"H-u-g-s."
"Makes what word?"
"Shit."
"No, Zerin! H-h-, not sh-! Try again: h-u-g-s..."
"Shit."
"No, Zerin, please don't say that! Sound it out: h-u-g-s, hhhuuugz..."
"Hugs!"
"Very good, Zerin, good girl."
This may be one reason why I was found laughing out loud in the hallway today, if you happened to pass by. Every few weeks, we have to administer reading exams to the kindergarteners. Basically, I call them out one-by-one and have them read a few sentences and sound out some words while sitting in the little kiddy chairs in the drafty hallway. It wasn't as funny when one of them kept spitting all over my face as he tried to pronounce the words.
"Bleh! You have got to stop spitting all over me, Walat!" I cried, as I gingerly wiped my face with the back of my hand, praying I wouldn't get sick yet again. He just giggled gleefully, the little doofus. Sigh.
All the same, they are adorable.
I have discovered some interesting things about the way kids learn to read through my experiences as a KG teacher. Sometimes, they read by sounding out each letter and just stringing them together into a word. But a lot of the time, they just either look at the word for a few seconds, or sound out the first couple letters/get the gist of the sound, and then link it to a word they've heard a lot in class lately, and then make the educated guess. They are not so much "reading" as recognizing the word. Does that distinction make sense? I suppose that's what we are really doing when we are "reading". Hence our ability to read words even when all the vowels are eliminated.
3 comments:
I got the passages from the Bible - I've very slowly been reading through it.
Well, I think when God gave the commandments to Moses it was that he spoke and Moses carved them into stone.
No trips planned right now. A few weddings and other little vacations.
Sorry to hear Iran didn't work out. I'd be really interested to see Iran.
If you think about kids learning to read in terms of neural networks, what you are saying is exactly what you'd expect.
Sound of Music it is! I love that movie. *le sigh*
I was just totally PMSing, yo. I don't know what happened! It lasted for like 2 days. I just got mad at everything! And then felt really bad, then got mad again, etc. etc. But luckily my hormones have settled. Thank le lord.
Seriously? GO FOR IT about the neonatal nursing thing. Except do the easiest path possible (CRNA, or whatever) and just do the newborn nursery. No need to spend tons of money to get a miserable degree where you get mistreated by the system (bitter much jess?). Just go with the path of least resistance, and hold babies forever. If I could do it over again that's the way I would do it!
dang it! i have missed to many blog entries. neonatal nursing thing? (or maybe i just read over things...yikes...what is that you say about reading again) well, nice one miss. i'll try to catch up on the other entries soon.
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