Today Evie became a true reader when she read her first sentence. Then she read another one. WOW! I had decided I was working myself into a corner with the word building (phonics) because she couldn't seem to read when I put a book in front of her. She would completely blank on the words even though we had just worked on them moments before.
So, I tried a technique called Guided Writing, hoping that the new angle would add some excitement and motivation for her. I said to her, "I want to write a story. Would you help me?" That got her really excited. "Okay, I am going to write a story about my cat." I started making up a sentence using the words we had already learned together and then asked her to help me write it by sounding out the words with me. I wrote as she spelled aloud each word. This allowed me to model correct writing for her like punctuation and capitalization. She was thrilled to be helping me build my sentence.
Soon we had finished two sentences about my silly cat who sat on my hat. She giggled and laughed over that and then I asked her to read it. Wow! This method works! Since she had already worked to build the words in our sentence, she knew them. This meant instant success as a reader, which is really the key to motivation. She needed to see that she could do it on her own. Not only that, but she was finally able to see how reading and writing could be meaningful to her. Now that she knew she could write a sentence, she immediately wanted to begin writing her own silly story. Amazing!
It is so fun to watch her grow and learn right before my eyes. I am so glad that I have these moments. Praise be the the Lord our God, who is so very good to us. He spoils me.
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