The Rhythm for Reading blog
Phonemic Awareness and the ‘Mirrors’ in our Lives
12 September 2024
In the tale of Snow White, the evil queen asks the magic mirror on the wall who is the fairest of them all? The magic mirror replies that she, the queen is the fairest in the land. As we know, the queen is somewhat obsessed with her own appearance and continues to ask the mirror the same question every single day at exactly the same time. The mirror, which we assume to be truthful and trustworthy, reflects back to the queen the answer that she wants to hear, again and again.
The queen’s habit becomes deeply reinforced through daily practise over a long period of time. She becomes dependent upon the praise and the flattery, delivered by the mirror and her brain’s reward system becomes increasingly contingent upon these messages, until out of the blue, the magic mirror breaks the pattern, and declares that Snow White has become the fairest in the land. Having lost what she perceived to be her source of power and status, the queen is devastated by the mirror’s apparent betrayal and drops into symptoms of severe withdrawal. Her sense of identity fragments like shattered glass.
She vows to deceive and poison Snow White who seemingly caused her so much unnecessary pain and suffering. This projection of personal suffering onto another person is directed by the ‘mirror’ within the queen’s nervous system. Our nervous system acts as a ‘mirror’ whenever we are engaging with our environment. It feeds information up to the brain, which responds according to the context, so that we might anticipate reward, relief, dread or fear.
Mirror neurons
For instance, whether through gestures, vocal sounds, words or simply facial expressions, our most rewarding or ‘fun’ experiences take place when we feel ourselves ‘in alignment’ with others: bouncing stories, ideas, jokes and memories in playful banter. In fact our brains even have an area dedicated to ‘mirror neurons’, which specialize in the type of behaviors that help us ‘fit in’ through social skills such as mimicry for example, allowing certain behaviours to spread within a group, even without our conscious awareness. Although these neurons may appear to be primarily social, they might also have played an important role in human survival in times of hardship.
Reflection to infinity
Many years ago, as a child, I managed by chance to align two mirrors in my parents’ bedroom. I could see myself reflected into infinity in two directions simultaneously. At the age of six, this was such a surreal and powerful experience that I told no one about it and crept back into the room to see if it would happen again. Of course, the effect was still there and I felt I’d seen all the ‘secrets’ of the universe in a single wardrobe door. Experimenting with the angle of the mirrors was a risky business because I thought that the magical effect could be lost forever. It seemed that the alignment between the mirrors had to be very precise for the light to form an infinite pattern of images. Of course, I learned that the relationship between the mirrors was what mattered most, and that I even had the ‘power’ to manipulate the mirrors by bringing them in and out of alignment.
Peering into the reflections, I could see that each one was repeated, with each iteration considerably smaller than the one it preceded. The sequence continued until the reflections were so small that they were just little dots in the distance. When the relationships between the shapes were consistent - and I didn’t really appreciate the importance of proportions and ratios at the time - I could see that the gradient was (to my childish eye) an ‘even slope’. In other words, when the relationship between the reflections was absolute and predictable - always the same, it provided absolute clarity, perspective, harmony and truth.
Reflecting each other
So, how might this visual delight help us to understand phonemes, rhythm and language? To my mind, it is actually very simple. If the alignment between child and caregivers is not quite steady - for example imagine the wardrobe doors are not consistently reflecting each other, then the depth of that relationship, the consistent qualities of that relationship and the precision of the communication will not really be ‘anchored’ or stable or able to achieve that level of clarity, that a true and steady alignment can bring.
True alignment allows for all the smaller elements to line up and fit into the larger ones. Yes - as a design it is worthy of Louis Vuitton, who created a system of luggage that utilised space efficiently and eased the flow of baggage during transit. The dimensions of each piece differed in terms of shape and size, the entire set was designed to fit into the largest piece of all.
Grammatical structures
The grammatical structures of language and music share this same principle that underpinned the Louis Vuitton concept. In a language utterance, the tone, the pace and the shape of the sound waves carry a message at every level - from the smallest phoneme to the arc of the entire sentence.
The shapes of individual syllables are contained within the shapes of words. The shapes of words are contained within the shapes of phrases and sentences. Although these are constantly changing in real time - like a kaleidoscope of mirrors, the principle of hierarchy - that a single unit fits perfectly within another - remains robust.
In music, the shapes of riffs, licks, motifs, melodies and phrases are also highly varied, but the hierarchical principle remains a constant here too. The musical message is heard in the tone, the pace and the shape of the smallest and largest units of a musical phrase.
Distortions and protrusions
Just as Vuitton used design to create accurate dimensions at every level of his luggage set, the same degree of precision is also achieved at a subconscious level in spoken language and in music. A protruding syllable, the wrong emphasis or inflection can throw the meaning of an entire sentence out of alignment. A musical message is similarly diluted if a beat protrudes, is cut short or is lengthened, because the length and shape of an entire phrase is distorted.
Arguably, the precise dimensions in Vuitton’s groundbreaking designs reflect a preference for proportion and balance that also underpins all aspects of human communication. Our delight in the consummation of symmetry, grammar and rhyme is present in the rhythm of language and also in music. At a conceptual level, it is ratio that unifies the Vuitton designs with language and music, and it is ratio that anchors our human experience in interaction with one another and our environment.
A return to alignment
This concept of ratio, as well as hierarchical relationships and the precision of rhythm in real time underpin the Rhythm for Reading programme. Think of this reading intervention as an opportunity to reorganise reading behaviour using a beautiful luggage set, designed for phonemes, syllables, words and phrases. It’s an organisational system that facilitates the development of reading fluency, and also reading with ease, enjoyment and understanding. And yes, we understand how ‘mirroring’ accelerates learning.
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If you would like to book training for your team, we have an in-person option, as well as digital CPD. Book in-person training here and digital training here.
Why not continue reading?
Find out what happens when Rhythm and Phonics collide!
Discover the relationship between flow and rhythm in fluent early reading.
Dive deep into linguistic structures where rhythm and reading comprehension intersect.
Dancing with Ofsted - ‘First Encounters’
4 September 2024
About six years ago, sitting in a cosy office, with Headteacher ‘Liz’, I had heard all about the challenges that her rural school was facing. Every child that she mentioned had a different kind of problem. Some were still in the early stages of learning English; others were speaking English as their additional language but not yet reading, and there was no way of knowing whether there were other factors such as dyslexia, attention deficit or autism, that might account for all the issues that the teachers were dealing with. Staff retention was also a concern and I could see from the change in Liz’s pallor that she was not happy with the situation, especially as Ofsted was due quite soon. There was a feeling of relief when I explained that, based on all the results I already had, she would most likely see an improvement in the children’s attention and reading after week three of the Rhythm for Reading Programme.
Together, we watched a two minute video, which showed children engaged in the rhythm-based exercises of the group intervention and we also learned from the Deputy Head of that school that after only four weeks, the children were more engaged, and were able to comprehend and predict what was coming up in their reading.
After watching the video we talked about the Rhythm for Reading programme and how it first began. When I explained how Ofsted had actually been involved, Liz was astonished and thought that I must have been ‘very scared’ at the time. Actually, I had really enjoyed my first encounter with Oftsed and this is how it happened.
About thirty years ago, shortly after John Major’s Government established ‘Ofsted’ (Elliott, 2012), I received a call from the senior leadership team of a primary school. A group of year five pupils, who were eligible for ‘Free School Meals’ were struggling with anger management, were disruptive and had fallen far behind in their attainment in terms of age expectation. Could I help?
The school called me because I had built a bit of a name for myself in the local Music Service. My phone would ring almost every day with new offers of work. I was keen to keep the momentum going and listened with interest as the class teacher described the complex behavioural problems of these children. Little did I know that my whole world was about to change.
My first experience of teaching these children taught me so much, as they were not able to learn in the conventional way that I was used to teaching. After twenty minutes of my most upbeat efforts, in which I launched a stream of activities and learning games, there came a dismal moment: I admitted to myself that they were not learning anything at all. The children seemed to read my mind and their brave exuberance drained out of their pale little faces. There was a strange moment of utter stillness. I could see dread in their eyes. It would be too easy to say ‘this was not for them’ in a very kind way, and I didn’t want this to end in ‘defeat’ for anyone. On the other hand, what alternative was there?
I looked out over the playground and the fields, the line of trees and puffy clouds and wondered if the answer lay outside, outdoors, in nature. I asked them what they liked to do after school and they boasted about their footballing skills. They lived on the same estate. Of course, I had perhaps made an obvious mistake - I had tried so many things already, but I had forgotten all about their feet. I quickly discovered that they were so much more comfortable when they were standing up and using their feet. The same effort went into this new ‘game’. Everything they did began in chaos but at least I could see signs that they wanted to improve the way they were moving their feet. Finally, they were learning - at last there were signs of progress!
Each week, we would spend a few minutes working first with their feet and they gradually built control and extended their focus. All the while, I would keep one eye on the glass door, nervous that someone might ask me what I thought I was doing. It felt so very dangerous to try something new. Weeks turned into months and they could play well known songs by ear on the cello, and had developed a solid technique. They had made faster progress than I’d expected, based on teaching other children of the same age, and one day, I announced that we were going to learn to read musical notation.
Once again, all the colour drained from their faces. They were agitated, anxious and horrified by this idea, protesting that it would be too hard.
After all these lessons, do you really think I would allow you to struggle? I asked.
The following week, I introduced the group to very simple notation and developed a system that would allow them to retain the name of each musical note with ease, promoting reading fluency right from the start. This system, now an integral part of the Rhythm for Reading programme, was first developed for these children, who according to their class teacher, were neither able to focus their attention, nor to learn along with the rest of the class.
After only five minutes, the children were delighted to discover that reading musical notation was not so difficult after all. They shrieked with glee when they realised that they were fluent and that it was easy! There was a wonderful atmosphere of triumph in the room that day.
After six months, the entire group had developed a repertoire of elementary pieces that they could play together and as individuals. I had been vigilant every single week, watching the door to make sure that my unconventional teaching method - (which meant that learning was done standing rather than sitting) was not seen.
One day, just as the children had finished the rhythm-based exercises, there was a knock at the door and ‘Mr Brown’, the Headteacher came in, ashen faced. I was so concerned and felt certain that someone had reported me for using an unconventional approach. I smiled and waited for him to speak. The children may have picked up on my fear and sat still, barely breathing.
We could not have been more surprised when ‘Mr Brown’ asked the children to play in full school assembly in front of Ofsted Inspectors on the final day of the inspection. Everyone was thrilled when I said, “Yes of course!”
The children wanted to be ‘celebrities’ and this would be their moment. As their playing was already very good, we practised announcing, and taking applause with an elegant bow. Their stagecraft was actually great and I looked forward to their big day. For me, as a visitor, this was a huge honour and I was simply delighted that these children, with all their complex behaviours were going to receive applause from the whole school.
They played as a group and as soloists. Each child announced the title and composer of their chosen piece, played impeccably, took applause with such grace, and then walked with their instrument to the side of the hall. At the end of the assembly, the children (who I was told were now working at age expectation in the classroom) were invited to join the school orchestra and sit alongside their more privileged peers. The Ofsted team placed the school in the top category, ‘Outstanding’.
At that time I had no idea that in the future, I would retell this story so often. In conferences, in my PhD, to headteachers and now to you - the most important ‘takeaway’ is that these pivotal moments when we choose a new path - and do so for the benefit of others - can prove to be the most exciting decision, as unforeseen new possibilities can open up for everyone.
Reference
Elliott, A (2012) Twenty years inspecting English schools, Ofsted, 1992-2012, Rise Review, November 2012, accessed 4.9.2024,
Did you enjoy this post?
To discuss your school’s needs, you are welcome to book a no obligation Discovery Call.
If you would like to book training for your team, we have an in-person option, as well as digital CPD. Book in-person training here and digital training here.
Why not continue reading?
Find out what happens when Rhythm and Phonics collide!
Discover the relationship between flow and rhythm in fluent early reading.
Dive deep into linguistic structures where rhythm and reading comprehension intersect.