Wednesday, February 29, 2012

Teaching Children to Use the Computer Keyboard

Teaching Children to Use the Computer Keyboard
by Don McCabe

Once children start learning to read and write, they often cast their eyes on the computer. They want to use the keyboard. There's something almost magic about the way letters pop up on the screen. And that bit of magic can help children not only learn the computer keyboard, but if they're experiencing a bit of difficulty learning to read and write, learning the keyboard may just be that key to unlocking the door to complete literacy.
Parents often ask me, “How young can I start my children on learning the keyboard?”

Like most of my answers, it starts, “It all depends…” I hate to keep saying that, but there are so many factors involved. One is the size of their hands and whether or not they can gently rest four fingers of each hand on the home row keys. If their hands are big enough, if they're big enough to sit at a computer, and if they really want to learn, they're old enough.

When I'm asked to recommend a keyboarding program, I simply ask the parents, “Do your children have any problem at all reading or spelling?” If the answer is, “No,” then almost any commercial program will do the trick.
The reason is that there isn't that much difference between any of the programs. They all teach in the first lesson the seven letters and the semi-colon that constitute that home row. And from there on in, it's a race to finish learning all the letters in as few lessons as possible.

But if the answer is, “Yes, my children do have reading and spelling problems,” then commercial typing or keyboarding programs may be very frustrating to them. My theory is simply: Good readers have built-in responses to spelling patterns, so they can easily read and spell non-words like: depotion, piction, incordation, and cligging. Good typists are good readers who quickly build upon these built-in responses to develop new patterns.

Poor readers don't know the patterns and don't know the words so they must type letter-by-letter, stroke-by-stroke. Poor readers need training in spelling patterns to become good typists.
If you can copy the following just as fast as the above paragraph, then perhaps I don't know what I talking about.

dGoo rdsreea vhae bltui-ni srspsnoee ot psllngie pttrnsae, os tyhe can slyiea rdea nda pslle nno-wdros lkei: dptneoio, pctniio, nicordation, nda clggngii. Gdoo ytptssi rae gdoo rdrseae hwo qckylui bldui pnuo htsee btln-uii rspnsseoe ot dvlpeeo nwe pttrnsae.
Proo rdrseae dnt'o nwko hte pttrnsae nda dnt'o nwko hte rwdos os htey mtso ytpe lttr-yb-lttreeee, rtsk-yb-rtskoeoe.
Proo rdrseae ndee rtngnaii ni psllenig pttrnsae ot bcmeoe gdoo ytptssi.

What then can parents do for their children who have reading/spelling problems? Well, they can create their own typing texts that help with reading and spelling very simply.

Here is one ordering of the teaching of the keyboard by lessons:
Lesson 1 a, d, l, and space bar. Lesson 2: s and ; Lesson 3: f, t. Lesson 4 r, j. Lesson 5 c, k. Lesson 6 i. Lesson 7, h. Lesson 8 e. Lessons 9 through 14, shifting, commas, question marks, apostrophes, quotation marks while the patterns available are drill in. Lessons 15 to 28 will have the letters in this order: g, m, n, b, o, p, u, w, y, v, q, x, z.

Sample lessons in the beginning which parents can create might look something like this for Lesson 3 in which the f and t are taught.

fff fttf fttf aaa ttt at at at ffttf ffttf fat (do three times)
at fat fats; fl fl flat flats; ffttf fttf fat; (do three times)
at: slat; slat slats; flat flats; sat fat; (do three times)

fff fttf all fall falls; all tall stall stalls (do three times)
all tall; all tall stall; all fall falls; all tall; (do three times)
fast last; last fast; fast last; fast fast fast; (do three times)

fff fad fads; ddd dad dads; lll lad lads; (do three times)
ttt at fat fats; flat flats; sat at fat; ;;; (do three times)
a fat dad sat; at last a fast lad; alas; (do three times)

This is the order of presentation that is used in Individualized Keyboarding.
Another ordering that works well and can be used for the teaching of handwriting as well is: abcd rst y efgh w ingklm opqu vxz. One letter per lesson or unit and using only the letters available to teach words that have the same patterns. (From: Starting at Square One)

Making their own keyboarding program can be very rewarding for parents as well as saving them the cost of purchasing such a program. For those parents who would rather purchase a ready-made program, we do believe that you might want to compare the AVKO's non-commercial program with any of the other programs on the market.

www.avko.org

www.spelling.org

Friday, February 17, 2012

Latin and Greek Roots

Latin and Greek Roots

For a complete listing of all the roots
and all the words available for learning using the roots,
consult
The Patterns of English Spelling

Root

From

Meaning

A Few Samples

act

Latin

do

action activate active actor acting

acu

Latin

sharpen

acute accurate acupuncture

aero

Greek

wind

aeroplane aeronautics aeronautical

aesth

Greek

feel

aesthetics anaesthesia anaesthesiologist

agrie

Latin

field

agriculture agronomy agronomist

alt

Latin

high

altitude altimeter

alter

Latin

change

alternate alternative alterations altering

ambul

Latin

walk

ambulance ambulate ambulatory amble

amo, ami

Latin

love

amour amiable amorous amateur amity

andr

Greek

man

Andrew android androgynous polyandry

ang

Latin

bend

angle angular triangle triangular mangle

anima

Latin

life

animal animated inanimate animosity

ann, enn

Latin

year

annual perennial biennial anniversary

anthr

Greek

man

anthropology philanthropy anthropoid

apt, ept

Latin

suitable

apt aptitude adapt inept ineptitude

aqua

Latin

water

aquarium Aquarius aqueous aquamarine

arch

Greek

chief

monarch architect architecture archbishop

archae

Greek

old

archaeology archaeologist archaic archives

art

Latin

skill

artist artifice artificial article artistry

ast

Greek

star

aster asterisk asteroid disaster astronaut

aud

Latin

hear

audible auditorium audience audio audit

auto

Latin

self

automatic automobile autograph automate

www.avko.org

www.spelling.org

Thursday, February 16, 2012

Improving Your Existing Spelling Program

Improving Your Existing Spelling Program

by Don McCabe

What if I don’t need another new spelling program? What can I do to make my existing spelling program work? Just as sometimes it’s more economical to fix the automobile you have than to go out and buy a new car, sometimes a teacher or parent can make the most of what they already have. Assuming the spelling program you now have has word lists, give the list of words as a pre-test. The words that are missed should be the basis for study—but NOT studied for themselves.

For example, supposing your list was this: rainy, bruise, brother, treaty, ready, county, water, pretty, again, trouble, early, circle, father, around, quiet, nothing, instead, twenty, other, bottle, dreary, country, heavy, rather, mirror. This, by the way, is an actual list from a best selling spelling series. I just opened the level 4 book at random and decided to work with it.

A good speller would know all the words except perhaps bruise, quiet, and circle. Now traditional methods would have the child write the words a number of times and then test and re-test on those words until they are memorized. The AVKO method would entail looking up these words in the index of The Patterns of English Spelling (FREE to AVKO members on the member portion of the website) and going to the respective pages indicated. For circle the page would be 611 on which the words with the ending cle pattern is found. Now, using the Sequential Spelling technique, I would give the words miracle, spectacle, obstacle, icicle, vehicle, article, particle, encircle, cycle, recycle, uncle and bicycle. Immediately after each word would be given and my student attempted the spelling, I would give the correct spelling orally and in writing. He would hear it and see it, and if necessary erase the misspelling and spell it correctly. Then, and only then would I go on to the next word. Notice I only picked an even dozen out of the seventy-five ending cle words. You could pick however many words as you want.

You could even from that same page point out the funny “u” the gets stuck between the c and l in words such as circular, spectacular, vehicular, muscular.

With bruise you are directed to page 435 where you find only bruise and cruise plus their structural endings as in bruises, bruised, bruising and bruiser. However, the homophones of brews and crews and Cruz are there for you to use or not use at your discretion. Again, we would recommend using the Sequential Spelling technique.

When we look up quiet in the index it directs to page 685. There we have diet, diets, dieted, dieting, and dietary that fit right in with quiet, quiets, quieted, quieting, and quietly.

Now if your child misses more than three of the assigned words in the lesson don’t try to teach all of them. Just pick two or three. And use The Sequential Spelling Technique. Forget the studying. Just out of the blue test and correct the misspellings. Keep reminding your children that “Mistakes are Opportunities to Learn” and that they can remember anything if they forget it enough times! Learn how to create your own Sequential Spelling Tests.

www.avko.org

www.spelling.org