A lost desire to learn to read can be revived.
You can help students by:
- Asking them how they feel about reading.
- Asking if they are bothered by exceptions such as S saying /z/ in is and his when they have been taught that S says /s/.
- Explaining you have a new way to teach reading and spelling that explains the exceptions.
- Revealing that many adults do not know some of this information.
- Apologizing that this has not been taught to them before.
- Acknowledging that it takes a lot of courage to try again.
PROBLEM: Many people think English is riddled with exceptions!
SOLUTION: Teach the tools that explain 98% of English words!
Strong root skills of phonemic awareness, systematic phonics and vocabulary will result in the flourishing of the entire tree!
Phonemic Awareness | Systematic Phonics | Fluency | Vocabulary | Comprehension
Cited Sources
(1) Peter Wall Institute for Advanced Studies. “Lecture by Dr. Stanislas Dehaene on ‘Reading the Brain.’” April 30, 2013. https://youtu.be/MSy685vNqYk.
(2) Rasinski, Timothy, Nancy Padak, Rick M. Newton, and Evangeline Newton. Greek and Latin Roots: Keys to Building Vocabulary. Teacher Created Materials, 2008.