Correcting Reading Errors

Students who have difficulty handling Lesson 3 will need practice and persistence. Some will see a word like gab and guess that the word is the more familiar word grab. This tendency to misread will be dealt with by your using a sharpened pencil to point at the left side of a word to focus your student’s eyes on the first letter. Then, remind him to SOUND OUT THE LETTERS FROM LEFT TO RIGHT. If you haven’t worked with below-normal or non-readers, you may not be aware that there are a great many students who do not track from left to right. Forming this new habit is difficult for some students, but it is critical to reading success.

Keep the pencil pointed at the left side of a word that a student has mispronounced until he gets it right. This nonverbal technique avoids the need for you, the teacher, to use negative correction words like “no” or “wrong.” If more assistance is needed, then point the pencil at the mispronounced letter or letters. For example, if your student is pronouncing the word gab as grab, point between the letters g and a. Be silent, and give your student a chance to figure out for himself that there is no r. This pointing technique will provide a more positive experience for you and your student as you work through the lessons.

If hints are needed, you might say

•  “Look at the word again.”
•  “Do you see the letter r in this word?”
• “Remember, there are words in this lesson that you may not have seen before or
  may seldom use.”
• “Trust your eyes and read only what you see.”
•  “Blend the first two letters together. This will help you read the word.”

If more specific hints are needed, consider saying

1.  “What is the first letter you see?” g
2. “What sound does this letter make?” |g|
3. “What is the next letter?” a
4.  “What is its sound?” |ă|
5. “Pronounce these two letters together.” |gă|
6.  “What is the last letter in this word?” b
7. “What sound does this letter make?” |b|
8. “Now, blend the sounds.” |gă|–|b|, |găb|
9. “What does the word gab mean?”
10. “Can you use this word in a sentence?”
11. “Let’s look it up in the dictionary.”

Challenge Words

Included in a box at the bottom of most lesson pages is at least one challenge word. All of these words consist of syllable patterns that were taught in the current lesson or a previous lesson. We want your student to appreciate that sometimes a simple word can be combined with another simple word to form an entirely new word, also known as a compound word. For example, book + worm = bookworm. Students tend to love these challenge words!