Making Ourselves Clear

Making Ourselves Clear

Some of the best writers I ever knew were my second-grade students. Little kids express themselves in clear and sincere words. Their grammar isn’t perfect, their spelling is awful, and their syntax is skewed, but their ideas radiate from the page. 

Primary students’ writing is fresh, enthusiastic and inventive. It is personal and relational. “This was my experience. Do you share it?” Children love sharing their work. Sitting in the “author’s chair” and reading from a work-in-progress, students realize the power of writing.  

Harold Evans, writer, editor, and social-commentator, promotes good writing in his book, Do I Make Myself Clear?: Why Writing Well Matters. He writes that “the right words are oxygen.” Words give life to ideas, experiences, and wisdom. Like air fills the lungs, good writing fills the mind and soul.

So if little kids love writing, why do adults fear it? Simply explained: The Grammar Police. Traditional writing lessons focused on grammar, usage, and punctuation. Red marks on the page! Points off for missing commas! Subject and verb agreement! Composition classes, more often exercises in getting the rules right rather than learning to express ideas clearly, turned students off to writing.

Many budding authors abandoned writing because lessons focused on the craft of writing rather than the substance. Yet clear writing depends on the rules which allow it to be universally understood. Grammar rules support understanding. 

Good writers survived many grammar lessons. Today’s writing lessons focus on expressing meaning clearly. Teachers encourage children to write about their experiences, their feelings, their dreams, and their questions about life. Instead of wielding a red pencil, teachers share good books, pointing out how authors use words and the conventions of writing to tell stories, share information, and express ideas. Students, enthralled by these books, adopt the conventions that authors use. When they do, teachers and classmates applaud and confidence grows. The author’s chair is a place of honor, not a seat of fear.

Put down the red pen lurking in your mind, the fears that keep you from writing about the mysteries of your life, and sit in the author’s chair. Read good books and emulate the writing, not the structure, but the power of expression. Breathe oxygen into the world by sharing your experiences and ideas in writing. 

Every little kid has something to write about.  Every adult does too. William Hazlitt (1778-1830), considered to be one of the greatest critics and essayists in the history of the English language, wrote, “Words are the only things that last forever; they are more durable than the eternal hills.” 

Sit down today and write. Write like a little kid, free from rules and sincere. Create a record of your life’s experiences and hard-earned wisdom. Be clear. Exercise your power of expression. Share what you write with your friends and your family. Become eternal. Leave something that will last. 

Mommy, how do you read?

Mommy, How Do You Read?

One long-ago day, when I was reading to my little girl, she looked at me and asked, “Mommy, how do you read?” I had no answer.

Reading came as natural as breathing to me. On the first day of first grade, my teacher put two words on the board and said, “This says the and this says cat.” From that moment on, I could read.  From listening to my classmates, I knew that reading didn’t come so easily for everyone. 

Many children struggle to learn to read. Research identifies several factors that put children at risk for reading failure: poverty, language barriers, parents’ reading skills and attitudes, word-processing difficulties, as well as biological and psychological learning deficits. Literacy is essential to success affecting health, safety, self-respect, cultural development, career advancement, and academic achievement. 

Studies show that children who are late to read fall behind as their schooling continues putting them at risk for frustration and failure. Early readers read more, learn more words, gather more information, and attempt more complex learning tasks. Reading is complicated. Key factors that influence reading development include phonemic awareness, decoding, automaticity, vocabulary acquisition, comprehension, extensive reading, and motivation. 

Phonemic awareness is the ability to identify the small units of sound (phonemes) which make up words and how these can be segmented (pulled apart), blended (put together), and manipulated (added, deleted, and substituted). Phonemic skills, generally the first children acquire, include rhyming, alliteration, and counting syllables. 

Decoding, or phonics, is the process of converting the printed word into its corresponding sounds or sounding out a word. Readers must connect symbol (the letter) to sound (phonemes). Many children sing the alphabet but can’t connect the letters with their corresponding sounds.

Automaticity is the ability to quickly and effortlessly recognize words leaving the reader’s mind free to gain meaning from text. Proficient readers don’t stop to decode every word. Automaticity affects the smoothness and expression necessary for comprehension. 

Proficient readers gain vocabulary at a greater pace giving them another advantage for understanding texts. Children who are read to and have a wide range of experiences build “word-banks” they can draw from when encountering new words and concepts in texts. 

Comprehension grows as readers master decoding, gain automaticity, bank vocabulary, and connect concept to print. Reading often and with varied texts and purposes builds vocabulary and comprehension skills.

Motivation is both the hardest and easiest skill of reading. Any new skill takes effort. Readers must have a purpose and a desire to read. Reading must be enlightening, instructional, exciting, and practical. Most importantly, reading must be fun.

Long ago, I had no answer as to “how” I read but I sure knew that I loved reading. The first step to starting children on the road to reading success is reading with a parent. My daughter reads to her children now. They’ve started their journey to reading success. Grab a book and start your children now.                                       (This is the first in a series about reading success.)