Page 22 - How to teach reading with heart

a statement that made fireworks go off
in my head. He stated, “As you approach

that note, I want you to lift your left heel
and turn it a forty-five-degree angle at

the same time you are to raise your left
shoulder. I want you to create a muscle
memory for that note in this measure.”

I was astounded. I know about muscle
memory. Anyone who has learned to ride

a bike knows muscle memory. But to hear
it in this context, by this person, amazed
me and my head exploded with thoughts

about Sammy. What did I miss? What
aspect of muscle memory could I have

developed for him?

Now, I introduce a special little boy. From

the first day I picked up David, (not his real
name), from his second-grade classroom,

I knew I was in trouble. The bounce in his
walk. The light in his eyes. Freckles that
danced from cheek to cheek told me he

was expecting me to have a magic wand to
wave and give him the ability to read. We

struggled together, David and I. In addition
to his dyslexia it soon became apparent
there was an additional hindrance. The

more I worked with him the more I began
to see deficits in his working memory.

Our working memory is a temporary
holding place. Remember in school

when you had to learn the Gettysburg
Address or a poem to recite to the class

and you learned it line by line. Each time
you learned a line you put it in your
working memory. You repeated the line

22 myindigosun.com