The Clara James Approach to learning
When it comes to learning we are all individuals.
The past 20+ years have taught me that no matter our learning style if the child is engaged and relaxed they are more likely to learn.
If we just keep giving them the same resources, varied over and over again, all we are doing is giving them one place in their brains to find the information. However, by giving them a variety of resources we can make it more interesting, more relevant, and help them to create multiple memories so that when they need to recall the information, they have more places they can go to in order to find it.
If we can boost their confidence as well as their knowledge we will make their life and ours easier.
For 20 years now I've been fascinated by different learning styles: ASD, Dyslexia, ADHD. The purpose of this podcast is to share my findings with you, so that maybe what I've learned will be of help to you too.
The Clara James Approach to learning
Trying to remove the dread of reading out loud...
I was talking about reading the other day with a mum. Very often the challenge isn’t just in finding something that they are willing to read, but in the actual act of reading itself.
A lot of children struggle with reading. Especially reading out loud. All enjoyment goes out of the story as all you can think about is the effort of what is to come. Sounding our words, recognising letters, remembering what the story was about, keeping your place in the text. And people regard this as fun, how!!
Since the beginning of tutoring, we’ve used the ‘dotty board game’. We have a page of A4 paper and around the edge/ across the middle we have 6 yellow dots, 6 blue dots, 6 green dots. You can be green, I’ll be yellow.
You roll the dice and that determines how far you can move. You can go in any direction, but you can’t change direction halfway through a go. If your counter lands on a green, you will need to read a sentence, paragraph, page, or whatever we deem to be appropriate. If anyone lands on a yellow, I’ll have to read.
If someone lands on a blue, they roll the dice again and there is a selection of forfeits which are determined by the number on the dice:
1) have another go
2) go forward 3 spaces
3) go back 6 spaces
4) miss a turn
5) other person reads
6) you need to read again
My idea when I cam up with this was to take the onus off one person having to put in all the effort as I knew as a child how I used to hate reading out. In my head, no problem. As soon as I started reading out loud, I became a bumbling buffoon. I also felt that if you never knew when your turn was coming it would mean in you had less of an opportunity to sit there in dread because you would also become too caught up in the game.
We’ve adapted the game and use it for answering other questions as well, but this was the original purpose. You may decide to change the dots for images of each player, or if you are a particular fan of dogs have a different breed instead of different colours. If you’re following the football, you may choose different teams which are playing.
Have a great week and speak soon,
(if you are interested in finding out more about the membership group, you will find the details here: The Clara James Approach)