I use the “Words in Color” reading approach developed by Caleb Gattegno. It is a phonetic approach which utilizes the Fidel—two large charts which are divided into columns. The charts contain a separate column for each sound of English and every spelling of that sound which occurs in English. The approach also utilizes twenty large word charts in which the phonetic sounds from the Fidel are colorcoded into words. The first few charts contain onesyllable words with easy spellings like
net
, Pit,
not
,
Spot
which are within the sight vocabulary of most of our students. I spend several weeks working with the students concentrating on the Fidel and the first word chart until the students become familiar with the colorcoded phonetic sounds. I then proceed to teach the more complicated sounds and spellings that are contained in the words on Charts Two through Twenty. Along with the “Words In Color” charts I make extensive use of Gattegno’s game of transformations in which students learn new decoding skills by transforming one word into another word by following a specific set of rules (examples
in
—> spot). In this game you are allowed to change just one sound at a time (example:
in Ð
>
it
—>
pit
—>
pot
—>
spot
). For a fuller explanation of the phonetic code and game of transformations see the 1979
Language and Writing Unit
,
Volume IV,
written by Alice Mick and Karen Wolff for the YaleNew Haven Teachers Institute, pp. 110112. For more information on the “Words in Color” reading approach by Caleb Gattegno see the books listed in the annotated bibliography.
As the students become familiar with the first few “Words in Color” charts, they will begin to have a basic reading vocabulary in addition to whatever reading vocabulary they brought with them from previous years in school. I will make use of this common reading vocabulary by asking them to write. A safe beginning for those who are afraid to put pen to paper is the group story. Most of them are afraid to write. They cannot spell simple words, their handwriting is shaky, and they do not know what to say. After writing a group story, many students find that it is fun and will risk writing a story of their own.
The work with the “Words in Color” reading charts will continue throughout the year. As the students become more proficient in reading and writing, I plan to start them on a writing project concerning their roots. The students will start by reading selected passages from the novel
Roots
by Alex Haley. I will show the film
Roots
also. As a class we will discuss genealogy. What does the word mean? Why is it helpful to know about your genealogy? What are the various research methods students can employ to research their own genealogy? What can you learn about history, geography, ethnic groups, races and religions in the process of study? How can you build ties between generations? What is a family “skeleton,” and how do you handle it if you discover one? What might it mean to future generations in your family if you can pass on an oral and written genealogy?
I will expect all students to work on a written genealogy of their own families. They will keep a notebook in which they will collect information about themselves, their mothers, their fathers, their maternal grandparents and paternal grandparents, aunts and uncles. They will then draw a family tree. They will also trace their geographical origins and record them on a map. The class project will include visiting or writing to relatives, newspapers, travel bureaus, town officials, libraries, embassies for information. Students will be asked to collect family photographs, letters, diplomas, family Bibles and other family artifacts. All students will be asked to conduct interviews with members of their families and to record the information. Students who have access to tape recorders can use them. I will give the students questionnaires which they will be required to fill out as homework assignments.
Because one of our major topics in our classroom is sexuality, I will design some questionnaires for the students who feel comfortable talking to parents and relatives about their love relationships, dating behavior and sexual knowledge when they were teenagers. Talking to parents about such sensitive matters will be very difficult or impossible for some students. I will provide alternative assignments for those students. One such assignment would be to write about the difference between students’ and parents’ views on sexuality. Another topic would be generational differences in views toward birth control. Some students might be able to tackle generational differences in views toward abortion or teenage pregnancy.
Other questionnaires will direct students to more interviews and research on parents’ and grandparents’ eating habits, clothing styles, housing, recreation, schooling, employment, politics and religion. Few of our students have ever conducted interviews or done research, so we will start by conducting mock interviews, inviting guest speakers in, and going out on field trips to someone’s home or to the library or historical society. I am always looking for ways to lengthen the attention span and improve the listening skills of our students. The interviewing and recording processes will strengthen their abilities in these areas.
In order to promote an integrated curriculum, Susan and I will do some joint activities with the class concerning basic genetic principles in which students will learn to trace some hereditary factors in their families. See the genetics activities.
For a joint art project, the class will take some of the small family trees drawn by individual students and turn them into postersize drawings. We will also make collages of students’ photographs and places of origin and draw a poster size map illustrating family migrations. Students who are into printing and calligraphy will reproduce family documents such as an old will or diploma or birth certificate.
The genealogy study will lead into short pieces of writing. We will start with group stories about our students’ lives. Group stories are nonthreatening, fun, and often silly. The silliness is an important release of tension, removing the inhibitions and fears of failure which are particularly debilitating to our students. I jot on the chalkboard quickly, “The worst thing that I did when I was a baby was...” Students call out any serious or nonsensical continuation of the sentence. “I peed on my brother,” or “I vomited on my grandmother’s best dress,” or “I cried for two hours in church.” In a group story I do as little censorship or criticism as possible unless the new sentence makes no sense at all or unless the story starts to trail off to nowhere. If the story runs into trouble, I stop writing on the board and consult the group. We consider other possible ways to continue the story choosing a suggestion from someone that seems to please the majority of the students.
After the group writing I will ask each student to go home and ask a relative to recall an incident that actually happened to him when he was very young. I will expect the students to write their own individual stories and keep them in their folders after they have been corrected. When I correct their writing, I usually point out the basic spelling errors and a few simple punctuation errors. As with the group stories I leave the content as they write it, unless some part makes no sense. I will often take a group of these stories and type them up on a ditto master after I have put in the correct spelling and punctuation. I give each student a copy of the stories, and we read them aloud. I try to include an individual story written by each student as well as one or more group stories. Students are thrilled to see their stories and names in print and will compete actively to read the stories aloud to the rest of the class.
I will assign other short pieces of writing about the students’ lives. These are some of the many possible topics. “My First Boyfriend (or Girlfriend),” “My First Memory of my Mother,” “When I was very Sick,” “The Worst Fight I had with my Brother,” “When: First Realized that I was a Girl (or Boy),” “The First Time I Heard about the Facts of Life,” “My First Menstrual Period (or Wet Dream),””I Thought I was in Love When..,” “The Night I cried.”
My longrange aim is to have all students write an autobiography when they have completed the shorter pieces of writing. I will give them each a special folder in which to keep their autobiographical writing. After they have amassed plenty of genealogical information about themselves and their families and after they have written the stories listed above, I will introduce to them the concept of a time line and ask all students to write out their own time lines including all the important events that they can remember. At this point starting to write the autobiography will be mostly a matter of organization and selection of material. In conjunction with our class study of sexuality, the autobiography will include a section on the students’ development as adolescents. I will ask them to include their physical development, their emotional development, and how they expect to develop during the next five years.
Their final writing project will be to write a play about sexual problems that adolescents face. Whole class activities will be to act out and videotape the plays that the students write. Our students will share the video tapes or the live performances with other classes in the school. For further information on filming students’ performance see the 1979
Strategies for Teaching Literature
Unit, Volume V, written by Robert J. Winters for the YaleNew Haven Teachers Institute, pp. 130139.