High School Reading Program
Alpha
♪Notes♫
A sounds-sense
approach to
reading remediation
“Tasha’s Story”
© 2010
A high school reading program method centered around youthful music appreciation lesson plans
During the 3 years that I spent at the Reading Center, many students of Tasha’s skill level and beyond passed through the doors. Several of which I had the privilege of serving as either the primary or guest tutor.
These experiences were the foundation on which I built and customized my private practice.
In 2004, I met Tasha an outgoing, chatty high-school senior who loved rap music and going to the movies. Tasha effortlessly caught the subway and then transferred to a city bus to attend her weekly tutoring sessions at the Oakland California reading center that I was employed with as both the Operations Manager and newly certified reading instructor. During one class, when confronted with the letters ‘s-t-r-u-t’ on the page of a book that she was reading, it appeared as if Tasha was looking at a foreign language that she couldn’t translate onto her
mental screen… which frustrated, embarrassed and angered her.
This particular exchange between Tasha and her tutor, a senior instructor at the center who also had a teaching degree, was a life altering light-bulb moment for me.
As I listened to my colleague discuss how upsetting this session was for her student, I was struck with the idea that instead of unsuccessfully attempting to take a whole word or soundless approach to reading, what if Tasha were coached to take a sounds-sense approach, where letters = sound pictures or musical notes and words could be broken down and understood as pieces-of-sound.
Although Tasha was reading challenged, because music is so natural for teenagers, using music as an aid to teach reading would also make the subject matter natural and easily understood. What a boost to her confidence and reading abilities, if she were taught how to mentally connect her love of music and mastery of rapid-paced lyrics to the equivalency of instantly translating letters into pictures of sounds.
