About Reading

By Jeremiah Cameron, Ph.D

 

 

*** LANGUAGE IS FIRST ***

 

1.     READING is an aspect of language usage.

 

2.     LANGUAGE develops in specific areas of the BRAIN:

If there are problems (damage or insufficient development), reading will be difficult.

 

3.     To read well, these areas must be developed EARLY — in the womb and in the first four years of life.

 

  1. Reading depends on nerve cells in the BRAIN (they really do the reading) called NEURONS:  They must be healthy and get sufficient IRON in the food.  [The book From Neurons to Neighborhoods: The Science of Early Childhood Development (edited by Jack P. Shonkoff and Deborah A. Phillips), points out the value of iron, for example, in the diet of pre-schoolers.  Research, they discuss, has shown that children with iron-deficiency test lower in arithmetic and written expressions, among other things—an insight, among others, that most parents are unaware of.  The neurologists have pointed out how the brain develops in stages, and how it does so should be taken into account during the developmental years.]

 

5.     If these nerve cells are damaged or do not get sufficient growth and development:

 

a.        It may be because children were born too early for the language cells to develop.

b.       The expectant mother SMOKED, DRANK ALCOHOL, or USED DRUGS.

c.       The expectant mother did not eat food rich in IRON.

 

 

6.      For reading, the BRAIN may use millions of nerve connections called 

 SYNAPSES:  If they are not there, reading may suffer.

 

7.      Money is not the answer.

 

8.   So-called education reform is not the answer.

 

9.      Leave-No-Child-Behind is not the answer.

 

 

 

 

*** ANSWERS TO BETTER READING ***

 

 

1.       Expectant mothers should eat the food rich in iron, like:

 

apples         

apricots

bacon

bananas

beans

beef  

blackberries

broccoli

cabbage

cherries

cheese

chicken livers 

corn

cranberries

dates

eggs

figs

greens

lamb

molasses

mustard greens 

nuts

oysters

peas

pineapples

plums

pork

potatoes

prunes

rice

sardines             

soy beans

sweet potatoes 

tomatoes

turnips

 

 

2.       Expectant mother should carry babies to term (Usually 9 months).

 

3.       Expectant mothers should talk and read to babies in the womb — certainly during the first four years of life.

 

4.       There is evidence that children in the womb learn language (the stuff of reading) from mother — especially WORDS and GRAMMATICAL structures.

 

5.       Elementary teachers should know GRAMMAR.

 

6.       GRAMMATICAL structures (subject and its verb; phrases; clauses) carry the meaning of reading by answering questions like:

 

WHO? WHOM? WHAT? WHEN? WHERE? WHY? DID WHAT? IS WHAT? HOW?

  

                Examples:

                       a.  Jack went up the hill on his bike.

WHO?  Jack

DID WHAT?  Went up the hill on his bike.

WENT WHERE?  Up the hill.

HOW?  On his bike.

     

 

                      b.   Good readers can get well-paying jobs in business.

                                      WHO? Good readers.

                                      WHAT kind of readers?  Good.

                                      CAN DO WHAT?  Can get jobs.

                                      WHAT KIND OF JOBS?  Well-paying.

                                      WHERE?  In business.

 

 

 

 

***

ANOTHER PROBLEM FOR READING

DIFFERENT TYPES OF SPEECH

***

 

 

1.        What is written in books is in the Standard English Dialect.

 

2.        Many people—especially poor, uneducated people—speak a different speech form or dialect.

 

EXAMPLE:

                             Standard English:   I have been here 10 years.

                             Another Form:       I done been here 10 years.

 

                             Standard English:   He doesn’t know anything.

                             Another Form:       He don’t know nothing.

 

3.        So what?  Many people read by taking what is on the printed page (in Standard English) and putting it MENTALLY back into the language they speak (a different form).

 

4.         If they speak a non-standard English dialect, they are going to have trouble reading.  There is evidence to prove this. (The book Twice As Less, by Eleanor Wilson Orr, discusses the role that language plays, Black dialect in particular, in learning mathematics.)

 

5.        Teachers must over the years train the kids that speech like don’t know nothing will appear on the printed page as doesn’t know anything.  This MUST be done throughout elementary school.  Quickie training won’t do it.  It takes years, but reading will improve.

 

6.        Don’t put the kids down or criticize the speech they bring from home.

 

7.        Reading is the KEY to all schooling:  Kids cannot learn math or science, IF THEY CANNOT READ FIRST.

 

You Can Read

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