Emails to and from Nora Chabazi

 

Following are my emails to and from Nora Chabazi. 

Think for yourself if the Right to Read producers are looking for ways to reduce illiteracy. 

David (Dyslexic) Chalk (Part 3)

 

From David Chalk’s website:

People with learning difficulties can learn. However, the way that reading is taught at schools doesn't work for their brains. So, difficulty in reading is a symptom that comes about as a result of the flawed education system.

Over the years, David has spent several hours with educators who've used various approaches in an attempt to learn to read, but nothing worked for him as the mere 11 hours he spent with Nora in May 2021.

Nora said, 'If you do what I tell you to do, I will show you that your struggle is not because you can't read but because you were never properly taught how to read.'

David (Dyslexic) Chalk (Part 2)

                                                  Listen to the YouTube of David. LINK

The following is extracted from this website with my thoughts.

By 62, David Chalk had seen it all. While David conquered the world, he never managed to achieve the only thing he always had truly wanted, To Read Fluently.

He was a popular media personality, had built his business empire, made millions, was awarded a doctorate in technology by the University of the Fraser Valley for holding the world's only true patent in cyber security and was described as having a brilliantly gifted mind.

 

My thoughts:

I have repeatedly said that my so-called dyslexic students are smart kids. They have done exceptionally well in schools and Universities.

Sight word – another perspective

 

 

Yesterday, I had a Zoom conversation with a wonderful lady from California who identifies as a Literacy Specialist. She expressed her confusion about the visual memorization of High-Frequency Words (HFWs). Coincidentally, this morning I came across a LinkedIn post by Nicola Lott from Canada discussing sight words and their varying interpretations. She noted, “sight word means different things to different people, creating a lot of buzz—and some confusion.”

 

In my book, I used the term “sight word” as it has been defined for decades. However, while proofreading two books for Dr. David Kilpatrick, I realized that sight words encompass any words we can recognize by sight. 

Terms like Dolch Words, Fry Words, and Heart Words are categorized as High-Frequency Words.

PSYCHOLOGICAL ASSESSMENT REPORT

 

I am copy-pasting this from another blog-post of mine where I have the testimonials of parents of kids I have taught. This is because I have referred this on my post on David Chalk and would like my readers to read it here. This was first posted in my blog in 2019.

PSYCHOLOGICAL ASSESSMENT REPORT

Date of Assessment: 08.01.2019

Chronological age: 9 years 7 months

Report: 

Emmanuel was referred by Dr. Fauziah (Gleneagle Hospital, Kota Kinabalu, Sabah) due to his learning difficulties and to ascertain his cognitive functioning and whether he is dyslexic.

He can read one-syllable simple English words and a few two-syllable Malay words. He is also slow in writing and when asked to copy, he made mistakes easily. However, he is good at memorizing. With regard to his academic activities, Emmanuel is easily bored, but he can spend many hours playing computer games.

David (Dyslexic) Chalk (Part 1)

 

David Chalk posted the following on LinkedIn and let us study this.

This is what is about him on his profile.

About

Through my life experiences, I work to empower those who have struggled and suffered through schooling, particularly with reading difficulties and labeled dyslexic.

These struggles lead to a loss of confidence and self-esteem often manifesting as sadness and shame.

 

The following is what he posted on LinkedIn.

Universal screening

 

This morning I read a comment on my blog and answered it as below. 

This comment made my day. She said, 'I appreciate your philosophical approach'. 

May God bless her for such appreciative words. 

The comment was on my post on ‘An Ounce of Prevention - Benjamin Franklin’.

Anonymous

Thanks, Luqman. I appreciate your philosophical approach to how to best approach reading instruction. Do you think that universal screenings will help in prevention?

Accountability and transparency of Reading Reforms Foundation UK

 

Is the Reading Reform Foundation influenced or controlled by external powers such as funding sources, political agendas, or institutional pressures?

Should there be more accountability and transparency in organisations advocating educational reforms?

I can think of only 3 probable answers to the attitudes of the committee members of Reading Reform Foundation.

They are controlled by the Funding Sources or the committee members are naïve.

Another reason could be to protect their rice bowls – intervention services and sales of educational material.

Controlled by Funding Sources (Part 2)

 

Has the National Research Council hoodwinked the educators and parents?

The National Research Council in their book ‘Preventing Reading Difficulties in Young Children’ on page 22 says:

‘There are 3 sounds represented by 3 letters in the word “but” but each sound alone does not refer to anything, and only the middle sound can really be pronounced in isolation; when we try to say the first or last consonant of the word all by itself, we have to add a vowel to make it a pronounceable entity.’

What nonsense is this?

How did a 6-year-old kid in Lagos pronounce the letters without adding a vowel sound to consonants? LINK

How did this lady pronounce letters without adding a vowel sound to consonants? LINK

Controlled by Funding Sources

 

 

In my previous post, I posed a critical question: Can researchers, organizations, and government foundations be influenced or controlled by external powers such as funding sources, political agendas, or institutional pressures?

 

This inquiry leads us to consider who is behind BabyTV, the producer of Charlie and the Alphabet, which I believe negatively impacts children's learning.

Consider this question with what Edward Thorndike and Charlie Munger said. LINK

 

The dynamics of knowledge acceptance and personal bias.

 

This is a continuation of my post yesterday. LINK

Biases can lead us to interpret information in ways that confirm our beliefs, rather than seeking information that challenges them. We may be influenced by social factors, such as the majority’s views, which can lead us to hold beliefs that are not based on evidence or reason.

Can researchers, organisations, Government Foundations etc. be influenced or controlled by external powers such as funding sources, political agendas, or institutional pressures?

An Ounce of Prevention - Benjamin Franklin

 

Benjamin Franklin famously advised fire-threatened Philadelphians in 1736 that “An ounce of prevention is worth a pound of cure.” While preventing fires is certainly preferable to battling them, we must consider the broader question: how can we protect ourselves from natural disasters?

 

Let’s shift our perspective. How does this principle apply to education?

Reflection on "The Courage to Be Disliked" by Ichiro Kishimi and Fumitake Koga

                                                

These are extracts from a Facebook post by my friend Harold Rozario and my thoughts.

In this thought-provoking dialogue, the authors engage with Alfred Adler’s psychological principles to explore themes of self-acceptance, personal freedom, and the essence of happiness. The conversation unfolds between a philosopher and a young man, leading to several insightful concepts:

 

Separation of Tasks: A key idea in the book is the "separation of tasks," which encourages individuals to discern their responsibilities from those of others.

 

I have taken on the task of raising awareness about why some children disengage from learning to read and how we can combat illiteracy. I know nothing about politics and many other matters and leave that to others.

Reading Recovery and Kareem Weaver

 

Today, 14.11.24 (Malaysian time) the following was Tweeted by:

Kareem J. Weaver @KJWinEducation

 

I believe Reading Recovery... a program embedded in districts AND universities, is a menace. Parents have no idea this snake oil is being sanctioned, sold, and used on the children who need the most help learning to read.

 

I know nothing about Reading Recovery or any other reading programmes.

I don’t criticise reading programmes that anyone claims to work. Thousands of teachers successfully teach using various methods.

Why would anyone criticise the video? LINK

Multiplication of 6 to 10 times Table made easy

This article is for parents with children finding difficulty with their time's table.

Many parents, from a number of Yahoo Groups I belong to, have asked me if I know of a simple way to teach Multiplication tables. I have in the year 2010 written to many parents telling them what I had learnt from my dyslexic students on multiplication from the 6 time table onwards.

This is just a crutch for the time being and should be discarded once the student has learnt his multiplication tables. In fact, after a few months of using this method multiplication will have been memorized.

To use this method place the hands in front of you and have the back of the hands facing you as shown in the diagrams. The thumb is represented by the number 6. The index finger (pointer) number 7, the middle finger is number 8, the ring finger number 9 and the little finger number 10.

By following two or three of the diagrams in the attached folder you will be able to see how the times table is done.

I teach my students this method and they are extremely happy that they can easily multiply 6 times to 10 times table in less than 10 minutes.

Note: Unfortunately the drop-box I had used to record all the diagrams drawn by my daughter is now not available.

So, I have done a simple video to show you how this is done.

 

I am afraid I lost the original clip of the video. Please click on the link for my blog on mathematics.  Link