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If you have a child in school in grade 1 - 4 who is struggling to read:
“When I listened to the kids today all I could think of
was how BRI is like laser surgery. It goes right to a weak area and fixes
it. No wasted information. Say the sounds and read. Perfect. Kids love
being in books they can read …”
Teacher & Tutor
READ is a gentle and lively introduction to early reading instruction and
begins with just three words and five letter/sounds: /I/ /s/ /ee/ /a/ /m/.
The ‘ee’ is introduced immediately to give children ‘advance warning’ that
a letter/ sound can involve more than one letter
Strong decoding practices are put in place and all-through-the-word left-to-right
tracking is embedded immediately. The instructions are simple and direct.
While the story-line is carried by spirited, energetic pictures the words
cannot be ‘read’/guessed and illustrations contain no clues to the words
on the page.
When a child is struggling, READ immediately asks the learner to practice
decoding skills, rather than to focus on a whole raft of ‘deficits’. Each
child is quickly assessed with the PERFORMANCE INDICATOR TESTS (see Free
Resources) to establish the optimum starting place. From that point onwards,
consistent BRI instruction promotes skills-based, decoding practice to
ensure success.
Children who have spent hours puzzling over how reading skills can be accessed,
find it immensely satisfying to begin to comprehend the alphabetic code
and ‘really read’ a book immediately. For the adult, the book can seem
slight; to the child it is an immense source of pride and relief. Confidence-building
starts here!
In addition, READ raises awareness of the individual components of a basic
story: 'who', 'where', 'when', 'what', encouraging children to engage with
the stories, and also to identify with the gentle foibles and humor of
Sam the Lion, Mat the Rat, and friends.
No prior training is necessary to conduct the instruction. Simple instructions
are incorporated in each book and provided that they are followed, and
the person conducting the instruction resists the temptation to 'overhelp',
progress will be transparent. Each child will adopt a decoding strategy
as default, rather than 'whizzing' through a book and memorizing words,
or desperately looking for another ‘strategy’ to bail him/her out.
Every child’s progress is apparent through the increasingly complex text
she/he can read. External cumulative records are also important and READ
includes a battery of psychometrically sound tests to certify learning
acquisition. These straightforward and quick-to-administer tests give a
clear and transparent indication of exactly what has been learned and what
still needs to be mastered in order to become a certified reader.
For information on the READING/SPELLING MASTERY TESTS and SPELL books to
accompany READ, see Product and Ordering sections.
