The 2010 National Spelling Bee is currently underway.  This is the time of year where tweens and teens are featured on ESPN and get more national attention than Kobe Bryant.

Here are some sample words during this year’s competition have caused contestants to exit the event:

• fustanella
• dysautonomia
• phytoplankter

It is amazing how children are required to  spell these challenging words by only using their ears.  The first step in mastering spelling – and possibly mastering The National Spelling Bee is to understand and be aware how written English is constructed.

By our count, there are 59 sounds (including diphthongs) in English, and these sounds must be made by a combination of only 26 letters in the alphabet.  What makes English even more challenging is the fact that some of these sounds have many different spellings – hence why the National Spelling Bee is so entertaining.

The first challenge a participant has to face is the need to break down the word he or she hears into its sounds and spellings.  How many beats and how many sounds do the words fustanella, dysautonomia and phytoplankter have?  By breaking the words into sounds, the participants can then start to mentally rebuild the word based on the various spellings. This requires years of practice to master – however, it can be done simply as I will show you in a minute.

One of the common ways to confuse the participants is the use of the schwa.  The schwa is a low energy vowel sound used in words such as father, mother, chicken, ever, chorus and restaurant.

The following image shows the words fustanella, dysautonomia and phytoplankter with our universal color code.  Our universal color code attaches one unique color to every sound (including the diphthongs which are given two colors).  The schwa is in bright yellow.  As you can see from these words, the schwa is represented by the letter a, o and e.

Another major benefit to our universal color code is that it makes words easy to deconstruct.  If we ask the questions how many sounds does a word have, the color code makes it easy.

• fustanella  - 9 Sounds
• dysautonomia – 11 Sounds
• phytoplankter – 12 Sounds

As mentioned before, the participants would then have to reconstruct the sounds based on the appropriate spellings.  Herein lies the challenge, the schwa sound for example has 23 different spellings – this requires the participant to know which one to use.

Our Words in Color program is designed specifically to help students to master reading, writing and spelling.  You can take a look at all the spellings in American English organized by sound and color on our Fidel Phonic Code – can you find the schwa?.  (Note: once you are on the page, simply click on the image to view a larger size.)

We will be posting some of the winning words in an upcoming blog post.

We are continuing to add new items to our store.   Some of the new items include:

Leocolor Books (Spanish Words in Color)

• Leocolor – Libro 1
• Leocolor – Libro 2
• Leocolor – Narraciones Breves
• Leocolor – Ocho Cuentos
• Leocolor – Para la enseñanza de la lectura

The Silent Way (Foreign Language)

• Teaching Foreign Languages in Schools The Silent Way
• The Silent Way – A Thousand Sentences
• The Silent Way – Eight Tales
• The Silent Way – Short Passages
• The Silent Way – The Common Sense of Teaching Foreign Languages
• The Silent Way Algebricks
• The Silent Way American English Fidel Large (42cmx60cm)
• The Silent Way American English Large Set (42cmx60cm)
• The Silent Way American English Mini Set (20cmx14cm)
• The Silent Way American English Small Set
• The Silent Way American English Sound-Color Chart (42cmx60cm)

Visible and Tangible Mathematics

• The Science of Education Part 2B: Awareness of Mathematization
• Visible and Tangible Mathematics Algebricks Large Box
• Visible and Tangible Mathematics Algebricks Small Box

Click on the individual products above, or Click Here to view all our products.

As a part of Exceptional Children’s Week, we are releasing “Barnaby” an anecdotal story about how a teacher using Words in Color was able to teach a dyslexic boy how to read.

Written by Sister Mary Leonore Murphy, the book is very easy to go through and worthwhile for parents and teachers of children with special needs.

“Barnaby” is on sale for $9.99 at our online store. We have a very limited supply of these classic books (originally printed in 1968), so once they are gone, they are gone.

Description:

“Barnaby is diagnosed with dyslexia.  He is nearly ten years old and he cannot read,” said our school inspector to me one day towards the end of June. “He has been attending the X Clinic since early last year. The speech therapy program he is receiving there is splendid but he needs a course of remedial reading.” Then he challenged me, “Do you think that you could teach him to read using the Words in Color method?”

Barnaby’s case is more than one child learning to read when every investigator of his case had concluded that he might never. The book will be perhaps an eye-opener for all teachers who will read it. It tells that they must be less quick at putting all the blame on the learner who fails to learn. Because there is so much we miss about learners with the ordinary tools of testing centered on teaching, we should be more guarded.

Have you ever wondered how babies learn?  Do you wonder why some adolescence struggle in school while others excel?

These along with many other questions are answered in a series of nine books written by Caleb Gattegno.  These books are a valuable resource for parents, educators and researchers who want to better understand how kids learn. Additionally, they have useful strategies on how to develop each child’s natural capacities to learn without relying on memorization.

The complete set of books is available for sale on our online store and viewable for free on our website:

• “Know Your Children As They Are”:  An important book for both educators and parents to understand their children from babies through adolescents
• “The Universe of Babies”:  Gattegno outlines the steps babies take in their development.  The book provides insights on how parents can help their child flourish.
• “Of Boys and Girls”:  Gattegno provides insights on improving the results for teaching boys and girls in all school subjects
• “The Adolescent and His Will”:  Understand why adolescents act the way they do and how to best teach them
• “What We Owe Children”:  Gattegno analyzes what children need to reach their potential.  He outlines what schools should achieve and what parents have a right to expect
• “Evolution and Memory”: This book is a must read for any scientist and researcher interested in understanding memory and how it fits in educating the young
• “The Mind Teaches the Brain”: Gattegno explores the relationship of the brain, the mind and the self in various aspects of human life and the implications these roles might have
• “On Being Freer”: How can you live a freer life?
• “Towards a Visual Culture”:  The key benefits for using media for education. What kind of programming enables children to learn the most?

The 55th International Reading Association (IRA) Convention will be held this year in Chicago Ill from April 25-28th, 2010.  Educational Solutions will be proudly exhibiting our Words in Color literacy program there.

The IRA is the leading reading association in the world with over 90,000 members.  We look forward to interacting with the over 10,000 teachers, principals and reading specialists that will be attending the convention.

If you are attending the convention we would like to meet you…we will be in booth #746

Educational Solutions will be attending the Young Child Expo & Conference this weekend (Friday April 9, 2010 to Saturday April 10, 2010).  We will be in Booth #317 at the Hilton New York City.

We hope to see you there!

Educational Solutions has started the trade show season. Here are a couple of pictures from our first trade show of the year: Celebration of Teaching & Learning 2010 in New York City. We’ll keep you posted on more events in the U.S.A. and Canada. Look for our colorful booth!

The Words in Color booth

Visiting the grade 3 math class again, I observed students continuing their work on equivalent fractions.  They were doing some written desk-work to answer problems from the Smartboard e.g. ¾ x 12 and 2/6 x 18.  They were to build the needed  patterns and write the answers in their books.  At the end of 10 of these questions there were three “Math Challenge” questions based on some of the patterns they had used to answer the above questions.  E.g. (1/4 x 16) +  (1/3 x 9) + (3/5 x 20)

It should be noted that each child had their own large box of rods, in sufficient quantity to create several patterns to keep on their desk while they worked out the answers.

Most of the kids were getting correct answers, some very quickly.  Others were working slowly and needed some guidance.  I worked with one girl, new to the school, by asking some more basic questions such as which pattern do we need to look at to find the answer, what does the number on the bottom of ¼ tell us, etc.  She was then able to get an answer.  There were two other boys that were having trouble who asked for the teachers help.  I did notice that the teacher did not ask students who were finished, to help those that were having difficulty.  I think this would be part of Gattegno approach, but there may be some practical reasons why this was not used here. (I did not see students helping other students often in other classes either!) It would be interesting to hear from other teachers about how useful this is or problems with it (i.e. problems with students helping others who are having difficulty).  I have certainly seen that students helping students can be very effective in my small tutoring classes.

It should be noted again that the teacher had most of the students fully engaged in their work.  They all seemed very enthusiastic about the challenge!

After most students had finished the questions, the teacher asked them to cover up their patterns.  They were then asked to imagine the patterns and answer a few questions without looking at the rods.  If they can do these fractions without the rods, they have made an important step in moving towards a mental perception of the math and away from dependence on the rods.  I overheard some of them say “This is easy!”, which is I think, the mark of a successful lesson.

On to another grade one class….

They continued to work on multiples, but this time also with subtraction, first with the teacher using the Smartboard and magnetic rods (I must get some of these), with one student coming to the board to show how to solve a problem. (eg. 2P – 3r = ___ )  Again I watched the class get increasing restless – without anything in front of them to keep their hands busy – until they were asked to write down a list of questions using multiples.  Once they had written them down, they were allowed to get their individual boxes of rods and start working on the problems.  They were much more involved in their work once they had the rods, and were busy building the trains and patterns.  Some needed help, but most worked busily away and constructed  correct answers.  The students whom I helped would call me back for more help often; I tried to give them some direction, but then the next question they would have the same problem.  They had not “learned” how to solve the challenge.  I wondered if they were newer to the rods than other students, or if they just needed more time.  Maybe we needed to go back to the previous lesson with these kids ( on subtraction or difference) before we tried these problems again.  Without students helping other students, it certainly puts more work on to the teacher.

What was obvious in both these classes (besides the “subordination of teaching” approach) was the incredible usefulness of manipulative’s in keeping the students focused and giving them a way to understand and solve the problem!

My first class this morning was grade 3’s working on equivalent fractions.  When I arrived the students had just picked up their personal boxes of rods and were starting to build individually, their patterns for 12, 16 and 20,  using only trains of the same colour.   On the board the teacher makes the patterns for 12 and 16 using the magnetic rods.

Students were able to look at a pattern and hold up the rod that shows 1/3^rd in the 12 pattern (purple),   or with the 16 pattern –  2/4 is 2 purples.   They could separate the rods that showed ¾ and tell us  equivalent fractions such as  6/8  and 12/16.

With more and more equivalent fraction challenges the kids got more and more excited to provide their mostly correct answers!

Next it was time for the “Math Challenge!”

(1/3 x 12) + (2/4 x 16 ) + (1/4 x 12)  = ______

The teacher asked for the  strategy to get the answer.  Four different kids give their strategy, which mostly involves getting the answer from the twelve pattern for the first part of the equation (1/3 x 12) and so on.  The excitement builds as the kids want to say the answer.  Finally they get to say the answer!

Another challenge :  (½ x 8 ) + (2/4 x 20) + (4/8 x 16) = ______

and then another   (2/3 x 9 )+ (¼ x 8 ) + (1/3 x 6) each time many students could describe a correct strategy and then provide the answer.  They seemed to be having more and more fun with each challenge.  A few of the kids had trouble, but most seemed comfortable with the math.

As I sat there and watched the attention, the high level of engagement, and the building excitement and enthusiasm of the students in the lesson,  I was thinking,  this is what should be happening in all classes. This is the way learning should take place.  It was very impressive to see how much they enjoyed it!  Event the teacher was enjoying the lesson! I  noticed she was smiling, even as she tried to get some of the students to contain their excitement to give the answer.  It is a smile I have felt on too few occasions in the classroom.

After a visit to another grade 1 class doing math and multiples, I sat in on another seminar by Dr. Bruce Ballard on Words in Color with a kindergarten and grade 1 teacher who had some questions on using the charts with their class.  Participating with them in the process of how to teach vowel sounds that go with the “r” sound gave me some more valuable experience in seeing how useful the charts can be.  The amount of support and professional development available at the school is far beyond what is available at most schools.  In two short visits with Dr. Ballard, I learned some of the basic ways the charts can be used in the classroom.

Today at the Bronx School, I was fortunate to have some time with Dr. Paula Hajar, the Professional Development Specialist for Math.  We discussed the importance of games to keep the students engaged.  I stressed that with tutoring, I felt the students need to be having fun to keep them wanting to come.  She asked me about the games I had used and then introduced me to two new types of games in which many variations are possible.

The first one, a game with dice, has the student building a staircase with rods and then rolling the dice to determine which rods they can take away from their staircase.  If you are working with just addition and subtraction for example, and you roll a 5 and a 3, you could take away a yellow and a light green rod, or a brown rod for (5+3), or a red rod (for 5-3) , assuming you still have the given rods still in your staircase.  The next player then rolls the dice and takes away a rod or rods according to the numbers or an addition/subtraction operation on the numbers.  Play continues until one player has no rods left.  Another way to play the game would be to allow multiplcatin or division on the dice numbers as well,  or to add another die and use three numbers in any expression with +,-, x, or ÷.  Many other variations on this game can be made.

Another game involves a 5 x 5 table of numbers.  The numbers result of an operation or operations on, for example, four numbers such as 7, 6, 9, and 3.  The table can be prepared ahead of time.  Any and all correct equations using the numbers and the four operators  +,-, x, or ÷ could be used.  Examples are 7+6+9+3=25, (3×6) + (9-7)=20, (3×6) x (9-7) = 36 and so on.  With the twenty-five numbers arranged on the table, students must then find a number for which they can write the equation to get that answer.  If they find a correct equation they get a point and circle the number on the table.  Additionally they get a point for each box in the table that is already circled and is adjacent to the  this correct answer.  Once all the boxes are circled, the player with the most number of points wins the game.

The game could be simplified by using only addition and subtraction and using smaller numbers, or made more advanced by using exponents and factorials.

There must be many more games that educators have developed over the years.  It would be great to have a compilation of all these games somewhere!