Reading Series Adoptions

Phono-Graphix; it teaches the 135 ways to spell our 44 English sounds. A child having difficulty can be remediated in about 12 hours (yes, nearly EVERY child, no matter what their “problem.”) No silly rules with exceptions. Ex: one of my students, 18 yrs. old graduated from our local high school (it is a CA. “distinguished school”) in special ed; came to me with kindergarten reading skills; was told for 13 years he would never read (this by EVERY “reading specialist, resource spec., Phd. he was taken to.) He simply didn’t know the code. I’ve had him for 9 hours and he can decode all elementary school work easily and higher level stuff takes longer, but he can do it. He is angry that no one taught him there was a method that works, that teachers keep telling kids so many words are “exceptions to the rule” etc. Baloney! What a shame our teachers don’t know the code and aren’t taught in college how to teach reading. I’ve worked with kids with Down Syndrome, Autism; if THEY can learn with Phono-Graphix, think what’s possible with the average kid who just doesn’t “get it.” Hope this is helpful.

Second choice would be lindamood bell.

When I show other teachers the Reading Reflex book they say this looks like a “way to teach” reading, but not as a program. They ask where the books are. How would I respond to that? Do they quickly go through the program and go right into real literature? Phono-graphix is so “out of the box” I don’t think I could convince teachers who are accostomed to it. PG makes sense to me but I don’t know of any schools who have adopted it and who have test scores to show its success. If you know of any please let me know because my own children’s charter school is open and progressive. However, the big district I work for won’t be willing to change soon.
Michelle

I’ve been trying to generate distrcit-wide interest in Phono-Graphix here in New Mexico ever since I ran across it five years ago. You’re right, Michelle. Teachers and administrators aren’t impressed with the package because it isn’t fancy. It’s the method that counts, and the only way you can show that is to demonstrate how it works on one student at a time.

I suggest you get trained in PG and start using it with your own kids and students. Eventually, when the teachers around you see what is happening, they will want to know more.

The problem with the adoption process is that it is designed to purchase a lot of stuff, and with PG what you really have to have is the training.

Please tell me where I can find out about Phono=grapic in my area. I live in Worley,ID. My daughter is 13, and has ld. Her reading level is real low. I would appreciate any info on this subject . Thanks

Maria,
Do a search for PG or Reading Reflex or Phono-Graphix on this site’s archives and you will find all you need to know about the program. Email me directly if you need more information. Shay

Here is a link to a list of reading programs identified to work through scientific research.

http://www.schwablearning.org/expert_answers/ea_view_questions.asp?m_id=2107

http://www.schwablearning.org/Articles.asp?r=318&g=2&d=5

This is helpful.
Michelle

Go to readamerica.net, which is the PhonoGraphix website. You can learn about the method there. They also have referrals to PG certified tutors. Where do you live?

Hi Bob. I’ve been away from the computer for a few days and just saw your message to Michelle. I agree; the teachers will pay attention when you’ve proven the method with some kids. After 3 years at it, I’ve been able to compile some awesome letters of recommendation and have had many teachers call me asking about PG. I’ve trained nearly 30 of them and many are using it in their classrooms. A few months ago, I trained the head of “Resource” at our local elementary school and I go in once a week now, for just an hour, to oversee what she does. She loves PG and her students are doing better than ever with it. It won’t take you 3 yrs to start the ball rolling; one or 2 kids with good progress is enough (but those reference letters are GOLD, so always ask for one!) Good luck to all of you who see that PG is the answer!

Maria,

Order the book called “Reading Reflex” by Carmen and Geoffrey McGuinness. It is about $12 on amazon.com.

Janis

Michelle,

I hope you are still around. I love PG and use it, but I understand that most schools want a packaged, regular ed. reading curriculum. I have researched this extensively as my child also goes to a charter school and I am a special ed. teacher in the public school system. The program that gets the widest recommendation in all of my reading is Open Court. I’ll give you a couple of links, but if you do a search, you’ll get lots of links, I’m sure. I think it is listed on the Schwab site which was already mentioned.

http://www.auburn.edu/~murraba/ocreview.html

The other site is the National Right to Read Foundations at www.nrrf.org. The site is down at the moment, but there is a good article called “Analyses of Grade 1 Reading Programs”.

Janis

First off, I’m not sure if you are asking for a regular education curriculum, special education, or Title I.

Our district uses Pathways to Reading for regular and sped in K-3 along with the McGraw-Hill basal series for regular ed. I believe we need the phonics, phonemic awareness, and whole language instructional pieces. Unfortunately, our regular teachers sometimes fight the P.A. piece…

For grades 6-12, our remedial program is Wilson Language.

Kids in 4-6 have clinical Lindamood-Bell if Pathways wasn’t enough to get them started. I believe 4-6 needs a boost and we are working on that.

Thanks. I am looking for general ed. I appreciate your thoughts.
Michelle

I know I used to have that pathways website but I must not have favoriteed it.
Do you remember what it was? Thanks.
Michelle

If you will do a google search and type in this as your search criteria (with all punctuation):

“Pathways” “Clinefelter” “Reading”

It should come up for you. I just don’t have time to go look through all my websites just now. Hope you can find it.

Susan

I am wondering about the benefits of RR. I did fine with my son until when we got to Advanced Code. We were to read the words and sort the word according to similar sound pictures. We just really fell apart here. I could see why he was getting frustrated. If he could read the @#$% word why would he need remediation. I am sure that I must have been doing things wrong because everyone that I know regards RR so highly. Does anyone have any thoughts on this?

As with the basic code, you sound out the word and then you blend it together. You have to tell him a few things before you start the advanced code. First, you tell him that in the advanced code, he will find that more than one sound symbol will represent a sound, tell him the sound that you are going to be working on and that each word has that sound in it and then you start with the words. Let’s take the sound, o-e: I would say, ” We now are going to work with words that have the /o-e/ sound in them. Most of the words you will find has more than one letter that represents a sound.” You then write the word ‘boat’ on the white board. He has already been through the basic code so he knows the sound represented by both ‘b’ and ‘t’. Ask him to decode the word. If he then says, /b/o/a/t/, stop him and repeat what you said at the beginning of the session. That he will find that there will be more than one letter that will represent a sound and that every word has the /o/ sound in it. By the way, while he is sounding out the word, he should be ‘mapping’ the word: putting a line under every sound that he says. Do the word again, and if he still doesn’t understand, give him the word and you put the line under each sound so that you would decode, /b/oa/t/. It won’t take long before he understand the concept of the advanced code. You also can and probably should tell him the words that he doesn’t know and then have him decode them while mapping. If he for example, he says the word glow and while decoding it makes four sounds out of it, stop him and say, ” The word is ‘glow’, what is the first sound that you hear? second? and third? If he has a problem with hearing the separate sounds in the word, put your fingers up and show him how to do it. One thing that you have to understand is that the program was developed so that the students discover it themselsves with your guidance and if they don’t know something, really stumped, give them the word or the sound, but show them how they can do it. Please, if you continue to have problems, email me directly, and I will help. Shay