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If you are home-schooling a child who has not yet learned how to read or is struggling to read:
“READ is so great because it is the first time I have seen
so much literature in decodable format up through advanced code and MS
words. I know of no other series so well designed and well written.”
Primary Teacher & Reading Tutor
READ provides comprehensive and complete reading instruction that requires
no additional materials. However, if you are using another reading program,
READ provides a feast of books, containing text that is 100% decodable.
That is, the sequencing of READ is such that children receive ample practice
in handling known letter/sound correspondences in order to read fluently
before proceeding to the next book. All new grapheme/phoneme correspondences
(GPCs) are introduced prior to reading.
In the BRI series all words are single syllable and fall within a child’s
general vocabulary. Each book ‘forces’ the child to look carefully, both
inside the word and at the end of the word they are reading; that is, they
look all-through-the-word. Linguistic considerations ensure that children
have maximum exposure to function words – e.g. the, this, with – and words
with minimal visual variety – e.g. is, Sis, sits, sit, it. This frequent
use of function words and visually similar words acts in the manner of
a trip switch, in this case cutting out tendencies to guess.
An outline of each story is included and can form the basis of lively discussion as well as helping to engage a child in the subtle little adventures that each tale encapsulates.
Story questions are included at the end of each book to ensure that there
is full comprehension of the story. In addition, the questions present
an opportunity for talking about the story and for vocabulary expansion.
PERFORMANCE INDICATORS are simple and quick to carry out and will readily
establish the optimum starting point (see Free
Resources).
The progress of every child is apparent through the increasingly complex text she/he can read. The READING/SPELLING MASTERY TESTS accompany each stage and are simple and quick to administer. These psychometrically sound tests show exactly what the child has mastered and where more practice is needed before advancing to the next Course.
For information on the READING/SPELLING MASTERY TESTS and SPELL books to accompany READ, see Ordering.