These few weeks I've been taking the Slingerland Institute course.  We're now well past the halfway mark and I can't believe it will soon be over.  I do believe that this kind of teaching for students with Specific Language Disability (dyslexia) can work, because I've experienced the value of patience and practice with some things I thought would be impossible to learn.  Aikido, for example (wasn't I hopeless) and piano playing for another.  The approach we're using to learning reading involves a lot of patience and practice, and it seems to work.

The fastest hour of the day is the hour I actually spend with my student.  She's delightful and tries incredibly hard.  The silliest energy drain is wondering how it will look at my school site next year.  That, of course, is a question I can't answer until I get there.

The most bizarre challenge (and a fun one at that) is devising exercises to go with each day's lesson, words and phrases for the students to practice reading and writing.  We're strictly limited to the phonics rules that students have actually been taught.  Dr. Seuss was a genius at writing decodable text that was fun to read.  My efforts are far more cumbersome, but we have moved some way from "cat" and "mat": "gladly mending a quilt," "pitched a fast strike," "could tumble on a mat," "quickly run from a poodle."  Today we got to begin reading a story, and I could see right away that my student's intelligence is way beyond her present skill in reading and writing.

I had her sound out the word "gifted" and then use it in a sentence.  Here's her sentence. "I was gifted to my mom and dad.  By God.  And to you, too."

I'll be sorry when it's over!