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Why Cindy Crawford uses Phonics Plus Five with her own kids
2007-08-02 23:24:00
Go to our site to watch Cindy's video testimonial. "There are so many great things about Phonics Plus Five ...it only takes 15-20 minutes a day, it's really easy to use, it builds on success, and your child really enjoys doing it." - Cindy Crawford
More About: Kids , Testimonials

Literacy and Underwear? Truth Can Be Stranger than Fiction
2007-08-01 01:34:00
It?s common knowledge that kids are not keen on learning history?a reaction due, in no small part, to the dreary manner in which it is often taught. More's the pity?because the past is replete with amazing stories that would tantalize children?if they only had a chance to hear them. If you would like to get your youngsters interested in the past, you may find that the telling of real tales goes a long way. For a start, you might share, with them, the following story.
More About: Truth , Fiction , Literacy , Underwear , Tera

What Can A Phone Pad Tell Us About Reading?
2007-07-26 18:22:00
When I lecture on reading skills, I often talk about "memory for visual sequences." Because this topic is almost never discussed, the initial response is usually "If they're so important, what haven't we heard about them before?" The question is legitimate since the role of visual skills in reading is almost never discussed.Yet, despite the neglect to which they have been subjected, they are critical to reading success. Further, until instruction catches up with this reality, vast numbers of children will continue to be condemned to a life of reading difficulties.
More About: Reading , Phone , Tell

Nice News for Parents of the ?Tom Sawyers? of the World
2007-07-25 18:24:00
When Mark Twain was writing his masterpieces, the term ?attention deficit disorder? (ADD) did not exist. Nevertheless, his Tom Sawyer creation was an ideal candidate for this category. And the difficulties he forced his Aunt Polly to deal with are much like those that today?s parents confront. Happily, parents can now breathe a well-earned sigh of relief. For years, the focus has been on the dire outcomes that loom in these kids? future. The typical report stressed how adolescence was likely to bring delinquency, drugs, alcohol and other woes. But the results of a recently completed three year study at Columbia University show that most children treated for attention-deficit hyperactivity disorder improve greatly within a few years.
More About: News , World , The World , Parents , Nice

Learning: The Two Forms That Are Rarely Distinguished
2007-07-22 21:09:00
When their children enter first grade, legions of parents find themselves facing an unexpected, perplexing situation. Up till that point, all seemed well. Their children seemed so bright and alert--and they were. Then suddenly, when faced with the small squiggles on the printed page, the youngsters' confidence is drowned in a sea of confusion. Almost no parent expects this but with the reading failure rate nationwide consistently hovering at about 40%, this is what a million of more parents face each year. The parents' response entails not simply anxiety but also, and quite naturally, a search to determine what the cause might be.
More About: Achievement , Learning , Forms , Earning

Trying Out a Foreign Language?
2007-07-19 12:18:00
We hear a lot about globalization and the many changes it is bringing. One -- which has not achieved much attention -- is the need to learn other languages. If we are going to compete on a world-wide basis, our children are going to have to be fluent in a range of foreign languages. Now some of our English-speaking compatriots across the ocean are trying to do just that through a pioneering plan that has been started in the schools.
More About: Tips , Language , Foreign , Fore , Reign

The Pecking Order Among Siblings
2007-07-16 03:54:00
Social scientists have, for many years now, been telling us about the role birth order plays in making us who we are. In general, the first-born in families are the big achievers. So with that in mind, the New York Times recently ran a quiz listing the following high achieving (though not always charming) celebrities. For each, there was one of three choices?first born (F), middle (between first and last) (M) and last born (L). If you would like to take the test, here?s the list.
More About: Order , Siblings

Building Writing Skills: A Parent?s Suggestion
2007-07-12 12:53:00
Children often find writing to be far more difficult than reading. If that comment fits your situation, you may find it helpful to adapt the suggestion of a parent who recently wrote to me. She described the way she transitioned her son from reading to writing in the following way: "I pulled my youngest child out of public school two months ago and am undertaking one of the biggest challenges of my life. As I started reading your blog posting on Children Reading Before Speaking, I realized that reading is so much easier for him. So a couple of weeks ago I decided to apply a technique I heard you lecture about some years back.
More About: Building , Writing , Questions , Suggestion , Parents

Summer! Vacation time!
2007-07-09 12:50:00
Summer! Vacation time! For many American families that involves a trip to Disney World, Disneyland and/or the Disney Cruise Line. And chances are that one or more family member has a ?special need,? such as a child with ADD, a pregnant mom, grandparents with declining mobility, a child with food allergies, a teen-aged daughter "converted" to vegetarianism. To help with these and many other everyday needs, there is a new book that will prove useful. It is PassPorter's Walt Disney World for Your Special Needs: The Take-Along Travel Guide and Planner! by Deb Wills and Debra Martin Koma. This guidebook offers 400 pages of information, photographs, maps, charts, and advice covering 24 special needs categories that will ease your trip from start to finish.
More About: Summer , Tips , Time

When You Rearrange the Letters
2007-07-06 12:30:00
A friend, knowing my love of words and my interest in visual sequencing, recently sent me an intriguing set of words. In each pair, the letters are identical -- but the sequence has been altered. The result is ingenious and entertaining -- a lovely combination. ELEVEN PLUS TWO TWELVE PLUS ONE DORMITORY DIRTY ROOM ASTRONOMER MOON STARER THE EYES THEY SEE
More About: Letters , Rear , Range

The Importance of "Aha"--A Great Cue from Your Chilld
2007-07-03 15:57:00
There is a new book in the long line of books aimed at explaining how great leaps or breakthroughs come about --whether they be the invention of the printing press, the development of radar, or the cracking of the DNA code. The title of this book, which is filled with wonderful tales, is Smart World: Breakthrough Creativity and the New Science of Ideas by Richard Ogle. The publisher, quite appropriately, is the Harvard Business School. While few of us will ever get to play a role in truly revolutionary ideas, all of us throughout our lives are fortunate to experience some components of the breakthrough experience. The term commonly used to characterize this experience is the "aha" moment. And children--who are in a much more active phase of learning than adults-generally experience it from more than we do. You can see it happening
More About: Tips , Great , Chill , Import

America Comes Up Short
2007-06-30 22:14:00
Many years ago, when I was a student in England, Europeans typically looked with envy at the America n students. They stood out in any crowd because they were so tall and slim. Now several decades later, all that has changed and changed dramatically. Two historians John Komlos and Benjamin Lauderdale have recently come out with a paper showing that while Americans were the "tallest in the world between colonial times and the middle of the 20th century,...we have now ?become shorter (and fatter) than Western and Northern Europeans. In fact, the U.S. population is currently at the bottom end of the height distribution in advanced industrial countries." Height is a significant barometer of the health of a population.
More About: News , Short

The "A, B, See's" of Reading for Children with Attention Deficit Disorder
2007-06-25 20:12:00
"It?s boring!" If children with attention deficit disorder (ADD) have a mantra, this is it. And were they to list the activities deserving of this mantra, reading would be at or near the top. In their eyes, it is the epitome of BORING. As a result, it is something they avoid and something they do very poorly. It matters little that it happens to be one of the most vital skills they can learn. Both for their welfare and for that of the nation, it is essential to bridge this chasm between what they need to do and what they are willing to do. But how? Many have sought the answer in the realm of motivation: The hope is that the children would willingly read were the material sufficiently appealing. It would be fantastic if this "Pied Piper approach" worked. Unfortunately, it doesn?t. (Given the outcome of that story, perhaps that is not all bad.) In any event, in an era of high tech, phenomenal, sophisticated, quick-paced, glitzy stimulation, reading cannot compete--when the choice i...
More About: Children , Reading , Achievement , Order , Attention

A Key to Reading Success: Fluency
2007-06-22 22:20:00
In teaching children to read, the main focus is decoding. That is, teaching them how to put sounds on letters, so that they can look at cluster of letters and identify the words they represent. While not receiving nearly the same level of attention, there is another critical skill children must master. That skill is fluency. That term refers to the fact that true reading requires not simply decoding, but decoding at a steady pace. If that is not happening, and a child steadily requires lots of time to figure out most of the words, the reading is basically ineffective. According the National Reading Panel (http://www.nationalreadingpanel.org), fluency is the ability to read text with speed, accuracy and proper expression. The key characteristics of fluency are the ability to ? recognize words automatically and accurately ? read aloud at a smooth, steady rate ? read with the right expression or ?feeling? If a child takes to reading like a duck to water, the issue of fluency...
More About: Success

"Just the Facts, Please"
2007-06-17 14:07:00
Years ago, a popular detective series on both radio and TV had a somber lead character by the name of Sargeant Friday. Central to Sargeant?s persona was the one-liner that he used in all his interrogations "All we want are the facts." In light of a recent report from the Civitas think-tank in England, students would be well-advised to adopt that line as their new mantra. The report states that in an effort to revamp ideas to "promote fashionable causes" politicians are eliminating facts and figures from history, geography and science.
More About: Facts , Tips , Lease , Ease

Want to Impress Your Child?
2007-06-16 18:39:00
Children love jokes. They love telling them and they love hearing them. And jokes are wonderful. With their twists on words, they not only provide fun, they also improve language skills. In case your child is not familiar with some of the ones below, you might try the following: What does a tree do when he is ready to go home? He leaves. What did one tooth say to the other tooth? The dentist is taking me out today!
More About: Child , Impress

Reading and Humor: A Nice Partnership
2007-06-14 16:06:00
Of the many benefits of reading, one is its power to expand the sphere of humor. For example, consider a one-liner like the following: Police were called to a daycare where a three-year-old was resisting a rest. With this sort of material, print--rather than speech--is the perfect medium. If you would like to SEE some more of this ilk, just read on. (And, if you would like to get serious about this material, you can see how much time it takes you to spot the key word in each sentence.)
More About: Humor , Reading , Nice , Humo , Ship

Reading: It?s Not Just Knowing How; It?s Also Knowing About
2007-06-11 16:56:00
For years now, E. D. Hirsch and his colleagues have been at the vanguard in trying to revamp the teaching of reading. They want to have it move beyond the almost exclusive focus on "sounding out" and incorporate what he terms "cultural literacy." By this, he is referring to the knowledge that members of a society share about the world--such as the American Revolution, the Ten Commandments, Thomas Edison and so on. Without this knowledge, it becomes impossible to understand the ideas being discussed on the printed page. In some ways, this view turns the usual focus of reading on its head. The common idea, expressed succinctly by none other than Dr. Seuss himself is that "The more that you read, the more things you will know." In other words, reading is correctly seen as critical to expanding one?s knowledge. But what Professor Hirsch has highlighted is the chicken-egg nature of the situation.
More About: Reading , Knowing

Can Reading Instruction Enter the 21st Century?
2007-06-09 23:05:00
Time magazine, a few months ago, had, as a lead story, How to Build a Student for the 21st Century . It started as follows: Rip Van Winkle awakens in the 21st century ...and is, of course, utterly bewildered by what he sees. Airports, hospitals, shopping malls?every place Rip goes just baffles him. But when he finally walks into a schoolroom, the old man knows exactly where he is. "This is a school," he declares. "We used to have these back in 1906. Only now the blackboards are green." The children in those classrooms who spot Rip might well envy him. He is only a century out of synch; by contrast, their life is dominated by a system of reading system that is even more out of date. It stems from the 19th century. The problem is not simply that the system is antiquated; it is extraordinarily ineffective. Government figures consistently show approximately 40 percent of bright, capable children have trouble in learning to read. Y...
More About: Reading , Instruction , Enter

Some Advice from a Founding Father
2007-06-04 18:34:00
Benjamin Ffanklin seemed to write on anything and everything. So it's not surprising to find that he had lots of thoughts on education and the path to knowledge. And his power to convey those ideas was amazing. Here, in just 15 words, he has pinpointed some central truths of teaching and learning. Tell me....And I Forget, Teach me.....And I Learn, Involve Me.....And I Remember. Of course, he has lots more to say such as:.
More About: Advice , Father , Vice , Some , Fath

How To Ensure Accurate Spelling
2007-06-04 17:44:00
I recently received the following letter from a parent: I have been using your Phonics Plus Five method with my 6 year old daughter. Thank you for creating such a great program. I love it. So far, we have made it through the Boarding program. When we got to the end, she could read all the words, but she could spell only about half of them correctly. Since you provide a set of review activities, I assume this is normal. But the review does not seem to be enough. Her spelling is still not as secure as I would like. She can spell them fine if I give her the letters out of order and she has to arrange them in the right order, but she cannot pull them out of midair, so to speak. What should I do? And here is my answer: This is a great question and it gets to the heart of a set of key skills that children must develop?the skills involving visual memory. When the review activities in the program are not sufficient, the best technique to use is what I call "One Hour Recall."
More About: Questions , Parents , Spelling , Sure , Rate

Having Writing Come Alive
2007-06-01 01:56:00
There is a magic to the computer. Among its powers is the capability of making the written page come alive. You can see this, for example, in software programs where stories are read aloud as the pages appear on the screen. The combination of seeing attractive pages of print while simultaneously hearing the words is unbeatable. Now you can give some of that power to your child through free software that speaks the words that your child writes. Natural soft is one such program and you can find it at http://www.naturalreaders.com/?gclid=CIvX -ajBtowCFRKsGgodEBPORg.
More About: Writing , Tips , Alive , Ving

Resolving the Mysteries and Miseries of Punctuation
2007-05-28 21:13:00
For many children, even when reading and writing are going well, there is an aspect of the printed page that eludes them. That aspect is punctuation. (That word may send a few shivers down your own spine since many, many adults report that they do not really understand how to use punctuation with any sense of mastery.) The difficulties are understandable. Punctuation is designed to capture some powerful dimensions of language such as pauses, questions, emphasis, and hesitations--to name but a few. However, to carry out this rather significant assignment, punctuation--and its partner capitalization--have been given a paltry set of minute marks that hardly seems up to the task. Do these limitations mean we, and our children, are to be condemned to being "punctuation illiterates?" No, not at all.
More About: Writing , Teri , Miser , Ving , Serie

Can Reading Be "Easier" than Speaking for Children with Language Disabiliti
2007-05-24 04:19:00
I was recently speaking to the principal of a school for children with learning disabilities. She was talking about a seven year old girl who had been a student in her school since she was about four years of age. During that time, the director said their focus had been on developing the child's spoken language and holding off on literacy since "there was no way to expect her to read until her spoken language skills improved." The concern that the principal showed for the child is laudatory. And her thinking was totally in line with accepted practices. For most children, speaking precedes reading. Further, the skills of spoken language seem to be prerequisites for being able to master reading. That seems to be why children with problems in speaking have high rates of failure in learning to read. This dependency relationship is sometimes expressed as "written language is parasitic on spoken language." But is the situation as straightforward as we have been led to believe? Signif...
More About: Children , Reading , Thoughts , Language , Bili

Everyone Has An Opinion About Reading
2007-05-21 23:46:00
Reading, like all powerful forces, leads to many and varied reactions. Here are some musings from the famous--and not so famous--that reflect a few of the many facets of reading. A wonderful thing about a book, in contrast to a computer screen, is that you can take it to bed with you. Daniel J. Boorstin Books are not men and yet they stay alive. Stephen Vincent Benet Books had instant replay long before televised sports. Bert Williams
More About: Reading , Opinion , Everyone

"How Can I Convince My Child?"
2007-05-18 22:49:00
I was speaking to a father whose 11 year old son had significant language problems--problems severe enough to keep the child mired at a first grade level of reading. The father asked, "Do you think your Phonics Plus Five program might help my son?" I told him that while he could only find out by trying, the prospects were good. I knew from personal experience with large numbers of families that it led many children to successful reading--even after they had been failing for years. Then, plaintively he asked a second question, "How can I convince my child to try it?"
More About: Achievement , Child , Vince

Teaching Reading in More Than One Language
2007-05-16 18:11:00
I recently received an interesting question from a parent in Malaysia. She said, "My daughter is expected to learn three languages in school: English, Chinese and Malay. This is not a choice but mandatory. Please advise me on how should I approach this problem. Is it more advisable to stress one language first and then help her acquire the other languages at a later stage..." In the United States, of course, schools with trilingual demands are rarely, if ever, to be found. Nevertheless, in our nation with its huge numbers of immigrants, bilingual situations are common. This leads many parents to confront choices that are similar, albeit less intense, than the mother in Malaysia. So a key question is "How to approach literacy when more than one language is involved?"
More About: Reading , Teaching , Language , More , Teac

Teaching Reading to Dyslexics: It?s Time to Exit the World of Alice in Wond
2007-05-14 18:10:00
Dyslexia is a topic that arouses enormous passion and anxiety. It's not surprising. With reading playing such a central role in our lives, we know the severe consequences that can follow from the failure to master this critical skill. So, not unexpectedly, lots of effort goes into trying to overcome the problem. But the efforts fall painfully short of the mark. Indeed, many of the efforts to help actually work to aggravate the difficulties. It's easiest to see this if we step outside the area of reading. To do this,
More About: Reading , World , Time , Teaching , The World

As California Goes-So Goes the Nation?
2007-05-13 19:34:00
California is often looked to as the trend setter for the nation. If so, as far as education is concerned, the latest figures tell us that we have a lot to be concerned about. The San Francisco Chronicle recently reported that the high school graduation rate in that state is the "lowest in 10 years " as over a third of the state's seniors failed to earn a diploma. In 2005, the graduation rate was 71%; in 2006, 67%. For the past decade, the state has put into place a range of expensive changes in the classroom- including class-size reduction, higher standards, additional teacher training and more. So what is behind the dismaying new statistics?
More About: California , Nation , Goes , Calif , The Nation

A Path to Success: Using a Public Health Model to Create Reading Programs
2007-05-12 01:09:00
Michael Shaughnessy, the editor of the New Mexico Journal of Reading , recently interviewed me about my ideas for transforming reading education. It gave me a great opportunity to expand on an idea that I think has tremendous potential for bringing reading success to all. That idea rests on adopting a public health model in our classrooms. The interview started with the following question: 1) You are proposing that we adopt a major change in our approach to teaching reading. How would you describe the current approach? Here is my response:
More About: Health , Programs , Public , Success