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If you have an older student who has been diagnosed as “dyslexic” or with a “specific learning disability”
3RsPlus READ M-Series
Heck Speck!
You can tell by the subtitle that this is not your “usual” instruction.
The “M” stands for “Mature.”-- “struggling readers/learning disabled/dyslexics”--
individuals who are beyond the primary grades and still have problems in
reading.
From Indian sages to Russian witches, from Viking giants to Africa's spider-trickster, from
Shakespeare's mad kings to the Roman gods, the five sets of Heck Speck! books
contain many of the tales and legends that have kept humanity around the globe
enthralled for centuries.
The stories are not for Littlies, and children who have had BRI-ARI instruction
will have no need for the M-series. The stories are sassy and the language not
always politically-correct. But the sex, violence, and other sass are at a “general
family” level. The content is suitable and will be enjoyable for tweens, teens,
and adults. Individuals learning with READ-M can see themselves read successfully
from the get-go.
The traditional focus on what problem readers can’t do overlooks their
assets—what they can do. Compared to young children, older individuals
are more capable intellectually, physically, emotionally, and so on; but in their
attempts to read they have acquired maladaptive patterns that have to be extinguished.
And while they are unlearning what they’ve been doing wrong, they have to be
taught to “read right.” That is exactly what READ-M does.
As with 3RsPlus READ for younger children, the only “instruction” involved is
“Say the sounds and read the word.” And a Notched Card prevents the student
from doing anything but follow the simple protocol.
There is just one preparatory step before starting READ-M instruction. The individual
has to know or be taught the NATO alphabet, also known as the international radiotelephony
spelling alphabet—the one that goes alpha, bravo, Charlie, and so on. Knowing
this alphabet is useful in its own right, and for READ-M purposes it provides
a mnemonic device for recalling the most frequent grapheme correspondences for
each of the 40 some English phonemes. Anyone who can accomplish this preparatory
step of learning this alphabet has the prerequisites to handle READ-M instruction.
As with READ, READ-M builds on increasing and repeated exposure to selected vocabulary
to provide experience in handling complex Alphabetic Code and other linguistic
conventions. When graduated from READ-M, the individual will be in position to
read whatever he or she likes. The
“I don’t understand this” reaction will occur at times, as it does for any reader.
There are vocabulary and concepts that sometimes need to be learned
to understand unfamiliar text, but this is not a “reading problem;”
it’s a subject matter problem.
Any teacher or teaching assistant is qualified to conduct READ-M instruction
without further training. Should a problem in the instruction arise, veteran
READ instructors are more than glad to help troubleshoot the matter.
Excerpt
from M-Series Set 1, Book 7
Linguistic focus: Past tense, digraphs, “ing” endings
Crying Wolf
Bob’s job was tending the sheep on the hill, camping in the damp and the
mist and in the wind and the ice. Sitting on rocks, tramping in the
mud, feeding the dim witless things, chasing lost rams – Bob was fed
up.
‘Hey, lad!’ said Bob’s dad, Jack, coming up the dirt track to the
top of the hill. Jack was humming to himself, glad to see the sheep
fit, hale, and white; and even more glad to see his lad. Until, that
is, he spotted the fact that Bob was not fit, hale, or white. His face
was a mask of dirt, his shirt was torn, and he seemed full of rage.
‘What’s
wrong?’ asked Jack, upset.
‘I – hate – sheep!’ Bob snapped back.
‘It’s a sin to say that!’ yelped
his dad, going pale. ‘Sheep are fun!’
‘Fun!’ Bob howled. ‘Sheep are such a drag! They creep, and lurk,
and munch all the grass. They nip, they bark. They fall in the pond, they
stick in the mud…The sheep can rot, for all I care! Sheep are so dull! I’ve
started racing ants just to pass the time on these cold, endless days! I’m
going mad!’
‘You are going mad if you think they bark,’ snorted his dad. He
had been glad to take care of the sheep on the hill before he grew up and
wed.
Bob sat hunched on a rock as his dad started back down the hill, tut-tut-ing
to himself. Staying still as dusk fell, a plan came to Bob. A plan to pay them
back – dad, mum and all the town – for his hardship on the hill while they all
napped snug in bed, down in the vale.
So: ‘WOLF! WOLF!’ yelled Bob.
Excerpt from
M-Series Set 2, Book 6
Linguistic Focus: OW word
class: sorrow(ful), borrow, Owen, pillow, following, glowing, blowin(g),
marrow, slow(ly), meadow, low(ly), mow, sow, rows, throw, crows, grow,
own(s)(ed), show, bellowed, swallowed, bowls, swallows, yellow, below,
Contrasting correspondences involving O
Puss 'n Boots
‘Let’s get some things clear,’ said Puss, jumping to the ground
and fixing Owen with a glowing green gaze. ‘I can make you rich and happy
beyond your wildest dreams. But you do as I tell you.
‘Firstly:
to you, I am Mister Cat. Not “Hey, you!”; not “Moggy”;
not “That flea-ridden fur-ball”; and not “Oochy-coochy fluffy
munchkin”. Okay?’
‘Okay…Mister Cat!’ said Owen meekly.
‘Secondly, I want some boots.’
‘Why?’ asked Owen in surprise.
‘Why? Heck. Speck! – Why do you have
boots?’
‘Fine!’ cried Owen. ‘I’ll have some made for you! With the last
of my cash!’
And he did. Soon Puss was strutting around in tall shiny boots
looking more smug and more handsome than ever. Then he told the Miller’s
lad to get his kit off and jump in the lake.
‘Please tell me you’re joking,’
begged Owen.
‘Nope,’ purred Puss, sharpening his talons on the nearest tree
as a hint for the brat to just do as it was told.
‘But…it’s so COLD! There’s
a wind blowing! I’ll be chilled to the marrow of my bones!’
‘So…?’ asked
Puss, with a feline shrug. ‘You need a bath. And you’ll never grab yourself
a Princess wearing those rags.’
‘Princess? WHAT Princess!’ cried the Miller’s
lad. He’d always been a bit slow off the mark.
Humans! Sometimes Puss asked
himself why he bothered.