Reader Level 1-10

These Readers systematically introduce all basic letter sounds along with several essential special words. Almost at once, children experience the joy of being able to read simple sentences with confidence.

Special Features

The first Reader, A Fat Cat, uses only 13 letters. This makes it easy for small children to start reading without delay.

The first five Readers each teach one basic vowel sound. Here the sound i is introduced. Repeated often, it is more memorable.

In Readers 1-10, special words like I and have are generally introduced one or two at a time. Combined with the basic letter sounds they will have children reading quickly.

Reader 9 teaches the first digraph, oo as in roof. Digraphs enable children to sound out a large number of words - even many they have never seen before.

By Reader 10, children are already reading simple sentences with fluency.

Readers: User Guide

The Fitzroy Readers are the ideal way to go from the reading basics to reading mastery. Carefully graded and proceeding in precise step-by-step fashion, they will guide your child from the first letters through to a thorough understanding of all major spelling rules, patterns and an ability to read most texts with fluency.

To get the most out of the Readers, a series of simple steps should be followed:

1. Before reading, study the New Sounds and Special Words. They are found on the back cover of each Reader.
2. For Readers 1-5X, sound out (letter sound by letter sound) every word (except special words).
3. After Readers 1-5X, sound out words if more practice at recognising the letters and their sounds is needed.

Note: It is better to err on the side of sounding out words rather than not sounding them out, since children have a habit of looking at pictures and guessing words rather than ‘decoding’ them.

By making sure that students sound out the words they are reading, you can be certain they are neither guessing nor simply memorizing them.

Before reading you should also:

1. Scan for new sounds and special words (i.e. scan through the text to find examples where they occur). The only exception to this is the first Reader where every letter is a new sound. It makes no sense to scan this Reader for new letters!
2. Learn any (new) words that may be unfamiliar.

The psychological benefit of taking your child through these steps before reading is that she will be less likely to stumble over the text. If she tries to read without the necessary preparation, she will most likely find learning to read difficult and be discouraged.

Final points to remember:

1. When reading, make sure that your child doesn’t ever guess words. This is a bad habit. With phonics, students should be able to successfully ‘decode’ words, so they don’t need to guess. Guessing creates lazy, imprecise students.
2. For the advanced Readers where there is a long list of special words to be learned, it is a good idea to break the list in two and teach it on two separate occasions. This makes it easier to remember the words.
3. After your child has finished a Reader, she should practise both the words on the ‘words we’ve used’ list and those on the ‘some new words’ list before moving onto the next Reader.

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