Lessons for Learning and Life- Lois Letchford's P3

Lois Letchford specializes in teaching children who have struggled to learn to read through numerous commercial programs. She has worked with students of all ages in Australia, England, and Texas. Her creative teaching methods vary depending on the reading ability of the student, employing age-appropriate, rather than reading-age-appropriate, material. Her non-traditional background, multi-continental exposure, and passion for helping failing students have equipped her with a unique skill set and perspective. Originally a physical education teacher, she later completed a Master's in Literacy and Reading from the State University of New York at Albany. Lois has presents her work at Council for Exceptional Children, Michigan Summer Institute, and New York State Reading Association conferences. She is co-president of the Albany City Reading Association and a member of the Australian College of Education.

In 1994, Lois’s son, Nicholas, struggled severely in school. Lois said, “I saw a gap between what was being taught and how the child was learning, and that became significant, and that’s what really pushed me to become a reading specialist.” In 1995, when Lois was working with her son, she said that learning and teaching became so much fun. This was a child who the teachers said could not do anything. Lois said that Nicholas is a special child, with huge language deficits that impeded his progression. As a result of her work with him, Nicholas graduated within the top 20% of the class and won the “Yes I Can Award,” a national award from Exceptional Children for academics. He went on to get two undergraduate degrees and was awarded his Ph.D. this year in Applied Mathematics from Oxford University. Lois reflected, “I can not imagine what would have happened to Nicholas if he hadn't learned to read at the age 7 because he had this incredible brain and no one could see it.”

Lois book, Reversed: A Memoir, the story of her son's—and her own—learning disability, was recently published. She worked with three editors to help her generate, organize and polish her memoir of this profound learning journey. Lois continues to use the skills she developed for her son as she continues working with students to help them build the needed skills to help re-engage students to become active, involved learners ready to re-enter the traditional classroom with confidence. Several of her most challenging students have eventually gone on to graduate from college. Lois's P3 is biographical, too.

Lois’s nostalgic song is the theme music for one of the longest running radio serials. It’s about the lives of families in an Australian town called Tanimbla. It was broadcast on ABC (The Australian Broadcasting Corporation) for 27 years and ran for a total of 5, 795 episodes. Lois grew up on a dairy farm in Queensland. Her parents were hardworking farmers and though her father read, her mother never did, and they had very few books in their home. Lois said, “ The whole world came to us via radio, and it was the Country Hour that would come on, and at 1:00 every day they would listen to Blue Hills.” Listening to it takes her back to the heat and that exact spot when they gathered around the radio. “It took me a long time to realize how much I relied, or our family relied, on ABC radio for everything. It was our entertainment, it was our news broadcasting, and it was our reading.” Here is the theme music for Blue Hills:

Lois's identity song has been dubbed the unofficial anthem of Australia. It is about someone stealing sheep and being chased by police. As she introduced the song, Lois gave a bit of a history lesson about the origin of Australia first being “put on the map” by Captain Cook. Eventually, the English government sent their convicts to settle Australia because, “It looked like an empty country,” even though the Aborigines had already lived off the land for centuries. This song is so ubiquitous across the country that the women’s national soccer team is nicknamed the Matildas. The lyrics were written by Banjo Paterson in 1895. Here is John Williamson singing Waltzing Matilda:

Lois’sinspirational song comes from the biographical film Invictus based on a book titled Playing the Enemy: Nelson Mandela and the Game That Made a Nation about events in South Africa during the 1995 Rugby World Cup. Lois said, “The movie is inspirational to me.” Lois gave the historical context that, “Nelson Mandela was in a position where South Africa could have gone into civil war very quickly, and everyone within his field, no matter what colour you were...had to check their prejudices to make South Africa work with Mandela. I think that’s what we have to do in the classroom, too...step back and look slightly differently and not just right child off, so that we can teach them more effectively.” The poem alluded to by the film’s title says so much about our work to empower learners and give them the tools to be masters of their fate and captains of their soul.

Lois made the connection of Mandela’s unification of the country to her song choice. “Mandala to me is absolutely amazing, and it says in that movie. He was in prison for 27 years. How can he be in prison for 27 years and forgive those who put you in there?” This is the national anthem of a united South Africa sung by Bloemfontein Children's Choir as a metaphor for the unification of the people, their languages and their vision for a future after the dismantling of Apartheid.

Lois helps children learn to love to read. You can find her book, Reversed: A Memoir on bookshelves and at Amazon. You can learn more about her work, her book and her son, Nicholas, on her website, loisletchford.com. Lois suggested, “Send me an email, send me your stories.. I’m always there making active readers.” You can also listen to her podcast on voicEd Radio.