Reading Worksheets vs iReadBetter

Center for Innovation in Education Reading Worksheets Dekodiphukan Description The fifth of the fourteen apps that comprise the Baratta-Lorton Reading Program. The Reading Program is a reading and writing curriculum for beginning readers and any child who has already experienced difficulty in learning to read. 99% unique – 100% effective - 100% free Background for the fourteen apps The Baratta-Lorton Reading Program also known as Dekodiphukan (pronounced decode if you can) was developed by the Center for Innovation in Education whose many other offerings include Mathematics Their Way, the first non-traditional math curriculum adopted in by the State of California. Dekodiphukan has been in use in classrooms across the United States and Canada since 1985. The Program has been used to teach thousands of children to read and to write regardless of background or supposed lack of reading readiness. To date, no child using the program in a classroom setting has ever failed to learn to read or to write. This Dekodiphukan reading and writing curriculum is now a series of fourteen apps plus a parent-guide for the iPad that, within a period of six months to a year (or occasionally a bit longer for some special needs children), will enable every child using it to read and to write. Reading with enjoyment. Writing creatively. Dekodiphukan is a full fledged curriculum. It is a set of specific learning activities, not a set of games. The curriculum’s fourteen apps are all free with no ads - popup or otherwise - included. While the apps may be downloaded all at once and stored in a folder on the iPad, no more than two or three of the apps are used at any one time by the child. Reading Worksheets The fifth of the Fourteen Apps The Reading Worksheets represent the child’s second effort to read the sounds on his or her own.  There are 40 worksheets at the two-sound level and 40 worksheets at the three-sound level. As triangle Booklets are introduced, Worksheets are introduced in parallel. At the two and three-sound levels, the child reads the word on the worksheet and touches the picture that matches the word.  If the correct picture is touched, the word will play.  If the child cannot recall the sound for an image, he or she can touch the image and the sound for that image will play. Worksheets are introduced in parallel with Booklets but before the Picture Packets-Words app because the Worksheets are inherently easier than Picture Packets-Words.  Worksheets with their “this one or that one” picture selection offer the child two choices, one of which is guaranteed to be right.  The image audios and the picture-answers offer hints in the sound-blending process. Picture Packet-Words present the child with ten different words to match with ten different pictures on each page with no audio clues. The introduction of Picture Packet-Words waits until the child is ready to read without the aid of audio hints. Reading Worksheets The child’s second experience in reading with the sounds Presented in parallel with Booklets Presented before the Picture Packet - Words apps 40 worksheets each at the two-sound, three-sound levels 40 worksheets at the phrase level Audio hints at the two and three-sound levels

True or False: Children need someone to teach them how to read. True or False: The elements of written English are the 26 letters of the alphabet. True or False: Learning how to read means memorizing how thousands of words are spelled. True or False: Remembering a bunch of rules is essential to understanding phonics. True or False: “Reading” comprehension is essential for understanding. False is the correct answer to each of the above, and we have created an app that proves it! In fact, iReadBetter provides children with a fresh, new entry into the demands of written English. Back in the middle of the 20th century, a brilliant mathematician and educator, Dr. Caleb Gattegno, invented an approach to literacy, through which learners quickly become aware of five amazing facts: You can teach yourself how to read. The elements of written English are actually “signs,” which correspond to the forty or so spoken sounds of English, and those signs are often represented by surprising letters or combinations of letters. For example, you sound the /oo/ in flood like the /u/ in “up,” the /t/ in “action” like the /sh/ in “ship,” and the /ch/ in “chorus” like the /k/ in “kite.” By combining in various ways just a handful of “signs,” color-coded according to how you sound them (so, for example, the /t/ at the end of “past” is colored the same as the /ed/ at the end of “passed”), you can read and correctly spell almost a thousand words, with only a minimal need for memorization. By noticing consistencies and inconsistencies (e.g., “drove,” “cove” and “stove,” but not “move” or “love”), you can learn rapidly, while avoiding overly simplified and often misleading phonics rules. For instance, virtually all traditional phonics programs teach that there is a “short A” and a “long A,” when in fact there are no fewer than eleven ways in which that single letter can be sounded in written English, exemplified in the following sentence: All was dark as many warring hares raced around village swamps. Once accurate decoding is accompanied by the fluency and melody of a reader’s speech, “language” comprehension flows naturally from listening to the results. With the completed edition of iReadBetter, children everywhere have access the world’s first digital version of Gattegno’s full array of materials, techniques and activities. It gives them the opportunity to enter the world of reading and spelling with self-assurance and clarity about the true nature of the challenge.