Page 23 - How to teach reading with heart

so many times it was sent to your phonological/long
term memory and stayed there until the next line came

through your working memory. Think of it as words
going from one chamber of the brain to the next. In the

classroom teachers use activities called ‘chunking’ and
‘get the gist’ to strengthen a child’s working memory.
If a child has a severe deficit in their working memory

activities need to be more focused and it takes time to
correct. A child with a working memory deficit reads

a sentence, by the time his eyes get to the end of the
sentence the words at the beginning of the sentence have
faded away. Remediation takes time.

There was a special light in David’s eyes. I saw him. This
little boy, as time after time he would lay open a book or

magazine in front of me with a picture of a bridge. His
little finger would trace a line on the picture. “See this
line?” “It is what holds up the bridge.” On another day

his finger would trace the picture saying, “This is not a
strong bridge, it needs a line here.” or another time, “I

would put a line here on this bridge.” I saw him. I could
see in my mind’s eye a bridge in the future glistening in
the sunlight. A bridge the descendants of my children

would cross. I could see in my mind’s eye a bridge that
glowed under the light of a full moon with lines in all the

right places. I stood across desks. “Please don’t do this.”
“Do not label him and put him in a box he doesn’t fit in.”
“It takes time.” Time was taken away. Eyes grew duller,

freckles no longer danced across his face, only crawled.
This I saw as we passed in the hallways. The future had

disappeared. Bridges would not be built.

I promised myself I would not stand in the middle of my

soap box and shout to the world, “We are destroying the
bridges to our future.” No, instead, I will stand on one corner
of my soap box and whisper, “Life is about the bridges we

can build. Our children are the bridges to the future.”

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