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Hand-embroidered Hmong artwork brightens the school

At North Star Community School dedicated teachers and an astounding program help students learn to read

On a quiet, residential street in Minneapolis, Minnesota resides North Star Community School. The building—a minimalist modern structure of concrete and glass—contrasts with the 1940′s bungalows surrounding it. On a winter day, the streets are silent, except for the occasional crunch of tires on snow. But inside, you can hear the eager voices of elementary school children and teachers working together in open learning spaces and classrooms.

Despite the hard and expansive gray concrete walls, the school emits warmth and vibrancy. Hand-embroidered Hmong wall hangings, larger than life, fill the walls with patterns and color. The artwork has been donated to the school by parents. Fewer than 800 children attend North Star, which serves kindergarten through fifth grade students.

Just to the right of the front entrance you can find the offices of dedicated staff, like Valerie Sandler, an Educational Speech/Language Pathologist. Outgoing and enthusiastic, Valerie, has worked diligently to raise the reading scores of kindergarten students at North Star.

A turnaround in kindergarten class scores

Valerie Sandler, Educational Speech/Language Pathologist

At North Star, the kindergarten students’ entrance scores are among the lowest in the district. But by spring, the situation has changed entirely. According to Valerie, after using Sounds & Symbols Early Reading Program for a year, “North Star kindergarten classes have exceeded district averages especially in sound/symbol identification and blending.” Janet Kujat, a kindergarten teacher, adds, “We’ve had more kids able to sound out words than ever before.” It’s a major achievement, especially for children who are often economically disadvantaged and/or learning English as a second language. Valerie, who embraces a teamwork approach, introduced Sounds & Symbols to the kindergarten teachers, a communication prep specialist (K-Grade 1), and a special education teacher (Grades 1-3).

Barb Stevens, Kindergarten Teacher with the High Hat puppet

Another kindergarten teacher, Barb Stevens, who has taught at the school for four years, is amazed at the results they are getting with Sounds & Symbols. She explains, “Some kids come to school with nothing.” Many North Star kindergarten students are not exposed to reading and books at home. They haven’t been held in a lap and read to, and therefore lack many of the prereading skills other children learn at home. Valerie adds, “Some children even begin kindergarten without knowing how to count to one, use scissors, and color with crayons.” The teachers have been delighted with the comprehensive set of materials in Sounds & Symbols, the well-organized lessons, and suggested activities. All in all, they find the lessons adaptable to their own styles and creative impulses. It’s a pleasure watching teachers weave their magic with the children.

Storytelling introduces a new sound

Amy Goodrich reading "Zoo Zoo" to the class

Together, kindergarten teachers, Amy Goodrich and Kristin Jeness, teach a class of forty students. The children sit cross-legged on a floor watching Amy, as she begins the Sounds & Symbols story, titled, “Zoo Zoo.” Kristin takes a chair towards the back to make sure all the children are paying attention. She doesn’t have to worry, however, because, as soon as Amy begins to read about Zoo Zoo, the zookeeper, one girl puts her finger to her lips and whispers, “shh” to the children around her.

High Hat—the central character of the Sounds & Symbols program and the star in all the stories—wears a tall green and white striped hat. He solves problems by pulling things either out of his hat or a special pocket. “High Hat is my name, and helping people is my game.”

In today’s story, High Hat helps solve the zookeeper’s problem by bringing some new, unusual animals to the zoo. All these new animals have a “z” sound in their names like “Oze,” an animal with “three sharp teeth, five big toes, a tail, eight fingers, and one long nose.”

Sounds & Symbols character cards and flash cards displayed together on the bulletin board

As Amy reads the passage, ” ‘Look at those!’ said Zoo Zoo. ‘We’ll have some real shows with our Oze, I suppose,’” the children are entranced. They listen attentively with their eyes focused on the colorful storybook pictures. To help them learn the “z” sound, the story incorporates rhyme, alliteration, and repetition. Many of the words contain the “z” sound—words like, “grizzly,” “zebras,” and “lizards.”

Without missing a beat, the children say the last line of the story out loud, “Because more than anything else, High Hat likes to make people happy.” They know that every story ends with this fabulous line and they relish the opportunity to participate.

Next, Amy holds up Zoo Zoo’s character card and asks each child to say its sound. So many of the children raise their hands ready to respond. Then she asks which symbol it goes with on the bulletin board. All the character cards and sound symbols the children have learned in previous lessons are displayed in a row. Posting the newest character card demonstrates visually the incredible progress students are making.

Learning sound discrimination and sequencing

Student erasing one of the sound symbols

The class moves on to reviewing other sound symbols like “w” and “b.” Amy uses an erasable white board and writes down several sound symbols. She asks students to come up one at a time and erase the sound that she pronounces.

Each activity takes less than a few minutes and children stay involved and interested. Amy next asks the children to put their hands on their shoulders when they hear the “z” sound. She reads a list of words including “zoo” and “zipper.” She then asks the class when did they hear the “z” in “zipper”? First? Middle? Or end?

Often children in the class are asked to come up with their own examples—ones that are even more difficult than the teacher’s examples. Today a child volunteers a word with a “z” sound, “Isabelle,” which happens to be the name of their teacher’s daughter. When the children individually or as a class answer correctly or provide brilliant examples, Amy offers lots of positive verbal reinforcement, such as the unique exclamation, “Kiss your smart brains!”

What Amy appreciates particularly about Sounds & Symbols is that “it asks you to use language, like blending sounds.” These skills are indeed the building blocks of learning to recognize words.

Do you have a “success story” about the Sounds & Symbols Early Reading Program (or High Hat) that you would be willing to share?

Have you achieved measurable results (for example, higher test scores) with the Sounds & Symbols (or High Hat) program?

Have you found Sounds & Symbols (or High Hat) to be especially effective when using the program in a particular way or with a particular child?

From all over the country we have heard remarks such as “I’ve never had a child not learn to read with this program,” or “It has done wonders for my ESL students,” or “Our students had the highest test scores in the district.” Now we would like to hear the stories behind these statements.

We are preparing a technical manual for the Sounds & Symbols Early Reading Program. The manual will contain a synopsis of research studies done with earlier versions of Sounds & Symbols. (If you have done research with this program or know someone who has, please let us know so we can incorporate it in this manual.) We would also like to include case studies, success stories, testimonials, and other anecdotal information. That’s where you come in . . . .

We are not looking for 5-page reports. What we are looking for are some true stories (from a few paragraphs to a couple pages) of how Sounds & Symbols has effectively helped you reach children just learning to read. We will need your permission to use your name and job title in conjunction with your story.

If you decide to share your story with us, we will send you a complimentary High Hat hat (a $40 value) as a thank-you gift. You will also be entered into a drawing for a new Sounds & Symbols Early Reading Program kit (a $300 value).

But you have to hurry! Our deadline is February 15, 2002.

“Welcome To The 2001 ASHA Convention” read the banner at the New Orleans Convention Center that greeted thousands of attendees last month. Former First Lady, Barbara Bush, spoke on literacy . . . actress Marlee Matlin received ASHA’s Media Award . . . Elizabeth Carrow-Woolfolk received ASHA Honors, and more! So much to do, so little time.

The AGS booth hosted a number of activities as well.

Coauthor Ron Goldman was on hand to greet attendees and answer questions about Sounds & Symbols.

High Hat of Sounds & Symbols was the real star of the booth.

AGS gave away a High Hat hat every hour on the hour. It's hard to take yourself too seriously when you're wearing one of these! See if you recognize any of the winners. (See a listing of the winners below.)

Linda Statham starred as High Hat and greeted Sounds & Symbols authors Martha Lynch and Ron Goldman.

Dr. Elizabeth Carrow-Woolfolk visited with attendees after receiving ASHA honors.

Linda Khan, coauthor of Khan-Lewis Phonological Analysis (KLPA), answers questions regarding the new KLPA-2, available April 1, 2002.

The other KLPA coauthor, Nancy Lewis (second from the right), enjoyed talking with KLPA users.

ASHA High Hat Hat Winners

Next Year: Atlanta!

Martha Lynch and Ronald Goldman at the first 1996 Martha E. Lynch Lecture

Teacher. Speech-language pathologist. Lecturer. Researcher. Author. These titles are just some of the many roles Martha E. Lynch has embraced throughout her extraordinary career. She has dedicated approximately forty years of her life to the profession of speech-language pathology, and her story is one of steadfast service, innovation, and inspiration.

As an undergraduate college student, Martha majored in elementary education at Middle Tennessee State University. While student teaching, she encountered students with articulation disorders, one student who stuttered, and another with an unrepaired cleft palate. Because of these experiences, Martha became very interested in speech-language pathology. She minored in public speaking and took every speech class available at the college.

After graduating, Martha still set her goal on becoming a classroom teacher, but wanted to get her masters. She was offered a graduate scholarship at Vanderbilt University and began to pursue a masters degree in speech-language pathology. “I thought speech-language pathology would be a great background for a classroom teacher. At that point, schools were not required to have speech-language pathologists in classrooms. It was not a state or federal law,” Martha explains.

After a few months Martha decided to stay in the area of speech-language pathology and use her teaching background as supplementary. Before she graduated, she accepted a position at Bill Wilkerson Hearing & Speech Center in Nashville, Tennessee. “One of my first responsibilities was to set up a program for severely language-impaired kids. I organized and taught most of these classes myself. I always viewed myself as a teacher, but with the special skills of a speech-language pathologist,” says Martha.

She continued to work at Wilkerson Center after receiving her M.S. degree from Vanderbilt University. During her 14-year tenure at the center, she served as a speech clinician, supervisor of the children’s language program, research assistant, coordinator of speech pathology, clinical coordinator, chief speech pathologist, and instructor at Vanderbilt and Peabody College.

One of the projects Martha worked on included developing a new program for children with severe speech problems. She worked with Dr. Ronald Goldman, a researcher at Wilkerson.

Martha elaborates: “At the time I was working with kids who did not benefit from the traditional auditory approach. Back then other approaches weren’t available. So I experimented and tied in some things used in schools from my elementary education background. I began showing the visual symbols to these kids while I was working on their speech, rather than just using an auditory approach. When we were working on a sound, I would teach them the letter and the sound that the letter made and found that it did help.”

Martha and Ronald then started to develop a program to meet the needs of these children. Ronald received a research grant, and they started using the newly developed phonemic visual oral association approach to see if it would indeed improve children’s articulation abilities. They used the Initial Teaching Alphabet developed by Sir Isaac Pitman as their symbol system.

“We got excellent results from the project. We found that the kids did make faster progress. The severe dyspraxic kids and the severe artic kids corrected more errors over a given period of time with the phonemic visual oral association approach, as opposed to the traditional auditory approach. We did additional studies and developed our own modified alphabet that also had a one-on-one sound correspondence, so that there wouldn’t be any confusion and could be used with very young children.” Ronald and Martha expanded the research project to develop the Goldman-Lynch Sounds & Symbols Development Kit. They field-tested the program for about eight years before it was published in 1971.

The Goldman-Lynch Sounds & Symbols Development Kit was revised in 1986 and renamed the High Hat Early Reading Program. This year the program was updated again and is now titled, Sounds & Symbols Early Reading Program.

According to Ronald, in the past children with language difficulties were not diagnosed or treated until they reached the first and second grades. Today screening occurs at the prekindergarten through kindergarten level. He credits Martha with helping make that happen by being a strong advocate for early intervention. “Martha has been involved with literacy—reading and phonics—since the ’60s and ’70s. She is one of the pioneers of early intervention,” he says.

For the last 24 years, Martha has worked in private practice as a speech-language pathologist in Nashville, Tennessee. She likes the direct patient contact and has a great deal of experience working with children who have dyslexia, dysgraphia, and other communication disorders. Ronald describes her as “outstanding,” “highly respected,” and “a clinician’s clinician.” He adds, “If I had a child who needed intervention, Martha would be the one I would choose to work with my child.”

Martha Lynch and Ronald Goldman at the fifth 1996 Martha E. Lynch Lecture

Martha Lynch is truly dedicated to teaching and encouraging others to become the best teachers they can be. She has given many lectures and seminars throughout the United States and also lectured in Canada and South America. She explains, “When I was teaching graduate students at Vanderbilt University it was very apparent to me that a speech-language pathologist has to be a teacher first. Some, and I emphasize, some speech-language pathologists get upset when you refer to them as teachers, because they see themselves as ‘more than that.’ But to me, there’s nothing better than being a teacher.”

Martha continues to promote the importance of early intervention, especially to her colleagues. “Speech-language pathologists need to know how to teach reading to young children. No one was doing this in the past. They were working with adults who had lost their ability to read, but not with children. Nobody was addressing the educational needs of these young children. Consequently, my background in elementary education showed me that it could be done, and so I started teaching reading as a part of my language therapy. I’ve taught my own staff how to do it, and they’ve taught others. Through the lectures and workshops I’ve given over the years, I’ve tried to teach the same thing. There are a lot of people who are now addressing the needs of these language disordered children who are in academic distress. ASHA [the American Speech-Language Hearing Association] has also issued a statement about our responsibility towards literacy. Fortunately, more and more speech-language pathologists are moving in that direction.”

Martha feels it is important to bridge the gap between therapy and the classroom. In her practice she not only provides therapy for communication disorders, but she tutors children in academics, particularly in reading and writing. “I have always tried to make classroom teachers and the education community aware of the problems of kids who have communication difficulties, and speech-language pathologists in the schools aware of the academic needs of these children.” She adds, “We need to become a part of their educational system.”

Throughout her career, Martha has received awards and recognition for her advocacy and service to others. A couple of years ago she received the Distinguished Service Award from the Tennessee Association of Audiologists and Speech/Language Pathologists (TAASLP). At the time she was recovering from major eye surgery and was asked to have breakfast with two friends. She did not know that she would end up at the state convention for their awards breakfast. There they presented her with an award. Martha recalls, “When they gave me the award they called me a pioneer. All I could picture in my mind was a little old lady sitting in a wagon wearing a bonnet.” Needless to say, that was not the image she had of herself.

When asked about the recognition she has received, Martha says, “I don’t view myself as others do. I see myself as a regular person that does not deserve that much honor or acclaim. I am just grateful that God has given me the opportunity to serve others.”

Eleven years ago, the Bill Wilkerson Hearing & Speech Center announced as part of its 40th anniversary their first annual guest lecture series. This lecture series was named in honor of Martha Lynch. The late Dr. Freeman McConnell, one of Martha’s mentors and a former director of the center, said of her, “[Martha's] tenure of more than a decade on the staff of Bill Wilkerson, where she served as chief speech-language pathologist, was marked by meticulous organizational skills, a high sense of duty, and most of all, an unequivocal commitment to high professional standards in serving communicatively disordered patients.”

Four years ago the center merged with Vanderbilt University and became the Vanderbilt Bill Wilkerson Center for Otolaryngology and Communication Sciences. To date, the Annual Martha E. Lynch Guest Lecture Series has brought in 36 speakers to discuss subjects of particular interest to school speech-language pathologists.

The series “was designed for the continuing education needs of speech-language pathologists,” explains Kate Carney, the public relations coordinator for the center. She credits Martha with “affecting thousands of children’s lives—including myself.” That’s because back in 1965, when Kate was four years old, she was part of the original Goldman-Lynch study. She received phonemic visual oral association tutoring directly from Martha as part of a sample of children who did not have language disorders. She remembers the lessons and being able to read before she entered school.

“Forty to seventy people attend each seminar in the Nashville area. It’s a good thing we do for the community. People are generally very pleased with the sessions and grateful for the information,” Kate adds. Three lectures have been scheduled to date for the upcoming series. Melissa Kirby will speak on voice disorders in children in December 2001; Ann Sanders will discuss state eligibility requirements for special education services in March 2002; and Kathleen Whitmire will examine changes in IDEA in April 2002. A fourth lecture will be announced later.

Martha was very honored and surprised by the creation of the lecture series. She tries to attend every lecture she can. She has also been a presenter.

After almost forty years of “teaching,” Martha is amazed by the number of students she’s worked with—and now finds herself working with her students’ children. Loved by so many, Martha often receives invitations to weddings and graduations. The fact that she’s invited to participate in many important milestones of her students’ lives speaks volumes.

Martha recalls one family in particular. “A mother of a child I was working with had dyspraxia, as did her child. I told her she really needed to be in therapy at the same time as her son in order to make the best use of his correction. She enrolled. One day she called me right before her session to say she couldn’t wait to talk to me . . . She told me that today—for the first time in her whole life—she called a doctor’s office and made her own appointment. ‘They could understand me,’ she said.”

When asked about what has been the most rewarding part of her career, Martha replies, “Seeing my students come in and make strides in therapy and apply the skills they’ve learned is what it’s all about. For many of these individuals what they learn has a great impact on their present and their future. Knowing this is enough to keep me going, even on those difficult days.”

Linda Statham

You may remember reading about speech/language pathologist, Linda Statham in an April 2001 article on this website. Come visit the AGS booth at the upcoming ASHA 2001 Convention and you’ll meet Linda in person. She will be on hand to share her experience of portraying the character High Hat in the classroom and to talk about the positive response she has received from her students.

Linda began using the original Goldman-Lynch Sounds and Symbols Development Kit twenty years ago to teach language development skills to children. Now with the newly revised Sounds & Symbols Early Reading Program, she creates even more excitement with updated stories and songs. Best of all, an adult-sized hat made to resemble High Hat’s is now available separately, making it easy for any SLP to become High Hat!

According to Linda, her students know High Hat as the man with the furry moustache who likes to make people happy. “He’s a win-win fellow that comes to our classroom,” she says. Anything High Hat needs he finds in his magic hat or pocket.

Every Friday at Hickory Flat Elementary School in Canton, Georgia, Linda transforms herself into the character. She uses a hand-me-down blue silk robe from Great Britain, a fake moustache, and her new hat. Before she enters the classroom, a CD-ROM plays the whirling sound of a helicopter. She remarks that “the children are as quiet as mice,” because they know High Hat will soon arrive in his hatcopter!

Keeping 100 students focused on a lesson seems like an impossible task. “Not so,” says Linda. “The High Hat stories are so well written that they capture children’s attention and keep their attention . . . The children absolutely love the program. Every child in this school knows High Hat.”

Linda adds, “I’m glad they updated the program.” According to Linda, Sounds & Symbols has become an integral part of the school: “High Hat has been a success for our kids for many, many years.” And Linda Statham plans on playing High Hat for a few more years, at least!

Many moons ago, in 1971, AGS published the Goldman-Lynch Sounds and Symbols Development Kit. Authored by Dr. Ronald Goldman and Martha E. Lynch, the kit was originally designed to put children on the path to reading with early phonics training, speech improvement, and speech therapy. This research-based program helped children learn to discriminate sounds, determine sound positions, segment or sound out syllables and words, delete and substitute sounds, and blend the sounds and symbols into words and sentences.

A few moons later, in 1986, the program was revised under a new name, the High Hat Early Reading Program. Today, a great number of people still use both versions of High Hat, but many of them continued to beg us for a revision and new materials. We aim to please, and last month we completed the next generation of this popular program, blending the best of both editions, into the Sounds & Symbols Early Reading Program.

To produce the new Sounds & Symbols, we listened to the comments and suggestions from users who contacted us over the years. We also formed a focus group of kindergarten teachers from a school in North Minneapolis that has used the High Hat program, very effectively, with its diverse population. This generated many solid ideas about how to make a good thing even better.

Sounds and Symbols Early Reading Program

For this latest version of the program, we’ve written more stories, and edited the existing ones. We created wonderful new art. All of the activities have been updated and streamlined, along with creating convenient reproducible masters, to help classroom teachers save time. We did a little gender and racial balancing of the characters and made new puppets and a bag to contain the program. All of the stories and songs were recorded on CD. We even gave the High Hat character a head-he had merely floating eyes and a mustache under his hat before! The new Sounds & Symbols can be used with children from pre-kindergarten age through third grade.

It’s been a lot of work with numerous pieces to coordinate, but of course we did it. All materials hit the warehouse stage on or near August 17. Now we can proudly tell our customers once again that High Hat- unlike Elvis-has returned to the building. (Thank ya, thank ya very much.)

The following excerpts come from the Volume 1, Issue 3 of Hats Off!, a new newsletter for professionals who work with young children in reading programs. For more information about Hats Off! or to subscribe, please e-mail the Webmaster at: webmaster@agsnet.com.

Roll Out the Red Carpet!

Goldman-Lynch Sounds & Symbols Development Kit

Can I get a drum roll, please! High Hat is “almost” in the building. (Thank you very muuuch.)

The Sounds & Symbols Early Reading Program revision is almost finished. We expect most of the materials to be in our warehouse by August 17. At that time we will put the kits together, and shortly thereafter get them into your hands. Wow! Can you believe it?

In this issue we will share some images from the program and the complete list of components with you. We will also share program ordering information.

It’s taken a lot of hard work to get here, but we think you’ll appreciate the results. The Sounds & Symbols Early Reading Program is better than ever!

Check out High Hat!

High Hat

All of the art is completely new. This is only one small sample (and in black and white). Just wait until you see the real thing, all of the characters in full color. One person here said, “Marti Mouse is so cute, I just want to grab her and give her a smooch!”

Tell Me More, Tell Me More… What’s in the Kit?

Based on your great suggestions, the kit includes:

• Manual – The new and improved manual has 40 lessons plus review activities. A new Getting Started section has been added to give you a quick overview of the program and help you prepare for beginning the lessons.
• Storybooks - The same characters appear in each book as before, but with fabulous new art.
• CDs - All of the stories from Storybooks 1 & 2 are now recorded on two CDs. The sound training and song recordings are on another CD.
• Flash Cards - Set of 40 (2 arrow cards).
• Character Cards - Set of 40 (2 different views of High Hat).
• Reproducible Masters - Both classroom and optional masters are included to go along with each lesson. Many of the Optional Masters are stories for the students to take home, helping to foster a home- school connection.
• 3-Ring Binder - The binder contains 40 tabs to organize your lessons and reproducible masters. It also has pockets to hold the Flash Cards and Character Cards.
• Puppets - The kits will contain two High Hat puppets.
• Rubber Stamps - Set of six.
• Zippered Canvas Carrying Bag - To hold all of the stuff!

Optional Materials not included in the kit:

• 

  Linda Statham, Speech/Language Pathologist in Canton, Georgia using High Hat.

  Second Set of Stories – New “encore” stories have been written for each character. These stories are printed on reproducible masters, and have been recorded on two CDs.

• High Hat hat - Yes! Now you can wear High Hat’s hat as you go through the lessons with your children! How cool is that!

Ordering Information

Visit the online product page..

Virtual Tour

In September, you will have the opportunity to take a virtual tour of the Sounds & Symbols Early Reading Program on our website, ags.pearsonassessments.com, or www.speechandlanguage.com. There you will find an animated High Hat who will walk you through the program, its features, and a sample lesson.

Linda Statham

Linda Statham is a Speech/Language Pathologist in Canton, Georgia. For 20 years, she has also assumed the “persona” of High Hat, from the original Goldman-Lynch Sounds & Symbols Development Kit, to help kindergarteners learn basic literacy skills. She reminisces about her experiences through the years teaching children to read.

Twenty years ago, I saw a need to work with kindergarten children in our school, Hickory Flat Elementary. My goal was to begin improving their language skills. I also wanted to increase their comfort level with me in case I might have to do speech or language testing with them. At that time, we only had two kindergarten classes, so using High Hat seemed like a great solution-it didn’t take much time and gave me contact with all of the students at the school.

" Now, I perform as High Hat twice each week, and see three classes in both 45-minute sessions."

I met with the classes once a week. We sang a couple of songs from the Goldman-Lynch tape, and I read them the story that corresponded with the sound they were working on that week. Then the school grew and before we knew it, Mr. High Hat was a fixture-with a costume, additional language activities, and coloring sheets. Now, I perform as High Hat twice each week, and see three classes in both 45-minute sessions.

This is our schedule each Friday morning. Three classes are brought into one of our empty classrooms, where they sit on the floor, “criss-cross applesauce.” Mr. High Hat enters with his special knock on the door. The pointy finger [from the Goldman-Lynch program] is used for the knocking and then later to tap the children on the head when we sing the Naming Game song. I read the story that corresponds to the sound they are studying. Several years ago, a parent drew a picture of each character, and I use those as we talk about the colors of each character’s clothes, hair, etc. Two students get to stand up and try to remember the colors used in the pictures while I hide our book.

" The high-interest stories make the 45 minute session go quickly, and the children look forward to our Fridays..."

Next, the children all stand up and we sing a couple of songs, which gives them a chance to move around the room. We usually conclude with a story, and then one child from each class is chosen to carry their coloring pictures back to their classrooms. What an honor! All our students know that they have to behave very well to be chosen to carry the pictures. The high-interest stories make the 45 minute session go quickly, and the children look forward to our Fridays (so do the teachers-they love the break they get!)

At the beginning of some years, I think, “Oh, I’m getting too old for this…maybe I won’t do it this year.” It never fails that just as I have those thoughts, I run into a high school senior who sat on the floor with me as a kindergartener, and he or she will say, “Mrs. Statham, do you still do High Hat? Do you still do the Buzzy Bee story and Marty Mouse?” . . . And there go my plans for retiring High Hat that year-and so, twenty years later, I am still singing and dancing with five-year-olds!

"I love the program, and so do the children I spend time with each Friday."

I am writing this not to toot my own horn, but just to illustrate that this program has been a terrific instrument for me to use in working with five- and six-year-old children. The stories are so well written that they capture the children’s attention like nothing else I have ever read to them. The pictures are wonderful. I love the program, and so do the children I spend time with each Friday.

The new edition of the Sounds & Symbols Early Reading Program will be available in August, and preorders are now being accepted! Please visit the product page on the Pearson web site for more information about this highly successful reading program. more

These excerpts come from the second issue of Hats Off!, the Sounds & Symbols Early Reading Program Newsletter. For more information about Hats Off! or to subscribe, please email the Webmaster, webmaster@agsnet.com.

Are We Seeing Double ??

Not really, but we are including two High Hat puppets in each kit. Why? Maybe we’re just suckers for the kids. One for them, and one for you! Your students can help act out the stories with High Hat. The two puppets can also be useful in role-playing or conversation practice.

Easy as 1, 2, 3!

The new and Sounds and Symbols Early Reading Program will include three CDs containing recordings of the songs and all of the High Hat stories! The first CD will contain sound training for teachers and the songs. The second CD will contain the first set of all the High Hat stories. The third CD will contain the new second set of all the stories. Use of the CD format will make it easier to locate a specific song or story, not to mention that it will be far more durable.

Dividing the recordings into separate CDs will also allow you to keep the story CDs in listening centers and the song CD in the classroom if you like. Each CD will also be available for individual ordering. You can easily order multiple copies for your school, or parents can purchase them for home use.

Ch-Ch-Ch-Changes

As you may notice upon reading the Wendy Watch stories appearing in this newsletter, there are two significant changes we’ve made to all stories based on suggestions of current High Hat users.

All stories now carry a similar phrase at the end. “High Hat was glad he could help Wendy Watch, because more than anything else, High Hat likes to make people happy.” This phrase provides a way to tie the stories together, and students will enjoy the repetition.

Another new feature you will find in all of the stories is the insertion of the story’s target sound in isolation along with a pronunciation key. This feature should help to really “zero in on” the target sound in the story.

Wendy Watch

As we promised in the first issue of Hats Off!, here is the story about Wendy Watch that will appear in the revised Story Book. We have also included a second, newly written story about Wendy Watch to be used for further practice of the sounds. Enjoy!

Wendy’s Watch

Once upon a time there was a little girl named Wendy. She was sad because she wanted to be able to tell time, but she was too little. So she always missed out on things. She was never in the right place at the right time.

In the morning, Wendy woke up too late to kiss her daddy goodbye when he went to work. Then Wendy walked to the park, but she was too late to play with her friends. She came inside too early for lunch. In the afternoon, Wendy missed her favorite TV show because she wasn’t aware it was on. When it was time to go to bed, Wendy was always in the middle of doing something else.

One day when Wendy was looking out her bedroom window, High Hat came walking by. When he saw Wendy’s sad face, he asked, “What is the trouble, young lady? Can I help you?”

Wendy told High Hat that she was sad because she was too little to tell time. High Hat smiled and reached into his special pocket. “I have just the thing for you . . . a Wendy watch! It’s for people who want to be on time for everything.”

High Hat pulled out the Wendy watch and showed it to Wendy. Instead of numbers on it, the watch had pictures of things to do. There were pictures of Wendy waking and eating and walking and sleeping and doing all kinds of wonderful things. Whenever the arrow pointed to a picture, Wendy would know what to do.

High Hat helped Wendy wind the watch: w-w-w-w-w-w-w-w (say the w sound, not the letter name, and make a winding motion). “Wow,” said Wendy, “Thank you, High Hat!”

High Hat answered, “You are very welcome, Wendy.” Wendy was very proud of her new Wendy watch. High Hat winked at Wendy as he went on his way.

High Hat was glad he could help Wendy Watch, because more than anything else, High Hat likes to make people happy.

Wendy Watch and Wag

One warm day High Hat was going for a walk. He saw his friend Wendy Watch sitting in her yard. She had a sad look on her face.

High Hat stopped and asked, “What is wrong, Wendy Watch?”

Wendy Watch looked up at High Hat. She said, “None of my friends can come over and play. And I can’t go play at their houses because they all have dogs. I’m allergic to dogs. If I go to my friend Will’s house and pet his furry dog Wiggles, I start sneezing. Then my eyes water and my nose gets runny. My friends have so much fun with their dogs. I wish I could have a dog that wouldn’t make me sneeze. Then I’d always have someone to play with.”

“Don’t worry, Wendy Watch,” said High Hat. “I’ve got a wonderful friend for you in my special pocket.”

High Hat reached in and pulled out something that looked like a dog. He said to Wendy, “This is Wag, a special wind-up dog. He’s a little girl’s best friend. Just wind Wag up, and he’ll wag his tail and say, ‘Woof, woof.’” Wag can play all day in the yard with you. When it’s time to go inside, wind him up again. Then he’ll follow you into the house. And best of all, this little dog won’t make you sneeze.”

High Hat continued, “Let’s wind him up. Look at Wag go–wwwwwwww (say the w sound, not the letter name)!” Wag walked around in circles, wagged his tail, and said, “Woof, woof” to Wendy.

Wendy Watch gave High Hat a wide smile. “Thank you, High Hat,” she said. “You are wonderful. I will always take good care of Wag.”

High Hat was glad he could help Wendy Watch, because more than anything else, High Hat likes to make people happy.