Dear Parents, Letter #19
Autumn is around the corner and slowly the days are getting cooler. The children are all in a good space and working well. I can already see such a wonderful shift in all of them – they are becoming a lot more self-directed, and independent. They are positive, eager and responsive and enjoying being together. At the moment we are working on our Maths Main Lesson. I wrote a story called The Troll and the Red Baron as our base content for the story sums, but alongside that we are also doing our reading programme and reading our chapter book The Little Wooden Horse – so much going on. I look forward to our parent-Teacher meeting on Wednesday at 5pm. Please make 1+ hours available for this. I am sending you two short articles on reading – which would be a good preparation for the meeting and any further discussion on reading in class 2. Silver Willow Term Dates for 2022 Term 1 -Sunday 16th – Welcome Tea at 3pm Term 1: 18th January – 31st March Term 2 - 26th April – 30th June Term 3 - 19th July – 23rd September Term 4 - 11th October – 8th December Enjoy the lovely cool day. Warmly. Teacher Beulah 14th March 2022 ARTICLE COMMON MYTHS ABOUT WALDORF EDUCATION: READING Is it true that Waldorf students are not taught to read until second grade? No! Learning to read is an entire process with many contributory facets. Waldorf education undertakes reading instruction in almost the opposite way that it is introduced in most schools across the nation Indeed, the foundation for reading instruction is laid already in the kindergarten. In South Africa, the mainstream approach to reading has been to introduce decoding skills as the first step in the reading process. This entails memorising the alphabet and its corresponding sounds through repetitive drills and then linking these sounds together to read simple words and sentences. This is the approach that is built into early readers. You probably remember: “See Dick run. Run, Dick, run. Run, run, run.” or some similar type of reading material when you were in school. Because the content of these early readers must be very simple to restrict words to those that can be easily sounded out, teachers are forced to wait until the middle and upper elementary years to work on more sophisticated texts. Then teachers must work hard to improve comprehension since the pupils at this age have already moved beyond the phase of where imaginative thinking is at its peak. There is a second concern about teaching reading skills in this sequence. This approach is difficult for many young children because, in many cases, their eye muscles have not matured to the point where they can track properly on a page. Thus, a number of children will be labelled as slow or remedial readers simply because their eyes may not have matured as early as other children. Waldorf Education approaches reading instruction from an almost opposite direction specifically so that instruction is synchronous with the development of children. Reading is much more than recognising sound/symbol relationships. For true reading to occur, there must be a corresponding inner activity that takes place as the child decodes words: that is, the child must form an inner picture of what he or she is reading so that comprehension develops. The rich life of the imagination is most potent in a child during kindergarten and early elementary years and is present at the same time that the child’s sense for the sound and rhythm of language is at its peak. To capture these capacities at the time that they are most present in the child is the rationale for a foundation of reading that begins first with spoken language. The rich language of fairy tales, the pictorial imagery of songs and poems and the desire of the young child to listen to stories and repeat rhymes and sing songs all become the basis for a language arts curriculum through which a child may come to love “the word”. Imagine how much more complex and imaginative are the stories to which a child may be introduced if they are orally presented rather than through the simplistic language of a reader. Imagine how much a child’s vocabulary can develop from listening to the content that the teacher brings. Imagine also how much more sophisticated a child’s understanding (comprehension) of the world can become through hearing the rich and complex language in the teacher’s presentations and stories. For all of these reasons, Waldorf students will be given a strong foundation in comprehension, vocabulary and in the sounds and meanings of their native tongue. Then students will be introduced to writing and spelling the letters and words that are part of their stories. And, as a final step, the students will read from their own texts describing the stories that they have heard. In this way, students have the proper time to develop all of the skills that are part of the complex skill of reading at the time when it is most appropriate for them to do so. When reading is approached in this way, children become voracious readers who love and understand what they choose to read. Adapted from the original Source : https://www.michaelmount.co.za/common-myths-about-waldorf-education-reading/ Literacy in a Waldorf School Myth: Waldorf Schools Don’t Teach Reading and/or Don’t Value Books Fact: Waldorf Schools teach literacy based on children’s natural developmental stages, so that they are taught as much as they are ready and able to learn, at the ideal age to be most receptive to what they’re learning. Many parents and teachers seem to think that reading is de-emphasised in Waldorf schools in general. This couldn’t be further from the truth. The Waldorf approach to literacy is Rudolf’s Steiner’s research and observations into how human beings learn most naturally. We learn best when we match the degree of what we take in to our own personal and physiological development. Taking it further, Steiner’s philosophy of literacy education is based on the evolution of language itself. As mankind developed language in certain organic stages, we learn language best in similar steps. The Evolution of Language As humankind began to interact, we needed to be able to communicate with one another. Sounds were assigned meanings. Soon spoken language developed. We could speak to one another. Next, we needed to record what was being said in some way. Marks, lines, and squiggles were used to designate words, thoughts, and ideas. Think hieroglyphics or cuneiform, as well as cave art and similar drawings. Naturally, if you have a written system of symbols used to communicate concepts, you need to be able to pass that system on so that others can use it, too. In other words: people need to learn to read what you have written. Children master language in precisely this sequence. That’s why language is taught in this sequence in Waldorf schools. From birth until a child’s seventh year, the focus is on the spoken word. We tell children stories of every kind, from lullabies to nursery rhymes, fairy tales to folk stories. Waldorf communities are encouraged to mirror the practise at home, so that storytelling and – more importantly – story hearing becomes a natural part of the child’s life. It’s very important that these stories are told as they were written, using the original language. There’s no need to simplify (or “dumb down”) the stories we tell our children. Teachers take care to tell stories this way, making sure to speak clearly and enunciate fluently – and we encourage parents to do so, too. This helps children enormously later on, when they start learning to write and spell. Language Lessons at Waldorf Young children learn through movement and play. For this reason, we incorporate various forms of movement and play into every day we spend together in those formative years. A typical Waldorf school day includes circle time, replete with songs, verses, rhymes, and poems. Through each of these, language weaves its foundation and becomes a natural part of each learner’s life. Repetition Circle time follows a sequence, and sequences are repeated every day over a period of two to three weeks. This means children learn the poetry, verses, and songs “by heart”. Most retain the memories for life. Incorporating the element of play into each lesson means that these memories are fond, fun highlights of learning, rather than the boring monotony so often associated with primary learning. Modern brain research confirms what Rudolf Steiner asserted in the 1920s: repetition aids brain development, and is essential for learning. This is because repeating what we learn and experience – whatever it may be – creates and strengthens neural pathways in the brain. Speaking At Waldorf, we believe that words are the foundations of spoken language – not sounds. We don’t spend hours singing the ABCs, or trying to hammer phonics into unwilling minds. We allow children to discover the beauty of language for themselves, via first-hand experience. We prepare their fertile minds to read and write by watering them liberally with the spoken word. This is why so many people are impressed by how articulate Waldorf children are. They tend to have large vocabularies and notable memory recall, often being able to recite long passages by heart, with joy and inflection. Writing While we’re training the language centers of our learners’ minds, we’re training their bodies, too. Fine motor skills such as knitting and craft prepare small fingers for the dexterity needed to write well. Even though reading is not taught formally in class one, the concept of letters and sounds is introduced. Letters are represented visually, in a highly imaginative way. Each new letter is linked to an element of the story being studied. For instance, a teacher might tell a story of great daring, involving a knight who needs to climb a daunting mountain to get to the valley at the end of his quest. Children then draw mountains in the shape of an M, and the corresponding valley in the shape of the V. In this way, the concepts are linked in their minds. The concepts are no longer abstract and remote: it is learning in a way that engages a child’s imagination. Once children have learned all of the letters in this way, they copy the teacher’s writing. Usually a teacher will have taught the children a verse, song, or poem that she then writes on the board. The class copies the poem into their “Main Lesson” books. Because they’re already familiar with the work, they start to recognise the words they’re writing. It’s so important to note that these children are making these connections themselves. Their minds are ready to absorb the information, and it takes root naturally and organically. In this way, the child develops a living relationship with each letter and the written word. It is not dry and abstract. Writing is taught in a way that engages the child’s imagination. Reading Just as reading is the final step in the natural evolution of language, it is the natural last step in basic literacy training in a Waldorf school. We typically see learners start to acquire the skill towards the end of class two or during the course of class three. One very important note is that, just as children learn to crawl and walk at varying ages, so reading happens at a range of ages. The main ingredient for a successful reader is a fertile mind. With that in place, reading unfolds naturally, when the child is ready. In the same way that a healthy child will learn to walk and talk without specific instruction, healthy children in the right environment can easily learn to read by themselves. The main requirement for reading is that healthy environment. And that’s what Waldorf offers. Books Those uninspired early readers and dry textbooks so popular in modern classrooms don’t find their way into a Waldorf school. Instead, children are nourished on a steady diet of rich literature from their earliest days at Waldorf. Once they have mastered reading, they have the opportunity to read classic literature and biographies, which most do with obvious pleasure.
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