THE EASY-SPELLING READING PROGRAM
From stumbling to fluent word decoding, reduced vocalisation, to absorbing, to comprehension, to memorising text, to appreciation.
This is what learner-reader can expect to gain when they use our unique reading app.
Our method of reading instruction is evidence-based from current ‘Science of Reading’ research, using a balance of phonic awareness and structured literacy (there is more on this on our Opinion Pieces page).
Poems/nursery rhymes
Research has repeatedly shown that nursery rhymes help the early learning of reading, spelling, and pronunciation because of repeated vowel use, and the phonic awareness they gain reading skill. Students enjoy the rhythm and the fun content far more that the cat sat on the mat type of reading. Many of our readings are poems/nursery rhymes.
Jokes/riddles
In line with Jenny Lamond’s quest to always make the course fun, many of our readings are jokes and puns. Students love these and want to continue reading.
Research also has shown that reading aloud by the learner-reader helps them become better readers and faster readers. Reading aloud:
- ensures that each word is seen and read
- helps with the gaining of a natural reading rhythm
- after reading aloud for a while confidence will have increased where the student will be happy to 'show off'
their reading aloud when in the classroom
- better abled to 'Talk To The Pencil'.
- often when people read silently, they re-read sections – our reading app will not allow this to happen.
- silent reading allows the skipping of a word. This will not happen with our app.
- reading comprehension.
Our reading app forces the student to read aloud.
Non-threatening
Reading aloud in a classroom situation is horrific for the slow reader. Impatience from a teacher, or snide giggles from fellow students exacerbates the student's fear.
The Easy-Spelling Reading App eliminates that threat because the student reads to the computer. The computer is patient, nor does it giggle. The student can read the passage as often as he or she requires. Improvement therefore comes. The reading app gives the student a greater feeling of being in control than in a classroom setting.
Pronunciation
For the non-English speaking student the reading app will help you improve your word pronunciation. For instance, if the word to read and say is dictionary and you pronounce it as dik-t-ry, the app will wait for you to keep trying. This will be good for you and will help you learn how to say the words correctly. There is a certain amount of tolerance, where the word does not have to be exact.
How it works
The reading app will show a word in a text box. When the student sees the word, it is read, 'aloud'. Our unique reading app recognises if the word is correct or not. If not, the reading app will wait until the correct word is read. For instance, there is a reading that starts There once was a girl named May… So, the first word would be There. As There appears on the screen the learner-reader will say the word There out loud. When the reading app hears the word There it will automatically display the next word which is once. The student will continue to read the sentence until There once was a girl named May… is complete.
However, if the student does not know the word, the computer will await until the word is said correctly or the override button is clicked, which will allow the student to go to the next word.
The reading app starts off pretty simply in the first Activities, such as the alphabet, vowels, and two or three letter words. As the course continues the readings become progressively harder. There are also readings that are not associated with an Activity, these are for extra practice.
If the student is stuck on a word they must Talk to their pencil and sound out the letters.
Once the sentence is finished, read it again, faster this time until the rhythm of the piece is picked up.
If the student has problems getting the 'Reader' to hear the spoken word it could be because of the following;
That the Search Engine on your computer is not set to Google's Chrome. Please switch to Chrome. If this does not work, check the microphone on your computer as it may not be functioning properly.
Punctuation
Our Reading App is a unique and a state of the art programme, which we are very proud of. However, 'voice recognition' technology is not as advanced as it could be, so there is no punctuation. If we included fullstops, the student would have to say, "fullstop", but it would not be recoganised. The same with a comma. The text flows with a capital letter indicating the start of a new sentence. Although this sounds clumsy, we find our students adapt quickly, especially because the readings are either nursery rhymes or riddles
Slow Internet
Should your Internet Connection be slow, there may be times when there is a delay from saying of the word until the appearance of the next. Usually though, the lag is only a few seconds.
Reading Checkpoints
If you are new to reading English, you may not read as well as you would like. However, as you work through the Activities and improve your spelling, it will be time to move on to reading itself.
Repetition
All students do well with reading repetition. This is particular so for the LD learner.
Research has also shown that rereading a piece several; times advances a child’s overall reading. It improves understanding and comprehension, reading speed is improved – these lead to a child starting to enjoy reading.
As some languages do not read from the left to the right (as English does), students would do well to utilise the below procedure so their eye-brain coordination accustoms to tracking (smoothly) from the left to the right, and sweeping back to the left again. The use of a pointer will help to improve eye-brain coordination.
Through Easy-Spelling the student will gain English 'word-recognition'. As the eyes sweep from left to the right, the reading will be faster because of that word-recognition.
Here we have listed common reading faults in the form of questions.
1. Am I reading fast enough?
At worst, the reading may be so slow that the beginning is forgotten the beginning by the time the end is reached. If this is the case, try using an eye 'movement trainer', such as a ruler or pencil, may be helpful. At first a parent can guide the pointer. Then later the student can push the pointer along the line of print, controlling their own reading speed.
Pushing with the eye movement trainer forces the reader to read faster, if it is done at the right speed (not too fast). The guide 'forces' the eyes to keep moving ahead, and covers the words progressively, making it difficult to check back. An increase in speed without loss of comprehension may be achieved. When the movement has become natural, the guide may be used as a pointer held above the line of print. This allows for further increase in speed.
Very rarely should the eyes be 'pulled' along the line (using the rod from the right hand side of the page). The few cases where 'pulling' may be advised are;
(a) when the student cannot be persuaded to stop at the ends of phrases, sentences etc,. (see under Checkpoints 2,3,4, below);
(b) where the eyes persistently jump forward, and checking back is not a problem;
(c) the student persistently is back-to-front and need practice in looking, first at the beginning of each word;
(d) where guessing words and get them wrong, reading, for example, said for does (here they are reversing the word as well). Study the
passage and comments at the end of this section, bearing in mind the other reading checkpoints.
2. Am I Stopping Often Enough?
This question draws attention to the need to phrase the reading according to its meaning, and not just to read 'words'.
3. Am I Stopping at the Right Places?
Look for commas and full stops. The solution is having someone to push the student to the end of each phrase, then stop. Initially, the pause may be quite long (see 4 below).
Recording the student reading aloud, then to listen to it can show the student if they are reading the passage correctly.
4. Are the first two words after stopping always correct?
This is most important. When the reader pauses at the end of a phrase or sentence, their eyes should be reading the beginning of the next phrase. This will help them understand the connection between the two phrases or sentences. Give them as long as they need at the pause. Then push forward to the end of the next phrase. If it is read correctly, or almost correctly, ask them to consider, 'Did I see all that?' If the answer is 'no', it means their brain read it, which is the ultimate aim.
A common difficulty for students who do not get the first two words right after stopping is the digraph (two letters representing a sound). Many joining words begin with wh, th, sh.
5. Am I quick at the end of every phrase or sentence?
This is intended to encourage the use of context clues and visual recognition, rather than reading every word, or every part of longer words.
6. Is my brain helping to finish long or difficult words?
As with 5) above, understanding the context should allow a long word to be finished when only a portion has actually been read. Thus, in a passage about boats, the word harbour need not be totally sounded: har gives the clue, and the eyes should run over bour to the next word. In the sample passage below, there are of course, some words that will need careful scrutiny no matter what the context, e.g. names of people.
7. Is my memory supplying frequently repeated words or names?
Often, a more complex word will make them hesitate. But once read (or twice), the hesitation should disappear.
8. Do my eyes skip words and go too far ahead?
Many new readers have difficulty skipping ahead. In severe cases, drag instead of pushing with the eye guide. Often, simple awareness of the problem is sufficient to check it. In all cases, careful oral reading, followed by a response to the meaning of the passage (retell the story, give an opinion, make a prediction etc.) is necessary.
9. Am I 'double-reading'? Or am I saying the words to myself before I say them out loud?
This problem is one of excessive sub-vocalisation, where some student first reads the words to themselves and then out loud. The alternate phrasing of the question suggested has been a help to some in identifying this problem. And, once again we find that their recognition of the problem has made an immediate difference to their reading. They probably knew the word when they first saw it, and nothing was gained by saying it twice. A minor variation of the problem is the reader who has difficulty in saying the words and so finds it necessary to do the preliminary conscious mental process.
10. Am I reading the story, or only the words?
Such cases are often related to points 2, 3, and 4, above. Once the problem is identified, the reader should begin to focus on the story and should read with comprehension. In some cases, reading in short extracts, progressively exploring the meaning of each paragraph or even sentence, and adding it to what you already understand about the story will help.
11. Am I thinking about the subject (story) or something else?
This is really a variant of checkpoint 10, but the reason behind it will be different. If you find your attention wandering, ask yourself, 'What am I thinking about?'
12. Speed Reading.
Over the years there has been much discussion on speed reading. Yes, there are methods that reading speeds. But know, that the faster the reading, the less will be remembered.
The ability to skim read is a useful tool, but the reader must master all that we have discussed above and consolidate those skills first before attempting speed reading.
13. Tracking eye movements
More on tracking and eye movements. Many dyslexic’s find it difficult to move their eyes smoothly from the left of the text to the right. This is an eye/text tracking problem (oculomotor skills), can seriously delay reading ability. The reading process becomes a stop-start process, which is frustrating and tiring.
Tracking as given above is a way of helping the eye movement and brain coordination work as one.
When a difficult word arrives, the process is slowed down, the word is syllablised until understood, then the tracking continues.
Reading aloud will also help the eye/brain synchronisation. Fifteen minutes of tracking practice a day will work wonders for eye line coordination and reading speed, Try it.
14. Comprehension
Comprehension improves with confidence.
Comprehension grows with the student's interest in what is being read.
Comprehension automatically improves with reading-experience.
Research (2018) confirms that word recognition accounts for all variances in reading comprehension (Lonigan et al.)
In the early stages it is advisable for the student to stop reading after a few sentences or paragraphs and ask him or her to summarise what has been read
Conclusion
Daily practice with a parent or teacher will have a positive impact on comprehension, speed, fluency, and interest. The student's vocabulary is enhanced as the parent or teacher is able to explain the meaning of unknown words .
Easy-Spelling is spelling easy
THE EASY-SPELLING READING PROGRAM
From stumbling to fluent word decoding, reduced vocalisation, to absorbing, to comprehension, to memorising text, to appreciation.
This is what learner-reader can expect to gain when they use our unique reading app.
Our method of reading instruction is evidence-based from current ‘Science of Reading’ research, using a balance of phonic awareness and structured literacy (there is more on this on our Opinion Pieces page).
Poems/nursery rhymes
Research has repeatedly shown that nursery rhymes help the early learning of reading, spelling, and pronunciation because of repeated vowel use, and the phonic awareness they gain reading skill. Students enjoy the rhythm and the fun content far more that the cat sat on the mat type of reading. Many of our readings are poems/nursery rhymes.
Jokes/riddles
In line with Jenny Lamond’s quest to always make the course fun, many of our readings are jokes and puns. Students love these and want to continue reading.
Research also has shown that reading aloud by the learner-reader helps them become better readers and faster readers. Reading aloud:
- ensures that each word is seen and read
- helps with the gaining of a natural reading rhythm
- after reading aloud for a while confidence will have increased where the student will be happy to 'show off'
their reading aloud when in the classroom
- better abled to 'Talk To The Pencil'.
- often when people read silently, they re-read sections – our reading app will not allow this to happen.
- silent reading allows the skipping of a word. This will not happen with our app.
- reading comprehension.
Our reading app forces the student to read aloud.
Non-threatening
Reading aloud in a classroom situation is horrific for the slow reader. Impatience from a teacher, or snide giggles from fellow students exacerbates the student's fear.
The Easy-Spelling Reading App eliminates that threat because the student reads to the computer. The computer is patient, nor does it giggle. The student can read the passage as often as he or she requires. Improvement therefore comes. The reading app gives the student a greater feeling of being in control than in a classroom setting.
Pronunciation
For the non-English speaking student the reading app will help you improve your word pronunciation. For instance, if the word to read and say is dictionary and you pronounce it as dik-t-ry, the app will wait for you to keep trying. This will be good for you and will help you learn how to say the words correctly. There is a certain amount of tolerance, where the word does not have to be exact.
How it works
The reading app will show a word in a text box. When the student sees the word, it is read, 'aloud'. Our unique reading app recognises if the word is correct or not. If not, the reading app will wait until the correct word is read. For instance, there is a reading that starts There once was a girl named May… So, the first word would be There. As There appears on the screen the learner-reader will say the word There out loud. When the reading app hears the word There it will automatically display the next word which is once. The student will continue to read the sentence until There once was a girl named May… is complete.
However, if the student does not know the word, the computer will await until the word is said correctly or the override button is clicked, which will allow the student to go to the next word.
The reading app starts off pretty simply in the first Activities, such as the alphabet, vowels, and two or three letter words. As the course continues the readings become progressively harder. There are also readings that are not associated with an Activity, these are for extra practice.
If the student is stuck on a word they must Talk to their pencil and sound out the letters.
Once the sentence is finished, read it again, faster this time until the rhythm of the piece is picked up.
If the student has problems getting the 'Reader' to hear the spoken word it could be because of the following;
That the Search Engine on your computer is not set to Google's Chrome. Please switch to Chrome. If this does not work, check the microphone on your computer as it may not be functioning properly.
Punctuation
Our Reading App is a unique and a state of the art programme, which we are very proud of. However, 'voice recognition' technology is not as advanced as it could be, so there is no punctuation. If we included fullstops, the student would have to say, "fullstop", but it would not be recoganised. The same with a comma. The text flows with a capital letter indicating the start of a new sentence. Although this sounds clumsy, we find our students adapt quickly, especially because the readings are either nursery rhymes or riddles
Slow Internet
Should your Internet Connection be slow, there may be times when there is a delay from saying of the word until the appearance of the next. Usually though, the lag is only a few seconds.
Reading Checkpoints
If you are new to reading English, you may not read as well as you would like. However, as you work through the Activities and improve your spelling, it will be time to move on to reading itself.
Repetition
All students do well with reading repetition. This is particular so for the LD learner.
Research has also shown that rereading a piece several; times advances a child’s overall reading. It improves understanding and comprehension, reading speed is improved – these lead to a child starting to enjoy reading.
As some languages do not read from the left to the right (as English does), students would do well to utilise the below procedure so their eye-brain coordination accustoms to tracking (smoothly) from the left to the right, and sweeping back to the left again. The use of a pointer will help to improve eye-brain coordination.
Through Easy-Spelling the student will gain English 'word-recognition'. As the eyes sweep from left to the right, the reading will be faster because of that word-recognition.
Here we have listed common reading faults in the form of questions.
1. Am I reading fast enough?
At worst, the reading may be so slow that the beginning is forgotten the beginning by the time the end is reached. If this is the case, try using an eye 'movement trainer', such as a ruler or pencil, may be helpful. At first a parent can guide the pointer. Then later the student can push the pointer along the line of print, controlling their own reading speed.
Pushing with the eye movement trainer forces the reader to read faster, if it is done at the right speed (not too fast). The guide 'forces' the eyes to keep moving ahead, and covers the words progressively, making it difficult to check back. An increase in speed without loss of comprehension may be achieved. When the movement has become natural, the guide may be used as a pointer held above the line of print. This allows for further increase in speed.
Very rarely should the eyes be 'pulled' along the line (using the rod from the right hand side of the page). The few cases where 'pulling' may be advised are;
(a) when the student cannot be persuaded to stop at the ends of phrases, sentences etc,. (see under Checkpoints 2,3,4, below);
(b) where the eyes persistently jump forward, and checking back is not a problem;
(c) the student persistently is back-to-front and need practice in looking, first at the beginning of each word;
(d) where guessing words and get them wrong, reading, for example, said for does (here they are reversing the word as well). Study the
passage and comments at the end of this section, bearing in mind the other reading checkpoints.
2. Am I Stopping Often Enough?
This question draws attention to the need to phrase the reading according to its meaning, and not just to read 'words'.
3. Am I Stopping at the Right Places?
Look for commas and full stops. The solution is having someone to push the student to the end of each phrase, then stop. Initially, the pause may be quite long (see 4 below).
Recording the student reading aloud, then to listen to it can show the student if they are reading the passage correctly.
4. Are the first two words after stopping always correct?
This is most important. When the reader pauses at the end of a phrase or sentence, their eyes should be reading the beginning of the next phrase. This will help them understand the connection between the two phrases or sentences. Give them as long as they need at the pause. Then push forward to the end of the next phrase. If it is read correctly, or almost correctly, ask them to consider, 'Did I see all that?' If the answer is 'no', it means their brain read it, which is the ultimate aim.
A common difficulty for students who do not get the first two words right after stopping is the digraph (two letters representing a sound). Many joining words begin with wh, th, sh.
5. Am I quick at the end of every phrase or sentence?
This is intended to encourage the use of context clues and visual recognition, rather than reading every word, or every part of longer words.
6. Is my brain helping to finish long or difficult words?
As with 5) above, understanding the context should allow a long word to be finished when only a portion has actually been read. Thus, in a passage about boats, the word harbour need not be totally sounded: har gives the clue, and the eyes should run over bour to the next word. In the sample passage below, there are of course, some words that will need careful scrutiny no matter what the context, e.g. names of people.
7. Is my memory supplying frequently repeated words or names?
Often, a more complex word will make them hesitate. But once read (or twice), the hesitation should disappear.
8. Do my eyes skip words and go too far ahead?
Many new readers have difficulty skipping ahead. In severe cases, drag instead of pushing with the eye guide. Often, simple awareness of the problem is sufficient to check it. In all cases, careful oral reading, followed by a response to the meaning of the passage (retell the story, give an opinion, make a prediction etc.) is necessary.
9. Am I 'double-reading'? Or am I saying the words to myself before I say them out loud?
This problem is one of excessive sub-vocalisation, where some student first reads the words to themselves and then out loud. The alternate phrasing of the question suggested has been a help to some in identifying this problem. And, once again we find that their recognition of the problem has made an immediate difference to their reading. They probably knew the word when they first saw it, and nothing was gained by saying it twice. A minor variation of the problem is the reader who has difficulty in saying the words and so finds it necessary to do the preliminary conscious mental process.
10. Am I reading the story, or only the words?
Such cases are often related to points 2, 3, and 4, above. Once the problem is identified, the reader should begin to focus on the story and should read with comprehension. In some cases, reading in short extracts, progressively exploring the meaning of each paragraph or even sentence, and adding it to what you already understand about the story will help.
11. Am I thinking about the subject (story) or something else?
This is really a variant of checkpoint 10, but the reason behind it will be different. If you find your attention wandering, ask yourself, 'What am I thinking about?'
12. Speed Reading.
Over the years there has been much discussion on speed reading. Yes, there are methods that reading speeds. But know, that the faster the reading, the less will be remembered.
The ability to skim read is a useful tool, but the reader must master all that we have discussed above and consolidate those skills first before attempting speed reading.
13. Tracking eye movements
More on tracking and eye movements. Many dyslexic’s find it difficult to move their eyes smoothly from the left of the text to the right. This is an eye/text tracking problem (oculomotor skills), can seriously delay reading ability. The reading process becomes a stop-start process, which is frustrating and tiring.
Tracking as given above is a way of helping the eye movement and brain coordination work as one.
When a difficult word arrives, the process is slowed down, the word is syllablised until understood, then the tracking continues.
Reading aloud will also help the eye/brain synchronisation. Fifteen minutes of tracking practice a day will work wonders for eye line coordination and reading speed, Try it.
14. Comprehension
Comprehension improves with confidence.
Comprehension grows with the student's interest in what is being read.
Comprehension automatically improves with reading-experience.
Research (2018) confirms that word recognition accounts for all variances in reading comprehension (Lonigan et al.)
In the early stages it is advisable for the student to stop reading after a few sentences or paragraphs and ask him or her to summarise what has been read
Conclusion
Daily practice with a parent or teacher will have a positive impact on comprehension, speed, fluency, and interest. The student's vocabulary is enhanced as the parent or teacher is able to explain the meaning of unknown words .