How to Motivate Students to Write for a Cause: Getting Non-dyslexic & Dyslexic Teens to Write about Health & More
Loving to write as she does and knowing that helping students polish their writing skills boosts their confidence, Davis-Kyle, author of the Kindle book, How to Motivate Students to Write for a Cause: Getting Non-dyslexic & Dyslexic Students to Write about Health & More, is dedicated to instructing beginning writers of all ages. Her 2015 Kindle book, The Busy English Teacher’s Fun Activities & Exercises for Pre-Teens: Nutrition Tips & More, blends an abundance of writing practices with physical exercises and brings them to teachers’ fingertips to select the activities that work best for their pre-teens.
This 2016 Kindle book, How to Motivate Students to Write for a Cause, honored with a Foreword by the eminent Astrid Kopp-Duller, PhD, creator of the Attention Function Symptom [AFS] system, is more than a gold mine of writing prompts for teens to save time for teachers. It shares topics that can help teens focus on healthy futures. The book also urges teens to research the topics of the day, interrogate the evidence presented in various media, then think, analyze data, and write to share their own thought-provoking solutions with the world.
With guidance from caring teachers, teens can build their reading and listening abilities and polish their writing and speaking talents. To remove all doubt that teens can write, if they embrace writing, Davis-Kyle highlights currently successful non-dyslexic teen writers from Canada, Scotland, and the United States. She also reminds teens of outstanding dyslexic writers such as Agatha Christie, F. Scott Fitzgerald, Octavia Estelle Butler, and Daniel Eckstein of yesteryear, and Sherrilyn Kenyon, of today, all of whom also began their writing careers early in life. Thus, the teens are championed to step over, navigate around, or bulldoze through any obstacles that intrude, if they truly want to write. With a plan, a caring coach, and practice, they, too, can make their writing dreams come true.
This unique book takes a passionate stand to help prevent the bullying that dyslexic students sometimes face. Davis-Kyle introduces programmer Victor Widell’s resourceful innovation that helps non-dyslexic teens see—for a moment—what many dyslexics must endure every moment as they try to read. Some non-dyslexics boast that they have no problem reading Widell’s depiction. So be it for some. Nevertheless, Davis-Kyle gently reminds those who can read with such ease to be grateful for their good fortune. With the guidance of thoughtful instructors, dyslexic teens can and do often write with great success. With How to Motivate Students to Write for a Cause, it is hoped that they will find topics to pursue and will write with great vigor to share ideas from their often unique and profound perspective to help our society today.
Linda Davis-Kyle has been published in more than a dozen countries on five continents in magazines such as World Travel Magazine in Australia and Healthy Options in New Zealand, and professional journals such as Modern Drama in Canada and Studies in English Literature in Japan. Nothing brings her greater joy than to help others who are also beset with an insatiable desire to write just as she is. Many in our society today seem to be lost in a vast wasteland that limits thinking and clouds understanding. Reading widely, interrogating the evidence, analyzing fully, and drawing worthwhile conclusions can clarify a great deal, and sharing their ideas with the world can benefit not only the writers themselves but also their readers. Go for it!
“As a dyslexic, the typeface used in the special paperback edition of this book [OpenDyslexicAlta] assisted me with the tracking issues I have and made this a much more positive reading experience. The Hypnotist is a ‘must read,’ dyslexic or not.” Ervin Carpenter, Executive Director of WILDD
When Tom Lassiter hypnotized his friend Amanda Wilcox, the last thing he thought she would reveal was an abduction and murder that took place 25 years earlier. But who were the murderers, and why did Amanda and Tom have them to fear now?
“A great story from a new author . . . entertaining and fresh, even fascinating at times.”Lee Ashford for Readers’ Favorite
When, on an afternoon outing in Bayou Vermillion, Lafayette, LA, Amanda Wilcox has her fortune read by Madam Zu-Zu, she and her friend, Tom Lassiter, never thought it would lead to her having a nightmare in which she dreamed she was being choked to death. Under hypnosis, Amanda reveals to Tom that she once was a woman named Kyla Decker, who disappeared 25 years earlier after being stopped by a policeman while driving home early one morning after partying with her girlfriends. An Internet search reveals the name of another woman, Cindi Lathrop, who disappeared some years after Decker under similar circumstances. As Amanda’s and Tom’s relationship blossoms, the teenagers uncover evidence linking a former Lafayette, LA, policeman and a funeral home employee to the abductions, men who they suspect murdered the two women. But then, in what appears to be a real-life enactment of what the fortune teller told Amanda, Amanda and Tom find their lives threatened by one of the two men they think was responsible for the murders committed 25 years earlier. Can the teenagers survive, knowing the last of the five tarot cards read to Amanda by Madam Zu-Zu was Death? The only way to learn the answer to that question is to read The Hypnotist.
Available in Kindle and two paperback editions (Georgia and OpenDyslexicAlta fonts).
This is the account of a lonely and tiring journey that I set myself on some years ago for my son Tejas, and for other similar children and their hapless mothers. Tejas was diagnosed as dyslexic some years ago. Even before that shocking diagnosis came and shattered our lives, his everyday in school was a terrifying experience for him and us.
A restive kid by nature, Tejas could not cope with the grinding routine of regular school. He was speedily pronounced a troublemaker, lazy, and prone to throwing frequent tantrums, maligning the decorum and discipline of the classroom. The teachers could not comprehend his behavior, since no one, save me, knew of his malady, that he was the victim of a medical disorder.
As regular schooling became nearly impossible for my son, I began searching for a different educational environment, one that would not castigate him for his disorder but would reassure him of his abilities and instill confidence in him. To my dismay, I discovered that there was no such institution in Kerala that could satisfy the mother in me, and maybe even provide a measure of comfort.
By this point, I had come to realize that there were hundreds of hapless Tejases and silently grieving mothers like me in my neighborhood and across the state. I made a resolve to get my son quality education that would not nip away at his talents, but which would nourish his potentials and emotionally support his evolvement into a valued citizen of this society, The efforts I took in this direction bore fruit with the founding of Travancore National School, in Thiruvananthapuram, Kerala, offering specialized education tailor-made for children with learning disabilities such as dyslexia, dyscalculia, dysgraphia, attention deficit hyperactivity disorder (ADHD) and autism.
A lonely journey
Yes, it was a lonely journey all the way, too, through unfamiliar, uncharted terrain. Now, when the calendar has completed one full cycle, our school, which began with six kids on July 25, 2014, has grown to accommodate 44 students. Within a year of its opening, we could begin classes from kindergarten to class 12. Four of our dyslexia-challenged students passed their class 10 examinations through the National Institute of Open Schooling (NIOS).
Tejas, my son, Young Ambassador for dyslexia
During the initial period of the school’s functioning, we had another eye-opening experience that pointed toward the need for social education and raising awareness about learning disabilities. Some of our students’ parents approached us with a seemingly strange request –they asked if it was permissible to send their children to our school, robed in other schools’ uniforms. When asked why, the answer was invariably that they wished to avoid the social stigma associated with having their children attend a ‘special school’. Dismayed as we were, we managed to convince them otherwise, but the writing was on the wall – measures needed to be adopted to ensure these children would not be socially outcast. Needless to say, what was required was not a short-term solution, but social education to weed out the deeply rooted stigma. As a first step, I volunteered to project Tejas as the brand ambassador for dyslexia. Of course, much more needed to be done on a much larger scale. We would get to it later.
Sandhya and Teja
‘Our teachers, their mothers’
We at Travancore National School don’t refer to our faculty members as ‘teachers’, but as ‘mothers’ who take care of all the needs of their beloved children. Rather than syllabus and examinations, it is the overall growth and education of the children that are the focus of our educational program. Our ‘teachers–mothers’ are ably assisted by child psychologists and counsellors, who also extend their services to the children’s families in order to help them understand the unique qualities of their children.
We have also set up a well-stocked library, a computer lab, a visual learning studio, and special training apparatuses for our variously challenged children.
Live the colorful life
The co-curricular activities offered to our students include training in martial arts such as karate, musical classes including keyboard, computer education, vocational training, yoga classes, and sports, designed to help bring out the best in each individual.
We acknowledge the importance of students being equipped to thrive in the world outside their classrooms. To this end, we encourage our wards to take part in social activities such as harvest festivals and the planting of saplings, inspire them to grow up to be responsible citizens, and train them to mingle seamlessly with mainstream students through social interactions.
The summer camp held in May 2015 exposed the children to training in social and artistic skills. They tried their hands at cookery and painting, and also learned the basics of self-defense. They listened to dietitians speak about the importance of a healthy diet, and doctors demonstrated to them the basics of first aid techniques. They were also introduced to performing art forms such as Kathakali, folk dance, etc., in the camp
Take society with us
Recognizing the significance of social participation and inclusion, we also embarked on a mission to create awareness about dyslexia. Leading playback singer G. Venugopal joined the campaign by agreeing to be Travancore National School’s goodwill ambassador. This ensured that we got some attention in the press and on social media, which we were able to leverage to our advantage by focusing media coverage on our cause, all of which went a long way in promoting awareness about dyslexia.
The research cell of the Thiruvananthapuram branch of the Indian Medical Association’s (IMA) has joined hands with our school for a unique threefold awareness campaign.
Together, we are attempting to raise awareness of learning disabilities among parents, relatives, teachers, and medical professionals. We are also lobbying with the government to train teachers to identify and help children with dyslexia, and to set up affordable facilities in government schools to help the indigent children and their parents. Furthermore, we are working to develop a network of such institutions and to train professionals who can help the needy children from low-income families.
Tejas’s journey forward, our vision
Tejas is a happy child these days, and he enjoys every moment in school. Happy too are dozens of other Tejases, who shine like the lamps lit from the source, the Travancore National School. However, this is not the end of my journey.
Indeed, I am at the beginning of this journey and am now at a turning point in my life, as are several others around me. I realize clearly that I need to persist; I have a responsibility to make more Tejases smile, and I need to put my head down and plough on until the path on which I have set out is a smooth one on which hundreds of challenged children can hope to begin their life journeys smoothly. I need to strive hard to ensure that those children’s smiles reflect on the faces of their parents.
I hope to transform Travancore National School into a nodal center for children with learning difficulties, and to raise it as a training center for teachers who specialize in learning difficulties. I realize that the successful first year is only the first mile on this challenging road, and that I have many, many more miles to go before I sleep…
I was diagnosed with dyslexia at age 7. It was my mother who noticed it to start off with, as I had been able to get past my lack of reading by memorizing books from people reading them to me. The big issue at this time was reading, which I found incredibly hard, and that meant my writing was reams behind my classmates.
This all came to a head with my mum sending me to go and see a specialist teacher on the weekends, who helped me start to untangle the strange symbols into letters, and then into words, but by this time, I was far behind my friends in my writing. The good news was that as soon as I understood the letters I could read the words, in some fashion, and from there I started to fully grasp the English language and catapulted forwards with my reading, going from the worst in my class to one of the best readers – all in the space of a year or two and kindling a new found love of books that remains to this day. Sad to say, though, I wasn’t out of the woods; in fact, this is where the real issue with my dyslexia started.
Now I could read, articulate myself as well as the best of them, and had no real downside to my reading, so no obvious outward expression of my dyslexia until I started to write, and it was there I really showed how severe I had it. The fact was that most teachers, classmates, and the like couldn’t understand anything I wrote, so I stopped writing and did the bare minimum of notes in class, which was fine due to my ability to memorize things fairly well. I could still cope in class, but writing each year became more and more of an issue as the assessments got longer and longer, and my ability to string a coherent sentence together got weaker and weaker, resulting in the need for a scribe for my GCSE and A-levels. An issue that was slightly embarrassing at the time. But because I was good verbally and my recall was fine, I was able to sit for my exams, which I passed, and then I went to university. During my exam years I had stopped having specialist support lessons and help from teachers to try and improve my writing because of the severity of my writing meant that I had reached a point where the staff of the school I was at, as well as the staff at my university, didn’t know what to do me, being in the top 1% of dyslexic in the world. But although my writing structure could not improve, having a scribe in the exams allowed me to speak the answers, and as I could read and memorize things, this was fine. However, my lack of writing made it harder to really relate to people work-wise, as people couldn’t understand my emails, and most people find my text messages difficult to decipher!!
My biggest issue at university, which was almost a forewarning for my later life, was that the majority of people don’t understand dyslexia and definitely don’t understand that it comes at different levels. My dissertation brought down my overall final grade at university because my dissertation tutor had no idea how bad I was and assumed I was like the majority of dyslexics he had seen with a “mild case,” as he put it, but saying that I finished uni, got my degree in History, and set off to join the army. A job I had been working towards for five years, mainly because I had realized at 14, during my first job, that the inability to write coherent sentences without someone checking them puts a big black mark against getting a lot of jobs. So I got myself fit and had always been good at sports, and assumed my life would center on practical things outdoors – a career without writing. An idea I assume a lot of dyslexics have – to get me as far away from writing as possible. Anyway, as fate would have it, it was because of my dyslexia that the army failed me during my officer assessment. I actually have a letter from them acknowledging that my dyslexia is the problem, and as they don’t have to comply with discrimination laws, that was the end of the road for me.
A sting that took a long time to get over – I found it hard to accept that something I was born with would stop me from doing a career that I thought I was meant to do.
From this point on though, a very strange thing happened, I started writing, creative writing, maybe to help better myself or to prove to myself that I could, I don’t know but I started writing reams and reams of stuff and then landed on my series, Riders of the North, and I wrote all three books back to back; the two short stories and the main full novel story. It was at this time that some of my family and friends heard about what I was doing and wanted to read them, to which I hesitantly obliged. Strangely enough, they seemed to like them with comments like “that’s good,” “very visual,” “great battle scenes, very bloody” started coming back to me, followed by “You should try to get that published.”
Which leads me to here, probably the most severely dyslexic person you will meet who is an author with two books and a very small but still respectable audience, now trying to hit the big time and show the world that even if you are born with something that stops you from doing something, you still can. I shouldn’t be a writer. It’s crazy, if we bumped into each other in the street and you asked me to write down something for you, I probably couldn’t – or if I did, you wouldn’t understand it, but here I am with two books because of hard work and a good team around me. And it’s put me almost into a position that I believe I was born to occupy; writing my stories is something I really enjoy doing. It takes a lot of editing to get it to publication, but I want to show that with perseverance, it can be done. I have no contacts to make my route easy, no parent in publishing, no rich family to underwrite me, just a computer and a ton of hard work sprinkled with a bit of luck, and a heap load of dyslexia, which has made me so creative, something I now realize, and a good editor. So if you are dyslexic or know how hard dyslexia is to deal with, then please help me get my books out there to an even wider audience, and share them with your friends. If I can do it, anyone can, and I hope sharing my story will inspire others.
By Theodore J. Cohen, PhD (aka ‘Alyssa Devine’) Award-Winning Author of The Hypnotist
Anyone who’s self-published a book in the last ten years (or more), or who has ordered a book from Amazon, Barnes & Noble, Apple, or Kobo, among other online retailers, is probably familiar with the term print-on-demand, or POD, publishing. Simply put, the book you order isn’t printed until you order it . . . it is ‘printed on (your) demand’.
That’s a tectonic shift from the way the retail book business used to be run. In the past, when a book was published, whether by a legacy publisher or so-called ‘vanity press’, a fixed number of books was printed and literally put on the shelf (or packed in boxes and stored in warehouses or garages) in hopes they eventually would find buyers. Today, thanks to advancements in printing technology, that’s no longer the case for those of us who publish our own books. (Legacy publishers still print thousands of books for distribution through their retail outlets, and eBooks are a completely different story altogether.) Our books—that is, those usually published by so-called ‘indie’ authors—are available ‘on demand’, thanks to a multitude of POD publishing houses around the US. If you want to see one of these presses in operation—and they truly are a marvel to behold—take a look at this Website:
So, whether you want to purchase one or a hundred copies of a book available on demand, your order is not printed until it’s received and payment is tendered.
How can this benefit readers with dyslexia? Well, I’m sure you’ve noticed that there are not many books with interiors specifically designed for readers with dyslexia. In fact, I recently did a search on Goodreads’ Website, and was able to find only a few books, including The New Testament, King James Version, printed in OpenDyslexic.
The fact is, despite one in five people being dyslexic, most books are not printed for dyslexics, something of which many of you are painfully aware. To some extent, those who labor under this condition compensate for it by adjusting the typeface of the eBook they are reading (perhaps trying such typefaces as Arial, Comic Sans, Verdana, and others), increasing the spacing of the letters and/or the lines, using left-justification only (if that is even an option), changing the color of the letters (e.g., using blue-colored text on a white background or even trying black on a light blue/pink/yellow background), and other ‘tricks’. And when it comes to paperbacks, options are slim to none. Unless someone has gone to great lengths, it’s highly unlikely you’ll encounter special colors for type and paper. Finally, in the case of Kindle readers, there is very little flexibility when it comes to the typefaces that can be displayed, unless you apply a ‘fix’ to your Kindle. (There is a ‘fix’, by the way, that does not require hacking, but few will go to the trouble.)
So, how do we address the problem?
Well, a step in the right direction would be to make more POD books available in formats that are ‘dyslexic friendly’, something I recently attempted using the interior of my Young Adult (YA) novel, The Hypnotist. I published this book earlier this year in Kindle and paperback formats under the pen name ‘Alyssa Devine’.
Know, first, I am not dyslexic. But I came to appreciate the problems readers with dyslexia face not long ago when I read about the work of UK graphic designer Daniel Britton. Britton created a typeface that is intended to recreate for non-dyslexic readers the frustration and embarrassment people with dyslexia experience when they attempt to read newspapers, books, and other literature that most people are able to read every day of their lives. An example of simple text rendered in this typeface is shown below:
Typeface Britton
It’s not easy to read, is it?! You can read more about Britton and his work at the following site:
It was Britton’s work that inspired me to move forward with the creation of a special edition of The Hypnotist for readers with dyslexia.
The first thing I had to do was select the font I was going to use. Without boring you with the details, I’ll refer the interested reader, as my professors used to say, to the following blog I wrote, which should answer most of your questions (and then some):
Suffice it to say, I selected OpenDyslexicAlta as my typeface of choice (the same one used in the version of The New Testament cited above). Frankly, the idea of using a typeface specifically designed for people with dyslexia appealed to me, and if it were to be free (‘open source’), so much the better. The Open Dyslexic typefaces fit the bill, here. Bottom heavy, with unique character shapes, help make it more difficult for the reader to confuse letters. You can read more here:
Once the font was selected, I quickly eliminated the text’s right justification, which I learned could confuse dyslexics, substituted OpenDyslexicAlta for the regular text’s Georgia typeface, adjusted the font size, and voila, that was it. Total elapsed time: about two hours.
OpenDyslexicAlta
Now it was just a matter of obtaining a new piece of royalty-free artwork and configuring a special front cover (another two hours), and it was completed…the new edition was ready for uploading to Amazon’s CreateSpace for approval.
By the way, I felt it only right to include the following statement on the book’s Amazon.com Web page:
“This special edition of The Hypnotist is printed using OpenDyslexicAlta developed by Abelardo (Abbie) Gonzale: “Your brain can sometimes do funny things to letters. OpenDyslexicAlta tries to help prevent some of these things from happening. Letters have heavy weighted bottoms to add a kind of ‘gravity’ to each letter, helping to keep your brain from rotating them around in ways that can make them look like other letters. Consistently weighted bottoms can also help reinforce the line of text. The unique shapes of each letter can help prevent flipping and swapping.” You can get a good idea what the print looks like by using the LookInside feature on this Web page. Will the use of OpenDyslexicAlta help everyone with dyslexia? No. Because the expression of dyslexia in an individual is as unique as the individual him- or herself, no guarantee can be made that the use of OpenDyslexicAlta will help any given person with readability. This special edition of The Hypnotist, however, is intended, at the least, to provide an option to those readers with dyslexia who might be helped when reading books printed using the OpenDyslexicAlta typeface.”
You’ll find the special edition of The Hypnotist for dyslexics here:
[NB: the LookInside feature may or may not be active when you read this; it often takes several days before the feature comes ‘live’.]
Importantly, CreateSpace’s editors approved the book within 12 hours of submittal (actually, overnight), so theoretically, what was conceived as a project over dinner with my wife and editor, Susan, could have resulted in the book being available for sale on Amazon.com the next morning. That I waited until I was able to review a proof copy of the paperback edition three days later is simply good practice. (CreateSpace also gave me the option of reviewing the interior and cover online, but you never know what the final product will look like until you hold it in your hand.)
So, to my question: Can print-on-demand publishing mean more books for readers with dyslexia? It can…if…IF…POD publishers, especially indie authors/publishers, take the time to create special editions for the 20% of the population that would benefit from access to books tailored to their needs.
Theodore J. Cohen, PhD
Editor’s note: The author welcomes your comments and feedback; you may reach him by e-mail through either of his Websites:
HOW TO INSPIRE STUDENTS TO WRITE By Linda Davis-Kyle
As a youth, Lisa Shontea Nichols (b.d. May 18, 1966) endured from her speech teacher the words, “Miss Nichols, you should never speak in public,” and from her composition teacher, “Miss Nichols, you’re the weakest writer I ever met in my entire life.” 1
Rising above Denigrating Criticism
Yet, about three decades later, Lisa is a world-renowned transformational speaker who addresses audiences of 10,000 plus, and she is a bestselling author of six books with a seventh—Abundance Now: Amplify Your Life & Achieve Prosperity Today—ready for release at the time of this writing. As Lisa puts it, she “writes bestsellers, not books.” She is a co-author of Living Proof: Celebrating the Gifts That Came Wrapped in Sandpaper and the author of No Matter What! 9 Steps to Living the Life You Love and Unbreakable Spirit: Rise Above the Impossible. Not only is she a world-renowned speaker and bestselling author, but Lisa is also the founder and CEO of the multi-million dollar company Motivating the Masses, Inc.
Hearing Discouraging Comments May Be Quite Common
While aspiring writers can find a multitude of teachers and established writers making discouraging comments about and to youthful writers, I, as a contrarian on the matter, feel that it is important to encourage young learners to write as soon as they show any interest in writing. Some parents may see their very young children—who have enjoyed hearing stories read to them—sit with a notepad and draw wavy lines before the youngsters can read for themselves or even know the alphabet. When asked, “What are you doing?” they very well may say proudly, “I’m writing a story.” When such an action happens, parents I have known capitalize on that moment and encourage those efforts.
Appreciating Astute Parents, Grandparents, and Teachers
From the tiny bit I know from Richard Bandler, the great and wonderful co-creator of Neuro-Linguistic Programming, I suspect he would praise the parent or teacher who fosters the growth of thought in youngsters and their keen desire to put pencil to paper to write. Bandler likely would say that the words spoken are of supreme importance to young and mature alike who are inspired to write. To make it clear, neither Bandler nor I are talking about false praise. I’m referring to looking for and finding something good in the young writers’ compositions, theme papers, articles, stories, poems, songs, and books. Some careless comments can, in a sense, “hypnotize” and devalue the efforts of youthful writers.
Acknowledging the Impact of Positive Effort and Encouragement
Some who seem to tell youngsters they are not experienced enough to write, they have not seen enough of the world to write, they have no voice or style to write, may be wholly and completely correct in their assumption. I believe, though, that offering constructive criticism with thoughtful suggestions is totally welcome. Young writers learn to write by writing and being nurtured in their efforts. Giving harsh criticism can crush the spirit of some young writers. It is akin to pulling on a sprouting plant, uprooting it, and killing it before it has a chance to develop strong roots and flourish. Thoughtful communication and correction are to the students as water and sunlight are to the emerging sprouts. Why destroy enthusiasm in any eager writers—young or mature—who choose to share their talent with the world? Why try to stymy the love of a budding talent that needs only attention, direction, and their own devotion to their worthy goal?
Encouraging and Fostering the Love of Writing
One learns by taking lessons, by observing others doing their chosen activity, and by diving into the activity with passion. I prefer to encourage young writers. I say to young and mature writers alike that “no matter what anyone says to try to dissuade you or what anyone does to put obstacles in your path, keep studying and reading and working to improve your craft.”
Motivating with Encouraging Words from the Heart
Not all teachers are like Lisa’s. Encouragement can come from the hearts of caring teachers, parents, grandparents, and mentors. Reading and writing daily can keep would-be writers energized. Practicing step by step can help eager writers-in-the-making conquer obstacles that arise not only in writing but also in life. Adults who choose to be their mentors can guide and support teens to improve their writing through serious application of some fun ways of looking at writing. If your teens choose to continue to use some of the modest approaches to writing, such as warm-ups (which seasoned writers may or may not use) while exploring and learning more complicated techniques to polish their talents, all the while, who knows where their writing will lead them as they go forth into the world?
Looking Inside the Writing World of Some Teens
Had Jake Marcionette’s mother not encouraged Jake, he would not be a triumphant author with his published books, such as Just Jake #1 and Just Jake: Dog Eat Dog #2. His mother “encouraged” him. Actually, he explains that she “forced” him to write an hour and a half each day. As a successfully published author, though, force is no longer part of the equation. Marcionette says he “loves writing” now. Rachel Parent’s family encouraged Rachel with her passion to help bring the important anti-GMO message to her peers, her country, and the world. Had her parents not supported her efforts, Rachel would not have had the opportunity to meet with Canada’s Health Minister Rona Ambrose to speak her mind.
Sure. It’s good to have a handle on grammar and the parts of speech before one dives right in to write. The late Gary Provost says, “…you cannot write well without [the rules of grammar].” And, as I say in The Busy English Teacher… “recognizing parts of speech and how writers put the words to work can contribute to great fun and relevant learning for eager scholars. An abundance of practice researching, reading, and noting spelling awaits them around every corner. When given a little nudge in the right direction to motivate them, teens may be amazed at their own power. Young learners can experience the joy of learning. They can stretch their thinking when given fun challenges and exciting opportunities to explore. They can accept challenges they have not even thought of accepting before if presented in a non-threatening and fun way.” by
Writing Even before Becoming Supersaturated in Rules
Making a bold effort to keep the joy of writing alive, some educators do not intrude on the creative process for quite some time. Montessori schools, with which I am familiar, maintain an initial hands-off policy and just let budding writers write. After the young learners are comfortable with their masterpieces, their teachers, known as guides, gently introduce patterns and rules of spelling and grammar while still managing not to stifle the creativity of the young writers. Some students may excel in spite of harsh criticism, or even because of it, as Lisa has. Nevertheless, some teachers may choose to nurture rather than negate the writing of young students to help them achieve their dreams. If they wish, teachers can leave a legacy of kindness. Their kindness can live to connect with the hearts of their students to help sustain their inner power long after the teachers have gone.
Sources
1 Nichols, Lisa. “Questions That Will Stir Your Soul,” YouTube ~ https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=JuKCwS8wmls 24:32. 2 ldk, The Writer’s Friend, p. 14. 3 Marcionette, Jake. http://www.cbsnews.com/news/thirteen-year-old-author-writes-own-success-story/ 4 Provost, Gary. 100 Ways to Improve Your Writing. New York: Mentor, 1985, p. 107. 5 ldk, The Busy English Teacher’s Fun Activities & Exercises for Pre-Teens: Grammar Mind Maps, Fitness Games & More. Amazon Kindle Book.
About the Author
Linda Davis-Kyle, MA, has been published in North America, Europe, Africa, Asia, and Australia in professional journals such as Modern Drama in Canada, Chem Matters in the USA, Jewish Affairs in the Republic of South Africa, and Studies in English Literature in Japan, and in magazines such as Common Ground in Canada and Green Farm Natural Health in the United Kingdom. She is also the author of “Exploring ‘Treasure Storehouses’ of the World,” found on the American Dyslexia Association website. Davis-Kyle’s Amazon Kindle book, The Busy English Teacher’s Fun Activities & Exercises for Pre-Teens, is the perfect time-saving gift for overworked educators. It is overflowing with fun learning exercises that nurture the minds, bodies, and spirits of young learners.
For many, homeschooling is basically a day at home. You could be doing homework during the day and watching TV during lunch. Whether it is doing school work during the week or weekend, homeschooling gives you opportunities that you don’t have in public school. It is time to spend with your family, get your school year done earlier, and take some more educational trips. It is integral that homeschooling continues to be a part of our country and society. Many others may argue that home schoolers are cut off from kids their age, but these are some of the things that can be easily solved. Homeschooling should be a the ideal way to educate children because it offers various types of freedom to the students, such as religious freedom, because students do better on standardized tests and in academics, and because it makes students have more self-confidence, and they feel better about themselves.
Should you homeschool your dyslexic child?
One reason that students should be home-schooled is that it creates more freedom, such as educational, religious, and emotional freedom. As stated in the article, “The Pros and Cons of Homeschooling,” for educational freedom, “Most home-schooled students have the choice to study and learn what they want, when they want, for as long as they want,”(1). Educational freedom means that you get to learn what you want, when you want, and for as long as you want. This is good because if the student excels in adding and subtracting fractions, then they could move on and finish their school day earlier than other kids. Also, “Homeschooling provides the opportunity for parents to incorporate their beliefs into their daily lives” (The Pros and Cons of Homeschooling; 1). This evidence demonstrates my reason because being able to teach your children about your faith and beliefs. Many parents do home-school for religious purposes. For example, children and students that I watch on YouTube are home-schooled due to religious purposes. Finally, related to the topic of emotional freedom, The Pros and Cons of Homeschooling for Educational Freedom stated “According to studies, self-esteem plummets in middle school girls. However, similar studies of home-schooled girls have shown that self-esteem remains intact and that these girls continue to thrive.” To summarize what the quote said, the self-esteem of kids or girls in middle school drops for various reasons. If they are homeschooled, then self-esteem increases, and they continue to thrive. This evidence supports my claim because students who get bullied often feel so depressed, they don’t want to continue to try to succeed, and they feel worthless. The opposite is true for home-schooled children. Since they are not bullied, they continue to want to succeed. Which leads me to my next point.
Another reason students should be home-schooled is because of better test scores and academic performance. As stated in the Seattle Times, “Among the positives are better test scores, fewer dropouts, and higher graduation rates” (1). This proves my reason because students have better test scores and standardized tests, such as NJASK. They are succeeding in academics further than students in public or private schools. In the East Brunswick school district, I have learned that in order for you to make it into an honor class, for example, Verbal Gate, you must do well on the NJASK. Home-schooled children may have a greater chance of being a part of an honors class. This proves my argument because the better students do in academics, the more parents would want to homeschool their child. Also, “According to one study, children who were home-schooled achieved an average 1100 out of a possible 1600 on the SAT, a popular college entrance exam.” (Facts on File Issues/controversies Homeschooling pg. 2) Just to recap home- schooled children get an 1100 out of a possible 1600 on the SAT. The SAT is an exam that most students take in the 11th grade. This test is what colleges look at to see if you are good enough for their school. This is good because students who are home schooled have a greater shot at attending schools like the Ivy League. One example of an Ivy League school is Harvard. Many people have said that if you attend a good college, then you will get a good career, which will lead to a good life.
The final reason I think students should be educated at home is because they are able to receive more sleep. As stated in the Washington Post, “A new study of a few thousand students found that home-schoolers get more sleep than students at traditional public and private schools.” (1) This is very good because of appearance and health matters. In appearance, many students, including myself, have dark circles under their eyes due to lack of sleep. Not as many home-schooled children have this because they are able to get more sleep. This is bad for health-related matters because if students do not get enough sleep, then they won’t function properly and they won’t do as well in school. Also “55 percent of teens who were home-schooled got the optimal amount of sleep per week. 24.5 percent of students at traditional public and private schools got the optimal amount of sleep per week.” (Washington Post pg. 2) This is very good because if more than half of the home schooled teenagers get the recommended 45 hours of sleep per week then I may ask my parents to switch me to homeschooling.
The lesser researched side may say that homeschooling is bad because it can cut children off from kids their age, but I argue that this statement is wrong. According to Homeschooling companion.com, “One of the more serious negative effects of homeschooling is that children can miss out on the opportunity to interact with other children. This can stunt their development socially as they do not learn how to communicate or behave in group settings. This is obviously a vital skill in living and working as an adult,” (1) This statement can be true, but there are other solutions of interaction, such as team sports. Another con of homeschooling is that the child can miss experiences, such as field trips. This situation can also easily be solved if the parent is committed to homeschooling their child. They can also then take them to the museum.
Clearly, these are debatable reasons. But when you look at the facts it is obvious that one view makes much more sense than the other. It is essential that parents consider to home school their child because they offer various types of freedom to the students, because students do better in standardized test and in academics, and because they make students have more self-confidence. Sure, many others may argue that it is a waste of money or that it takes too much time, but they are wrong because of what I’ve explained. Sure, homeschooling may not be right for every child, but it might be right for you. You could be the one to homeschool your future or current children.
I am very excited for you to read and learn from this article. I would like you to get to know me. First I am only in middle school, 7th grade to be exact. Also the reason I was offered an opportunity to present my essay on the blog of the American Dyslexia Association was because of my Language Arts teacher. She wanted us to send our essays out to people so they can learn about our topics. My topic included “Should dyslexic students be homeschooled.” My classmates and I all thought nobody would listen to us because we are just 7th graders. But when I received a reply from the Executive Director of ADA, I was astonished. So thank you so much to my Language Arts teacher for helping me write the essay and ADA for giving me the opportunity to write this blog article and to inform you about the pros of homeschooling a dyslexic child.
By Catherine Attia, 7th grade, middle school
Editor’s note: Parents who decide to homeschool a dyslexic child often want more than encouragement, they want method. The Certified Dyslexia Trainer Program covers exactly that in 48 lessons, built on the AFS method used by more than 17,000 certified trainers in 64 countries.
TextProject is a website offering high-quality student texts and teacher guides, all of which are available for free download. Text for students, vocabulary lessons and lists, professional development modules and videos – TextProject provides a world of open-access resources for teachers, teacher educators, parents, tutors, and students.
Some examples of the resources you’ll find:
BeginningReads™
TextProject’s BeginningReads program supports teachers, parents, and tutors in helping children develop their reading skills. The goal of BeginningReads is to connect students’ oral language knowledge with written language. Ten levels (of 12 books each) are available. More information: click here.
FYI for kids
A collection of engaging and high-quality magazine articles designed to enhance the Common Core classroom’s reading repertoire. More information: click here.
SummerReads™
Students who don’t read much over the summer show a decline in reading performance from the end of one grade to the start of the next. Research shows that even reading 4 or 5 books over the summer helps to prevent the summer slump. SummerReads are accessible, engaging texts for at-risk readers… for FREE! And there are enough texts for an entire summer of reading. More information: click here.
Dyslexia affects up to 1 in 5 people, but the experience of dyslexia isn’t always the same. This difficulty in processing language exists along a spectrum — one that doesn’t necessarily fit with labels like “normal” and “defective.” Kelli Sandman-Hurley urges us to think again about dyslexic brain function and to celebrate the neurodiversity of the human brain.
Dr. Sally Shaywitz recently wrote, “In the case of dyslexia, (while there is always the desire for more), there is currently sufficient knowledge to do a far better job in identifying, intervening in, and accommodating dyslexia. There is an unacceptable and harmful wide gap between the robust existing science of dyslexia and how this knowledge is implemented, typically not implemented, by schools. In dyslexia, there is not a knowledge gap but rather an action gap. As a consequence, dyslexic children frequently go unidentified, unremediated, and unaccommodated, with great harm to the children, to their families, and to society. Educators must act to translate this body of converging science into policy and practice. Our children’s lives and futures (human capital) are too precious to waste.” We could not agree more!
Watch this compelling video and then visit “What is dyslexia?” on Ed.ted for more information, discussions, and links.
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