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About
Sherwood Tutoring - Where Phonics Ends and Study
Begins
study
mastery saves Superphonics Developer from Academic
Failure.
Tracy
Sherwood, Developer of Superphonics, a well kept
secret in phonics now used by various celebrity
founded literacy programs, found her way from
head banging tutoring sessions to the best of
the best over the past twenty-five years of tutoring.
Her story is an inspiring one that demonstrates
where learning to read and spell the words ends
off, and real study begins.
Tracy
Sherwood grew up in California during the sixties.
In grade school, Tracy mastered phonics and spelling
and helped class mates who were struggling in
these areas.
Her
reading comprehension, however, was a different
story. In the 5th grade, the traditional
reading curriculum was taken out and replaced
by a new curriculum consisting of color coded
levels in which the student was timed while reading
the materials and then answered questions. Progress
up the colors was dependent upon one's excellence
in the lower color cards. Students with
high vocabularies advanced through the color levels
with no difficulty, but they were few.
"In
fact," Tracy recalls, "I only remember two students
who made good progress with this method. One was
Carol Tempero, who was the top student in the
class. She was reading at sixth or seventh grade
level in the fourth grade".
Tracy recalls the other student to have been an
oriental boy who had come to the school after
being in private school most of his life.
"The
rest of us just couldn't pass the levels well
no matter how fast we made our eyes move.
I've wished I knew then what I know now", says
the Superphonics Founder. "And I see it in kids
struggling with reading every day - trying to
comprehend what they read without knowing how.
It takes more than moving the eyes and reading
the words. Words have meaning. They didn't
emphasize this in school - they didn't think of
it much themselves."
Growing
up in the sixties wasn't easy for a high school
student who couldn't study. Tracy found
herself falling asleep in class after looking
at pages that appeared to be written in a foreign
language with words she could pronounce and spell
but didn't understand. Here, Miss Tracy tells
her amazing story...
"I
could read so smoothly. Everyone thought
I was an excelling reader. I had conditioned
myself into memorizing but I couldn't retain what
I couldn't understand long enough to do anything
with it.
Pretty
soon I started hanging out with the druggies and
cutting school. I didn't use drugs because
early on in my association with that crowd, my
brother became addicted to heroin and I saw it
destroying his life. He'd always been a failure
in school in just about every subject. His teachers
were hard on him because he didn't care about
learning and adopted himself as class clown with
a bad attitude. Like me, he didn't know
how to learn. No one taught us 'how to learn',
they just expected it of us.
But
my friends gradually got into the drugs. At fourteen,
I met a boy who would be my first future husband.
I got pregnant and had my first child one month
after turning seventeen. I tried going to
continuation school and for a while thought I
would make it. The teachers were caring
and we were allowed to go at our own pace.
But I still didn't know how to understand materials.
I didn't have a vocabulary or knowledge of sentence
structure to understand. The pages were blank
to me and I soon dropped out.
My
second child was born just before I turned nineteen.
I'd never had a job, I had no education and no
sense of responsibility. My husband was
extremely responsible. He was younger than
I was and was working hard washing dishes at Jolly
Rodgers to support his family. I fell into
a long depression and life went by with no inkling
I could ever accomplish a goal.
One day just after the birth of my daughter Kam,
I went to a girlfriend's house who had her first
baby eleven days after Kam's birth. She had been
reading "Adelle Davis' book entitled "Let's Eat
Right to Keep Fit".
"Did
you know that sugar is bad for you?" she asked
me - still in shock herself.
"No
it's not!" I asserted, "Sugar gives you energy!"
"Just
for a little while", she preached, "then your
energy crashes to lower levels than before you
ate it!"
I didn't believe it but was intrigued. I
took the book from her hand and sat down and started
to read it. I couldn't understand most of
it, but I was so interested that I worked hard
to pick out whatever I could get. I bought my
own copy and soon found myself with a purpose
in life. I read every day, every minute
I could.
Soon I had decided to go to school and become
a biochemist and a teacher. My depression completely
subsided. Life was bright and I had purpose -
until I began to preach nutrition to my husband
when he came home tired from work. I began buying
health foods at great expense which I didn't know
how to cook and it was a total failure. He became
resentful of my health obsession and repulsed
by my menu and cooking. My depression soon
returned and I left him and moved to my parents
in Bakersfield.
I
continued studying nutrition on my own and took
my junior college entry exam. I flunked
out in reading comprehension, English and math
and would have to take several additional classes.
But I had reason to try this time. I started college
with enthusiasm and purpose. My new texts
felt so valuable in my hands as they were promises
of a better tomorrow. But that tomorrow
soon looked like it would never come. I couldn't
keep up with the pace. I couldn't understand the
texts. And as equally upsetting was finding out
that college doesn't teach one how to teach reading
or study - only school subjects and a lot of psych.
So, I dropped out of college and soon applied
for Welfare. My depression returned and with it
went my energy, sense of responsibility and dream
of becoming a biochemist desire to be a teachers.
I continued getting as much out of nutritional
study as I could, going at my own pace and picking
out the texts I could best read. While studying
nutrition, I improved my study, but not enough.
At
twenty-two, I began tutoring neighbor children
in phonics and spelling and it brought back purpose
for me. Word of mouth spread and for the
first time in life I was able to support myself
and children.
Although
I was doing well for the most part, it was often
tiring and frustrating. My students would
so often not understand what they were reading
even though they could read and spell the words.
They would become bored, tired, confused and want
to quit the session. I was too often impatient.
I didn't know what to do. Reading the words
well was just not enough, but I persisted.
In 1980, my life took a big turn for the better.
My brother - once again resident at
his fourth or fifth drug program - called me with
great enthusiasm.
"Tracy,
you have to check out the study method they have
here, I can finally read and really get it!"
I was speechless. My brother... the junkie?
Into studying? I don't think so.
"He
persisted as though his life depended upon it.
"Come for the weekend Tracy. I told them about
you and you can observe the classes and see how
the method works."
I
was there the following weekend. It was
a pretty old and worn Victorian house in Los Angeles.
It was so casual. I could only tell the
difference between staff and client by watching
them. Then it was easy. The staff were casual
but every movement and word they said had some
purpose of value - even in social conversation.
They were busy. They moved with exactness
like they had something important to accomplish.
It was different. When I'd visited my brother
in other programs, it was either too clinical
and impersonal, or unprofessional and lax.
Other drug programs used degrading techniques
on my brother frequently - making him wear a beer
can hung around his neck and such. He never
made progress in prior programs.
"Two
minutes to study!" Someone announced at the door
of the study hall. Students began to gather in
the class and they looked like it was something
they wanted to do. It was interesting to
observe the attitudes in everything. It
was refreshing. The Course Supervisor took
roll call and the students sat down to their studies.
The first thing I noticed was that the instructor
didn't announce a bunch of instructions or teach,
she was indeed what her title indicated, 'course
supervisor'. Students approached her, she
said something or pulled out a text to show them
some reference, and they would take the text to
their table and move along on their own.
The
second thing I noticed was most interesting.
Each and every student had a least one dictionary
beside them - and they were using them.
It was as though they were Spanish students in
need of a Spanish-English dictionary in order
to read the words or something. It was obviously
the essential study tool.
I
watched for a while and then became so curious
that I began to stroll behind the students hard
at study to see if I could grasp a little more
of the significance here. All I could think
of was 'how do you get a druggy to crack open
a dictionary every few minutes - and so willingly?'
I strolled and observed closely. I saw students
looking upward at nothing and it took some close
looking to see they weren't daydreaming, they
were learning. Dictionaries were opening
and closing throughout the room. I noted
the fact that the student didn't just read a definition
and then close the dictionary. Each student
was really getting into every definition of the
word and then conceptualizing it in some way I
was not yet sure of. Fascinating.
Then behind me I heard two students talking quietly.
I turned around to see that one student had the
text of the other in his hands. He was looking
through the materials and asking the student to
tell him the definition of words from his
text! AWK! Impossible! You have
to tell the meanings of words in your studies
to pass a test? How formidable!
Each
time the student gave a definition, I could tell
it wasn't memorized - it was pretty much his own
words. Then he was asked to put the word
into a made up sentence to show he could use it
conceptually. I was impressed.
But then something really spooky happened.
The student giving the test said, "Flunk.' Clear
that word up fully, restudy from there and we'll
give it another go".
I could have fainted. Who could ever pass
a test like that? You mis-define one word
and have to restudy the whole thing from where
the word was found? Who could ever get through
one page say anything about a course or a program?
I was intimidated by this. I was use to
failing and this was one test I would never pass.
I continued strolling and watching, listening
and learning. At some point I noticed that
the testing student was now asking him questions
about the materials and carefully choosing his
questions so that the answers could not be rote.
The student had to answer the questions with examples
of how the materials could be used or how some
datum could be useful or not useful in life.
He really understood those materials.
No
one was bored. No one was goofing off, daydreaming
or fiddling with objects; no one was slouching
or looking at the clock. These druggies
were genuinely learning - of that I was sure.
I joined staff that weekend and with a mixture
of terror and exhilaration I started my own study
course.
It was hard for me. I couldn't spot the
words I needed to look up, I just didn't see them.
And when I did, I couldn't understand the dictionary.
'Which meaning fits here? I can't make up
my own sentence using this word! And when
I finally got it, I would forget it when it was
time for 'oral testing'. Two times I literally
threw the dictionary across the room. A
dozen times, I walked out.
I was taken in for tutoring. The tutor helped
me with the dictionary definitions and in reading
my materials. He helped me through a lot-
in light of the fact that I was now a staff member
and should be sufficiently literate. He
and the supervisor just rolled up their sleeves
and turned me inside out. I had to learn
punctuation symbols, parts of speech, dictionary
abbreviations, derivation usage, prefix and suffix
usage and seemingly endless basics. I had
to understand each and every definition of the
word I was looking up even though I knew which
definition was applicable to the materials.
But I learned. I very thoroughly learned.
(To find out about this rehabilitation program,
which is trademarked by name, email
me)
Later, I went back Bakersfield, my tutoring
town, got in touch with old contacts and got my
tutoring business going again, this time equipped
not only with advanced reading skills, but with
the technology to tutor with them. My business
boomed. Results soared. I turned kids
inside out one at a time and gave them real study
skills for life. A session no longer held
the purpose of getting through a student's homework
assignment or sounding out and spelling words
he didn't understand. There was no more
frustration in my sessions. No more search
for reasons this kid is bored and that kid is
nodding out. I knew the barriers to study
and their symptoms. I knew how to keep a
student alert, interested and learning.
And
through the next eighteen years, my skills increased.
Somewhere in the midst of thousands of hours of
tutoring children in phonics, coupled with vital
missing basics and advanced study skills, I transformed
from skilled, to expert, to best of the best -
because I also mastered phonics.
And
over the years I was able to isolate the concepts
and abilities that were vitally missing from the
leading phonics programs and developed techniques
to smooth the road out for learning to read and
spell. I worked and reworked these techniques
until the illiterate child or adult, masters these
simplicities so well, that he himself can teach
others to read. This program teaches literate
children to teach others to read in about three
days. Equipped with an advanced ability to study,
they become stellar tutors as young as age 12.
Study mastery and phonics are like the breath
and blood that make true literacy a reality for
a child. When we see them yawning, slumping, disinterested
or confused, we know they are in need of study
mastery. In the drug and alcohol rehabilitation
program, these symptoms were missing and that
is what made the study environment a mystery to
me at first observation. Drug addicts were truly
learning. And I know first hand why this can be.
I
will always fulfill my tutoring guarantee, because
I have faith in even the most struggling student.
Much
Love,
Tracy Sherwood
Founder of Sherwood Tutoring and Superphonics
Tracy
Sherwood lives in Bakersfield and services southern
CA
As
heard on KFI AM-640 Talk Radio
1-888-KFI-TUTOR
(888-534-8886
Los
Angeles area
818-469-0278
Bakersfield,
Palmdale, Lancaster, Santa Clarita, Valencia,
Porter Ranch, Newhall, Saugus, Burbank, Woodland
Hills, Agoura Hills, Pacific Palisades
call
661-588-4089
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