Word Clearing Series 46RB was the first HCOB which gave the full and correct use and handling of M9. It was revised 19 Dec 1979 to include developments on how one goes about clearing a word. This revision is on page 7, section 7 „Clear the Word“. There were five other changes, all minor. This 13 Sept 80 revision (of the procedure and the examples of correct M9 that follow) serves as a clarification and elaboration of the fact the method 9 word wording must be done with comprehension of the material being word cleared. Earlier write-ups on this subject, not by myself, stated that the person’s Mis-U was that word on which he stumbled. This is not the case. It is only occasionally the word on which he stumbles that is misunderstood. Usually, as was covered long since in study tech, it is the earlier word or symbol which has caused the stumble or twitch or blink or omit or mispronunciation or what have you.
Method 9 word clearing was first developed in a pilot project which sought to teach people to read who were not reading in their native tongue. The first versions of M9 were not correctly written up but the technology nevertheless began to spread in use. It was found that not only non-English students didn’t know what they were reading but as the educational standards of the culture deteriorated, it was found that people reading in their native tongue could benefit with the use of M9. It was then found that college students could not get through M9. And the latest survey has demonstrated that 31 school teachers taken at random throughout the school systems flunked M9 on their common reading materials.
What has apparently happened here is that we have drifted down in literacy to a point where the culture can’t read or hear. In a technical culture such as this, one should not ask further why it is failing.
Because there are not enough supervisors to personally M9 all the people on the planet, much less a medium size class, it has to be done on a turnabout basis by the students themselves. This caused a difficulty with M9 because one was asking students who couldn’t read to understand how to do the method 9 which would find the things which prevented them from reading. Here again we have the chicken and egg problem. Therefore, the procedure has been demonstrated in a picture book which will be issued in due time as a part of a special course. This picture book shows the student how to M9 another student and he can, after being drilled by the supervisor on the picture book. So this has also been solved.
M9 is probably the top key method of word clearing today. You would be utterly amazed to find somebody who habitually reads western stories cannot pass an M9 on them. He sees, „He mounted his roan (a type of horse)“ and he understands from this, „He roamed around the mountains. “ He has become so accustomed to not-ising his inability to understand what he is reading that he thinks it is ordinary. Isn’t that the way everybody reads?
M9 brings it home forcefully to him that he really doesn’t understand what he is reading. This is not why one uses it. One uses it to produce somebody who can read. But, like one of the English teachers who was M9ed on his own text, although he may begin with hostile protest that of course he knows what he is reading, he soon gets into the real reality of it and sees where he is at. His willingness to continue then has already been secured.
It will be found that the simple things are the main things on which he stumbles. Thus M9ing is usually preceded by M8 as covered in the new basic comprehensive reading course. This shows him by picture book how to use a dictionary and gets him to define the simple words of the language. Commas, semicolons, even capital letters will be found to be commonly misunderstood.
The usefulness of M9 has gone then from a way of spotting the points where a foreign language student is falling down to detecting and handling the professors and the rest of the culture. It is an extremely important method of word clearing and should be learned very well.
Method 9 word clearing is a way of finding the words a person doesn’t understand in a book or other written material by having him read it aloud to the word clearer.
It is very simple and precise and it can be done by students on one another with great success as well as by a professional word clearer. Method 9 does not require expertise and it does not require a meter as many other methods of word clearing do. Method 2 word clearing is very similar to method 9 but it requires the use of a meter to pick up the misunderstoods. The virtue of method 9 is that, while it is very thorough and effective, it is not restricted in use to those who can operate a meter and who have other expertise needed for method 2. It can therefore be learned very easily and used very broadly. To teach M9 the supervisor gets the student through the picturebook version of M9, which will be issued in due time as part of a special course and drills him so that he can do method 9 word clearing and he can M9 other students. One can also learn how to do it all by himself by going through this picture book and this HCOB.
A student, when reading by himself, often does not know he has gone past misunderstood words. But whenever he does go by misunderstood words, he will have trouble with what he is reading.
A misunderstood word keeps a person from duplicating what the written materials actually say. It causes the communication formula to go out.
A word can be misunderstood in many different ways and it is important that these different types of misunderstoods are known to the person doing method 9. A word can be misunderstood because of a false (totally wrong) definition, an incorrect definition, an incomplete definition, an unsuitable definition, a homonymic (one word which has two or more distinctly separate meanings) definition, a substitute (synonym — a word which has a similar but not the same meaning) definition, a no (omitted) definition, a rejected (by the person himself, usually due to a false datum) definition or an invented (by the person himself, usually due to a false datum) definition. This is covered more fully on HCOB 17 Jul 79 Issue I, The Misunderstood Word Defined.
If a person has habitually gone past many, many misunderstood words in his reading or his education (which most everybody in this present culture has), not only will his ability to read be lowered but also his intelligence. What he himself writes and says won’t be understood, what he reads and hears he won’t understand, and he will be out of communication. The probability is that he will have sunk back to the first dynamic, the world will look like a very peculiar place to him, he will feel that he is „not understood“ (how true!) and life will look a bit miserable to him. He can even appear to others to be criminal. At best he will become a sort of robot or zombie. So you see, it is very important to clear misunderstood words. Lack of the ability to communicate probably underlies the causes for the current drug culture.
You will be amazed that somebody who appears to be a criminal idiot all of a sudden begins to look comparatively like a genius after he has been M9ed.
A student who understands all the words on the page he is reading will be able to read the page aloud perfectly. He will feel bright and alert and will fully understand what he reads. But when a student passes a word or symbol he doesn’t understand, the misunderstood causes an interruption of his voice or physical beingness. His voice may change, or he may stumble on a word or make a face or squint his eyes or react in some other way.
This is easy to understand if you remember that a person can go blank after he passes a word or symbol he doesn’t understand. He may make a mistake in his reading right there at the point of the misunderstood, or he may continue reading past the misunderstood and make a mistake on a later word or symbol. He will feel duller and he will try to make up for the dull feeling by reading with more effort. This will always be expressed by a non-optimum action of some kind which must be noted and handled at once by the word clearer.
A non-optimum reaction is anything the student does besides read the page easily, naturally, and perfectly. Examples of some of the non-optimum reactions that may show up are:
1. Student adding a word or leaving out a word or changing a word in the sentence he is reading.
2. Student stumbling on a word or saying it incorrectly.
3. Student pausing or reading more slowly.
4. Student frowning or looking uncertain.
5. Student going stiff or tensing a body part, such as squinting his eyes or tightening the grip of his hands, or biting his lip or some other physical reaction.
6. Student reading with effort.
7. Student reading with a glib, robotic attitude (which is how he gets after he has been forced to read „correctly“ by someone who doesn’t know anything about Mis-Us).
Other manifestations can occur.
Note that the above is not a complete list of reactions but is intended to give an idea of what to look for. In all fairness, one can stumble when reading if he is trying to read in a dim light or he is having eye trouble or the print or handwriting or pencilled corrections in the text are very hard to make out. Thus it is necessary to do M9 word clearing only in bright light and if the fellow is supposed to be wearing glasses, he should be wearing glasses, and the material being M9ed must not contain smudges and deletions itself. All possible reasons why he cannot see the text and unclear text must be removed. Otherwise, the student will simply say he couldn’t see it or the light was bad or some other wrong why.
Anytime the person makes an error in his reading or reacts in some non-optimum way, a misunderstood will ALWAYS be found just before that point or sometimes at that point itself.
Example: The student is reading the page aloud. He reads, “Raymond walked home slowly and thoughtfully,“ then he frowns. The other student, who is M9ing him says: „That’s it. Is there some word or symbol there that you didn’t understand?“ (If the student wonders why he was stopped, the word clearer tells him what reaction he noticed.)
The student looks over what he has read. He feels uncertain about the word ‘slowly’. He tells this to the word clearer and the word ‘slowly’ is looked up in the dictionary and used in sentences until the student fully understands it.
When the word that was misunderstood is located and cleared, the student will brighten up and will begin reading clearly and correctly once again.
Glibness is often trained into students by the current educational methods used in schools. The student is drilled to suppress or go by misunderstood words and to robotically answer back with what the book says. If he can do this, he is said to be a „good student“ and a „good reader“.
With this method, a student’s understanding of what he has read is actually considered to be separate from the act of reading. If the educators bother with comprehension at all, it is only to measure memorization, not understanding.
In today’s schools, students are actually instructed to go right on past words they don’t understand; to figure out how to say them and to continue reading whether they understand the text or not. One textbook even advises, „If you find a hard word, read it as best you can and continue to read. “ Students are expressly drilled to suppress reactions such as mispronouncing words, substituting one word for another, inserting extra words, repeating words, and omitting words. These reactions indicate misunderstoods have been bypassed, but under heavy drilling a student can learn to become robotic enough to suppress even these reactions, and read on, leaving misunderstoods piled up behind him. In all fairness, his teachers were not just trying to victimize him. The discovery of the effects of a misunderstood word and the reasons for such stumbles had not been discovered. Teachers did not know about them. Thus they invented various drills to force the student not to make these „comprehension errors“. They did not have the tech or even know what caused these manifestations. You have the reasons for them in method 9 and in study tech.
You can spot a glib student on method 9 because he sounds and looks robotic when he reads. One step to take on such a glib student is to ask him if he has ever been taught to suppress reactions on words which, when he read them, he did not understand. One is asking him to take the „suppress“ off. He will tell you immediately that he has been when this is true, and some emotional reaction can occur. One simply lets him talk about it until the charge seems to be off of it and then gets him to start his M9ing again. Some of it may be left, of course, but he will gradually get into it and become more honest and more there. He thinks, of course, when you’re M9ing him that you simply want him to utter certain sounds. This is what he has been trained to expect. If he is supposed to read aloud, he is supposed to utter certain sounds. These sounds, of course, are meaningless to him but that doesn’t matter. Previously, his whole purpose and training pattern in reading aloud was narrowed into getting passed. So it may be necessary for the supervisor to take up why he is being M9ed. But even though he is reading like a robot and suppressing everything, you will be able to see the suppression deepen when he hits the really big Mis-Us. He reads them even more robotically than he does the other parts of the text, so these too can be detected. As soon as he has found a few of these things out and found out what you are trying to do, he will begin to respond much more readily with M9. Method 9 on common reading materials will show up a student’s lack of reading comprehension and show up his misunderstoods so that he can really see it for himself. It may be an entirely new idea to him that written pages and sound waves communicate something.
Another method, an extreme one, of handling the extensively mis-trained glib student is to get him to read a paragraph and then, employing a method known as „clay table“, get him to demonstrate it. He won’t be able to do so. Furthermore, he will realize he isn’t able to do so. It was just sounds.
To do method 9 on common reading materials, the student chooses a paperback book or something that he reads for his own pleasure and he reads it aloud to the word clearer.
If he cannot read it perfectly, it is because he has gone by misunderstood words. At first it may not be real to the student that he has misunderstood words. But after he has found and cleared a number of them using method 9, the student will realize that he does have misunderstood words and that his misunderstoods are getting in the way of his ability to read.
When the student reaches the point of realizing that he does actually have misunderstood words on the materials he commonly reads for his own pleasure, he becomes very willing to find his own misunderstood words and he can usually do so easily. Method 9 of common reading materials can be ended at this point. The student is now much more aware of and able to find and handle his own misunderstoods and he is on his way toward reading naturally, correctly and with understanding.
The student and the word clearer sit across from each other at a table or desk. Each person has his own copy of the text to be word cleared. The word clearer must be able to see the student and the page in front of him at the same time.
A good, simple English language dictionary, and any other dictionaries the student may need are available. (Above all things, do not use what is called a „dinky dictionary“. This is different than a simple well-expressed dictionary. A dinky dictionary is what you commonly get off the paperback racks in drug stores. It quite often defines word A as word B and then defines word B as word A. It also omits all the alternative definitions and all the technical definitions. Always have to hand, at least in the classroom, the most extensive and voluminous set of dictionaries anybody ever heard of on all the subjects ever heard of under the sun, plus any encyclopedias that you can round up.)
Before the student starts reading, he should be told that if he sees a word he doesn’t know the meaning of, he should stop and look the word up and clear it instead of going on past it. And the student should be encouraged to find and clear misunderstood words himself. M9 brings about the ability to do this, so that the student will find and clear his own misunderstoods in future. The word clearer on M9 would never prevent the student from clearing a word that the student recognizes as misunderstood. Correctly done M9 will bring about the ability of the student to find and clear his own misunderstoods.... (If you don’t want to spend ten years M9ing one page, it is best to get him through method 8 on simple English words. This will be part of a special course which will greatly improve someone’s level of literacy.)
The student reads the text aloud to the word clearer. He is not on the meter. While the student reads, the word clearer follows his own copy of the same text, watches the student and listens to him.
The word clearer must be very alert and see or hear any non-optimum reactions of the student while he is reading.
A non-optimum reaction by the student to what he is reading is the clue to the word clearer that the student has encountered a misunderstood word. The word clearer and student must now locate the exact misunderstood word or symbol. It will be found just before or sometimes at the point the non-optimum reaction occurred.
If it is not obvious to the student that he has reacted and he just continues reading, the word clearer says, „That’s it. Is there some word or symbol there that you didn’t understand?“ It is the duty of the word clearer to steer the student to the misunderstood. It is either at the point of the non-optimum reaction or before it. The point is that the student must be steered onto it. And it then is looked up.
The student may be able to spot his misunderstood word right away and tell the word clearer what it is. Or he may have difficulty finding it and the word clearer will have to help him find it.
The word clearer helps the student by getting him to look earlier and earlier in the text from the point where he reacted until the misunderstood word is found. The word clearer can also spot-check the student. Spot-checking means choosing words from the text the student has already read and checking with him to see if he knows the definitions of those words.
If the student is uncertain about any word or gives a wrong definition, then that word is taken up and cleared in the dictionary.
Once the misunderstood is found it must be fully cleared in the dictionary. The person will be hung up on the definition of the word as it is used in the context of what is being word cleared, which will not necessarily be the first definition given in the dictionary. To try and clear any other definition before clearing the one he is stuck in would cause him to try and clear a word over misunderstoods. Therefore he would rapidly go over the definitions to find the one that fits the context and clear that first. Then the remaining definitions would be cleared.
This is how a word is cleared:
The first step is to look rapidly over the definitions to find the one which applies to the context in which the word was misunderstood. One reads the definition and uses it in sentences until one has a clear concept of that meaning of the word. This could require ten or more sentences.
Then one clears each of the other definitions of that word, using each in sentences until one has a conceptual understanding of each definition.
The next thing to do is to clear the derivation — which is the explanation of where the word came from originally. This will help gain a basic understanding of the word.
Don’t clear the technical or specialized definitions (Math. , Biology, etc.) or obsolete (no longer used) or archaic (ancient and no longer in general use) definitions unless the word is being used that way in the context where it was misunderstood.
Most dictionaries give the idioms of a word. An idiom is a phrase or expression whose meaning cannot be understood from the ordinary meanings of the words. For example ‘give in’ is an English idiom meaning ‘yield’. Quite a few words in English have idiomatic uses and these are usually given in a dictionary after the definitions of the word itself. These idioms have to be cleared.
One must also clear any other information given about the word, such as notes on its usage, synonyms, etc. so as to have a full understanding of the word.
If one encounters a misunderstood word or symbol in the definition of a word being cleared, one must clear it right away using this same procedure and then return to the definition one was clearing. (Dictionary symbols and abbreviations are usually given in the front of the dictionary.)
The word clearer then asks the student to read once again the sentence in the text in which the misunderstood word or symbol was found. The student does so. The word clearer must now ensure that the student understands the sentence and/or paragraph that contained the misunderstood. If the student does not originate this the word clearer must ask him to tell him what the sentence or paragraph means. He does not just let the student continue reading with no comprehension of the text that contained the misunderstood.
If the student still doesn’t understand the sentence or paragraph there will be another misunderstood word or symbol probably earlier in the text, that needs to be found and cleared. Only when he fully understands the section or the text that contained the misunderstood does the student continue on with the M9. He would continue reading from the sentence that had the misunderstood in it, not just the point where he had the non optimum reaction.
Any further non-optimum reactions are handled by finding the next misunderstood word or symbol and clearing it, as above.
Method 9 is continued until the text to be word cleared is completed.
The student is always sent to the PC examiner at the end of a method 9 session.
And that’s all there is to doing method 9!
When the word clearer has misunderstoods of his own on the material being word cleared, he tends to go ‘wooden’ and just sits and does nothing to handle the student. The word clearer must always clear his own misunderstood words or else when the student stumbles on a word, the word clearer won’t even see it or hear it because of his own misunderstoods. He can miss the student stumble and never get the student’s misunderstood word.
The word clearer can also miss a student’s reactions when he has so much attention on the page that he becomes unaware of the student or doesn’t even look at the student.
When students are M9ing each other on the same study materials, they do not first just read the materials as this will only give them misunderstoods. They take the materials being word cleared one paragraph or section at a time and M9 each other on it. This is done by a student first M9ing his twin on one section, and then getting M9ed on what he just word cleared his twin on, plus the next section. It then turns around again. The twin gets M9ed on what he just word cleared the other student on, and on the next section. In this way one person is not constantly leading. Unless the M9ing reversals are done in this fashion, misunderstoods could be missed. The whole text would be covered in this way.
There are many, many different kinds of reactions that can occur when a student passes a word he doesn’t understand. There are also many different ways a student will respond to method 9. All that is needed for success with method 9 is for the word clearer to understand method 9 and to apply it exactly according to this bulletin.
Given here are some examples of student reactions and correct handlings by the word clearer:
The page says: „The boy then reached down and patted his dog.“
The student says: „The boy than reached down and patted his dog.“
The word clearer says, „That’s it. Is there some word or symbol there that you didn’t understand?“
The student looks at the words ‘then’, ‘boy’ and ‘the’. He knows those words. So he looks in the sentence before that one. In that sentence he sees the word ‘collie’. He’s not sure what that is.
He tells the word clearer and they clear the word ‘collie’.
The word clearer now has the student re-read the sentence that had the misunderstood in it and the following sentence. The student does this and the word clearer ensures he now understands the sentences.
They continue on with the M9 starting with the sentence that has the word ‘collie’ in it.
The page says: „The child went to school. “
The student says: The child went to the school. “
The word clearer says, „That’s it. Is there some word or symbol there that you didn’t understand?“
The student looks over the sentence. He says he understands all the words, but thinks the sentence should say, „A child went to school“ rather than, „The child went to school. “
The word clearer says, „Okay, let’s spot-check some words. What does ‘the’ mean in this sentence?“
The student looks blank for a moment and doesn’t say anything. The word clearer says, „All right. We’re going to look up the definition of ‘the’. “
‘The’ is then looked up and cleared.
After clearing the word ‘the’ the word clearer has the student take a look at the sentence again and tell him what it means. The student now understands the sentence perfectly so the M9 is continued from that sentence.
The page says: „Robert then visited the city. “
The student says: „Robert visited the city. “
The word clearer says, „That’s it. Is there some word or symbol there that you didn’t understand?“
The student reads over the sentence. He can’t find anything he doesn’t understand. The word clearer asks him to look over the next earlier sentence for a misunderstood word. The student can’t find any there, either. The word clearer has the student keep looking earlier and earlier in the text and finally the student spots the misunderstood word in the first sentence of the page.
The word found is then cleared.
The word clearer now has him re-read the sentence that the misunderstood was in.
The student reads the sentence and frowns.
The word clearer says: „All right, is there another word or symbol there that you don’t understand?“
They look even earlier in the text and find another word that the student went by that he didn’t understand. The word is cleared fully and the word clearer has him read the earlier passage where the misunderstood was found again. The word clearer then has the student tell him what that passage means. The student does so and now understands the passage, so the M9 is continued from that point in the text.
The page says: „There was a huge pile of assorted tools in the woodshed. “
The student says: „There was a huge pile of assorted tool in the woodshed. “
The word clearer says, „That’s it. You left the ‘s’ off ‘tools’. Have a look over that sentence or page and tell me what word or symbol was misunderstood. “
The student says, „I don’t have any misunderstood words on this page. “
The word clearer acknowledges him and asks him once again to have a look for the misunderstood word or symbol.
The student looks over the entire page but still says he has no misunderstoods. So the word clearer starts spot checking the student on the definitions of the words on the page.
The word clearer asks, „What’s the definition of ‘tools’?“ The student says, „It means ‘implements of work’. “ The word clearer says, „That’s fine. What’s the definition of ‘assorted’?“ The student gives it to him correctly, so the word clearer simply backs up the sentence words one by one, getting the definition of each one until he hits the word ‘was’.
Student says, „It’s something you saw with. “ The word clearer says, „Let’s have a look at ‘was’ in the dictionary. “ Each definition of ‘was’ is then cleared and it is suddenly discovered that the person has never understood that it had anything to do with the conjugation of the verb ‘to be’.
After this is fully cleared up the word clearer has the student re-read the sentence and tell him what it means.
The student says: „There was a huge pile of assorted tools in the woodshed. Oh yes, I understand that, it means that there was a large pile of different sorts of tools in the woodshed. That makes sense. “
The word clearer now has him continue on with the M9.
The page says: „I think I’ll go shopping. “ The student says: „I th-think…“
The student stops after he stumbles. The word clearer says, „Is there some word or symbol there that you don’t understand?“
The student says, „Well, it just doesn’t make sense. “ The word clearer asks, „What doesn’t make sense?“ The student says, „I don’t see why it says ‘think’ here. “
The word clearer says, „All right. Let’s have a look at ‘think’ in the dictionary. “
‘Think’ is then looked up in the dictionary, but the student can’t seem to get it, even though he understands all the words in the definition.
The word clearer asks, „Tell me, what part of speech is ‘think’ in that sentence?“
The student says, „Uh, I don’t know. “
The word clearer says, „Okay. Well, right here in the dictionary, it says ‘Verb’. What does that mean to you?“
Student: „Mm…“ (long pause).
The word clearer says, „All right. “ He gets a grammar book and says, „Have a look at this definition of ‘verb’. “
‘Verb’ is then cleared but while clearing it, the student says, „Hey, I always thought you could only have one verb in one sentence and that sentence has two verbs in it. Somebody threw me a curve. “ And as he has cognited and has now got it straight, M9ing continues. He uses it in sentences until he’s really got it, then they go on to the next definition of ‘think’ in the dictionary.
After all the definitions of ‘think’ are cleared the word clearer has the student re-read the sentence. The student does so, with no error. The word clearer asks him what the sentence means and the student tells him accurately with understanding.
The M9 is continued from that point in the text.
The page says: „The sun was shining on the flowers. “
The student says: „The sun----was shining on the flowers. “ The word clearer says, „That’s it. What word or symbol was misunderstood just before that point?“
The student very carefully looks back over the page, but he can’t find any words he doesn’t understand.
The word clearer says, „Okay. I’ll spot-check you. “ He gives the student a thorough spot-check, but no misunderstood words are found.
The word clearer then asks, „Show me where you were last doing really well on this text. “
The student shows him. It’s three paragraphs back.
The word clearer says, „Good. We’re going to check from this point back for any misunderstood words. “
He extensively spot-checks the student in that area, and the student’s misunderstood word is finally found and cleared.
After ensuring that the student understands the part of the text where the misunderstood was found, the M9 is continued from the sentence in which the misunderstood occurred.
The page says: „The family ate dinner together every night. “
The student says: „The family ate dinner together every night. “
While the student is reading, there is a slight look of uncertainty on his face.
The word clearer says, „That’s it. Look over this section you’ve just read and tell me what word or symbol has been misunderstood. “
The student says, „But why did you stop me?“
The word clearer says, „You were looking uncertain as you read that last sentence. “
The student says, „Well, actually, I did have some attention back on the sentence before last. “
The word clearer says, „Okay. Was there any misunderstood word or symbol there?“
The student says, „I have some attention on the word ‘for’, but I’ve looked that up before. “
The word clearer says, „Well, let’s have another look at it. “
‘For’ is then cleared and the student realizes that he hadn’t fully cleared all of the definitions when he had previously looked it up.
Each definition of ‘for’ is cleared fully and then the word clearer asks the student to re-read these sentences and tell him what they mean. The student has a good grasp of the material and so the M9 is continued from the sentence that had the word ‘for’ in it, with the student reading smoothly and effortlessly.
1. The page says: „The girls were delighted to see one another. “
The student says: „The girls (tightens the muscles in his jaw) were delighted to see one another. “
The word clearer says, „That’s it. Look back over this section you have just read. Was there a misunderstood word or symbol there?“
The student looks at the page a long time. The word clearer can see he is looking earlier and earlier on the page. Finally the student says, „I can’t see any words I don’t understand, but this line seems a bit strange to me: ‘It was Christmas Eve. Alice was listening to ‘Silent Night’ when Carol came into the room. ’“
The word clearer says, „All right. Let’s do a spot-check in that area. What does ‘Carol’ mean?“
The student says, „That’s a girl’s name. “
The word clearer says, „Good. What do the quotation marks show in that sentence?“
The student says, „Hm. Well, someone said ‘Silent Night’ to Alice. “
The word clearer says, „All right. I want you to read this section in the grammar book on quotation marks. “
The student reads the section aloud and says, „Oh, I see. ‘Silent Night’ is a song and you use quotation marks around the names of songs. I’ve got it now!“
The word clearer says, „Great,“ and has the student give some examples of the use of quotation marks. They then return to the text.
2. The page says: „The men walked quietly through the dockyard. “ The student says: „The men walked quietly through the dockyard. “ (Student leans forward and looks at the page more intently.)
The word clearer says, „That’s it. Is there some word or symbol there that you didn’t understand?“
The student looks over the sentence. „Well, I’ve never seen ‘dockyard’ used like that before. It doesn’t make sense. “
The word clearer acknowledges him and has him look it up. The student reads the definition and starts brightening up. He turns to the word clearer and says, „And all this time I thought a dockyard was a place where you built docks, I never could understand why…“
3. The page says: „The car drove off, leaving a trail of dust in the air. “
The student says: „The car drove off, leaving a trail (student squints his eyes at the page) of dust in the air. “
The word clearer says, „Is there some misunderstood word or symbol in that area?“
Student looks bewildered. „No, the sentence just doesn’t make sense. “
Word clearer says, „All right. What is the definition of ‘trail’?“
„Oh, that’s the impression of a horse hoof where a horse has been. “
The word clearer says, „Okay, look up the word ‘trail’. “ The word is cleared and the student sees that he had a totally wrong definition.
The word clearer now has him read that sentence again and tell him what it means. The student is still confused about the sentence and thinks it means that the car drove off a cliff or something.
They clear the word ‘off’ fully and find that the sentence now makes perfect sense to the student. The M9 is continued from that sentence.
The page says: „A bright red apple was on the table. “ The student says: „A bright red apple was (yawn)…“
The word clearer says, „Okay. Let’s find the word or symbol that was misunderstood in this section. “
The student says, „I’m not sure I have the right definition for ‘bright’. Could we look it up?“
The word clearer says, „Sure“, and they look up the word ‘bright’.
The student then re-reads the sentence and tells the word clearer what it means. The M9 is continued from that sentence.
The page says: „The families were having a picnic on the beach. “
The student says: „The families were having a picnic on the beach. “
The student reads the page correctly, but he is being very careful not to make any mistakes.
The word clearer says, „That’s it. Let’s find the misunderstood word or symbol that you didn’t understand before this sentence. “
The student says, „Yes, I started feeling uncomfortable while was reading the sentence before last. “
The word clearer says, „Good. Let’s look just before that for the misunderstood word. “
The student finds his misunderstood and it is cleared.
After ensuring that the student understands this section of the text, the M9 is continued from the sentence where the student found the misunderstood.
The important point for the word clearer to remember is that where there is a student reaction, a misunderstood word will be found, usually just before the point he reacted.
The misunderstood word can always, always be located with good communication, persistence and a totally standard application of method 9 tech, as given in this HCOB. If the student can’t easily achieve this, he must go to the supervisor for help.
To be a very successful M9 word clearer, one’s TRs must be in. One has to be able to TR-3 the question and get the actual misunderstood, yet at the same time, one should never go robotic or rote on the method 9 procedure. For example it may happen that half-way through a sentence, the student stops, smiles, and then continues on. Upon questioning, you find that a bulletin he has read many, many times before is now finally making sense. You wouldn’t then ask him for his misunderstood. Just acknowledge his win and carry on with your word clearing with your TRs in and your application of this bulletin 100% standard. The wins and gains of those you word clear will by no means be slight.
It occasionally happens that the students doing the word clearing get into a quarrel or upset. If this happens, you know that one of two things has happened, either:
1. “Misunderstoods” that were really understood were forced off on the student, or
2. Actual misunderstoods were not detected and were passed by.
1. If this happens, you can clean up any falsely looked-up words by asking him if he was made to look up words he understood. If this is the case, the student will brighten up and tell you the word or words he was wrongly made to clear. This done, the M9ing can be resumed.
2. If the above doesn’t handle it, then one knows that misunderstoods have been missed. Have the twin who is doing the word clearing take him back to when he was last doing well and then come forward in the text, M9ing as he goes, picking up the missed misunderstoods. It will usually be found that several misunderstoods have been missed, not just one.
Worksheets are a written record of the word clearing session. They contain the student’s name, the word clearer’s name, the date and the name or title of what is being word cleared. The word clearer keeps worksheets during the word clearing session and writes down which words have been looked up and cleared and any other important information concerning the word clearing.
Worksheets are stapled to the student’s exam form when word clearing is complete. They are filed in his pc folder.
This is done using this HCOB or the M9 Picture Book (which will be issued in due time as part of a special course). This is a simple picture book which is handed to the student. He goes through the book and then does some M9 drilling as contained in the back of it. The supervisor checks him out and corrects him if needed, using only the data in the M9 Picture Book and this HCOB. No verbal tech or opinions are thrown in.
The end result of a well done method 9 is a student who is certain he has no misunderstoods on that material so that he can easily study the material and apply it.
Method 9 is a great civilization saver.
It is easy to do. It’s fun and it gives tremendous gains. It is vital that method 9 is done correctly, exactly by the book. Otherwise, people will be denied the enormous wins that can be attained with it.