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Nova Elementary Schoool
I attended an experimental school in Fort Lauderdale (Plantation, really) in the early-mid '70s--I was part of the experimental group (as opposed to the control). We didn't have walls, and we learned a weird approach to language, a phonetic approach. We had a different alphabet made up entirely of phonetic symbols/letters, we would recite our "alphabet" every day. I remember it started off "A--apple, N--nest..." and on, in a different order from the normal alphabet and using some different symbols. One symbol was the ae (that is, it looked like one of those old-fashioned symbols where the a and the e are twined together) and that made a sound like "ay." Another symbol looked like one of those 3s that are flat on top--that sounded like the "zh" sound in the word "television." I was reading a Washington Post chat transcript today about poor spellers, and someone posted this:
Vineland, N.J.: Steve, did you possibly learn to read by a method called "ITA" (stands for initial training alphabet)? It was the reading method du jour during the mid-sixties. The children that went through the ITA reading process turned out to be great readers but poor spellers. Examples of the ways that words were spelled in ITA reading textbooks: The word "pay" was spelled "pae" and write was spelled "wriet."
Meanwhile, three cheers for the person who invented the spell checker!
Steve Hendrix: I don't think we had that in South Georgia in the 70s.
Yes! That was it--I remember we were called the "ITA" group. And I remember those workbooks, and the biiig pencils with which we wrote. Yes, I was a great, and early, reader--I used to read by the light that spilled under the door after I was supposed to be in bed. It's God's mercy that I didn't end up needing glasses. But I'm a good speller too--I was the district and regional forensic spelling champion in high school, and of course, I'm a proofreader now.
It was quite a change after my parents divorced and I went to live in Virginia at the beginning of third grade. The school I attended there, Mount Daniel Elementary, was diametrically different from Nova--it was a brick red school house with normal classrooms and even cloakrooms. I loved Mt. Daniel too, it was just so different.
Vineland, N.J.: Steve, did you possibly learn to read by a method called "ITA" (stands for initial training alphabet)? It was the reading method du jour during the mid-sixties. The children that went through the ITA reading process turned out to be great readers but poor spellers. Examples of the ways that words were spelled in ITA reading textbooks: The word "pay" was spelled "pae" and write was spelled "wriet."
Meanwhile, three cheers for the person who invented the spell checker!
Steve Hendrix: I don't think we had that in South Georgia in the 70s.
Yes! That was it--I remember we were called the "ITA" group. And I remember those workbooks, and the biiig pencils with which we wrote. Yes, I was a great, and early, reader--I used to read by the light that spilled under the door after I was supposed to be in bed. It's God's mercy that I didn't end up needing glasses. But I'm a good speller too--I was the district and regional forensic spelling champion in high school, and of course, I'm a proofreader now.
It was quite a change after my parents divorced and I went to live in Virginia at the beginning of third grade. The school I attended there, Mount Daniel Elementary, was diametrically different from Nova--it was a brick red school house with normal classrooms and even cloakrooms. I loved Mt. Daniel too, it was just so different.
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Yeah, that's all. I've never heard of ITA. I just had one of those "hey, that's my town" moments.
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