If you would like to share educational links or your teaching methods, discoveries, or experiences with other teachers, this is the place.
E-mail us at info at thetwisteddoors dot com, and we will post them here.
1. Professor Woodward (University of Western Ontario) has donated the following intermediate French link for your enjoyment. There are wonderful French videos for
intermediate students, sample tests, etc.
2. Professor Nadine de Moras (University of Western Ontario) has generously donated a link to her extensive French intermediate exercises page. You will find hundreds of
French grammar exercises.
3. DYSLEXIA -- Eve Goffman
Mrs. Eve Goffman, who tutors dyslexic children to this day, and has changed the lives of hundreds of students, was a reading therapist for dyslexic children in the West Lafayette, Indiana, schools for 33 years.
She has brilliantly simplified her teaching method down to six basic phonic rules, which encompass most English words. She has asked me to share these rules with other teachers.
Mrs. Goffman explains that she uses a building block approach and concentrates on each rule before proceeding to the next, using booklets such as "Mac and Tab" from Educators Publishing Service.
Mrs. Goffman, who currently has six students despite her 88 years, told me that "it is essential that the teacher have a caring and positive approach. Teaching the basic phonic rules are not enough."
She begins her first lesson with new students by telling them the following, which is critical for them to understand:
"The first thing that I tell a new student is that dyslexia is a neurological difference and that they just need a different
approach to reading and spelling tasks. The second thing I tell the student is that almost all dyslexics are intelligent and creative!"
BASIC PHONIC RULES
1. One vowel in a word with one or more consonants after it, is always a short sound, e.g., cat, tub, flop, stem.
2. Vowel, consonant, vowel: the first vowel says its name, which is a long sound, e.g., tape, fluting, riper, Pete, slopes.
3. Two vowels together: the first one says its name, e.g., paid, toad, tied, fuel, beam.
4. A vowel followed by two consonants is always a short sound, e.g., patter, pitter, potter, putter, plaster, cluster.
5. "C" followed by e, i, or y, always says "S".
"C" not followed by e, i, or y, always says "K".
"G": same rule as "C".
6. When "I" is followed by a vowel, but not in the first syllable of a word, it sounds like a long "E", e.g., radiate, obedient.
Mrs. Goffman wrote the following on November 27, 2007:
Help for children with dyslexia
One of the primary causes of the inability of some children to learn to read and or spell accurately is dyslexia. In my experience as a reading specialist, about 20 percent of all children may have some degree of dyslexia. So it would be well for people to understand that dyslexia is a learning disorder that requires a different method of teaching than is used in the schools.
I have worked with bright, verbal children who have struggled to learn to read and spell accurately.
After a few months, or occasionally a few weeks, of specialized training they usually improve enormously and, though they may continue to read somewhat slowly, they can read accurately and with comprehension.
A well-trained reading therapist is able to help almost all dyslexic children, most of whom are intelligent and creative, to improve greatly in reading and spelling skills and to become self-confident by understanding their problem.
It is unjust and even tragic that approximately four children in every classroom are not being taught properly because the educational establishment has not taken the time and trouble to read the vast literature which teaches how to understand and alleviate this syndrome.
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