A great free site that offers fun and education for families is Bitstrips.com. The site is designed so you can make your own comic strips. You can type text into speech bubbles with several font options. There’s plenty here for beginning writers to explore.
Bitstrips is simple to navigate. Children can become familiar with the click-tools in 10 minutes or less. Adults can let kids use the site on their own, and ask the youngsters for a tutorial later.
Whether you’re a teacher, a home schooling parent, a tutor, or even a babysitter, you can integrate bitstrips into a literacy lesson that lets everyone publish a final result.
Reading and understanding aren’t the same thing. Some people can read, but their ability to process and organize information isn’t adequate for comprehension.
Here’s a quick reading game you can play with your child to determine their comprehension level.
Copy the pages of their favorite story book. If your child is a pre-reader, leave the pictures in. If your child already reads, cut the pictures off and just save the text. Shuffle the story pieces then ask your child to rearrange them.
Children with good reading comprehension and sequencing skills will be able to put the story back together in the correct order.
If they can’t do this, repeat the exercise 2-4 times each week. Let the readers draw pictures of their own to complement the text. Let the non-readers color on the pictures that are there. When you do this exercise, discuss what comes next. Share with them your thoughts about the sequence of events. Ask them to share their thoughts.
Make this a fun dialogue and they’ll continue to think about the order of text when they read on their own. They’ll learn to see individual words in context of the sentences and the paragraphs.
Sometimes it’s nice to check your text by hearing it read aloud. If you don’t have a reader, your Mac can read to you. Here’s how:
In the apple menu open “system preferences.”
Open “speech.”
Click on “text to speech.”
You can select a voice and tempo that you prefer.
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The “set key” button allows you to create your own option-key to type in when you want your computer to read, like “command x” or “option k.”
When you’re done with the menu, open a document. Highlight the text you want to hear and type in the command sequence that you chose.
Voila! It speaks!
Most parents want their children to be successful readers, but many don’t understand the biggest difference between normal and disabled readers. The most foundational skill is the ability to differentiate sounds. This is not the same as mimicking sounds and learning to speak.
According to the National Institute of Health researchers, “Phonemic awareness is the most important core and causal factor separating normal and disabled readers.”
Phonemic awareness is the ability to distinguish sounds. Dyslexics who lack phonemic awareness may speak fluidly, but are unable to assign a sound value to letters or letter groups. They don’t respond to phonics teaching, because they aren’t phonologically aware enough to recognize sounds.
You’ve probably heard of a critique group, but have you ever considered being in one?
Here are 3 reasons to join a critique group.
1. Error recognition. It is much easier to recognize mistakes you read in someone else’s writing than it is to recognize the exact same mistakes in your writing. Once you’ve identified a problem in another person’s manuscript, it will be far more obvious in your own.
2. Impact recognition. Two writers whose text is having the same impact, or a lack thereof, will be able to discover why certain passages are working and why they aren’t. Their shared understanding will make them both better writers.
3. Good critique buddies will tell you flat-out what’s going on with your story. They’ll tell you what to keep and what to round-file.
Are You In A Critique Group? Or has your prose never seen the light of day? Critique groups have a lot to offer.
Think about what you are willing to put into a critique group and what you’d like in return.
Group members can required to meet various criteria: screenplays only, fiction only, published writers only, 6 people max, 2 comments per person. Minimum page submissions, and so on.
Look for a group that fosters your growth as a writer and helps you hone your skills.
If you’ve never been to a writing retreat, put one on your calendar now. I’m fortunate to have spent 3 days in the mountains with similarly minded novel, screenplay, short story, and non-fiction writers.
The buzz included mythology, social media, mysteries of Microsoft Word, $25.00 first sentences, astronomy, and the amazing meals we ate.
Some of this may seem irrelevant to writing, but think tanks are like pools. You’ll swim better in one than on dry land.
Let me know what your writing retreats have been like.
Duet Reading, aka neurological impress reading, is the best way to improve a child’s reading level. One study showed a 2.2 grade level increase in reading competency after using this method for about 11 minutes per day for 2 weeks.
Sit next to your child with a book that she likes. Choose something slightly difficult for her. Point to the words as you read them and have your child point right along with you. She should also say the words with you -as soon as she hears what you’re reading.
This exercise is fun, but it can be tiring. Don’t overdo it or you’ll lose your reader’s interest.
This doesn’t have to feel like study time for your child. It can be a great way for grandparents to enjoy toddler time. The exercise also works well for differently abled readers, ESL students, or stutterers.
Want to learn to write better? Participate in an ‘Open Mic’ reading. Some of these are limited to poetry, but many are open to fiction, stage plays, you name it.
When you read your work silently, you don’t hear the rhythm of your prose. Reading aloud will make you instantly aware of run on sentences, interrupting clauses, and extra modifiers.
Reading your work loudly and slowly allows you to hear it the way your readers hear it.
Most open mic nights are social and you’ll have the benefit of networking with other writers as well.
Not all dyslexics see text the same way. Dyslexic readers may have a variety of visual challenges when reading. Here is one way that dyslexic readers may see text incorrectly.
Many dyslexics see letters backwards or out of order within words. Variants of the word bar are shown here with the letters transposed or backwards. There are 40 possible variations, and 39 are wrong.
This is a list of possible ways that the word bar may be interpreted incorrectly by a dyslexic reader.
Consider taking a math test while transposing numbers.
4 + 26 = 30, unless it’s really 4 + 62
More views of dyslexia will be posted, so check back for updates.
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