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Can phonics REALLY make a difference? Read on and find out!
New! Dyslexia Revisited
Most experts agree that in general dyslexia is the result of an inability to distinguish ad/or process the sounds that make up speech, but when trying to define it opinions begin to dramatically differ. Here's why...
New! YES Reading Center Receives New Grant!
This highly-successful and inspiring tutoring program is attracting more rave reviews and generous responses from the community it serves. Now, four years after the Belle Haven Elementary School-based program was founded, a $150,000 grant has brought the tutoring program one step closer to a long-held dream: expanding to another campus. Mary Shaw, who founded YES Reading with volunteer tutors Molly McCrory and Jean Bacigalupi, said she was thrilled at the prospect of an expansion.
"I always felt that the model wouldn't be complete until we had shown how to replicate it," she said. Read the rest of this exciting and heartwarming story by Rebecca Wallace of The Almanac.
Diary of a Resource Specialist
More and more teachers and resource specialists are beginning to use Phonics Pathways and Pyramid as an enhancement to their classroom reading program, with very encouraging results. Here is a heartwarming story from someone "in the trenches" in a public elementary school, who has had some rather amazing results...
Spelling with Phonics Pathways
This article is intended to offer specific strategies that might be helpful to those of you wishing to use Phonics Pathways for teaching spelling...
Decodable Reading
In my experience decodable reading practice is vital when learning how to read, and is needed to reinforce the sound/symbol relationships as they are learned. Memory experts have long known that hooking something we are trying to learn with something already known will reinforce and cement it in our memory. For example, if we hook the short sound of *A* (a new concept) with the word *ant* (which we already know how to say and has this sound) we will remember it better. This kind of practice can be difficult to find, but here is a list of little decodable readers that follow a teaching pattern similar to that in Phonics Pathways...
Reading Comprehension
Although beginning reading scores in many schools show improvement, comprehension scores in subsequent grades are plummeting. Why? Read this article and find out why!
YES Reading Center: A model tutoring center for disadvantaged kids
Reprinted with permission from "Education Matters," the newsletter of the AAE (American Association of Educators)
Reading First, President Bush's initiative for educational reform, is now the law of the land. It has galvanized the educational community into contemplating various approaches of how to implement this mandate most effectively in order to achieve the best results possible.
The highly-successful YES tutoring program is one amazing answer to this challenge! It was chosen to be located on the Belle Haven Elementary School Campus in East Palo Alto because that school had the lowest reading scores in the district. Discover the results...
Visit YES Reading Site - Phonics Pathways is the core textbook used in the YES Reading Program, in which children of all cultures learn how to read in English. Visit their website and meet the volunteer tutors! Meet Jose, who was in special education before being tutored and at the end of only five weeks was mainstreamed into the regular classroom and became the second-best reader in the class...
 YES Reading Program recently was chosen to work with Starbucks and Hewlett Packard to make a short video clip on volunteerism which will be shown prior to all United Airlines in-flight movies! Read more.
To see the video, just go to the Starbucks website, then click on "Watch Video".
Spelling Rules vs Spelling Patterns
Some phonics programs include spelling rules, while others include spelling patterns. Still others include both spelling rules and spelling patterns. What is the difference between the two? Do we really need both? Why?
Unlocking the Door
from "The Almanac"--Menlo Park, Atherton, Portola Valley, & Woodside CA
This heartwarming feature article describes a resoundingly successful tutoring program for underprivileged students at an area school. Learn how volunteer community members and high school students donate their time to give these students a chance they might not have had otherwise. Find out what it is, how it works, and what the results are. Smiled one fifth-grader, "Now I can READ! Now I can read WAY more!"
Explicit or Implicit Phonics - Therein Lies the Rub
from The National Right to Read Foundation (NRRF)
A bewildering array of phonics methods exist, but not all are effective. For the definition of phonics is like that of beauty, and means many different things to many different people. So how do we choose? This essay clearly delineates what to look for--and what to look out for--for a truly effective explicit phonics reading program.
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