• E-mail
• Print
• Comment
• Font Size
• Digg
• del.icio.us
• Discuss article

Making Phonics Phun *** Program Helps School Teach Reading Skills to Young Students

Posted on: Tuesday, 3 January 2006, 09:00 CST

By GEORGE MORRIS

Making phonics phun *** Program helps schools teach reading skills to young students

Since Sylvia Clement began teaching in 1970, her husbands job transfers bounced her to schools all over Louisiana Ouachita Parish, Franklin Parish, Calcasieu Parish, East Carroll Parish, Jefferson Parish and, eventually, Livingston Parish. One thing, however, remained constant.

Through the years, I had become so frustrated with the fact that every single school system that I went into, at least half of the children were not ready to be taught out of that basic reading textbook, Clement said. It didnt seem to matter where I went. Even though they were teaching a different textbook, the kids were not fluent readers like I thought they should be.

Clement did more than lament. She created Phun-Sational Phonics, a program that teaches reading skills to early elementary school students. Several schools in area parishes and others in Mississippi use the program, which received approval last year from the states Reading First committee.

Phonics teaching reading by training beginners to associate letters with their sound values is not a new concept, nor is using music to make the subject more appealing to students. Hooked on Phonics, which started in 1987, claims millions of customers for its program, that has been mass-marketed mostly to parents.

Clement said Phun-Sational Phonics differs in many respects. Her program is directed at schools and includes written lesson plans for teachers. It can be used for entire classrooms, or for one-on-one tutoring, Clement said. In addition to music, it incorporates other multisensory elements sight, touch and body movement to help children learn.

Another difference is stylistic.

The music in Hooked on Phonics is elevator music, she said. Its not real lively.

The children love it. The teachers love it, said Ann Smith, a second- grade teacher at Lewis Vincent Elementary School in Denham Springs. Theres a lot more to it than the music, but thats the thing that catches peoples eye. Its known that people learn through music, and the music is fun.

You absolutely have to contain the kids before. Its like I told them this week, You cannot dance until you learn the words. They get all excited. Its fun. Its peppy.

Phun-Sational Phonics features 50s songs like Dont Be Cruel, Hound Dog, Rock Around the Clock and Mr. Sandman, as well as teaching set to rap or cheers, country hits like Achy Breaky Heart and once-popular tunes like Who Let the Dogs Out. Local musician Randy Knaps recorded many of the vocals.

The goals are essentially the same to improve childrens reading.

I think Ive read somewhere that if a child hadnt unlocked the alphabetic code by the time that they were in the third grade, they were pretty much lost as a reader, and thats a scary thought, said Marsha Holm, who used Clements program at Lewis Vincent Elementary before retiring. Some children unlock that alphabetic code on their own but a lot of children cant do that, and if they miss out in kindergarten, first, second and third grade really unlocking that alphabetic code, it affects them the rest of their life.

Clement said she started working on the program about 1980 when she was asked to tutor students with reading problems. The concept developed over time, and when she came to Livingston Parish in 1982, she met teachers who used her methods and became sounding boards as she continued to tweak them.

I had this prime little student who that year had come to second grade, and he literally could not read at all, Smith said. You could show him the word look, and he couldnt tell you what it was. She was working with him in the reading lab, and she would just say, Can I keep him a few extra minutes? My theory was if he couldnt learn to read, it wasnt going to do him any good to stay in science class or whatever. He needed to learn to read that year.

The student made considerable progress, Smith said. A few years later, Smith saw the student carrying Treasure Island and asked him to read from it.

He just read it beautifully, Smith said. I believe with all my heart if some kind of intervention hadnt happened with him, he would have been one of those who would fall between the cracks.

The program has other believers. John P. Watson, former principal at Levi Milton Elementary School in Walker and now Human Resource supervisor for Livingston Parish public schools, credits Phun- Sational Phonics for contributing to Levi Miltons 17 percent increase in its school performance score. Lorin Caruso, a former English and English as a second language teacher in Livingston Parish, said it helped her work with students with various levels of English skills, including one with dyslexia.

Linda Richard taught special education for five years at Lewis Vincent Elementary, dealing with a variety of learning disabilities, health impairments and mental challenges. One year, when her fourth- graders were taking the state-mandated LEAP test, she gave her third- and fifth-grade special ed students the standardized IOWA test. They all passed.

Even some of my kids that were maybe on the lower end with reasoning skills and maybe intelligence, they were able to learn to read with this program, she said. I really believe in the program. I have seen very low-functioning children learn to read from it from the songs and the repetition and all the different sensory modes that it is using, as well as really bright students.

The programs Web site is http://www.PhunPhonics.com.

Source: Advocate; Baton Rouge, La.

More News in this Category