This cartoon is based on my oldest daughter, Kate, who would open her “easy reader” book and just start rapid-fire guessing about every word. I was like, “No, sound it out! READ the words!” But she wasn’t having that. She would just shout whatever came to her mind and hope it matched up with the book.
“Spell reading” can work well for some kids.
Step 1: The kid spells every word and the parent says the word.
Step 2: When the kid starts to say the words correctly right after spelling them, switch to “sweep sweep spell” – any word they’re not sure of, sweep their eyes across it twice, and if they still don’t know, spell it.
Step 3: “picture at punctuation” – when they know most words, they can start making a picture in their head of what they’ve just read, at every punctuation mark. This helps with comprehension.
Source: The Gift of Dyslexia by Ronald D. Davis
Nice! Thanks, Chris!
Your face in the third panel… That’s the “my brain is leaking out of my ears” look. I know it far too well. (Five readers down, two to go. If I survive.)
Ha! Yes, good description!
Hi Adrianne,
I was introduced to your awesome cartoons through my friend, Adrianne Meldrum, of Made For Math (formerly Math for Middles). I am a teacher and tutor in Wisconsin and I’m just updating my website. I’m wondering if I could get your permission to use one or more of your cartoons on my site? I’m new to creating a website, so let me know what your thoughts are about it. Thanks so much and I hope you are well in the midst of this crazy world we live in right now!
Jenny Hannack
P.S. My website is pending, so I don’t have a live site to enter in your form yet (0:
Hi Jenny! Sorry for the delay in responding to you! Yes, please feel free to share my cartoons. As long as you’re not adding any logos or branding to them, it’s fine. Thank you so much!!
alas…
I had the opposite problem. I learned to read REALLY early, and first grade level reading books were TORTURE.