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The Sea Child Chapter Book Series
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This is a series especially designed for
beginning readers and readers with a
dyslexic learning style.
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Each adventure introduces one relevant issue.
THE CAVE is the first book in the series. The
issue introduced is climate change. The book
also sets the stage for the travel which happens
in the other four books. When Dee and Tabby
return from their strange and exciting trip,
their home has changed. How do they adapt
to the West Coast then?
THE SPY TRAIL, the second book in the series, explores the resettlement and immigration of refugees. In BOOK TWO, Tabby and Dee have fun! The two sisters take a trip in a cart with a new friend. Explore with the two sisters as they go to Egypt and when they return things are different. What's new on the West Coast?
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THE DRAGON TRAIL, BOOK THREE of the Sea Child series, looks at how to find the real you. What makes you happy? Travel with Tabby and Dee to Scotland. The two sisters find what makes them happy. You can find what makes you happy too! Tabby and Dee have fun! The two sisters take a sea trip with two friends. Explore with the two sisters as they go to Scotland. What amazing things do they do in Scotland which they bring back to the West Coast?
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THE BUNNY TRAIL, the fourth book in the series, helps you deal with mean kids. Is someone being awful to you? Are you scared to go to school?Tabby and Dee meet some mean children but they still have fun! The two sisters take a leap and a trip with a new friend. Explore with the two sisters as they go to New Town. What amazing things do they do in the school at New Town and how do they see the West Coast upon their return?
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THE SLEEPING WOMAN, book five, introduces Tabby and Dee to the Aboriginal heritage of their home on the West Coast of British Columbia. They meet a First Nations boy who explains to them what is really important in life.What amazing things do they learn with their new friend, Shell? How do they manage to escape from a deadly encounter on the ocean waters? What happens when they come back to the West Coast?
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There are FIVE books in the series.
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Join the adventures of Tabby and Dee who live on a West Coast island in British Columbia, Canada. Readers are quickly hooked by the escapades of the two sisters. Fun stories are told with repetitive vocabulary for easy understanding and fluid reading. These chapter books use simple sentence structure, distraction free pages with Sans Serif font, and readable font size.
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To explore the theory and best practice application of the SEA CHILD series and CREATING EMOTIONAL AMBIENCE WITHIN read on about the theories of Social Emotional Learning and the Community Learning viewpoints of Lev Vygotsky.
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Theory behind the SEA CHILD series
& CREATING EMOTIONAL AMBIENCE WITHIN
The APPLICATION of VYGOTSKY’S THEORY
for BEGINNING READERS and
READERS WITH A DYSLEXIC LEARNING STYLE
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Not reading? Refusing to read? Unable to read?
CREATING EMOTIONAL AMBIENCE WITHIN © published in 2019 is a step by step approach to optimizing the learning potential in children and adults. Learning is an emotional experience. Social Emotional Learning skills can certainly be acquired and put to good use no matter what the age of the learner since emotional learning readiness in beginning readers and readers with a dyslexic learning style is the foundation.
The second step for learners is the actual reading process. The SEA CHILD© chapter book series are specially constructed narratives. The psychological platform for SEA CHILD is the application of Vygotsky’s theory of cognitive development, motivation, and specifically ZPD. This platform is presented in a narrative form designed for beginning readers and readers with a dyslexic learning style. Used in conjunction with CREATING EMOTIONAL AMBIENCE WITHIN, these two resources will guide each and every one on their way to becoming a motivated reader and a life-long learner.
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Central to CREATING EMOTIONAL AMBIENCE WITHIN and the SEA CHILD series are the ideas developed by Lev Vygotsky, which are the Zone of Proximal Development (ZPD), culturally constructed processes, and one of the foundations of Proximal Learning, the Socratic dialogue.
The social emotional aspects of learning encompass the positive or negative community surrounding the child or adult fosters learning that is meaningful in a helpful or contrary way. Learning needs to be challenging. SEA CHILD is a chapter book series that challenges the reader with mature themes, but uses simple language to do so. Once the reader has the emotionally willingness to engage with the chapter books, learning to read can occur with appropriate support and guidance.
The opposite situation is also unfortunately true. As is often the practice, sending student learners with reading difficulties to the library or handing them a book during silent reading is probably one of the worst things that can happen. These learners will lose confidence and resort to pseudo-reading and flipping the pages of graphic novels and chapter books that are just too difficult to read. Instruction that targets functions that have already developed, or functions that are not included in the proximal development zone will not lead to development.
There is no doubt that we learn from each other. Learners have an active role in what is essentially a collaborative process. Only by applying the meanings contained in social actions and community can learners fully internalize and become independent. This social emotional process takes place in what Vygotsky termed the Zones of Proximal Development.
A learner's immediate potential for cognitive growth, the ZPD, is bookmarked by what a learner can accomplish on their own and by what a learner can accomplish with the help of a more knowledgeable other, such as a peer, parent or teacher. As tasks are completed with less and less assistance, the learner's cognitive skills develop. This is true of any learner, be it a child or an adult.
There must also be a need for mental development and culturally relevant skills to occur. Reading needs to be necessary for something; it needs to be something the learner cannot do without.
Each book in the SEA CHILD series deals with a mature theme such as Climate Change, Refugees and Immigration, finding your Passion, Bullying Behaviours, and Aboriginal Heritage. These themes are important in the construct of Vygotsky’s theory because they are highly relevant. Reading also needs to be a complete cultural activity not bits and pieces, but approached as a whole. The SEA CHILD series explores different cultures and makes each experience relevant to the life of the reader. Readers are immersed in authentic situations and are engaged in a purposeful and meaningful use of language. The authentic situation, or whole activity, establishes the environment in which the zone of proximal development is embedded.
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The learner’s activities have personal meaning in a system of purposeful social behaviour directed toward a goal. Consequentially, Vygotsky's zone of proximal development provides strong incentive for the inclusion of cooperative learning strategies. These strategies are found in CREATING EMOTIONAL AMBIENCE WITHIN.
We need tools to make this learning happen. The SEA CHILD chapter book series takes the fictional characters on journeys as if they are travelling through a Zone of Proximal Development. Each character experiences a life situation that is new and challenging. The characters apply their social experiences to their lives, develop their cognitive and emotional skills, and demonstrate empathy within their personal community. Vygotsky emphasizes a process of internalization, where learners first experience an idea, behavior, or attitude in a social setting, and then internalize this experience so that it becomes a part of the learner's mental functioning. The conclusion of each chapter book in the SEA CHILD series illustrates the cycle and application of knowledge and learning. Presenting authentic situations in a narrative format through play and imagination are an integral part of Vygotsky’s theory. These aspects are found in the SEA CHILD books, accomplishes just that.
The relevant themes of each of the SEA CHILD chapter books allow for a whole and authentic cooperative learning viewpoint to be presented in a narrative format. The themes of SEA CHILD connect the reader in a meaningful way to everyday life and thereby create a need for what is to be learned. This increases motivation and has a positive effect due to the anticipation of future competency. Readers identify the need for mastering the art of reading through their exposure to the SEA CHILD narrative.
COMMUNITY and COOPERATIVE LEARNING
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The dynamic nature of the zone of proximal development is represented by the zone moving past the task to be learned. Early in learning, a reader will need assistance in accomplishing a task that is in the reader's upper end of the zone. In addition, learners must be introduced to the idea that it is okay not to know. That is why learners go to school – to learn. If they knew everything they wouldn’t need to attend. Learning is a continuous process. In Vygotsky’s theory, the degree of difficulty of the task to be learned remains constant while the skill of the learner increases.
Reading is a particularly precise form of communication. In a sense, it is magical. Shapes of letters on page come together to convey the deepest thoughts and powerful stories. The quality of the reading material is important, particularly if the reader has not progressed at the same rate as peers. Lagging behind the majority of readers in an educational setting leads to a type of pseudo-reading, pretend reading, where a struggling reader flips the page at a steady rate and tries to gather clues about the story from single random words or even worse, graphic pictures. There is no reading happening. This is one of the many reasons why a chapter book with no illustrations such as the SEA CHILD series is effective.
However, some learners do not function well in social settings or shy aware from anything to do with a collaborative setting. The skills necessary for thriving in a community are found in CREATING EMOTIONAL AMBIENCE WITHIN. Thus, those with less experience or knowledge and those more experienced are at the very heart of the zone of proximal development. Important aspects to consider are the relationship within the zone and the social context which varies its relationship to the individual depending on the developmental stage of the individual. The same environment may have different influences on the learner depending on developmental level or age. Relationships govern cooperative activities. Along with a specific social emotional environment, these factors create the optimal educational space.
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The fictional characters of SEA CHILD invite the reader into their community. The activity of reading, taken together with a mentor who is guiding the learner, establishes the zone, a space for collaboration and assistance in accomplishing a specific activity toward an established goal. A joint activity is a psychological development for everyone involved in the activity, mentor and learner, which in turn make new levels of activities possible within the learning community. The basic components of cooperative learning are all accounted for within the theoretical framework of Vygotsky's Zone of Proximal Development.
Language is the central means by which cognitive processes are extended into the community and into the world. Reading is the door to this world. SEA CHILD is a stepping stone to enjoyable reading which is a social emotional experience. It is hearing and sharing the voice of others.
READERS WITH A DYSLEXIC LEARNING STYLE
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Clinical and educational research has shown that there are emotional and motivational factors involved in learning difficulties. What factors contribute to reading difficulties? Some answers are physical development, cultural conflicts and family life, emotional difficulties and the reader’s personality. Some readers may find it hard to process sequences of letters, whereas if characters are presented one by one their difficulty vanishes and symbols are recognized with no effort. This perception of spatial relationships creates problems for readers with a dyslexic learning style.
Yet, all these factors are interconnected and rest on the pedestal of the reader’s attitude toward relationships, feelings about life, attitude toward school and schooling, openness and flexibility toward learning, cognitive development and emotional readiness.
Learning takes place in a relational community. However, let’s face it, the community which is our school system moves students along – not based on success, but age. If children are one year older, they move to the next grade regardless of ability or achievement. Being held back is not what is being advocated here, not at all, but moving to the next level when learners are not ready is as damaging as telling learners that they are failures.
The role for those providing the opportunity for learning, especially in learning to read, is to read SEA CHILD with support, continuous feedback and positive reinforcement. These strategies are explained in depth in CREATING EMOTIONAL AMBIENCE WITH. A close mentor-reader relationship is based on achieving success and mastery. Self-confidence is gained as readers improve their ability to apply new reading knowledge. The SEA CHILD series is directed toward accomplishment. With mastery and a new found self-confidence, motivation to continue to read increases.
SEA CHILD uses systematic phonics, stressing the 'alphabetic principle' in the initial stages of reading development.
A specific font and wider spacing assists the reader in decoding and are found in the text of the SEA CHILD series. Phonological identification is then extended into two letter blends, digraphs, and then longer blends and syllables. SEA CHILD uses basic syllables and easy syllable division rules. Another critical component to help readers is the use of rhyme.
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SEA CHILD allows the reader to demonstrate Linguistic Competence by stressing language patterns that use simple word order, sentence structure, and good writing practices to convey the meaning of words and phrases. SEA CHILD introduces Morphology at a basic level. The reader is presented with root words, prefixes and suffixes with an aim to understand how words can be built up and manipulated to change their meaning. These words are discovered in the context of the narrative. Once the reader has read SEA CHILD, they can move on to applying their new skill. An Applied Linguistic approach formally teaches structures of language and writing. The reader can attempt an integrative practice involving reading, spelling, and writing together as appropriate to the reader’s level and determined at a mentor’s discretion.
SEA CHILD is systematic and structured. The information is presented in an ordered way that indicates the relationship between the material currently being read and material previously read. The chapter books are sequential, encouraging incremental learning and results in a cumulative knowledge base which motivates the reader to continue. As Vygotsky would term it, these are the buds or flowers of reading development not yet the mature fruits of tomorrow.
So far, we have looked at the nuts and bolts of reading so to speak. However, to read without comprehending is not to read at all but merely slogging through text. To combat this dilemma, SEA CHILD is a repetitive and straight forward narrative aimed at providing obvious clues to aid the reader’s comprehension.
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SUPPORT, SCAFFOLDING, AND SELF-REGULATION
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Cognitive and emotional development can foster positive group work and community, a pillar in Vygotsky’s social cultural learning theory. Fiction creates a community with the reader, an emotional connection. Mediation in Vygotsky’s learning paradigm is demonstrated by the support of a more capable person and the verbal interactions that occur between the participants in the proximal zone of development. SEA CHILD offers this support through narrative dialogue as cognitive development progresses across the zone.
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In order for teaching and learning to be effective and efficient, learners needs to be continually challenged. Learners should often be presented with tasks that require assistance. Activities that require the learner to seek help will ensure that the activities lie within the learner's zone of proximal development. This will foster social mediation. However, it does not always need to be a one-way street. A mentor may ask the learner for help by reversing the roles of mentor-learner, when presented with a teachable moment that will ensure learner success. This will encourage the learner and give the learner tremendous feelings of success, competence, and motivation.
Vygotsky’s mediated learning or ZPD occurs when readers are guided to learn how to learn. Mediated learning, guided learning by someone who is more knowledgeable, and metacognition are some of the supports and executive skills which are discussed in CREATING EMOTIONAL AMBIENCE WITHIN.
Every function in a learner’s cultural development appears as an interpsychological phenomena, between mentor and learner or peer and learner. Functions also appear intrapsychologically or within the learner. These two functions can be demonstrated in the SEA CHILD series where the characters first interact with the larger world and then internalize the experience and bring it home.
Proleptic instruction assumes that the learner already possesses the competence needed to successfully complete the task at hand. CREATING EMOTIONAL AMBIENCE WITHIN focuses on creating the emotional platform and support necessary for learning to occur. This strategy of borrowing support is also termed scaffolding. Initially, the first book of the series can be read collectively with supportive scaffolding and the rest of the series individually. In order for learners to have the confidence to perform an activity independently, they must be given the opportunity to attempt an activity independently.
Vygotsky’s view of the ZPD focuses on processes of social transformation as individuals engage in collective efforts to create new forms of social practices. An example of this is seen in SEA CHILD: The Cave, book two in the series, as the characters travel back home from the Middle East.
ZPD is dynamic and focuses on the continuous collective journey as learners work through and discover new understandings of the world. Hence, the characters in each SEA CHILD novel travel the world. As the reader learns and develops, the zone of proximal development moves, thereby indicating the mastery of some tasks at the lower end of the zone and the appearance of other tasks that can now be accomplished at the upper end of the zone. Each chapter book in the SEA CHILD series travels, not just as a narrative exploring the world, but each book also travels cognitively across the Zone of Proximal Development.
Due to the fact that the reader has exhibited emotional readiness by working toward self-regulation via completion of the exercises and activities in CREATING EMOTIONAL AMBIENCE WITHIN the experience of reading SEA CHILD is entirely positive. Vygotsky believed that the goal of ZPD was individual change and growth. Again, these concepts are reflected in the SEA CHILD collection.
In summary, supportive scaffolding and emotional skills such as self-regulation guide the learner into collaborative relationships, whether it be with an adult or a more knowledgeable peer, leading to cognitive development in culturally appropriate ways. This achievement is true for the fictional characters in the SEA CHILD narrative and for engaged learners in real life.
The three aspects of the zone of proximal development: whole and authentic activities, social mediation, and change achieved through mastery and self-regulation, all influence functional pedagogy. For Vygotsky, education was a catalyst for the transmission of cultural ideas, values, and behaviors.
For beginning readers and readers with a dyslexic learning style, these three concepts are encapsulated by the SEA CHILD chapter book series once emotional readiness and support has been established through the use of CREATING EMOTIONAL AMBIENCE WITHIN.
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REFERENCES
Aleci, C. 2013. Dyslexia : A Visual Approach. New York: Nova Science Publishers, Inc.
Barohny Eun. 2019. The zone of proximal development as an overarching concept: A framework for synthesizing Vygotsky’s theories, Educational Philosophy and Theory, 51:1, 18-30, DOI: -10.1080/00131857.2017.1421941
https://doi.org/10.1080/00131857.2017.1421941
Blanck, G. 1990. Vygotsky: The man and his cause. In L.C. Moll (Ed.). Vygotsky and Education: Instructional implications and applications of sociohistorical psychology, Melbourne: The Cambridge Press.
Diaz, R.M., Neal, C. J. & Amaya-Williams, M. 1990. In L.C. Moll (Ed.). Vygotsky and Education: Instructional implications and applications of sociohistorical psychology. Melbourne: The Cambridge Press.
Doolittle, Peter E. 1995. Understanding Cooperative Learning through Vygotsky's Zone of Proximal Development. Paper presented at the Lilly National Conference on Excellence in College Teaching (Columbia, SC, June 2-4, 1995)
Miller, J. (2015). Do You Read Me? Learning Difficulties, Dyslexia and the Denial of Meaning. London: Routledge. APA (American Psychological Assoc.)
Thomson, Jennifer M.; Leong, Victoria; Goswami, Usha. (2013). Auditory Processing Interventions and Developmental Dyslexia: A Comparison of Phonemic and Rhythmic Approaches. Reading and Writing: An Interdisciplinary Journal, v26 n2 p139-161 Feb 2013. http://dx.doi.org.proxy.ufv.ca:2048/10.1007/s11145-012-9359-6
Vygotsky, Lev. (1962). Thought and Language. Cambridge, Ma.: MIT Press.
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Vygotsky, Lev. (1978). Mind in Society. Cambridge, Ma.: Harvard University Press.
Wertsch, J V (1984) The zone of proximal development: some conceptual issues. In Rogoff, B & Wertsch, J V (Eds) Children's Learning in the Zone of Proximal Development New Directions in Child Development, Vol 23. San Francisco: Jossey-Bass.
Zuppardo, Linda, Rodríguez Fuentes, Antonio, Serrano, Francisca. (2017). Pilot Model of the Rehabilitating Treatment for Self-Esteem and Behavior in Adolescents with Dyslexia and Dysorthography by Improving Their Literacy. Journal of Educational Psychology. v5 n2 p381-400 Jul-Dec 2017. https://eric.ed.gov/contentdelivery/servlet/ERICServlet?accno=EJ1159416
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