|
Learn How to Teach Reading to a Child, Teen or Adult
Book Details
About the Book
Orders are shipped within 24-48 hours.
You can purchase an autographed book with your personalized message written inside by Lorraine Peoples.
ORDER NOW and SAVE
Learn More
Who Should Use This Book?
You Can Teach Someone to Read makes it possible for any reader who can read to be someone else's reading teacher. Just follow the easy step-by-step, uncomplicated directions. You’ll be amazed how well it works.
- Ideal for parents and friends to evaluate, teach and reinforce phonics and other reading skills to a child, teen or adult.
- Remarkably useful for home-schooling parents
- Perfect for volunteers in literacy reading programs
- Invaluable resource for classroom teachers
- Used by educators for correctional institutions
- Useful for those who teach reading to students for whom English is their second language.
Divided into six units, this illustrated book includes:
- Step-by step user friendly uncomplicated detailed directions
- Sight words used most often
- Phonics rules used most often
- Background information for the instructor
- Basic comprehension skills
- Check lists and tips on how students learn best
- Built-in evaluation
- Activities, games, cartoons, charts and yarns called "Silly Stories" to make reading fun to learn -- yes, adults love these, too!
- Table of Contents, Detailed Index, and Appendices -- including lists of consonant and vowel sounds, sight and phonetic words, rules used to figure out words, plus more
45% of fourth graders read below grade level. Most poor readers missed some basic reading skills in the first three years of school. If those missing skills are identified and taught, no matter how old the person currently is, reading improves for that person.
You Can Teach Someone to Read, by a former elementary school educator (33 years), tutor and reading consultant, helps you identify those missing reading skills and gives you the instructions for teaching them in ways that are fun and satisfying for both student and teacher.
Readers Ask How Lorraine Wrote You Can Teach Someone to Read
How did you write this book? How did you get started, and how did you know what to put in it?
Lorraine’s Responds:
It took me 33 years to gain the knowledge and then several more to put it on paper in a usable form for others to use.
In the Beginning:
Parents of my classroom students begin to ask what they could do to help their children with reading, other than read to them or listen to them read -- especially something to help them recall the phonics rules. Consequently, I prepared a handout for them consisting of several pages. (Note: Most adults integrate the phonics rules as they use them, and don’t specifically remember them.
Furthermore, many of these parents grew up when “whole language reading” was being utilized and probably weren’t taught phonics when they were learning to read.) This handout was used for years by appreciative parents.
Strong Motivation:
When I was considering early retirement to travel with my husband, the younger teachers let me know that I couldn’t leave unless I left them something about reading to guide them. I knew they came to me often seeking knowledge about the phonics rules and the sequence for teaching them, but I didn’t realize how much they were depending on me. I told them I would develop a pamphlet for them, which would also include my “Silly Stories”. (I always had fun with my students while teaching reading.)
By this time, statistical research reported that many of our U.S. children were dropping out from school, and 43-46% of our fourth graders were ineffective readers. I believed I could and should help change this statistic.
Traveling, Camping and Writing:
When other campers learned I was writing a booklet about how to teach reading, they put in their requests based on their experiences. First it was non-reading adults – “can they really learn to read, and how do I help them?” Next it was, “I hope you’re including how to work with kids before they get to school, so they’ll have a good jump on learning to read.” Next it was parents asking, “My child is in third grade and not reading well at all. I want to help, but I don’t know how.” And so it went. Each time, I answered, “Well, yes, that certainly could be in this book.” The booklet I first set out to write became a full-fledged book, You Can Teach Someone to Read: A How to Book for Friends, Parents, and Teachers.
The Challenges:
The first challenge was to include all the needed information to satisfy each group's needs. The truth is that the basic reading skills are the same, regardless of age, and regardless of who is doing the teaching. Thus, the book was organized to serve all groups (friends, parents, teachers, individuals and groups). The next challenge was to remove the “educational lingo” and present the information in the clearest, simplest form possible.
Inspired by Teaching Experiences:
During my first years of teaching, I was assigned to teach grades (in this order) second, sixth, third-fourth combination, fifth, first grade, first-second combination, and second. These assignments were in six different public schools and two private schools, all with varying economic environments. Over the course of my 33 years, the reading programs and techniques changed. All of this was a fantastic learning experience for me. At every grade and school there were readers of various abilities ranging from excellent to non-readers. From the beginning, I felt a mission to assure that each student attained good reading skills, regardless of grade or environment. During that process, I learned how to determine learning styles, which of the phonics rules were true most of the time and how to teach them so they would be remembered and utilized during reading. As I used this knowledge, it was obvious students could get into reading more quickly. I realized that when the student accepts the fact he needs help to read better, and has the motivation to read, the process moves very quickly.
I remember one large, strong, well-liked fifth grade boy who was the most graceful dancer I ever have seen, but who could not read. We’ll call him Chris. The class loved Chris and after I read with the class the first time, I realized he couldn’t read. After I had a personal conference with him, the class protectively informed me that he could not read. Teaching Chris became a class project. I told him I could teach him if he wanted to learn. Chris responded without hesitation that he wanted to learn to read. The class gasped. Since the class had initiated this, I asked them if they would be willing to help me teach him to read. They bargained. “If he would teach them how to dance they would help.” He agreed immediately, but I didn’t. It was my turn to bargain. “When he learns to read, we will have dance lessons every week for a half hour.” After three months, he was reading third and fourth grade materials, and often the geography book, which he loved. Dance lessons took place, but reading help never stopped. That experience was inspirational for me as well as motivational. I knew nonreaders could learn to read.
Learning to Know the Student:
Through many additional experiences, it was evident that a good reading teacher needed to observe the student for physical and emotional problems that might affect their reading and seek help for them. I developed short mental checklists for myself to use for physical problems.
Knowing how the student learns best was especially useful to me, and appreciated by parents when I shared the knowledge with them. I felt that many of the students with learning problems were unable to learn in the manner they were taught. For instance, teachers often have a visual learning style and so teach in a way that reaches students who learn best visually. If the student learns best by hearing or seeing, he was often seen as a poor student. When the teacher prepared techniques to reach visual, auditory and kinesthetic learners, they became more effective teachers. I observed that many of the students learned better when we changed the teaching style for them. A tester of learning styles once told me I didn’t need to have my students tested because I already had figured out their styles. My mental checklist was working well.
Therefore, the simple checklists that I used to determine the physical and emotional problems, and to determine the learning styles of a student were included in the book.
HOW I CHOSE THE READING SKILLS TO INCLUDE IN THE BOOK:
Phonics and Sight Words:
First, extensive research indicates that phonics should be taught in a sequence. I based the sequence on the research. It also shows that phonics must be taught, along with sight words and other basic reading skills to develop a good reader.
Knowing the alphabet letters and letter sounds is a logical prerequisite to reading. Next the sounds of the letters are learned. Because many consonants have more than one sound I first present the consonants with only one sound, and then the consonants that have more than one sound. Provided Silly Stories, activities and games make this learning more meaningful, fun and lasting. One need only teach the letters and sounds not known. Interspersed with these lessons are lessons for learning beginning sight words that need to be memorized. Learning the vowel sounds is vital to good decoding, and is presented after the consonant sounds are learned.
Edward Dolch and Edward Frye both researched and compiled a list of sight words used most often. Frye determined that “over half of every newspaper article, every textbook, every children’s story, and every novel is composed of the first 300 words on his list. These 300 words make up 65% of all written material.”
Most of the first 300 words in the Dolch and Frye’s list were the same, but there were some not common to both. I combined the first 300 sight words on the two lists. Using this information, I analyzed those sight words with a vengeance.
What I learned:
1. 24% of the words used most in writing were: the, and, to, is, of, a, in, that, you and it.
While several of these can be phonetically sounded out, I determined that because of their usage, they should be treated as sight words (words that cannot be sounded out phonetically) and be the first sight words to be memorized. A student should be able to name the written word within five seconds if he has learned them well.
2. When I further analyzed the sight words, I realized that many of them could be sounded out phonetically. I separated them from the list, but kept them in order based on their usage.
3. Using the first 100 words that could be phonetically sounded out, I figured out which phonetic rules were used in each word. I proceeded to do the same with the second and third lists of words.
4. Now I knew which phonetic rules were used most in the words used most often. This is the order they are now presented in You Can Teach Someone to Read. They are interspersed with new sight words used most often.
5. I used this plan to teach school classes, and individuals during tutoring. It was clear to me that the student progressed very quickly because they were learning the words they were seeing most often, and how to decode new ones. As they progressed, they read more difficult materials easily. Their motivation was heightened, because they were achieving their goal – reading.
Higher Level Skills:
After the rules and sight words are well learned, review is built into the sequenced lessons using the vocabulary learned earlier. Continuing to build new skills by using a solid basic reading foundation was of utmost importance to me. Previously learned vocabulary is used to build new skills such as in UNIT III: Suffix Instruction. And again in UNIT V: Decoding Longer Words Using Syllable Rules, More Suffixes, Compound Words and Contractions.
Strong emphasis on making sense from the written word includes higher level skills such as use of punctuation, using context in reading, learning comprehension skills. My favorite techniques are explained through actual exercises, with the expectation that the instructor will use the techniques over and over with the literature they select.
No literature selections are recommended in the book, as I anticipate that those instructing will know their student(s) well enough to select the appropriate reading materials.
Read more about Lorraine Peoples and her personal commitment to you...
ORDER NOW and SAVE
You Can Teach Someone to Read, by Lorraine Peoples
|
