Here are a few memorable things that are simple but special to me. I would like to hear your stories.

Name That Sound

When we read comic strips we take for granted certain things. For instance, some written sounds that I'm familiar with in comic strips are things like bang, bam, swoosh, smack, etc. When a grade 5 student passed in this picture, I found it refreshing. As you can see, his first language is not English, in fact it is Dutch. I've kept this work of art for nearly 20 years and it never fails to bring a smile to my face.

World Perspective

One day, in a language arts assignment, students were asked:" if you could change one thing what would you change?" My grade 6 student wrote this response:

Phonics

I find it exciting to watch and see students develop their own learning strategies. One day we were studying and doing exercises in phonics, a demanding subject for a grade 5 Dutch boy who was entering his third year of immersion in English. The phonics books required that the student distinguish between the "th" sounds in words like thick signified with the phonetic symbol [th] and these indicated with a symbol. After some frustration, he came to me with a plan, on his page he showed me how he would use the symbol [f] for the [th] as in thick, and [v] for the , as in these. I was amused and pleased to see how he had come up with a very effective strategy for getting over this hurdle in phonics.

If you have stories to share, contact me at It's Magic