On a previous page, describing  “A Natural Approach,” we considered the child’s path toward independent reading. We also looked at why a child is likely to struggle if asked to skip from speech to reading books. On this page, we begin to look at how to help every child move along that path — with ease.

But before we delve into “how to,” let’s first look at the basic assumptions underlying two very different approaches to reading acquisition. For how we view our challenge influences the strategies we employ.

first Consider: Are we teaching reading or are we helping the child learn to read?

Teaching Reading — With Traditional Programs. With this approach, the first thing to do is analyze the act of reading to discover the various skills involved. Then teach them separately. So one obvious strategy is to focus primarily on phonics. This is usually done through incremental lessons designed to teach children the most common sound each letter make.

Following that, the children practice blending the sounds together to both create and decode words. Through repeated practice, children successful with this approach ultimately recognize a list of words for their grade level and are able to sound out those they don’t recognize.

Such an approach usually incorporates books that provide practice with the words containing the sounds the children have been focusing on.

Another “teaching reading” option is the traditional basal reader. Here, children are usually sorted into small reading groups, where they work their way through a series of books with a carefully controlled vocabulary.

The emphasis here is on context — the use of pictures and discussion of what the story is about. Some phonics may also involved, when they are encouraged to “sound out” words they don’t recognize. 

But this approach relies primarily on slowly adding word recognition through repetition: “See Jane run… See Dick run… See Dick and Jane run….” And so forth. 

Still another method is referred to as “cueing.” Here the child is shown how to use context as a clue — making predictions based on the picture, the letters, sentence structure, and the story itself. Teachers using this strategy do not usually emphasize phonics. Read more here about the different methods for “teaching reading.”  

Helping The Child Learn to Read, Using a “Natural” Approach. Here, the first thing to do is analyze how a child learns — naturally. And since nature has given virtually all children the ability to learn to speak — without professionally designed lessons — a good place to look for guidance in designing a natural approach is how we help a child manage that. 

Analyzing that process, here’s basically what we find: As they go about their daily routines, caregivers repeatedly speak words with strong meaning for the young child. Combining those spoken words with some “real life” activity/purpose, they are modeling speech. While they may speak in complete sentences, they have a natural tendency to emphasize, through intonation, the main word that describes the associated action or object. They don’t expect a response at first, just allow the child plenty of time to make the connection between the word(s) and the action or object it represents.

Hearing and watching this, the child gradually absorbs the information and makes all the physical connections that go into speaking those words. That is, caregivers make no attempt to break the words down into their component sounds and then present lessons to demonstrate how the child must coordinate the tongue, lips, throat, and breath to make those sounds. They know the child has come with innate techniques for doing this, on their own.

So all caregivers do is speak, with a slight emphasis, words they can see would be of special interest to the infant — milk, mommy, daddy, cookie, etc. —  in conjunction with the corresponding action or object. The child’s brain does the rest.

At first, all we can see of the child’s effort is some spontaneous babbling, apparently serving as trials and practice for creating the sounds in the words they’re hearing. Then finally one day, they delight us by speaking their first word. And so on it goes, as they continue to watch and listen, then practice and gradually expand –building vocabulary, incorporating intonation, and developing sentence structure — all quite spontaneously.

To recap, a child masters the amazing challenge of learning to speak through our modeling words of special interest to them. Then on their own and in their own time, they move through silent absorption, trials, practice, and gradual expansion. So why not employ a similar process in helping them learn how to communicate thoughts and feelings in print?

In Kids Write to Read, we are helping the child learn to read — through a language experience approach

For decades, some teachers have been using what’s known as the “language experience approach,” or LEA.  Briefly here, a group of children dictate a story about something of interest to them. The teacher writes what they say on a chart, and the children practice reading back what they said. They also look for individual words, as the teacher asks for them, out of order. These stories remain posted in the classroom , where the group reads them repeatedly. Eventually the children begin to recognize the words in these charts and know how to spell them — just from this repeated exposure.  The charts are posted on the wall or otherwise kept where the children have easy access to them.

Children are also gradually shown how to write their own stories. They are encouraged to find words they need to spell in the charts they have dictated or from charts of frequently used words. They are also encouraged to insert their own version of how a word might be spelled. Phonics may or may not be emphasized — that varies between teachers devising different versions of this basic approach. (This approach requires nothing to buy — it’s all done with just paper, pens/pencils, and drawing materials. And the content comes from the children. So with little money involved, few professional materials have been produced that regularize how LEA is to be done. Thus, versions of it vary from teacher to teacher.) 

kids write to read is an individualized language experience approach with a strong phonics component and the structure of The Steps

The approach presented here is based on Sylvia Ashton-Warner ‘s Key Vocabulary, an individualized language experience approach  Rather than group stories, she had individual children ask for just one or two words that described what was on their mind. These words became the basis for that child’s reading and writing work.

Kids Write To Read adds two important elements to Ashton Warner’s basic strategy: It incorporates a strong phonics component, and it provides a structure of  6 Steps.to guide the children’s skill development.This structure is “fail-safe,”  in that children move forward through the 6 Steps only after the criteria are met for the previous Step. This combination  — phonics and a structure — insures that all children ultimately write fluently, spell correctly, and read with ease.

 

Recall from Writing Fills The Gap that —

The Child who successfully leaps

From Scribbling/Drawing to Book Reading,

Masters One Skill: Reading.

 

The Child who moves from Scribbling/Drawing

Through Writing, then into Book Reading,

Masters Both Reading and Writing!  

Key Words: Captions For the Child’s Mind-Pictures and the basic Tool in kids write to read

So now, let’s begin to look at the strategies in this approach, starting with the one at the heart of it: capturing Key Words. Then on subsequent pages, we’ll examine that strategy and all that supports it, in greater detail.

A Key Word is one with a strong connection to the inner child — the “caption for a mind picture.”  It’s a self-selected word so significant to the child that once it’s written down for them, they will recognize it immediately the following day and beyond. Thus these words are a powerful tool for developing literacy skills.

Children are ready to work with Key Words earlier than some might expect. I have used them successfully with preschool-age children, who recognize yesterday’s Key Word immediately and with delight. In my K-2 classroom, when the child of a migrant farm worker  — a child not yet reading — was away for several weeks while their family followed the crops, I would save their collection of Key Words. Upon their return, they would remember most, if not all of them. This was not “reading” in the traditional sense, but it definitely was a step in the right direction and an indication of how powerful Key Words can be as the foundation for literacy skills.

When first introduced to the idea of Key Words, though, some children will not understand what you are asking of them. When asked what word they want, they will gaze around the room, saying something their eyes just happen to land on, such as “pencil” or “window.” Or they may ask for the same word they just heard another child name. In that case, its connection to them is weak, and they will most likely not recognize it the next day. Such a child needs more time to talk — to settle on and describe something truly significant: something, for instance, they fear, love, or are intrigued with.  Once they have the idea, they come to the table each day with the word they want already in mind.

only ONE  word a day and A Word Not Recognized Immediately Must Come Off the Word Ring

The child asks for only one Key Word per day — more might confuse them.  Once selected, it’s printed for them on sturdy card stock.  Then they punch a hole in the card and place it on their metal “word ring.” During each subsequent session — whether daily or less often — they will “read” their entire collection and ask for a new word.

Once a child understands what a Key Word is, they virtually always ask for a word they will remember from then on, so eventually they have a large collection of Key Words on their ring. Occasionally though, a child will not remember the word from the previous session. In that case, I would say something like, “Well that just wasn’t a good enough word. We’ll take it off your ring and get a better one today.” (I put it upside down on the table or on a nearby shelf — never threw it away in their presence or gave it to another child asking for it.) Then we would talk for awhile, until they settled on something of genuine interest to them.

It’s important that all helpers understand the concept behind Key Words. They need to see that we are not trying to have a child gather a large collection of words they have memorized or can sound out. Rather we are building a collection of words with such strong meaning for the child that the requisite literacy skills (phonics, punctuation, letter formation, etc.) can readily be attached to them.  It may help adults accept this critical idea if you have them think back to when a toddler is learning to speak: It’s the words with strong meaning for them that they first begin to say. To those words, they begin attaching the skills needed to produce consonants, vowels, digraphs, etc., eventually learning to use intonation and modifiers to clarify meaning, and so forth. In the same way, we are printing for the child their own highly charged words, so they can use them to develop the skills they need to communicate through print. 

We are also trying to help the child collect only Key Words, because easily recognizing such words instills a sense of confidence with print. Keeping unrecognized words on their ring can undermine their confidence — the last thing we want to do.  To emphasize this in workshops for teachers, I used to say, “If you want to undermine this approach, just keep words on the ring the child doesn’t immediately recognize. That’ll do it!” But here, I’ll offer this more positive statement:

~

To ensure the power of Key Words,

​Take a word off the Word Ring

the child does not immediately

 recognize the following day. 

~

What To Do If a Child Becomes Confused Over Words on Their Ring

If a child has unfamiliar words left on their ring, they can become confused, even so flustered they are suddenly unsure of some of the words they have been recognizing all along. In such a case, I recommend the following strategy: Explain to the child that sometimes words just aren’t good enough to be on the word ring — emphasizing it’s the fault of the word, not the child — and that the two of you are going to clean up their ring to get rid of such words. Then take all the words off the ring and spread them on the table, randomly. Ask the child to give you the good ones — the ones they can name as they hand them over. Finally, put all the words they easily recognized back onto the ring and set the other(s) aside to discard later. Then work with that child yourself for a few days, giving them a new word each day in the usual way. Continue this until you’re sure they’re comfortable again with their collection. (I needed to do this in just one case, and the child seemed relieved to hear it was the words that were at fault — and happy she could enjoy reading all the words on her word ring again.)

Bottom line: Key Words should be a reassuring experience — not a challenge. We want the children to delight in their collection, not worry whether they will be able to remember them from day to day. So anyone who persists in trying to help the child figure out yesterday’s word, must not continue giving words. For allowing that practice to continue, can destroy the power, thus the usefulness and value of  Key Words.

Caution: Give only ONE new word a day. (The Key Word can be more than one word, if needed for meaning, such as “Santa Claus, peanut butter cookies, etc.”) Also, I would not let the word ring go home during the school year. My children took their 5-page writing books home as soon as they were full and had been shared with the entire class.  But their collection of words didn’t go home until the end of the school year, and the children returning began a new collection after the summer break.

No Delay In Developing Literacy Skills For Children Not Speaking English

​One of the advantages of an approach like Key Words and The Steps is that all children — regardless of the language they speak — can be working side by side on the same activities. So there is no delay in the development of literacy skills and no stigma attached to a child not speaking English.

If needed, several languages could be accommodated in the same classroom. All it would take is helpers able to take dictation in each of the languages. If no professionals speaking their language were available, cross-age tutors or family members with command of that language could be trained to help. (The need for this is increasing. For instance, in 2018, the Los Angeles Unified School District reported that children in their district spoke 92 different languages.)

Supporting the Transition From a Different Home Language to English

I had no method for structuring a child’s transition from Spanish to English within the Key Words activities. I just followed the child’s lead.  But I noticed as they began the transition from giving all dictation in Spanish, they began by asking for their Key Word in English and their sentence still in Spanish.  So for awhile, the sentence was mixed, with an English Key Word and the rest in Spanish. Then later, when they felt comfortable enough speaking it, they began dictating both their word and sentence in English. I did not try to prompt them to make that transition — just gave them time to come to it themselves.

Not speaking Spanish myself, I asked the federally-funded, migrant education aide to work in my classroom during our Writing Work Period. This was instead of taking my children out for the hour allotted to them for a separate “pull out program.” In the beginning, I had her watch me giving words a few times and pointed out each of the important strategies involved. Thereafter, I attached a card to each child’s Word Ring, with  written directions for giving words at the particular Step that child was on. (Every child in the class had one of these cards on their Word Ring, which were changed as the child proceeded through The Steps.)

Once a child was successfully launched, I was not directly involved in the aide’s work with them each morning until the moment they both came to me to have that child’s work checked.  There, I attempted to read the Spanish correctly, asking for the child’s help with pronunciation. At that point, with the aide’s help, I translated the Spanish into English and attempted to link it to the picture they’d drawn. At first, watching how well the child managed to read back their work (or not) during this time, allowed me to decide when to tell the aide to move them to the next Step. But these children rapidly learned to speak and dictate in English, so it wasn’t long until I could circulate them through my table for assessment and advancement, just as I did with all the others. (For how I circulated students through me to monitor and guide their progress, see Establishing Student and Teacher Work Cycles, mid-way down the page, Classrooms: Control, Work Cycles and More.)

Back to the moment when the child and aide came to me to be checked: There was always a brief English lesson involved, with the three of us discussing the child’s work in both languages. And I now know from my own time of living in Berlin and learning to speak German — many years after I left the classroom — that words and phrases used in meaningful exchanges such as this are powerful. For sometimes, when I find myself using a German phrase in conversation spontaneously, at the same moment I also flash back to where I stood as I learned it when speaking to a native for some “real life” purpose. But this strong, spontaneous recall never happens with words or phrases I learned by studying them in isolation. So it’s only now, years later, that I realize how important it was for the children to be working on topics of special interest to them and for me to require each child to meet with me to have that meaning translated into English during these brief, but meaningful, exchanges.

Operating in an active classroom helps English language learners

The children learned English quickly in our relaxed environment, where during the morning Writing Work Period, as well as at other times during the day, they were able to carry on conversations as they worked — just as adults in an active workshop might do. Watching them, usually from a distance but within earshot, I noticed that whatever they were doing, those who had already learned to speak English usually would seldom speak Spanish — even with a child just in from south of the border, with no English. It was as if they had climbed that steep hill themselves, and didn’t want to go back. They were proud of their accomplishment and were sitting now at the top of the hill, insisting that anyone new put in the effort to make the climb themselves. So the newcomers were immersed in English by all the other children — both native and non-native English speakers — with only a few words in their own language occasionally mixed in.  Meanwhile, through Key Words, they were developing literacy skills in Spanish, right along with everyone else, and making the transition when they were ready.

​In My Experience: Every Child Who could Speak Gained Literacy Skills Through our process

Teaching for five years in a K-2 classroom, I found that all my students eventually had a sizable collection of words on their ring. Building from there, they all learned to write fluently and read books with confidence — most by the end of 1st grade, and all sometime during their 2nd grade year. This was true regardless of their native language, and many had come in speaking no English​. Eventually all were successful — it was just a matter of differences in speed. 

Beyond this, one year I invited into my classroom a fifth grade boy who could speak both Spanish and a little English, but had come to the country in this 5th grade year, unable to read or write in either language. He came to us during our writing period — ostensibly to do office work for me. I often sent him down the hall to the office to print things for me, hoping his peers would notice him carrying papers back and forth, giving him a plausible excuse for why he was coming to my room. But every day, he also got a words and went through the same Steps as the others. (He used smaller-sized word cards and writing books, so they would look more advanced.) In just a few weeks of doing this daily with the migrant aide, he was writing and reading back his own short stories. 

Watching his progress, I was convinced his main problem was fear. For when we scaled back his work to where he could succeed, he gained confidence and quickly moved ahead.  Later, after I was out of the classroom and advising other teachers, I saw other examples of older students using Key Words and The Steps with similar success, sometimes using their favorite songs for content. So I believe these strategies can work for emergent readers of any age, including adults. 

We had only one exception to success: a child who came to me in Kindergarten unable to speak even his home language. (He went on to more get more expert help, and I lost touch with him.) But that’s why I say that any child who’s learned to speak can learn to write, then read, with Key Words and a structure of follow-up activities, such as The Steps, to guide skill development.

Adding structure to Key Words: The Steps

I felt going in that it was not enough to hope to ensure growth through Key Words alone. So once the Key Words activities were up and running, I began to figure out how to be certain the child’s skills would develop from there. This meant that as the first follow up activity became too easy for a child (making a picture of the word), I tried requiring them to do something different and a little more challenging. Eventually this “something different” became a series of 6 increasingly complex follow-up activities to Key Words, activities that moved a child from ground zero to independent writing. These came to be known as The Steps.

From the first Step on, the children are absorbing all the skills involved — including phonics, as needed for spelling. At first they were simply remembering/recognizing their own words. But as they moved through The Steps, they also began to notice that some of the same words appeared in the work of others, and in the class-dictated charts on the walls surrounding them — and eventually —  that they also appeared in books. So from Key Words and The Steps activities, reading simply — and seemingly without additional effort — emerged. (How book-reading was structured is described  later, in Moving into Books.)

next —> Giving Key Words at Each Step

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individualized language experience