EDU 371: Phonics Based Reading and Decoding Professor Lisa Edmonds Week 2 Assignment: CD1 and CD2 Jamie Tracey October 31, 2011 Week 2 Page 1 This week I listed to teaching CD 1 and CD 2 fom the Action Reading program Fundamentals: A Research Based, Phonics Tutorial Learn to Read Program by Jeanie Eller, MA. I have to admit that I find her voice a little irritating, but that is not the point of this experience. The activities and CDs are designed to help a teacher raise up a student in the art of phonics in a very stimulating environment. CD 1 gave me foundational songs that can be used to help implement the program.

I found the beginning information very positive. You never start at the top to build a house. How true is that? It made me think more about literacy. Why did we ever switch to learning words, sight reading, when that is considered the top, before we ever learned phonics? When I say we, I am refering to the children who have been taught in this fashion. With the occurance of dyslexia in America being attached to children who have been taught sight reading over phonics, it’s important that we take the time to teach children the proper way to read.

Again, we do not build a house from the top down, just as we should not teach whole words before we learn to sound them out. CD1 also gave foundation to the following CDs and bookwork. It talks about associating sounds with pictures (very interactive), action reading, learning the sounds first means you are on the right track now. The entire program seems to be based solidly on the engine sounds and repeats, repeats, repeats this until a student can say them perfectly and faster than lightening. I could not even say them as fast as my student. I enjoyed the Roman Army.

The Romans introduced the alphabet and said we will write our alphabet with two letters to make a sound. Interesting for young children, just like the train engine. The songs like Billly Green, Old McVowell and Mrs. McVowel are interesting and interactive ways to Week 2 Page 2 help children to remember the rules of phonics. Rules like Y is tricky and sly or the Silent Knight who has written letters that do not follow the rules of sounds you hear. Of course, the China Song is quite cute. I think as a child I would have remembered that one. I learned to read by learning phonics back in the 1970s.

I am an excellent reader today and still have a love of reading. My older children learned to read by sight reading and I remember being very disheartened with the school system in the 80s and 90s. Only one of my older three children has a joy of reading. I find this very sad. CD2 was based on Action Reading and followed along with workbook and games that are included with the Fundamentals Kit. A teacher need only follow along with the CD to know what to teach their students. I went over, page by page, the information ont he disk with my student and was surprised at how much sense it made to her and how much fun she was having with it.

The trick and success behind this program is the interaction. A student reviews the engine sounds. A, Buh, Cuh, Duh…. Then they use their minds and hands to practice writing capital and lower case letters. They are taught to slide the letters together to create words. They blend the alphabet, consonants and vowels, to create words. Teachers can use diacritical marks to accompany a letter and indicate a specific sound value such as the long E or the short E. They review songs which are insightful and fun. Mnemonics, a device for memorizing and recalling something is used a lot in the games the children play, like matching pictures to words.

Playing Bingo and flashcards are other fun ways to help children recall learning. It’s vey interesting to children. I appreciated the additional information given not only for children, but more than Week 2 Page 3 likely for a teacher, such as slanted writing to keep writing neat. I remembered only this evening, my teacher, probably in 2nd grade or so, teaching us this very thing. I am always complimented on my beautiful writing. I think in the last couple of decades they have forget to teach this children because the writing I see anymore is sloppy. I also appreciated keys, such as, b and d are very similar.

If a student is labeled dyslexic, do page 11 over and over until they can understand the difference between b and d. It’s not that children are dyslexic per say, it’s that they are not given enough instruction in similar letters. All in all, I found CD1 and CD2 very interesting and I couldn’t agree more with Jeanie Eller’s fundamental approach. References: Phonics Definition and Glossary retrieved October 31, 2011 at http://www. atozphonics. com/phonicsdefinition. html DVD: Phonics Kit Title: Fundamentals-Phonics Tutorial Author: Action Reading Publisher: Action Reading. Inc.