Q & A

Reading is the foundational skill.  We learn to read in order to understand the printed word.  We learn to spell so that we can use the written word to communicate with others.  Basically, the ability to read and spell helps us access information and enjoy life.

Does your student understand the importance of learning to read?  If not, spend a few minutes discussing the benefits of reading.  Here are some thoughts:

If you can read, you can…

• understand a prescription label (and take your medicines safely)
• pass a driver’s test
• read a restaurant menu
• heed warning signs
• follow an instruction manual
• appreciate billboard messages
• read letters, newspapers, magazines, and books.

See if your student can come up with more benefits of knowing how to read.

Encourage him to think ahead about how reading will help him in life.

Reading and spelling are related skills. Learning to read and spell at the same time  is like the proverbial killing of two birds with one stone. It is the most efficient use  of your and your student’s time.

Spelling should never be considered as somehow less important than reading.  It deserves equal time and attention. The value of being a good, accurate speller  will become more apparent as your student gets older. The time will come when  he will fill out a job application, respond to a boss’s memo, compose a letter, write  a report, or simply send an e-mail or “tweet” to a friend. Being a good speller is  part of being well educated.

The mental and physical processes of becoming a reader are somewhat complex.  For example, reading involves processing information from eye to brain during  silent reading and from eye to brain to mouth during oral reading. Spelling is even more complicated, involving participation by the ear, brain, and eyes (hearing a word + writing or typing it + recognizing the way the word should Look). Spelling also entails processing information from brain to mouth, As when a student spells out loud, and from brain to hand as when a student Writes or types words on paper. Some students will be better readers than spellers, and vice versa. That’s okay. Just be sure your student is faithful In reading all of the words in the lessons and doing all of the spelling exercises.

Reading is pointless if a reader does not understand the meaning of words.  This is why we emphasize the importance of reading for comprehension beginning with the very first word in Lesson 1.  By spending time discussing the meaning of words, you will help your student develop the habit of automatically looking for meaning while reading.  Understanding what the words signify will make reading interesting, satisfying, and useful.

The absence of pictures and sentences is intentional. It has been our observation that many students habitually guess at words. They have not learned that words are identifiable by the sounds that the individual letters of the words make.  It is so much better to know and apply the sound patterns than to guess at words. Why guess if you can know?

Pictures provide context clues that may actually impede the reading process.  To break dependency on clues, we have chosen not to provide illustrations,  (We do, however, provide illustrated sound charts to help the instructor explain and model the sounds of the alphabet letters.) Likewise, the lessons do not present sentences, just word lists. Again, this is intentional. The reading of full sentences will come quite naturally in time, after your student has mastered  the groundwork. Do students miss having sentences and stories as they work through these lessons? Our experience has been that they don’t miss them one bit. In fact, if you introduce sentences or a story too early, your student will probably ask you, with some bewilderment, what happened to the word lists.

After your student completes the 90th lesson, he will segue into reading sentences and whole stories. It is amazing how ready and primed your student will be  for this new venture. He will quickly discover that the task is almost effortless.  As you and your student read a book aloud, ask comprehension questions.  At first, some students will hesitate to answer questions. Supply the answers for those who look stressed. This is simply a confidence problem, not a reading problem. You and your student are getting ready to “reap what you have sown” and will now be able to enjoy the fruits of your labor.

You and your student can take turns reading out loud. Encourage your student  to read with meaning. This is not to be treated as a race. Take your time
and enjoy the story. Expect that your student might need to be coached about  how to treat commas (a comma indicates a pause), periods (a period indicates  a stop), and other punctuation marks (raise the tone into a question when the sentence ends with a question mark and show excitement, increased volume,  or intensity, as appropriate, when the sentence ends with an exclamation mark).

At least a week before you complete the 90th lesson, you will need to start looking for a book that will interest your student, because after the final lesson, you and he will begin a reading project together. My students are especially fond of reading Gifted Hands by the renowned black neurosurgeon, Dr. Ben Carson.

Yes! It is imperative that a student know the alphabet in order. To use a  dictionary or a telephone book, for example, a student needs to know alphabetical  order. The most effective way to learn the alphabet is to memorize “The Alphabet  Song.” The melody for “The Alphabet Song” is the same as the melody for  “Twinkle, Twinkle, Little Star.”

“a b c d e f g, h i j k l m n o p, q r s, t u v, w x, y and z.
Now I’ve said my A B C’s . . . Next time won’t you say them with me?”

Yes!  Words are formed by putting letters of the alphabet into certain patterns.  For example, every word has at least one vowel.  The five vowels—a, e, i, o, and u—are absolutely key to pronouncing words.  The twenty-one consonants—b, c, d, f, g, h, j, k, l, m, n, p, q, r, s, t, v, w, x, y, z—are fairly predictable as to the sounds they make, with the exception of y and w, which sometimes function as vowels.

Some letters make more than one sound.  This is an important point.  So let’s repeat it:  Some letters have more than one sound.  The s in Sis, for example, says |s|, but the s in his says |z|.  In all, there are 48 sounds and some 250 spelling patterns associated with the 26 letters in the English alphabet.  This is not too many to learn.

There really is no other way to read and spell!  English words are meant to be read and spelled from left to right.  Shockingly, many reading programs do not teach this fundamental left-to-right principle.  Some teach a scanning method, telling  the student to look for familiar letter shapes somewhere in the words.  Others teach a “whole word” memorization method, sort of like hieroglyphics.  Reading from left to right, by contrast, provides predictability and logical direction.  “Left-to-right” is easy to remember.  It is dependable.  It is a one-way street that prevents a wrong turn.  Students who have begun the reading journey but not developed the left-to-right habit may need constant reminders and gentle  encouragement.  It is essential that beginning readers develop this necessary routine.  Cursive writing requires a student to write from left to right.

An automatic reading response is one that is smooth and without hesitation.  A student who hesitates when pronouncing or spelling a pattern needs more practice.  Sounding out words is important for beginning readers and spellers, and this will initially slow them down, but the goal is to practice until their reading response is fluid and immediate.  When the response becomes automatic, the student can concentrate more on content and meaning.

An automatic reading response is one that is smooth and without hesitation.  A student who hesitates when pronouncing or spelling a pattern needs more practice.  Sounding out words is important for beginning readers and spellers, and this will initially slow them down, but the goal is to practice until their reading response is fluid and immediate.  When the response becomes automatic, the student can concentrate more on content and meaning.

Let’s consider the word pecan.  A person from New York typically says |pēʹ • kǝn|. A person from the state of Washington says |pēʹ • kănʹ|.  A Texan, on the other hand, says  |pǝ • kŏnʹ|.  Now consider the word pencil.  An Oklahoman would say |pĭnʹ • sǝl|, but a Minnesotan would say |pĕnʹ • sĭl|.  And when it comes to wh, as in which and when, a person from Kansas says |hwĭch| and |hwĕn|, but a person from Texas or Oklahoma says |wĭch| or |wĭn|.  We recommend using the classic pronunciation as shown in a dictionary, but feel free to adjust for regional differences.  Sometimes you have to pick your battles.

Do not be surprised if a “straight A” or “A / B” student is enthusiastic about these  lessons. These students may be high achievers because they are excellent memorizers and can usually determine word meanings based on context or pictures. These same students might initially have trouble when faced  with our lessons, though, as our material is bereft of context clues. In the long run, all students are better served by learning true phonics and the left-to-right pattern for sounding out words than by learning to memorize.

Learning English can be overwhelming for ESL students. To complicate matters, English has homophones, homonyms, homographs, idioms, and irregular phrases. If you have an ESL student, simply work through each lesson methodically and in order. ESL students tend to do well with this curriculum. Vocabulary building is one of our program’s strong suits. As students learn to pronounce, spell, and understand the meaning of words, and as the instructor uses sentences to describe the words, the students will become more comfortable with the language.

Students often think in their original language and translate into English  before speaking or writing words. Allow adequate time for them to do this mental processing. Answer your student’s questions but keep discussion (your words) to a minimum. Some students have found it helpful to take notes during a session or to spend a few minutes between sessions studying or memorizing words. However, there is no need for this, as everything can be reinforced through review during the regular sessions. Work as quickly as the ESL student is able. Relax and smile. Allow your student to learn the lessons at his own pace. Review when needed.

For years we have been told that people read by looking at the whole word.  New laser technology has enabled researchers to follow readers’ eye movements, and we now know that good readers actually look at every letter in a word. The key to overcoming deficiencies (“guess” reading and the inaccuracies it  produces) is to train students to see and read each letter. That is what this book is designed to do.

Different parts of the brain appear to be involved in phonics-based reading than  in guess-based or memorization-based reading. These findings are from magnetic imaging studies. Students who guess at words are busy trying to remember  where they previously have seen a word. They glance at pictures for context clues or try to match a word to the perceived story line. This approach is fatiguing  and is not what real reading is about. Real reading is linear and accurate.

Yes. The age of a student usually is an important variable in how we approach the teaching of reading. Age affects everything from “desk time” and attention span to the reasons the student is learning to read. It even will affect the degree  to which your student initially applies the newly acquired patterns and skills to outside reading.

Working with adults and teens: 

Older students are sometimes fearful that they cannot learn to read.  Encourage your student to just try these lessons.  Start with Lesson A or Lesson 1, depending on the readiness of your student.  An adult or teen can work for two or three hours and not lose concentration.  Work as long, as quickly, and as often as you and your student have time and energy.  Daily lessons are always better than weekly.

Adults and teens are different from younger students.  Once an older student gets enthused about learning, in most cases, the new information will be applied to anything and everything that student is doing.  Older students, unlike younger students, seem to be less compartmentalized when learning to read.

Older students are more prone to quitting before the lessons are complete. There are several reasons for this.  First, they never thought that reading was an option for them, but now that they can read words and road signs nearly everywhere they go, they are satisfied.  Second, older students might entertain the notion that this newfound reading ability obligates them to do more than they are accustomed to doing.  This makes them anxious.  For example, a young adult male might think that he has to go to college since he no longer has the excuse that he can’t read.  Assure these adults that being able to read opens doors, but it’s their choice whether or not to walk through those doors.

If a teen or adult quits before the lessons are complete, it is probably not the tutor or teacher’s fault.  The student might be quitting because, strangely enough, the instruction was successful:  The student now can read well enough to do what he set out to do.  Perhaps his goal was to test for a driver’s license, pass the GED, or take a civil service exam so he can become a police officer or public employee. Would it be best if he completed all of the lessons?  Absolutely!  Just do what you can to encourage him to cross the finish line of the 90^th and final lesson.

Working with elementary students:   

Elementary students who have little or no reading experience may easily succeed with our curriculum.  Children are eager to learn, and having a good reading program makes all the difference.  Reading proficiency is usually achievable before the end of first grade.

I have worked with students (even as young as kindergarten and first grade) who already have an intensely ingrained habit of guessing at words. These elementary students, as they work through the lessons, will not necessarily show immediate improvement in school, as they tend not to apply what they are learning in reading to their other classroom work.  There are several reasons for this.  Guessing entails calling out the first word that comes to mind. Switching gears to engage in real reading requires effort.  Also, children do not usually have the maturity to see the value that real reading will have in their lives. They don’t yet understand the bigger picture.

Children sometimes will need to complete up to at least Lesson 50 before their reading improvement begins to become apparent to others.  You, the instructor, will need to continue working through the lessons till your student masters each pattern.  By the time he has made it three-fourths of the way through the curriculum, he may become one of the best readers in the class.  If you take your time and work consistently, your student will become an accomplished reader and speller.

It is especially important for elementary students to have daily lessons. Daily lessons produce the best results.  If that is not an option, then study at least weekly.  Weekly is better than having no lessons at all.  Students who work all the way through these lessons during the summer may find that they have surpassed their peers.

Please, as much as possible, limit your elementary student’s exposure to outside reading materials while this curriculum is being taught.  It is not a good idea to switch back and forth between the structure of this program and the relative lack of structure characteristic of outside reading activities.  If other reading is required, attempt to do these word lists before any other reading is done. For more insight on this, see Lesson 50 (page 102).

Working with preschoolers:

It is possible for preschoolers to learn to read, but do not insist on it. Create pleasant times by reading wonderful books to them.  Encourage your child to draw and color, as these activities will enhance hand/eye coordination and help in the writing of alphabet letters in the future.

Before using these lessons with a young student, be sure that he:

Can recite the letters of the alphabet in order.

Knows that letters have sounds and that these sounds can be learned.    

It isn’t important that all of the sounds of the letters are known, just that the Preschooler understands that each letter has a special sound that he can learn to recognize and say.

Is able to write the letters of the alphabet.    

Test your student by asking questions.

“Can you write on paper the letter M?”

“Can you write the letter that makes the |m| sound?”

“What is the first sound you hear in the word mat?”

“Can you write the first letter that you hear when I say ‘mat’?”

“What is the last sound you hear in the word ‘am’?”

“Can you write on paper the last letter you hear in the word ‘am’?”

Children usually learn to print upper-case letters [A, B, C] before they learn the lower-case equivalent [a, b, c].  Sometimes you will see an inconsistent mix. Use your judgment about requiring one style over the other.  As you go through the lessons, you will have opportunities to tutor your student about penmanship and letter cases.

If you are teaching this curriculum to your own child, be intentional about being patient.  The words am and at in Lesson A seem like such simple words.  We tend to forget that it takes a lot of doing to launch a new skill.  Be patient with your child!  DO NOT CRITICIZE OR BERATE.  Let your youngster have fun and enjoy the journey.