Lois Letchford, Lincoln Project Differentiation of Instruction.

5 Aug 2020 · 3 min

Watch on YouTube

2:36

In this video, author and literacy advocate Lois Letchford recounts her son Nicholas's severe early reading difficulties, including failing first grade, reading only ten words, and being labeled with a low IQ. She describes how a supportive second‑grade teacher employed differentiated instruction by simplifying spelling words (cat, hat, rat, etc.), which revealed that Nicholas could not even write a single letter. This realization prompted Lois to rethink her teaching approach, leading to targeted interventions that ultimately transformed Nicholas's academic trajectory. Lois frames the experience within a broader metaphor linking the challenges of slow learning and forgetting to the Lincoln Project, emphasizing the need for individualized support and belief in struggling learners. The video ends with a call to like, subscribe, and return for more content.

Chapters

Hello, I'm Lois Letchford, author of the book Reversed: A Memoir and literacy problem solver, talking about Slow to Learn, Slow to Forget: The Lincoln Project and how it relates to literacy. I have my son Nicholas as a guide. He failed first grade. Testing at the end of the year showed he could read 10 words. He had no strengths and above all, he had a low IQ. It puts a child in a basket that is incredibly hard to get out of. And as I said in the beginning, as a parent, I felt as if I was in a jungle and there was no roadmap for me to get out. Many things changed for my son, and he had an extraordinary journey to help him succeed. The first was having a teacher who believed in him. He went from first grade to second grade even though he had learned nothing, but his teacher said to me, I will help him. I will do whatever I can. The first thing she did was differentiated instruction, and it was obvious to me she did it because she changed the spelling words. The first spelling words my son Nicholas had in grade 2 were the words cat, hat, rat, bat, sat, and mat, and one odd word, the word is. With that change of instruction, Nicholas came to me and he said, please help me spell my— do my spelling words. An old— something happened that I will never forget and wrote about in Reversed. And that was when I asked Nicholas to get a piece of paper and write his spelling words out, which is the first thing that comes to mind. He did, but he sat there with his pen in his hand, his arm over his paper, and he just sat and he couldn't move. That's when I realized he didn't even know how to write a letter. That was a stunning realisation, but it also caused me to stop. It caused me to think and say, what else do I have to do to teach this child to read? And that was the first change that made a significant difference, difference in his life and my life. Lois Letchford. Hit like, hit subscribe, and join me again tomorrow.