Hooked on Phonics?

Have you already got it? I *certainly* wouldn’t pay for it. If it’s there, and they enjoy it, use it — but I wouldn’t make it their “Reading program.” What else do they do in the reading department?
I think it could help them if it’s to support what they’re doing with a regular class (though not as much as something more structured and systematic… but this is the real world…)

What I think would be a lot better than Hooked on Phonics is a Sound Reading computer CD from http://www.soundreading.com . It makes a good supplement to any good reading program, children tend to like it, and all of the children I have seen use it have benefitted from it.

Nancy

Hooked on Phonics is a lot of money for very limited content. Not that there is anything wrong with the content, just that there really isn’t enough of it. All students can benefit from a structured, sequential phonics program, taking perhaps twenty minutes a day (see National Reading Panel report for backing) and special ed students can use a lot more.

There are a number of good programs available. Many people here swear by Reading Reflex; I haven’t used it myself but it has a good reputation and you can get the manual for under twenty dollars; then you can make materials by hand as needed, or buy them from Phonographix.
Personally I use a time-tested series of workbooks, Check and Double Check phonics available from Scholar’s Choice (scholarschoice.ca, note that’s .ca and not .com, very good delivery all over North America) available for about five dollars per workbook, a real bargain — I do however remind people that the workbook doesn’t do the teaching, the *teacher* has to actually teach the material, not just assign it. Also the four books are not grade level numbers; I use Book 2 anywhere from late Grade 1 to reteaching adults.
Another supplement I have used for extra practice is the Phonovisual program, workbooks available (slow delivery) from phonovisual.com; they also have *excelent* phonics charts, individual and wall size, based on linguistic principles, that are a good supplement to any program, all very reasonably priced even if slow; again please, to *teach* orally.
You’ve been recommended the Sound Reading CD; other people also have reported success with the Lexia CD.
For students grades 2 and up, there is AVKO spelling (you would get the children’s level) a phonetic pattern-based approach to spelling. I am using tha adult level with ages 13 and up and it is very helpful; also all you need is the manual, very inexpensive.
These are all less cost than Hooked on Phonics and an awful lot more material, more bang for the buck.

Along with the phonics, I do hope that you are working on reading real books; this is one complaint about Reading Reflex, that it needs to be supplemented with real reading. My favourite workbooks are also only tools, needing real reading as a second vital part of the lesson.

Victoria, I have just read your reply with interest. I would agree with you about Reading Reflex, it is very good and very straight forward to follow. I would also recommend Jolly Phonics for beginning readers.

I have a question for you. I wondered why you said you “hope that you are working on reading real books; this is one complaint about Reading Reflex, that it needs to be supplemented with real reading”. What’s your reasoning behind this?

Welp, it’s something I agree with, so I’ll answer — even the Reading Reflex authors say that you should be reading books & interesting stuff to get the practice you need. Reading Reflex is for teaching sounding out words — it doesn’t broach the myriad other elements of reading.
Indeed, if everybody did REading Reflex and only Reading Reflex, there might actually *be* mroe of those mythical “word-callers with no comprehension” that are purportedly legion. (Yes, I’ve encountered a few… generally *not* the ‘victims’ of overzealous phonics teaching.) (There would *still* be the students that it wasn’t THe Answer for, too… and it generally doesn’t work as fast as the hype claims.)

I’m not a Reading reflex user, so I’m just reporting what I have read here. But the issue is general.

Phonics is a tool — a very vital tool. Try to build a house without a saw and a hammer, and you will appreciate why you need the right tools for the job. But just as sawing and hammering are not all there is to building, phonics is far and away not all there is to reading. If all we had was phonics lessons and no story books or fact books, why bother to teach the phonics?

Reading Reflex and other systematic phonics programs are *not* “complete” reading programs, never intended to be, and never claimed to be. (Setting up phonics “against” other reading skills teaching is a fallacious argument used by people who have an axe to grind) Phonics programs are intended to give the student the tools to read whatever, whenever, as needed and appropriate.
In a remedial situation, where the student is reading all kinds of materials in the regular school class, then the phonics remediation can stand alone because it supplements what is already there. In a tutoring situation, the tutor usually needs to split the time between phonics and reading fluency/comprehension/enjoyment because all are usually weak. In a classroom, however, the students need all those other parts of reading taught thoroughly on the same basis as the phonics.

How then do you go about teaching reading to ‘young’ children using ‘real books’? In the beginning stages when children are learning the basic code and a few vowel and consonant digraphs, how are the children expected to read real books? Is it not better for them to read ‘decodable’ texts?

Guest, you’re pulling out another of those classic fallacious arguments.

Regularly, like clockwork, people who don’t want to teach a systematic program come up with the argument that the beginning reading books are in some way “artificial”. Guess what? ALL beginning readers are artificial, have to be by the nature of the task.

You can have decodable books, which are artificial because the vocabulary is strictly limited to the sound/symbol progression taught. You can have high-frequency vocabulary books, which are artificial because the vocabulary is strictly limited (deliberately) by the frequency lists and the repetition required for memory. You can have “language-experience” stories, which are highly artificially edited and rewritten into primer form by the teacher. You can have books designed for “whole-language” classes, already self-contradictory because these programs claim to teach through authentic literature but they discovered the need for something artificial at the start, and these are artificial because they have all pictures and almost no text, even less than the text in the other two types, and that text is artificially repetitive so that it can be memorized.
Now and then you hear of someone having been taught to read out of the newsapaper or the King James Bible, either because these were the only materials available or because of religious beliefs; however, when you investigate further, you generally find that the teacher/parent was writing out simple sentences and words on a slate or whatever, making up their own artificial primer, and also that a lot of repetition and memorization were involved, again artificial.

Taking it as read that for the ultra-beginner (first 100-200 hours of reading instruction, up to grade level say 1.5 to 1.8) you’re going to have some kind of artificially-simplified books, you pick which kind you prefer. Personally I’d like to use a decodable series but have never found one that works at a reasonable pace and has believable sentences. So I use a high-frequency series and apply the decoding to it, and it works well.

When we talk about reading “real” books, that implies books at the grade level of the student’s reading mastery. For remedial students that may be a good youth novel at Grade 4 or 5 level, for more basic remedial students that may be an old reading text at Grade 2 level, and for an ultra-beginner that may be a little book with a 17-word total vocabulary (my favourite first book, 17 high-frequency words is an achievable goal). What makes them “real” is that they have characters and plots (limited, but continuous action) and sentences of running text; they are not simply word lists and not workbooks and exercises, but stories to be read with interest.

Thanks Victoria, your reply has helped clarify my understanding. I also now understand what Reading Reflex mean when they are referring to real books (I think!). Prior to reading your post I was thinking that real books would be at a level too difficult for the child to decode.

Have you come accross the ‘Sound Start’ series by Nelson Thorns?

Rather than spending the 100’s of dollars on Hooked on Phonics we use a word/card game called Deal A Word. It has multiple learning applications and is appropriate for every age and grade level. From teaching alphabet recognition, phonics, spelling mastery, basic math skillsetc. There are rules for games for every age…adults included. And it was only $14.95 including shipping. The only way I know to get information is on their website at www.dealaword.com. I highly recommend this game to everyone.

Sheila