E-Course - Part 2
Choosing a Phonics Reading Program

So you understand the fundamentals of phonics; you are convinced that it is the right type of reading program for your child; what next?

The next step, naturally enough, is choosing a particular reading program. On the surface of it, it may not seem that difficult; but this choice - one that may well be one of the most important educational decisions you ever make for your child - is filled with numerous potential pitfalls. This part intends to highlight the key areas you must pay attention to if you are to make an informed choice.

What To Look For In A Phonics Programme

While there are no doubt exceptions, excellent phonics reading programmes should:

• Be systematic
• Be classroom tested
• Have an excellent track record over a number of years
• Contain enough study materials to maintain student interest
• Be entertaining
• Pay attention to details

Some programs, especially new ones, may not meet all of these criteria and still be of value; but if a program does contain all of the above, you are close to guaranteed it will serve your child well.

The Need for System and Structure

At first glance many phonics systems may look the same. Don’t be fooled. Many systems that claim to be phonic are often little more than whole language systems with a splash of phonics thrown in. William J. Bennett, writing in the Wall Street Journal (April 24, 2001), noted this fact. He wrote:

Many institutions march under the banner of 'balanced instruction' but, in fact, they continue to push the flawed 'whole language' methods at the expense of phonics. This is the educational equivalent of treating polio with aspirin. We would never stand for such malpractice in medicine, and we should not tolerate it in education.

These are heavy allegations, but a quick perusal of the local educational bookstore will support this view. Too many so-called phonics systems are actually little more than an unsystematic mishmash of reading methods which, lacking the necessary cohesion to create a solid reading foundation, flounder in uncertainty and confusion.

The Book Store Test

If this point seems somewhat abstract, we (the Fitzroy Learning Centre) recommend making the following test. Go down to your local educational book store, pull out a random phonics program, move from the beginning through to the end of the course, and ask yourself whether it builds systematically.

Spend some time making sure that it covers all of the features (like basic letter sounds, digraphs, spelling rules and sight words etc.) that we discussed in Part One. If it does build them in systematically (moving step-by-step from easiest to hardest) then it should prove effective.

What you will probably find, however, is that it jumps about somewhat incoherently. Pay attention especially for the too many digraphs being introduced too soon. In the early reading levels you probably shouldn’t have any whatsoever, and at most one or two. As for sight words, a few are acceptable, but again, early readers shouldn’t introduce more than about one or two each.

So-called phonic systems that are really whole language based systems are full of sight words. Beware!

Classroom Tested

Excellent literacy programs almost always have one thing in common: a good deal of hands-on classroom testing before entering the marketplace.

It’s like computer programs: no programmer would ever consider sending his work out into the public without first exposing it to hundreds of hours of testing - and probably several free demo-versions. It’s too risky. You cannot foresee all of the problems that will inevitably arise. Systems that work in practice cannot be created in a theoretical vacuum.

And yet, rather than the exception, this is actually what usually takes place. Publishing houses - most likely in a rush to get their products out into the marketplace - launch a program created either by people (often academics) with little or no actual classroom teaching experience, or by teachers - but without actual classroom testing. Neither scenario creates a robust reading system.

The First Letters

A common example will help make this point clearer: Image you have to teach a child her first letters. What letters should you begin with? There are several theories going around; but what actually works in practice?

One argument (given by a very popular reading program) says that you should begin the letter s. The letter s, so the argument goes, is very practical because it is not only in many words, it can also be used to make plurals out singular nouns (e.g. apple – apples or dog – dogs). Good sense, right?

Actually it's a bad idea to begin with the letter s because small children who are just learning to write haven’t developed their coordination (fine motor-skills) to a sufficient level to be able to cope with an s. Just holding a pen is a difficult enough task for most youngsters. Imagine trying to hold it steady while you twirl it around in two semi-circles!

With that in mind, compare the letter s to the letter l. Rather than require any great degree of coordination, all the young child has to do is draw a straight line down the page. Now, the line is most likely to be a bit wobbly; but that is fine. The l is still likely to look, more or less, like an l. And with practice, not only will the l get better, it will also serve as a good stepping-stone to other, more difficult, letters.

This example clearly shows that what first appears reasonable on an abstract level, often fails in practice. That is why you want to choose a reading program that has been tested in the classroom - on students! Only in that way can you be sure that it will really work.

Track Record

Of course, you can test a program out in a classroom but it still mightn’t work! The only way to know for sure without trying it, is its track record. If a program has consistently worked well for large numbers of students in the past, you can be confident it will work well for your child. This, naturally, is not to say that new programs without a long track record can’t work. They can. But it is certainly a safer bet to go with one that has already had good results.

Diverse Study Material

How many different parts should a reading program have? It is a difficult question because too few and a program becomes boring and too many and it becomes confusing. The solution, therefore, would seem to be a happy middle ground.

And what is a happy middle ground? A happy middle ground is a program that has a variety of activities and exercises for your child to do, without having dozens of fiddly parts that don’t obviously fit together. Today you too often see programs with extra after extra that do little to add to the educational value of the program, but a lot to add to the cost.

Pay particular attention here to programs that are all image and no substance. One or two words per page is great for learning the basic letter sounds; but after that it could well mean paying a lot for pretty pictures and not much else.

Variety

That said, you do need variety. And you do need things to be visually stimulating. The attention span of children is usually short, so they tend to be impatient. If something looks boring and they are always doing the same activity, then they will quickly lose interest.

The best solution, therefore, is to find a program that has several core activities (readers, workbooks, games, etc.) that are all neatly linked together. That way your program will have the diversity needed to maintain interest while nevertheless remaining coherent enough to keep its educational value.

Entertainment

One of the main criticisms whole language exponents often have of phonics programs is that they are boring. Like most generalizations, this one may, at times, be correct; but there is nothing inherent in phonics that makes it boring. In fact, quite the contrary.

Naturally, anything taken to its extreme will be boring – just ask anyone who has been forced to learn dozens of letter sounds, blends and digraphs without ever reading a word, sentence or reader. C as in cat, d as in dog, sh as in shop – if you go on long enough it will be infuriating because children, like adults, want to know why they are doing something. And they want to know what they will get out of it, too!

As a result, good phonics programs don’t teach letter sounds and digraphs (or anything, for that matter) in isolation. They don’t make learning an abstract thing. If you need to learn a new letter sound or digraph, they will quickly put it in the context of a word – or hopefully even a story – to make it meaningful.

Children love to read new letters they have just been taught in a story because it makes the whole learning process meaningful. It shows them just how useful what we are teaching them is.

As a rule, therefore, try to find a phonics program that keeps things simple and structured, but nevertheless gets children reading words and sentences quickly. And if these words and sentences can form an actual reader, then all the better. There is little more satisfying than watching the sense of delight on a child’s face when she has just finished reading her first ‘book’.

The Details

They say it is all in the details, and for a phonics program that is as true as elsewhere. That is why it is so difficult for programs without years of classroom exposure to be excellent, because you only learn what precise details you need to pay attention to by practical testing.

Of course, it isn’t all trial and error. But as well thought out as your original product might be, fine tuning it does require a LOT of trial and error.

Naturally, all the details you need to pay attention to are too numerous to list; but in addition to what we have already discussed so far, we would like to at least mention one more thing of great importance: language.

Language

It may seem startling, but not all phonics programs pay enough attention to the language used in their teaching materials.

This lack of language awareness causes two major problems: 1) programs become unsystematic due to the insertion of inappropriate vocab; 2) children get confused by the information overload that results from having to learn to read and write words while simultaneously needing to remember their meaning.

Sadly, by not paying sufficient attention to details like this, students often end up disliking learning to read, rather than enjoying it as they should.

This point is made clearer if we look at real life example taken from a currently very popular reading course. This course has a series of booklets designed to teach children to read what are obviously more complex words; but fails to take into consideration the appropriateness of the vocabulary used in them.

One booklet, for instances, teaches words like hulk and ark (as in Noah's Ark); another, words like moat farm. Just what this is, I will leave up to the reader to find out; but it is clear that it is hardly pitched at the right level for young children.

When choosing a reading course for your child, it is therefore a good idea to pay particular attenion to the language found in it. The language should be age-level appropriate and graded so that it becomes more advanced in step-by-step, logical manner.

And remember: While learning new vocabulary is a worthy activity, it is best, where possible, to keep it separate from learning to read and write. If we heap young children with too many difficult tasks at the same time it will only lead to confusion.

Summary

It isn’t always easy to choose the right reading program for your child, but to be certain you are investing wisely, your reading program should:

• Be systematic
• Be classroom tested
• Have an excellent track record over a number of years
• Contain enough diverse study material to maintain student interest
• Be entertaining
• Pay attention to detail

If your reading program fits all of these criteria then you can’t go too far wrong.

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