and glitches! Thanks! Janet
Welcome! I’m Janet Kierstead — here with an idea for anyone living at a distance from a child they want to help to gain literacy skills. You just need a smartphone and someone on the other end of the phone, old enough to help the child receive the call and read your text to the child. For instance, if you’re a homeschooler and have an older child who’s willing to help a younger sibling, they could do it. Or it might be a babysitter. The one calling guides the activity.
You can read more about the basic learning strategy used here in Write/Read Naturally! And you’ll find more about the benefits of this “natural” approach in the pages you’ll find under the menu item Why Writing First? — beginning with the first page, here.
The basic strategy: Key Words and The Steps
At the heart of this approach is a simple, yet highly effective strategy known as Key Words — the “captions for a child’s mind pictures.” We use this Key Words to show a child how their own “talk” looks, written down. As we do this, we’re modeling how to write, and the child gradually absorbs and copies what they see us doing.
It’s really very simple: The child asks to have one new Key Word written for them each day. Then we have them carry out a follow up activity with it. We have a set of six of these activities that gently guide their skill development. They’re known as The Steps.
Advancing through The Steps over time, the child gradually learns how to write what they want to say. And their new writing skills readily transfer to reading. So that’s basically what you’re helping them accomplish — over time, via talk and text.
The child’s interest in seeing their own words in print make this a powerful strategy. For interest is a powerful magnet for skills and concepts — actually for all kinds of learning. And what you bring to this with a phone call adds even more interest. So, your unusual, long-distance involvement is very valuable.
If you’re interested in doing this, be sure to read more about the basic idea in Write/Read Naturally! For now, following is an outline of what you’d be doing. (Later, when this first activity is too simple for the child, see what comes next in The Steps….)
Directions for the Activity
All the child needs is writing and drawing materials and someone on their end to help them — perhaps a parent, older sibling, or caregiver. We’ll refer to you as the Caller, and to the person on the child’s end, as the Helper.
You might want to work with a very young child, or someone older– you decide how young the child can be by how interested the child is in doing it. Try it — and if they’re interested in it — keep going. If not, give it up and try it again when they’re older. For more about this, see Sensitive Periods” & Readiness.
We look first at how you would introduce Key Words to a child. I’ve written directions below for both of you. The Helper’s directions appear in green, and yours are in black. Click here for a more detailed version of these directions to REFER TO as the child’s skills grow and you move them them through The Steps. Here’s a printable version of VERY BRIEF DIRECTIONS you can use later, while you’re working with the child.
You Make the Call
1. On the Phone: Have the child tell you about something they love, fear, want, or are just very interested in. Encourage them to talk about it for a while, so they form a strong “mind picture” about it.
2. Help them decide on their Key Word: A Key Word is 1, 2, or occasionally 3 words that are a “caption for their mind picture.” For example, it might be single word, cake. Or it might be ice cream, or chocolate ice cream. Think of their Key Word as the caption for their “mind picture.” (Later, as the child advances, you’ll be writing their Key word — and a complete sentence that they’ve dictated. So that might be something like, I love chocolate ice cream!)
3. Text the Key Word to them: So again, as you’re beginning with your child, all you text is 1, 2, or 3 words that — together — represent the main thing the child is very interested in that day. (No sentence, at first.)
The Helper and the Child Work With the Key Word
1. Helper: show the child the text when it comes in and — with them sitting beside you on the left, if you’re right handed (and vice versa) — copy the word by hand onto heavy card stock. (A recipe card will do, and always use the same color pen.)
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- Slow way down and say the names and/or the sounds of each letter as you copy the word.
- Hold the word card out far enough, so the child can focus on the entire word. Have them say the word a couple of times.
- Place it on the table and have them trace over each letter with the index finger of their writing hand, while you say each letter or sound again.
- Help the child make a hole in the card and place it on their metal “Word Ring.” (A shower curtain ring will do.)
2. Make a duplicate of the word card, to use for the child’s follow-up activity.
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- A child who is able to draw gets a copy of the word on regular, light weight paper — to glue under a picture they’ll draw on regular paper. (If a child likes to make marks on paper — that mean something to them — that’s considered a drawing, even if it doesn’t look like something to you.)
- A child not drawing yet only gets the word you copied on the recipe card. Then instead of drawing, they can carry it around and do something with it. (If it’s “cookie,” for instance, they might pretend to feed it to their teddy bear. Make up several examples of things to do, depending on the word.)
3. Then text the Caller. After the child finishes their “work” of drawing or playing with their word, send a picture and description of what they’ve done. Have the child tell you something they want to say and make sure they watch as you write the text. Keep it VERY SIMPLE. Read it over with them a few times and let them hit Send. (It might be, for instance, I fed the cookie to my teddy bear. Or, I ate my pretend cookie.)
You Text Back
Now, you text back a brief message: For a child not yet reading at all, you write a very brief response. Something like, Great job. Or, Very good. (Later, you’ll reply with longer sentences.)
So that’s all you do — except there’s one final point to make. And it’s critical to the value of this strategy. The child will “read” all their old words the following day. (It’s actually recognizing the word by remembering the entire experience.) Only true Key Words stay on the child’s word ring. So we look now at that.
Following Sessions: Only True Key Words Stay on the Word Ring
At the beginning of the second call you make to them, you have the child tell you what the word is that they have on their recipe card. If they know it, the Helper lets them place it on a Word Ring. (A shower curtain ring will do, but a round ring may be easier for the child.) With this, they’re beginning their collection of Key Words.
Be sure the Helper does not remind the child beforehand!
For to safeguard this strategy, the child must only have true Key Words on their Word Ring. And they will immediately recognize a true Key Word. This, because these familiar words will begin to build their confidence with print. And at this point, all we’re expecting to do beyond that is help them see that print is “talk written down” and give them the chance to begin to absorb the sound/letter connections (phonics) and begin to learn about how letters are formed. We are not trying to have them build a large collection of words.
So at the beginning of the second call you make to them — and every session thereafter — you have the child tell you the word(s) they have on their Word Ring. Virtually always, once a child has recognized a word the day after they got it, they will remember it from then on.
If they don’t remember yesterday’s word, then just casually tell them what the word is and say something like, Lets get something really interesting today — What’s the best thing you love, what’s really scary? (And get them to talking about something they’re really interested in.) Make sure they do not get the impression they should have remembered it. (The helper will just set the first word aside and toss it later.) We’ll look at this next — for it’s critical.
No Words Stay on the Ring the Child Does Not Immediately Recognize
This section is for both the Caller and the Helper:
If somehow a child suddenly has several words on their ring they recognized before but now don’t know, here’s what to do about it.
So keep this simple, guard the child’s confidence — and soon you’ll have helped a child learn to read and write — at the same time. And usually that takes the same amount of time as it would have taken them just to learn to read. Plus — they will have done it with pleasure and ease.
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This website is part of a volunteer project I’ve designed in my retirement. I hope together we can help all children succeed. For I know that — barring extreme physical or emotional barriers — struggle and failure are completely unnecessary — for any child.