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The COURSE
NOTES included sections on:
Reading Sentences in Books
Extend her vocabulary and develop her intellect by discussing the pictures,
word-spellings, sentences, paragraphs and stories. Read one or two books more
times than the others. Read these books until she can say them almost
word-for-word from memory. As her memory for the word-spellings and sentences
improves, insist on one-for-one-matching (i.e. that the correct word-spelling is
underlined) and give her more than one sentence at a time. When she is unable to
underline the word-spellings quickly enough to keep up with what she is saying,
have her underpoint or just look at the word-spellings. Every-so-often, read the
books by saying the words together (with one of you underpointing, if
desirable).
[See the BIG BOOKS, GUIDED READERS and ECHO CDs in the THRASS 500 SERIES, T-27
to T-47: written by Alan Bayley, former colleague, in the English Department, at
the West Cheshire College, Chester. Alan, now retired, taught English in schools and colleges in the United Kingdom,
Africa and South Arabia and had a special interest in children's stories and
folk tales. Alan is a true wordsmith – and his talents were very much admired by
students and colleagues alike.]
THRASS SKILLS
Before you help her, listen to the THRASS WORD SPELLING TAPE. Follow the
instructions and practise all the skills until you can successfully demonstrate
competence from A1 to D11. When you have successfully demonstrated a skill FROM
MEMORY, enter the date in your own THRASS SKILLS DATED RECORD CARD (including, if you
later fail the skills test, the date of a successful retest). When you have
successfully completed the THRASS WORD-SPELLNG FORM (F12), listen to the THRASS
SOUND-SPELLING TAPE. Follow the instructions and practise all the skills until
you can successfully demonstrate competence from R13 to H19. When you have
successfully completed the THRASS SOUND-SPELLING FORM (F20), help others to
demonstrate successfully all the THRASS SKILLS.
"Alan is a great believer in making people DO things rather than just
telling them how to. To this end he had the conference delegates trying out
THRASS for themselves. We were all given the chart with letters, words, days,
months and numbers on and told to use our non-preferred hand. Then Alan put on
the tape that comes with the system and we followed the instructions on it. In a
classroom, or even one-to-one situation in the home, this enables the teacher,
parent or other helper to be free to help the students at close quarters rather
than leading from the front. In other words, it is like having another teacher
in the room. Using the non-preferred hand for overwriting letters and words and
then transcribing them onto plain paper was an experience in vulnerability. I
had forgotten what it is like to learn to write, taking the skill for granted as
many of us do, and found the overwriting did help me to subsequently form the
letters on plain paper with my left hand." Nursery World Magazine
The next sections were:
Alphabet (A3-A4)
Handwriting (H5-H8)
Reading Word-Spellings (R9)
Spelling Word-Spellings (S10)
Reading Sound-Spellings (R13-R14) Spelling Sound-Spellings (S15-S16).
The course
notes ended with the advice:
With some children or adults you may aim to teach the THRASS SKILLS in weeks or
months but with others, especially young children, you may aim to teach the
skills over a number of years. Finally, whatever you do, be responsive,
innovative and enjoy yourself!
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