4 AFOURTEEN-POINTCHECKLIST FORANOUTSTANDINGPHONICSREADINGPROGRAM1. ONELETTERATATIME Short-vowelsoundsaretheveryfoundationofourEnglishlanguage.Theycanbe difficulttolearnandarebesttaughtfirstofall,oneatatime,inisolation. Focusingononlyonesoundatatimedevelopsreadingaccuracyandpreventsguessing. (Beneficial for everyone ~especially ELL, LD, or hearing-challenged students.)2. ILLUSTRATEDLETTERS Everylettershouldbeillustratedwithpicturesofobjectsbeginning withthesound. Atfirstmanychildrenareunabletohearthesesoundswithinaword. Multipleillustrationsenhancelearningbyaddingadepthofperspectivethatis similarineffecttoa3-Dhologram,anddepictsthesubtlevariationsofeachsound. (Multiple pictures beginning with each sound develops and strengthens phonemic awareness.) 3. LARGELETTERS Evenwithproperglassesstudentsoftenstrugglewithsmallerletterswhenfirst learninghowtoread.Itseasierforeveryonetolearnfromlargerlettersinitially. Thisfeatureisespeciallyusefultobeginners,LDlearners,orthosewithvisionchallenges. (Once reading is well-established, it is much easier to read finer print.)

4. PHONEMICAWARENESS Phonemicawarenessisaprecursor tophonicsbutshouldnotbeconfusedwith phonics. Teachphonemicawarenesswithlettersatthesametimeformaximumefficiency. Phonemic awareness instruction is most effective when it is kept simple and when it includes letters.~TimothyShanahan,Director,UICCenterforLiteracy (Phonemic awareness teaches only sounds. Phonics teaches both letters and sounds.) 5.MULTISENSORY Amultisensoryapproachensuressuccessforeveryone,regardlessoftheirlearningmode. Howstudentslearnmaybedifferent~butwhat theylearnshouldbethesame. Everyoneshouldbeabletodecodelongwordsbysyllables,whatevertheirlearningmode. Amultisensorymethodhasthesynergisticeffectofaddressingthestrongestmode whilereinforcingtheweakest. (After all, visual learners still must hear the word, and auditory learners still mustsee the word.) 6.TEACHCONSONANTSWITHVOWELS Whenteachingconsonants,blendingthemwithavowelratherthanteachingthemin isolationeliminatestheextrauhsoundheardinvoicedconsonants(suchasd-uh). Thisstrategybeginstodevelopsmootheye-trackingskillsandpreventschoppyreading. Studentsreaddi-gnotduh-i-g,andca-tnotcuh-a-t,etc. (Reading two-letter syllables before reading whole words will remediate and help prevent reversals.) 7.BUILDWORDSASAP Buildingwordsaslettersarelearnedprovidesconcreteexemplarsforwhatcanother wisebeconfusingandabstractrulesandsounds.Itpreventsthereading-without- understandingsyndromesometimesseenwhenphonogramsarealllearnedfirst. (Memory experts know it is easier to remember something new if you connect it to something known.)

8.BUILDSENTENCESGRADUALLY Blendlettersintowords,combinewordsintotwo-wordphrases,andthenbuildshort phrasesintolongerphrasesandsentencesofgraduallyincreasingcomplexity. Itstoobigaleapformanystudentstomovedirectlyfromsinglewordstocompletesentences. Graduatedreadingpracticejump-startsreadingforeveryone,especiallyfordyslexics. (Just because weve learned all the piano notes does not mean were ready to play a sonata!)

9.COMBINESPELLING&READING Readingandspellingenhanceoneanotherandarebesttaughtasanintegratedunit. Learninghowtoreadandspellbysystematic,incrementalpatternsdevelopsclear, analyticalthinkingwhichspillsoverintootherdisciplines,suchasmath. Spellingtodayistakenfromthestoriesbeingread~meaningitstaughtrandomly. Whatifwehadtolearnmathrandomly:12x7,6x9,8x4,5x11,etc? (When we learn how to read and spell by pattern math scores frequently improve without tutoring.)

10.ONESPELLINGATATIME Initiallyteachonlyonespellingofaphonemeatatimeuntilreadingiswell-established. Itsmoredifficulttoteachandlearnmultiplespellingsofaphonemeallatonce. Afteronespellingruleislearned,otherscanbegraduallyintroduced,oneatatime. (Dont youremember names better meeting people one at a time?)

11.100%DECODABLEPRACTICE Earlypracticereadingsshouldonlybecomprisedofsoundsandrulesalreadylearned. Theleftbrainacquiresknowledgebysmall,sequentialparts(lettersounds,math). Therightbrainacquiresknowledgebyseeingthewholepicture(sightwords,illustrations). Activityinonehemispheresuppressesactivityofthemirror-imageareaontheotherside. (Once decoding is automatic we are able to see the whole word at once~the gestalt!)12.ADDSIGHTWORDSGRADUALLY Afterthemechanicsofreadingareestablished,sightwordscanbegraduallyintroduced, afewatatime,suchasIanda.Example:Ihadafatcat. Limitedreadingskillsshouldbereasonablyfluentbeforesightwordsareintroduced. (Attention can only be focused on one thing at a time. It cannot be directed to identifying letters at the same time that we are trying to comprehend the meaning of what we are reading.) 13.TEACHSIGHTWORDSBYPATTERN Wordslearnedinpatternsaregroupedandfiledinonefolderandquicklyretrieved. Wordslearnedrandomlyarefiledinseparatefoldersandtakemoretimetoretrieve. Example:sightwordscould,would,shouldarebesttaughtwithother/oo/words suchastook,book,cookieandput,push,pudding,etc. (Learning words randomly results in slow, laborious reading, and children seldom read for pleasure.)

14.INCLUDEALLSPELLINGRULES Linguisticawarenesseaseslearning,anddevelopslogical,analyticalthinking.Example: Whyaresomewordsspelled-ableandothers-ible,asinappeasable,horrible,etc.? Itsmucheasierknowingoneruleformanywordsthanitislearningeachwordindividually! (Critical thinking sharpens, and spelling improvesdramatically.)Phonics PathwaysandReading Pathways DoloresG.Hiskes2005PublishedbyJossey-Bass,aWileyimprint http://www.dorbooks.comspecialsales@wiley.com dor@dorbooks.com1-800-356-5016 2-09 1-925-449-6983