Windows of Opportunity for Readers

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"This window of opportunity also explains why one of the strongest predictors of a child's reading ability in school os the amount of one-to-one conversation between caregiver and child in the first three years of life.

The ability to differentiate sounds is the first crucial step to the path to associating sounds with letters. Kids who don't learn to distinguish sounds during that time usually have trouble learning to read later on.

Reading's first lessons don't happens in school: They happen in the crib during that important window of opportunity."

- David Walsh, PhD. No: Why Kids - of all Ages - Need to Hear It and Ways Parents Can Say It. Free Press, Toronto. 2007. pg 45

Not Done Talking

Doctor Who: "Anyway, that's not the plan."

Dr. Song: "There's a plan."

Doctor Who: "Not yet, I haven't finished talking."

- Doctor Who Series 5 Episode 5 "Flesh and Stone"

This quote speaks to the power of speech and how it can be used in the process of thought. It hearkens back to another favourite quote of mine, 

“I have to engage in endless dialogue before I write,” McLuhan explains, “I want to talk a subject over and over … I do a lot of my serious work while I’m talking out loud to people. I’m feeling around, not making pronouncements. Most people use speech as a result of thought, but I use it as the process.” 


- Fitzgerald, Judith. Marshall McLuhan: Wise Guy. XYZ Publishing: Montreal, 2001. pg 58-59.

I like to talk over ideas too. I find my best ideas actually come through in conversations. I don’t know why this is, but it does seem to be the case. When I read this quote, I knew that I wasn’t alone in this. 

I have solved problems in my class by talking. I have come up with lesson plan ideas through speech. I have come up with behaviour management techniques, routines, and countless other useful things through the process of speech. 

Cool, eh? 

Stupid…Echoes

"You know how sometimes the last sentence you said, like, echoes in your brain? And it just keeps sounding stupider? And you have to say something else just to make it stop?"
Angela on My So-Called Life

Dialogue as Thought Process

“I have to engage in endless dialogue before I write,” McLuhan explains, “I want to talk a subject over and over … I do a lot of my serious work while I’m talking out loud to people. I’m feeling around, not making pronouncements. Most people use speech as a result of thought, but I use it as the process.” - Fitzgerald, Judith. Marshall McLuhan: Wise Guy. XYZ Publishing: Montreal, 2001. pg 58-59.

I like to talk over story ideas too. I find my best ideas actually come through in conversations. I don’t know why this is, but it does seem to be the case. When I read this quote, I knew that I wasn’t alone in this.

I have solved problems in my class by talking. I have come up with lesson plan ideas through speech. I have come up with behaviour management techniques, routines, and countless other useful things through the process of speech.

I have actually been thinking about starting a writer’s group to this end. I have heard about groups that meet over the telephone on conference calls. It’s an interesting idea that I will need to explore so more.