The Complete I Before E Rule - With Explanations

The Complete I Before E Rule - With Explanations

Memorize the following poem and learn how to apply each part of the rule.	Explanations
Use i before e	Unless you have a reason not to, use ie as in thief, believe, priest, etc.
Except after c	except after c Means: use cei as in receive, deceive, ceiling, etc.
Or when sounded as "EYE" or "AY" as in Einstein and weigh.	Or when sounded as EYE or AY Means: use ei in "EYE" words such as Einstein, Eileen, Heidi, stein, Steinbrenner, etc. It also means use ei in "AY" words such as weigh, eight, vein, veil.
Neither, weird, foreign, leisure, Seize, forfeit, and height Are Exceptions spelled right	And so are: protein and caffeine forfeiture, codeine, heifer, etc. Memorize these!
But don't let the C-I-E-N words get you uptight!	Means: cien as in efficient, ancient, conscience, and sufficient etc.

Use i before e Family with difficulty levels on scale of 1.00 to 21.00

grief (12.25) thief relief (12.00) chief (7.50) mischief (11.00) priest (12.20)

grieve (15.70) thieve relieve (14.00) achieve sieve niece (13.30)

piece (9.55) apiece (11.70) centerpiece siege besiege pier (11.90)

bier tier frieze field (7.05) battlefield yield (13.90)

shield (13.25) shriek friend fiend view review (9.80)

preview patient (12.65) impatient patience (15.80) fielder wield

Except after c Family (See p. 441 for -ceive receive family)

receipt (17.60) receiver (14.40) deceit deceive (15.70) deceitful ceiling (14.05)

conceivable inconceivable receipts (17.95) conceited conceivably

Or when sounded as "EYE"

ein Einstein fraulein Eileen Holstein eider

eidetic Pheiffer Feiffer feisty heist meister

Eisenhower Eiffel height (12.45) Heidi Heidelburg farenheit

H. J. Heit T. J. Heidt Heifitz sholem aleichem stein heigh-ho

Weisenheimer Heinlein Heinrich Heinz Heiss Heisenberg

Weiss Weissmuller Poseidon Rottweiler apartheid

Or when sounded as "AY"

weigh (9.25) weight (7.50) eight (3.35) freight (11.60) freighter neigh

neighbor (10.30) sheik sheikh heir (15.75) their (7.05) heinous

lei skein vermeil Eire inveigle feint

sleigh (13.35) deign reign (16.75) rein Pompeii feign

veil (16.20) unveiled vein (16.30) Chow mein seine reindeer (13.05)

Or when exceptions

neither (10.90) weird foreign (14.90) leisure (16.90) seize (15.15) forfeit

height (12.45) weirdo foreigner leisurely seizure forfeiture

protein caffeine codeine heifer surfeit counterfeit

C-I-E-N words

science (9.15) conscience (18.60) ancient (14.60) efficient (18.55) sufficient (18.10)

scientist conscientious inefficient efficiency (19.80) proficient omniscient

scientific (14.85) prescience inefficiency coefficient proficiency omniscience

Homophones: ceiling/sealing weigh/way weighed/wade weight/wait neigh/nay sleigh/slay reign/rein/rain vein/vain/vane lei/lay Eire/heir/air tier/tear they’re/there/their seize/sees/seas/c’s pier/peer bier/beer piece/peace feign/fain feint/faint bier/beer pier/peer

Helping Your Child Become a Successful Reader

Helping Your Child Become a Successful Reader
by Topsy-Techie

Disclaimer: The opinions stated in this essay are those of Topsy-Techie and do not necessarily represent those of AVKO.

For most children, the process of learning to read is an exciting one. For children with learning difficulties, the process can be frustrating, discouraging, and fraught with feelings of failure. Parents of these children are not immune to discouragement, either. If they themselves did not have difficulty in learning to read, they feel confused as to why their child would be struggling. And if they did have reading difficulties as a child, they can feel guilt about passing down their "reading genes." For both child and parent alike, this is a time to seek out support and encouragement. Websites such as SparkTop.org for kids, and GreatSchools.net for parents, can help you and your child gather information about reading difficulties, and connect with others who are dealing with similar issues.

When gathering information about learning to read, it is easy to become overwhelmed by the conflicting ideas and advice. Some books, articles, and websites can tend to oversimplify the process by advising that you simply inundate your home with books and reading materials and your child will just naturally acquire a love of reading. Other sources will delve deep into the controversies of "whole word" vs "phonics" instruction, and can leave you feeling as though your head is spinning with too much information. What has been lacking has been information for parents which simply summarizes the current thinking on teaching reading and helps parent understand what the expectations are at each level of education.

One tool that parents might find especially helpful is the Reading Skills Pyramid. This tool is a visual representation of the sequence each child goes through as they learn to read. Just as a child learns to catch a ball, then throw a ball, then learn to aim the ball, and then to hit a ball with a bat before they can join in a baseball game, there are natural steps and milestones that children need to go through before they can become successful readers. The reading skills pyramid highlights each of these steps in the sequence. Trying to teach the steps out of sequence can frustrate your child (and you). For instance, prior to trying to learn phonics, the child should master a set of pre-reading skills including understanding basic print concepts, discerning sounds, and awareness of the phonemic “parts” of a “whole” word. Once children understand that words are made up of sounds, the idea of phonics makes much more sense. And while most children do follow this sequence, be aware that there are a great number of variations. Right-brained learners sometimes bypass phonics entirely and begin learning words by sight and pattern.

Other steps in the process include gaining vocabulary skills by incorporating words and meanings from their environment, increase reading comprehension by learning to summarize and sequence, improve reading fluency, and growing phonics and spelling skills. Parents can be supportive through each of these steps by reading to and with their children often, playing games with them that focus on sound and letter connections, asking their children questions about what they are reading, and using a wide variety of vocabulary in conversation.

Parents of children with learning disabilities will need to provide additional reinforcements, as well, such as keeping open conversations with your child about the way their brains work and how their learning differences do not make them inferior, but unique. This also includes helping your child find what he or she excels in, and encouraging their passion in that area. If your child's schoolwork and grades are suffering because of their learning difficulties, you might want to provide them with tutoring or online learning enrichment that will help them get back on track. By encouraging your child's strengths, remediating the source of their difficulties, and praising him or her for their successes, you can help foster a lifelong love of reading in your child.

Author: Topsy-Techie is a homeschooling mother and online writer. She writes the blog about learning to write at Time4Writing.com and the homeschooling blog at Time4Learning.com.

Spill Chick Yore Dock You Mints

Ewe Kin Awl Weighs Spill Chick Yore Dock You Mints

Spill Chiggers Ewe Knighted
1234 Doe Nuts Treat
Sue Saint Mary, MI 49599

No member 7, 2000

Mist Spill Bond
Spilling Check Hers, Ink.
1259 Board Weigh
Gnu Yoke, NY 11012

Dare Misses Spill Bond:

Ewe mite hove use sum spill check her witch came mitt yore come pewter. Its grate at pudding marts fore awl two fined miss steaks aye kin knot sea. Aye dun putt you're lions write threw bye tie ping sew care fully. Its go wing too be purr fit an eye no its gone a bee be cause are calm pewter tolled me an yew an every buddy a round hear sew.

Sin sear Lee,

Tom Us Jack Sun

You can always spellcheck your documents

Spellcheckers United
1234 Doughnut Street
Sault Ste Marie, Michigan 49599

November 7, 2000

Miss Spellbound
Spelling Checkers, Inc.
1259 Broadway
New York, NY 11012

Dear Mrs. Spellbound:

You might have used some spell checker which came with your computer. It's great at putting marks for all to find mistakes I cannot see. I done put your lines right through by typing so carefully. It's going to be perfect and I know it's going to be because our computer told me and you and everybody around here so.

Sincerely,

Thomas Jackson

AVKO Needs, New Blood

Professor AVKO wants you, your voice, your knowledge and your experience to be a member of the Board of Trustees. The time is now to stand up and be heard. To help us help you in the real world, the actual trenches of education. If you are not living in Michigan, don't worry, we are going to be using Skype.


If interested call Gloria toll free at: 1-866-285-6612 or E-Mail: Gloria@avko.org

Could fish be really spelled as GHOTI ?

Could /fish/ be spelled "ghoti" or "-fici"?

To illustrate the weirdness of English spelling, George Bernard Shaw once said we might as well spell the word fish "ghoti." The fact of the matter is, Shaw was only partially right but 100% wrong!

True, the gh may be pronounced /f/ as in laugh.
The o may be pronounced /i/ as in women.
The ti may be pronounced /sh/ as in nation.

But there is no word in English in which the initial letters gh are ever pronounced /f/. There is no word in English ending in ti in which the ti is pronounced /sh/.

As a matter of fact the sound /fish/ is spelled fish only in words that can be reduced to a base (morpheme) of one meaningful syllable. The words fish, fishes, fished, fishing, fisherman, fishermen, fishery, and fisheries can all be reduced to "fish."

But surely we wouldn't want to spell beneficial as benefishal or official as offishal and that should be sufficient to make my point. The sound /fish/ happens to always be spelled fici in words that have a base of more than one syllable. For the phonic patterns rarely taught in schools see The Fancy Words.

Traditional Teaching Methods and Dyslexics

Why traditional methods of teaching reading and writing fail to help most dyslexics learn to read and write

As a rule, dyslexics tend to be highly logical. They also tend to believe what they are taught. When dyslexics apply logically what they have been taught and when it doesn't work, they become frustrated. Normal people just don't worry about being logical. Normal people don't worry when the rules don't work. They just read.

Let 's go through just a few of the traditional concepts that almost all reading experts will agree on.

• 1. We read from left to right.
  

• 2. We should teach the alphabet before we teach reading and spelling.
  

• 3. Whatever phonics is necessary to be taught should be taught in the first two grades. After that, phonics need not be taught. Children learn to read in the first two grades and then read to learn after that time.

1. Left to right? What's that? (/hwuts/) Our language has many sound reversals. When we say /hw/ we spell it wh. If you don't believe us, just check your dictionary and look at the wh- words. With the exception of words like whole and who in which there is just the /h/ sound to start the word, all the words are /hw/.

Let's demonstrate another interesting fact about the word little. Note: The first two letters and the last two letters of that sentence are LE. If our language were to consistently go left to right then they should be pronounced the same. But obviously, they're not. Normal people don't worry about such little things as le being pronounced as /ul/ as in nickel but spelled LE as in pickle. Dyslexics do.

Let's demonstrate that letters to the right of other letters often determine how they are pronounced. Concentrate on the sound the second letter (e). Say: de, dem, demo, demon, demons, demonstrate, demonstration, demonstrative. Ouch!

How about the letter c? In cat it's hard like a /k/. In city it's soft as an /s/. Okay, let's play with MA, MAG, MAGI (pronounced Madge eye), MAGIC, MAGICIAN.

Does this mean that we should not teach phonics? No. It only means we should teach phonics properly. The patterns are consistent but not the single letter correspondences. Notice all one syllable words ending with the letter a rhyme. Da, fa, la, ma, pa, and spa. All one syllable words ending in -ag will rhyme, e.g., bag, rag, brag, drag, lag, flag, etc. Polysyllabic words ending with the /ik/ sound will not use the ending k. Polysyllabic /ik/ words end ic while single syllable /ik/ words are ick words. Pick Nick to run the picnic. Polysyllabic words ending -an are pronounced "un" and usually indicate a human, as in American, Canadian, Christian, Indian, and fireman. The ician words always rhyme with "ish un" and mean the human that makes the first part as in a musician makes music, and electrician makes things electrical, and a magician makes magic. Good readers and good spellers somehow learn to apply these concepts without really knowing them. They are tuned into the language and not turned off by rules that don't apply. Dyslexics need to learn the patterns--not rules. For a listing of the phonic patterns that are not taught in any school's curriculum check THE PHONIC PATTERNS NOT TAUGHT.

2. We should teach the alphabet before we teach reading and spelling. That's traditional. And it works for a lot of children. But for dyslexics, that's the beginning of their problems. If all we had to do was to learn 26 letters, that wouldn't be much of a problem. But, as I learned when teaching one adult dyslexic who had no problem reading the word BAR but couldn't read bar or bar or Bar or Bar or bar, the letter a takes many shapes as do all the letters of our alphabet. If a person is taught to read a word using just one set of letters, it doesn't mean he can read the word when written in another set. The young adult dyslexic in question knew the word BAR because he loved to imbibe. What AVKO has discovered is that dyslexic children can learn to read and spell AS they learn the alphabet, not AFTER. The exact sequence of teaching the letters and the words and sounds that the letters make can be found in both Let's Write Right and The Teaching of Reading (and Spelling): a Continuum from Kindergarten through College.

3. Whatever phonics is necessary to be taught "...should be completed by the end of the second grade for most children." You can find this stated on p. 118 in Becoming a Nation of Readers: The Report of the Commission on Reading. Whether or not phonics is taught or how phonics is taught is the first two grades, there is no way for a logical person to make the leaps from the simple patterns of the story telling language used in these grades to the sophisticated patterns found in the curriculum from the fourth grade on up through college.

For example, how can we expect a logical person (a dyslexic) who can read the word fish be expected to read the letters fici as "fish" in the words official, beneficial, and sufficient?!?! The experts on reading just "know" that context is enough! The dyslexic who is logical knows that the letters ish are in fish, dish, and wish. But where is the ish in Commission? Miss rhymes with kiss. An ion rhymes with "eye on." We have had dyslexics attempt to read the word commission as "Calm Miss eye on. Yet, the only way the sound "mish" is spelled in words of more than one syllable is missi as in mission, permission, submission, transmission, etc. (Okay, in Michigan, the "mish" sound is spelled MICH, but that's the only exception I know of.)

In conclusion, traditional methods are doomed to fail the dyslexic child when they insist that:

• 1. We read from left to right.
  
  That is too simplistic. Single letter/single sound left/right is not true. What is true is that Words follow one another from left to right or top to bottom.

• 2. We should teach the alphabet before we teach reading and spelling.
  
  No. Dyslexics will learn better if they learn to read and spell AS not after they learn the alphabet in a very slow systematic multi-sensory manner.
  
  

• 3. Whatever phonics is necessary to be taught should be taught in the first two grades. After that, phonics need not be taught. Children learn to read in the first two grades and then read to learn after that time.

  WRONG. Learning to read is a continuum. The phonics taught or caught in the first two grades is insufficient to allow a dyslexic in the third grade to read the word insufficient. Indeed, it is a rare third grade child who can read the words insufficiencies, cuisine, or psychiatric.

As we have achieved our goals, we are and have been looking for a viable 501(C)3 nonprofit organization to ensure that the concepts and materials we have developed will not be lost to posterity.

We are also looking for a publisher who is interested in making a lot of money and in the process helping millions of children learn to read.

Muscle Memory - a kinesthetic skill

Humans begin acquiring muscle memory from day one. The first big accomplishment is learning to control the neck muscles to turn our head. From there all other muscle development continues, grasping, pushing up shoulders and head, rolling over, sitting up, crawling, then pulling ourselves up to begin learning balance and walking.

The same thing happens when we learn to hold a pencil properly. We generally are taught with larger pencils and wide-ruled paper because we have less control over our small motor muscles. As we become better able to control our muscle movements we use finer writing implements and regular or narrow-ruled paper.

The repetition of printing and writing the alphabet is the conditioning we need to be able to automatically write each letter recognizably. Just as we practice basketball again and again to perfect our body's movements to make the shot, we want the same automaticity knowing how to shape letters and words.

For kinesthetic students it is very normal to feel and recall the muscle memory of how the word is formed. We want all students to be aware of their muscle memory to recall the accuracy of writing out a word. It is an important skill we can rely upon to help ourselves determine if we are spelling correctly.

Muscle Memory Game - A fun game to develop "feeling" the letters. 2 or more players: 1 writer, 1 guesser at a time or in pairs. The guesser has to figure out what letter or word the writer has made on their back. The writer must be accurate in making the letters.

Beginner - print letters with index finger on each other's back. Intermediate – 3 -5 letter words, use index finger on back. Skilled - write spelling words in cursive with index finger on back.

Parents who play with students - you must also change off between writer and guesser. The writer role is using muscle memory; the guesser role is using brain memory to recall how the letters should be formed - two different but important methods of recall.

Creative Writing Worksheets from A Tasteful Cliché - for only $2.99 each

• Character and Setting Writing Prompts
  Creative writing prompts for your students (120 worksheets in all). These fun creative writing prompts involve a given character (from history, mythology, etc.) and a given setting. The student has to write a story about, or from the perspective of, the character in the given setting. An example: Write a story about a werewolf in a galaxy far, far away. Another example: Cinderella in a logging camp.

• Alien Observer Worksheets
  A fun creative writing exercise for your students. Creative writing prompts (100 in all) for your English students. They are tasked with describing an activity or object on Earth as if they were an alien scout sent to describe everything on Earth to their fellow aliens.

• Puppy Dog Tails Worksheets
  Give your students these fun writing exercises for a different kind of creative writing assignment. The students have to create a recipe for three occupations per worksheet (over 100 worksheets in all!), similar to the poem in which boys are made of "snips, snails, and puppy dog tails".

• Dull Product Advertisement Worksheets
  A creative writing and art assignment for your students. Students have to create an advertisement for an otherwise-dull household product like bow ties and door knobs. 100 prompts in all.

  Visit A Tasteful Cliche | Read the rest of the AVKO Blog | Visit the AVKO website

You Can't Teach what You Know if You Don't Know You Know It

You Can't Teach
what You Know if You Don't Know You Know It Video

View the video on YouTube

Read the rest of the AVKO Blog | Contact AVKO

Printable Writing Worksheets from GoPromo

Check out these fabulous printable worksheets that you can use to help teach your students to write from GoPromo.com

Read the Rest of the AVKO Blog | Visit the AVKO Website

Meet and Greet Times with Don McCabe Available!

Don McCabe will be available for meetings in various international locations. Please e-mail Don to set up a time to meet.

• Johannesburg, South Africa, August 10-12
• Cape Town, South Africa, August 13 -17
• Sydney, Australia (available in the evenings Thursday & Friday, October 21 and 22.
• Available from 10am to 4 pm Fjordland, New Zealand Tuesday October 26.
• Available from 10 am to 4pm Fort Chalmers, New Zealand Wednesday, October 27.
• Available 10 am to 4pm Akarroa, New Zealand October 28. Available 10-4, Wellington New Zealand 10/29.
• Available 10-4 Auckland, NZ, 10/31.
• Availale11-3, Suva Fiji 11/3. 10-2, Pago Pago 11/4.
• 11-2, Moorea, French Polynesia 11/7.
• 11-2, Papeete, Taihiti, French Polynesia, 11/8
• 11-2, Bora Bora, French Polynesia, 11/9
• 10-5 Honolulu, Hawaii. 11/14
• 11-2 Maui (Lahaina), USA 11/15

Read the Rest of the AVKO Blog | Visit the AVKO Website

How to Get the Most Out of AVKO Spelling Program in 3 Easy Lessons:

Lesson 2 - How to use the Membership Books

to their Greatest Potential

Membership? What’s that? Why should I bother with it?

As a non-profit organization, AVKO exists to HELP adults and kids learn how to read and spell. AVKO has an annual membership which provides the REFERENCE MATERIALS every child’s classroom (even at home) should have available. Membership also gives you a 25% DISCOUNT on all AVKO books and DVD’s. For only $25, you can receive the E-book version of 6 books. We suggest you download the e-books to a CD, so no matter what happens you will have a copy of the six books.

The AVKO Philosophy: The Why

The Teaching of Reading and Spelling: A Continuum from Kindergarten to College

It contains the whys and wherefores of the AVKO philosophy and method of teaching spelling, reading, handwriting, and keyboarding. A book for the parent/teacher, it not only gives the background on WHY but lets you begin to see that the flexibility of AVKO is why this method works so well for all ages and people with spelling and reading difficulties. It is a common sense, down-to-earth book on teaching all the parts of learning to communicate through the English language. As a supplementary textbook for Education Majors/parents/tutors/teachers, the learning to read process is defined, phonics in teaching reading and writing is discussed, an explanation of what part learning-to-write-letters-and-words has in the reading process, plus the spelling and reading connection information is given along with practical diagnostic and prescriptive tests. The second part – the “how” of this book is Starting at Square One.

The AVKO Philosophy: The How

Starting at Square One – for Kindergarten and 1st Graders

The only curriculum ever devised to teach reading, spelling, handwriting and keyboarding AS the students are learning the alphabet NOT after!

This 313 page book is filled with lesson plans for teaching a Kindergartener/1st graders the letters, the sounds they make, how to print the letter(s) that represents the sound(s), beginning keyboard lessons, and reading using only DECODABLE words.

The alphabet is not introduced going from A to Z. McCabe introduces the letters intelligently according to common sense by the first few a child might know by rote and then the next few are the most common letters used. So it goes A, B, C, D, then R, S, T. With just these first seven letters student can begin to learn words and sentence parts, like /a cab/, or /a dad/ or /a car/, /a card/, /a bad cab/, /a bad car/ as well as names like Barb, Barbara, Cara, Brad, Bart and words like add, brat, arc, crab, radar, cars, sad, bass, scads, crass and lots more. This text can also be used for an older student who has some gaps in letter-sound recognition, such as the sound made by x , qu, digraphs or certain consonant blends. AVKO suggests you make yourself familiar with the entire book before starting to teach.

When done with this book, they should be reading at a beginning second grade level, the student is now ready for Sequential Spelling 1.

For Readers at 2nd & Up Using ANY AVKO Spelling Program

The Patterns of English Spelling and

New Word Families in Sentence Context - 10 Volumes

Recently combined, these two books are now over 1600 pages. McCabe was not content with just the word families that fit cleanly into rimes, he also explains spelling oddities of w- and r- controlled clans, basic suffixes, -y families and their relatives, advanced suffixes, advanced patterns of /k/ spelled –qu, -ch, and /sh/ spelled –ch and other miscellaneous relatives, and even Greek and Latin prefixes, roots and suffixes. It contains EVERY word family in the English language and is a universal resource for the entire list of spelling and reading books AVKO produces

How to Use: (alphabetic index pgs 23-93)

Pages are numbered 101A, 101B, etc. A pages: Word Family& Power Words. B pages: Sentences

1. Find and review the ENTIRE word family you are studying. Sequential Spelling has a selected grouping of the word family, NOT every word; therefore this book allows you and students to review all word family words, not as spelling words, as vocabulary.

2. Power Words - listed on the same page, these can be used for developing multisyllabic pronunciation and comprehension.

Great Vocabulary Game: Go over the words and their meaning in the dictionary. Students write the word on one side of paper, on the other they draw the meaning of the word. Be sure the drawing expresses some feeling of the word meaning. Hang up drawings around schooling area. When you have five or more pix start a weekly game where you either show them the word and they have to tell the meaning of the word by describing the picture OR they look at the picture and tell what word it represents.

3. On the opposite (B) page, you will find sentences using the word family words in context. Divide into four sections. Use the sentences for dictation, typing, handwriting and reading comprehension practice. Each of these functions is an important learning tool and beneficial for mastery of higher education. (For additional practice go to Spelling city.com (free website) enter words and play games or use new sentence writing selection.

Use with 4th Grade and above - Check What They Know and What They Don’t

The Reading Teacher’s List of over 5,500 Basic Spelling Words

Parent/Teachers can create their own Sequential Spelling Tests based upon their own students' needs and difficulty levels. This book helps parent and teacher find students true reading level and can therefore be a wonderful tool for checking decoding and comprehension skills. It also contains the most recent National Spelling Survey results.

Autobiography

To Teach A Dyslexic

Don McCabe, the author of almost every book the AVKO Foundation sells, wrote his autobiography to help parents and teachers who are NOT dyslexic, better understand what their children who ARE dyslexic or learning disabled, may go through during their lives. He emphasizes the need for excellence in teacher training, and how he developed his own teaching strategies based on spelling patterns. Don is himself, dyslexic. He found ways of coping when learning and not only survived his own school days, but thrived as a teacher and Director of AVKO.

~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~

Great Post about a Homeschooler's Experience with Spelling

Read this thoughtful blog post from a homeschooling mother who shares her experience with teaching spelling.

Share your thoughts.

New Handwriting iPhone App from Kate Gladstone

Yes -- the iPhone/iPodTouch application Kate Gladstone has been developing is finally out!
See the informational page (includes download link for
iPhone/iPodTouch users) at
http://www.deeppocketseries.com/Better_Letters.php .

If you know anyone who has (or whose children have)

/a/ an iPhone or an iPodTouch,
/b/ US$2.99,
and
/c/ handwriting that could use some help

how about mentioning the app to him or her?

Yours for better letters, Kate Gladstone
http://www.HandwritingThatWorks.com
Handwriting Repair/Handwriting That Works
and the World Handwriting Contest
6-B Weis Road, Albany, NY 12208-1942
518/482-6763 - handwritingrepair@gmail.com
Twitter -- http://www.twitter.com/KateGladstone
SONGS OF PENDOM -- http://stores.lulu.com/handwriting
POLITICIAN LEGIBILITY ACT Petition --
http://www.iPetitions.com/petition/PoliticianLegibility

Book of the Month:

Readings for Fluency

by Gloria Goldsmith

This book is for any student who does not read fluently or with little or no expression, even if the student reads at grade level.
It targets the little words (such as how and who) that tend to be confused. For a student to read fluently, these words must become automatic. This book purposefully uses many types of fonts including a handwriting font and all capitals in order to improve the decoding skills of many students who have difficult identifying letters when the letter looks slightly altered in size or shape from the font they are used to seeing.

To make the learning easier, the readings are in paired sentences. The tutor reads a sentence (often a question) and then the student reads the next.
Set the kitchen timer for 15 minutes. Don't feel obligated to read the entire page. If you can, fine. If you read it twice in fifteen minutes, that's great. You can switch to having the student read the question and you read the answer. Model what you want the student to do: read with enthusiasm and punctuation. The voice drops down on periods and up on questions.
Don't waste learning times by having your student sit and try to sound out a word. Count to two, if necessary, and then give them the word. Be sure to encourage and praise your student when they have accomplished today what they couldn't do yesterday. Give as much help as needed each time. They will learn. Available at avko.org at 33% Off.