Welcome to my website!
This page provides a brief overview of my professional background and experience. It describes the approach to reading I developed in my K-2 bilingual classroom and later modified for preschoolers. It includes an analysis of how starting with a child’s own “Special Words” helps them develop a love for reading and ultimately become a very skillful reader. It ends with an invitation to work together on what, for me, is a voluntary project in my retirement, focused on showing adults how to help all children learn to read and write with the same pleasure and ease they learned to speak.
Theoretical Base and Teaching Experience
When my daughters were preschoolers, I became so inspired by Maria Montessori’s books that I wanted them to experience her methods. Since I didn’t have the training myself, I hired a Dutch Montessori Directress and established a preschool. (See newspaper clippings.) The classroom management strategies I gained from that experience helped me later create the active reading/writing work periods described on this website.
A few years after my Montessori experience, I discovered Sylvia Ashton-Warner’s concept of Key Vocabulary, which she explains are powerful “captions for a child’s most vivid mind pictures.” I now refer to them as a child’s Special Words. Those are the words a child uses to identify something they love, fear, or simply find especially interesting.
The emotional charge attached to a child’s Special Words makes them a powerful magnet for skill development. So, Special Words are at the heart of this approach. Unfortunately, Ashton-Warner’s book, Teacher, which introduced the concept, wasn’t published until after Montessori’s death. Otherwise, I believe Montessori would have recognized the power in beginning with the child’s own words and incorporated them into her reading activities; thus, they would be well-known, valued, and used in various places throughout the world by now.
Shortly after I began experimenting with Special Words, I interviewed for a position in a public, K-2, bilingual classroom in Southern California. Many of the children there had been struggling with reading. So, when I explained my interest in approaching reading through a child’s Special Words, they hired me with the understanding that I would experiment with using them as the basis of my reading program.
Close to half of my students were the children of migrant farmworkers. About half of them couldn’t speak English. The rest of my students were native English speakers. Some in that second group had the advantage of a print-rich home environment. However, had little or no experience with print. A few in both groups were being held back in first grade for a second year because they weren’t learning to read.
Obviously, I needed a completely individualized reading program. So, I combined what I’d learned from Montessori and Ashton-Warner and began developing the personalized approach I now call Special Words & The Steps. Working that out during the first year or two, with my class of 26 children, was a hectic experience. But it turned out to be well worth the effort.
Since that experience in the primary grades, I have also worked with preschool children. I made some modifications for them. They go through the same step-by-step process with their Special Words and easily learn to read and write during their preschool years. And they love doing it!
Special Words & The Steps
A session with Special Words begins by prompting a child to talk about something of particular interest to them. Once they settle on a word that describes their thinking, we write it for them on a sturdy card and help them place it on their metal Word Ring.
If the child has asked for a true Special Word, they’ll recognize it the next day and thereafter. If not, we blame the word, remove it, and try for a better one that day. Soon, even a very young child will have a collection of words they immediately recognize. This is not yet “reading.” The purpose is to help them 1) connect print to their “mind pictures” (concepts) and the words they use to describe them, 2) view print as just another way to talk, and 3) enjoy learning to read and write.
Children are intrigued by seeing what they say translated into print and want to do it, too. So, we carefully let them see and hear what we’re doing as we write. For example, we demonstrate how to listen for the sounds in a word (phonemic awareness) and choose the letters to spell them (phonics). And for letter formation, we have them trace over the letters after we’ve written the entire word.
As a child advances, they also dictate a sentence about their word, which we write on the back of their word card. That allows them to see how capitalization, punctuation, and other writing skills work. Plus, it allows them to build a print vocabulary of words that hold sentences together and clarify meaning. They don’t memorize any of this. Instead, over time and at their own pace, they work through a series of follow-up activities for Special Words, called The Steps. The child progresses through four Steps over time. Each child moves through them at their own pace, allowing them to experience how print works and begin learning to use it. 
At each Step, a child creates a one-page, illustrated “story” in their 5-page writing book. The work pictured here is that of a child at Step 2. The books the child creates take the place of professionally published “readers.” They’re far better suited to each child than anything a parent or school district could buy.
And they’re far less expensive; all it takes is paper, pens, and glue, plus about 10-15 minutes of an adult’s time. A busy parent can have a caregiver, family member, or friend work with the child. Then, based on the child’s progress, the parent decides when the child is ready to move on to the next Step.
Since reading and writing are two sides of the same coin, the child’s new writing skills are also transferring to reading. By the time they’re on Step 4, they’re beginning to write independently and recognize words in their favorite storybooks, on signs, and elsewhere. Then, continuing with Special Words at Step 4, they begin writing more than one sentence and can read simple, unfamiliar books. After that, we help them choose books on topics of special interest to them.
Doing this for decades, I know of only two children who didn’t learn to read using this approach. Both also could not speak, even in their home language.
Beyond My K-2 Classroom
The combination of Special Words & The Steps was highly successful. The children enjoyed their work, and even those who had previously been struggling with reading flourished. As word spread, teachers in the surrounding area began visiting to observe the class in action.
They often commented on how much the children seemed to enjoy their work. And that while they were free to walk around and talk to one another during our busy writing work period, they approached their Steps activities with an unusual sense of purpose. That’s partly because I had organized our writing period by giving Montessori-inspired, “silent demonstrations” to show the children how to carry out the routines needed for a smooth-running, active work period. It’s also because they were creating something they were proud of and enjoyed doing.
With the interest those visits generated, I began holding weekend workshops to show other teachers how to do it. Eventually, the county reading specialist brought in the nationally known reading expert, Dr. Jeannette Veatch, for a visit. After seeing my class in action, she encouraged me to leave the classroom, pursue an advanced degree, and focus on teaching others how to do it.
So, I left the classroom and entered the Ph.D. program at Claremont Graduate University (CGU), where I later taught for over 20 years. During that time, I also worked as a contract consultant for the California Department of Education, designing and leading workshops on interdisciplinary projects for older students. As a private consultant, I continued to present reading workshops for individual schools and districts.
My Purpose Now
I have never forgotten the children I worked with and how delighted they were to see what they could accomplish. Now that we’re witnessing yet another swing of the proverbial pendulum, this time back to Phonics, I’m more concerned than ever about what this trend will mean for too many children. These swings have been repeating for over 70 years now. Another one will come again after this, until we take a more comprehensive approach that meets every child where they are and gradually guides them forward. I’ve shared one here, and if we put our heads together, we can devise ways to do something similar for every child.
Finally, this website is a work in progress. Try as I may, I can’t find a technician who can make the email and message buttons below work properly! (Or, at least one I can afford, in this all-volunteer project.) So, if you have any questions or comments, please don’t hesitate to contact me through my Facebook Group, Helping All Kids Write to Read. Posts, Comments, and questions sent there come directly to me and remain private unless you indicate you want them to be posted.
Millions of children are dependent on us. We can easily do better. Let’s share experiences and ideas for helping every child learn to read and write, with the same pleasure and ease they learned to speak.