A Simple Way to Teach Reading

My mother teaches reading with abundant energy and effort, producing flash cards and games on her computer that require reams of paper, cardstock and many printer cartridges to make the student encounter something new nearly every day. I admire the way she does this, but due to sheer laziness, I haven't been able to get myself to follow her example, so instead I have searched for the best beginning reading curriculum, finding little to like in most that I have examined. As I flip through the pages, they appear either too complicated or too much like a chore that must be completed. What I want is something systematic yet simple.

The Suzuki Piano School books meet these requirements, only they teach an instrument. Each piece in the books builds on the techniques and musicality learned in previous pieces. Teachers receive training and rely on the pedagogical method they have learned rather than directions on a printed page: other than a brief foreword, the books are free of text, and the style and speed of teaching are dependent on the teacher, who can utilize her own creativity and knowledge of each individual child as she teaches.The children build a "vocabulary" of all the pieces they will learn through daily listening, so they can mentally hear anything they learn to play.

I have looked for something similar to teach early phonetic reading, and the closest match has been a series of lists at the end of Why Johnny Can't Read by Rudolf Flesch. They have no glamor or even cuteness about them. List 1 teaches three-letter words with the short "a" sound and consonants "b d f g h j l m n p r s t v w y z." I first used these lists ten years ago while teaching Karina, my oldest, to read. She never read the lists of words straight out of the book, but I used it as more of a reference for the mother than the child,  like the early Suzuki piano books, when the child cannot yet read music. The lists ensured that I progressed logically in teaching Karina to read, building on and reviewing previous steps. With a pencil in hand, I wrote words in a notebook for her, coming up with simple activities for the words on the spot.

Now I have typed the lists into my computer, making alterations to the order, adding words I like that weren't included in the original, and I am turning to them again as I have begun teaching Luke. The "games" we play are very simple. His current favorite is to circle all the words he thinks are good with a blue pen and all the words he thinks are bad with a red one. Today I felt disappointed when he circled the word "sun" in red because, in his words, "I hate the sun," but young children here in rainy western Washington do seem to find the sun's brightness painful. We also act out words, find animal words and pretend to be that animal, read words for food and pretend to eat it, point to body parts we read, or anything else I can think of that gives him an instant reward for reading. He enjoys linking the letters he strings together with words that are already part of his vocabulary, words that he can mentally hear and begin a conversation about. This is much more gratifying than sounding out incomplete or nonsense words, something many curricula include.

Once Luke can comfortably read the words in one list, I move on to the next, continuing to review previous words as he learns new sounds. I find these lists to be a simple yet thorough way to teach reading that easily adapts to the varying velocities of learning. Each of my children has followed their own trajectory in acquiring the ability to read, and I like the flexibility a simple series of lists gives me. Here are copies of the first five lists as I have adapted them, covering lists 1 through 10 in Flesch's book. I hope someone else may find them as useful as I have.

List 1: Vowel "a," consonants "b c d f g h j l m n p r s t v w y z"
Ann bad bag bat bam cab can cap cat dad Dan fan fat gas hag ham hat jam jazz lap mad man map mass nag nap Nat pad pal Pam pan pass pat rag ran rap rat sad Sam sat tag tan tap van vat wag

List 2: Vowel "o"
Bob boss cob cod cop cot dog doll Don dot fog God got hog hop hot job jog log lot mop moss nod not pop pot rob sob Tom top

List 3: Vowel "i"
bib big Bill bin bit did dig dip fib fig fill fit hill him hip hit Jill Jim kid kill Kim kin kiss kit lid lip mill miss nip pig pin rib rip sin sip Sis sit Tim tip wig will win zip

List 4: Vowel "u"
bud bug bun bus but buzz cub cuff cup cut dull fun fuss fuzz gum gun Gus huff hug hum hut mud muff mug mutt nun nut puff pup rub rug run sum sun tub tug

List 5: Vowel "e"
bed beg bell Ben bet den Ed egg get hem hen jet keg leg less let men mess Ned net peg pen pet red sell set Ted tell ten web well wet yell yes yet