European languages are written in an alphabet, because they cannot be written any other way. This is a fact, and there is nothing we can do about it. The evidence reviewed in this book shows that when you follow the principles by which writing systems are constructed and teach the English writing system appropriately, 4-year-olds can easily learn to read in about 10 to 12 weeks. It makes no sense to continue teaching reading the way we do.
Early Reading Instruction: What Science Really Tells Us about How to Teach Reading
by Diane McGuinness
p. xv
Teach Your Child to Read in 100 Easy Lessons by Siegfried Engelmann
funnix
Headsprouts
Reading Instruction for Children Who Are At Risk or Have Disabilities by Mary Damer
The Phonics Page
Don Potter
I Speak of Dreams
National Right to Read Foundation
Children of the Code
Reid Lyon
Absolutely! Now if our schools would just understand this concept.
ReplyDeleteI'm glad you place 100 Lessons at the top of the list, there really is no substitute. I've also been very impressed with Headsprout (online) and would recommend every parent to make sure they teach their child to read because the school won't necessarily do it very well.
It doesn't make any sense to continue teaching reading the way we do but that doesn't mean that we can count on our schools to do something that actually makes any sense.
What is Headsprout?
ReplyDeleteI need to get a link in the original post.
Actually, I don't know which books are the ones people should know about (I do know Engelmann & Damer are major --)
So people should tell me what links and resources should be in this post.
I need to put up some kind of "Teach Your Babies to Read" sidebar thingie, too.
I absolutely agree with you re: teaching your kids to read.
Knowing what I do now, I would have taught C. to read myself when he was 4. I would have left none of it to any public school anywhere.
I still don't know why he turned into such a bad speller, or whether I've sufficiently remediated it with Megawords (though I'm inclined to think I have - I did finally use one of Liz Brown's nonsense word tests with him & he did fine).
The McGuinness book is going to be amazing.
ReplyDeleteI think Palisadesk recommended Headsprout if I'm not mistaken. They have a free trial and my daughter is just about done with the program (it has 80 lessons).
ReplyDeleteJust as with Zig's 100 Lessons, I wish I had begun Headsprout way sooner than I did. It would have safeguarded my daughter from faulty balanced literacy garbage in kindergarten.
We've pretty much erased all those bad habits she learned at school last year(guessing because of the emphasis on sight words), but it would have gone much easier if she'd completed the lessons before the terrible reading curriculum could cause any confusion. My suggestion would be to teach your child to read BEFORE they enter kindergarten.
Here are two more excellent resources for teaching kids to read:
ReplyDeleteABeCeDarian
"Little Books"
I second the teaching your child to read before reaching Kindergarten. Stay away from those sight words! I'm currently remediating 9 students harmed by Dolch Sight words and grade-level reading books full of sight words.
ReplyDeleteAn excellent free resource is free--Blend Phonics on Don Potter's Web page.
Of course, Webster's Speller is even better if you want your child able to read at a high school level by 1st grade, but it's a bit tougher to use.
The McGuinness phonics book is called Reading Reflex. It's clear and effective. Info at http://www.readamerica.net/page9alink.asp
ReplyDeleteI used Reading Reflex along with a couple of other phonics resources:
Phonics Pathways, by Dolores Hiskes, info at: http://www.dorbooks.com/phonics.html
and
How to Tutor, by Samuel Blumenfeld, info at http://www.howtotutor.com/
(He's also the author of Alphaphonics, but How to Tutor was the one in our public library and seemed adequate for my needs.)
Using these resources, my son went from a struggling and reluctant non-reader to devouring Harry Potter novels within a six month period.
My daughter learned even more easily - sitting on my knee at age 4 while I worked with her brother, she learned by listening in on his lessons and simply picked up books and started reading on her own a few months later.
Dee
The one caution I'd add is that beginning to teach handwriting at age 4 is developmentally inappropriate for most children. They just don't have the fine motor control necessary.
ReplyDeleteHandwriting represents the largest cognitive load of all the academic tasks.
The writer must manage
Content (what the assignment requires or the writer intends)
Graphomotor (recalling how to shape each letter correctly; controlling the shoulder girdle, arm and hand)
Spelling (remembering the correct order between words)
Motor planning (starting and stopping at the margins; Spacing between words)
Punctuation
I like the Handwriting Without Tears curriculum. -- it starts with a pre-school curriculum that gets the little ones started in the correct way.