Parting the Cobwebs

Abstract:Through this autoethnography, Cassandra Lau reflects on the power of shared book reading (SBR) and bedtime oral storytelling (OST) on the remedial teaching of Leo, a boy with mild dyslexia. In SBR sessions, she used the Malay phonetic charts, multimodal coding, and after-reading activities including colorful mosaic-letter tiles to raise phoneme awareness, tracing the orthographic loop, and spelling. A summary of Leo’s favorite books and his reactions to them were noted. Flexible and shared creation of OST brought therapeutic calming effects to Leo and secured his identity and self-efficacy. Through the power of stories, Leo was able to make connections between sounds and letters and was finally able to read.