Can you read this???

Do you have a strange mind?
fi yuo cna raed tihs, yuo hvae a sgtrane mnid too. Cna yuo raed tihs?

i cdnuolt blveiee taht I cluod aulaclty uesdnatnrd waht I was rdanieg. The phaonmneal pweor of the hmuan mnid, aoccdrnig to a rsceearh at Cmabrigde Uinervtisy, it dseno't mtaetr in waht oerdr the ltteres in a wrod are, the olny iproamtnt tihng is taht the frsit and lsat ltteer be in the rghit pclae.

The rset can be a taotl mses and you can sitll raed it whotuit a pboerlm. Tihs is bcuseae the huamn mnid deos not raed ervey lteter by istlef, but the wrod as a wlohe. Azanmig huh? Yaeh and I awlyas tghuhot slpeling was ipmorantt!

This was forwarded to me. Interesting!

 

I have seen this before and was amazed by it also! However, I have also had students and parents show it to me to defend their position that spelling is not really important. Yikes!!

 

I have seen it before also. However, I think I have an unfair advantage...I teach first and second grade. Everything looks like this. he he he (They're getting better everyday.)

 

I teach grade 4-8 students with Learning Disabilities--everything they give me looks like this too!

 

The thing is, yes, one can read it - but it takes longer to read and involves more processing effort. Spelling is important because reading is work, and the prudent writer doesn't make the reader work hard unnecessarily.

 

Spelling is important, don't misunderstand me, but I honestly read it very quickly without hesitation...and I'm sure I'm not the only one.

 

Maybe it helps explain why so many of us are less than wonderful spellers. Also, why proofreading is such a drag!

 

Okay, I read really fast. (I mean, really fast.) And I can read the passage above quickly - but not as quickly, and I don't read in the same way. I'd bet that's true of most if not all readers: we're not disfluent when the letters are scrambled, but we're less fluent than we are when they're not.

 

Alice, some of us (groan) proofread by reflex... it's a little like having perfect pitch, in that sometimes the discord is kind of painful.

 

Uh huh. Only you are better at it than I.

 

For me it depends on the circumstances.

Here, I tend to eke out moments when the kids are in bed (but usually not yet asleep) or watching TV-- half listening for a crash or even worse, deafening silence. So, while I'm normally fairly decent at grammar and typing, it doesn't always show here. And I don't sweat the proofreading.

But in any sort of formal atmosphere, like proofreading exams for submission, I'm actually pretty good.

 

Alice, you make few enough errors here that it's a little startling when you do.

 

I just thought it was interesting to note the way the brain works when reading. I think that gives support to the idea of having students memorize sight words in addition to teaching them phonics/word patterns.
I think the part that said, "Yeah, and I always thought spelling was important!" was meant to be taken as a joke.

 

On meet the teacher night I had a passage similar to this in my handouts for the parents. The next day I had a mom write me back saying she couldn't read this language and if I could send home a copy in English!

 

Ha! I guess she missed the point altogether.

 

I read it and it was as easy for me to read as when words are spelled correctly. I know some people who can't read these types of things.

 

lol

 

I read it just fine, but I found myself taking it one word at a time, rather than groups of words at a time, as I would read a normal sentence. This made me think of my brain-based teaching and learning class that I just finished for my masters. It talked a lot about chunking information to help you remember a few big pieces, rather than a lot of little pieces.

 

Exactly my point: it's readable, but there's some additional processing that's required.

 

TG, I am guessing that you won't believe me, but I read it as easy as any piece of written material, without hesitation at all.

 

So did I grammy, but I attributed it to myself being an accomplished pianist. I thought maybe being a musician was a factor in the ease of reading. Maybe not.......

 

Do you think that's it kinder? I play piano as well, since I was about 12 years old I think. I have always been a very good "reader."

 

I think it was easy for me to read because I have seen it (or one just like it) before and I knew what it was about. I can't remember how quickly I read it when I first saw it.

 

I bet that has something to do with it. I didn't stumble at all.....it was very easy to read.

 

Just today a student brought me a piece of paper and asked me to read it...it was this exact passage. Isn't that a coincidence!

 

Yes, I can read it. I've seen it in other forums. It's interesting.

 

I use that same misspelled paragraph to make a point to my college students...that reading is NOT identifying every letter or every word...reading IS making sense of print.

Here's something to get you thinking...read the following paragraph through once...when you finished, cover it and ask yourself how many mistakes you found...

The boat in the Basement
A woman was building a boat in her
basement. When she had finished the
the boot, she discovered that it was
too big to go though the door. So he
had to take the boat a part to get
it out. She should of planned ahead.

Don't worry if you miss many of the mistakes...that actually means you are an effecient reader. You were NOT reading every word, instead you were making sense of print.

 

I've seen this before too. I think as a teacher I am able to read it because I am so used to deciphering invented spelling, even at the 5th grade level.