PERSONALIZED CUSTOMIZED CURRICULUM
INTERACTIVELY DESIGNED FOR YOU, THE TEACHER
IS LIMITED TO THE FOLLOWING:
Step One of Foundational Phonics has been written with you, the teacher, in mind and designed for you to work closely with parents and others who are willing to help you teach. Step One is not a program just for you. It is a program that reaches out to parents, grandparents, the neighbor down the street, as well as to the teacher and students.
For Step One to be most successful as a phonics program in your classroom, you will want to solicit the help of parents, other relatives and all who are willing to sacrifice their time to teach your students with you in a co-op venture.
Therefore you will find that the lesson plans are written for a supervisor to follow. That supervisor is you, the teacher. However, the supervisor may be an interested mom or a friend. Many parents assist the teacher in the classroom while others incorporate the program into their home study after school hours. Step One is a cooperative partnership between teacher, parent and children.
The person or persons wishing to assist you may appear to be fluent in the English language but they may know their own weaknesses and have a desire to learn without making their need known. Beginning with ABC lays the necessary foundation which is so needed by all.
The longer a person waits to learn to read, the harder it is going to be to catch up. Some adults NEVER are able to achieve their greatest potential because at a young age they were deprived of learning to read the correct way. Now you have a choice. You can teach your children and parents. You can teach the parents to teach their children and they will learn also. Most importantly, there will be a special bonding that takes place. Oh! You can try to do it without their help and struggle down a one way street. The decision is yours!
We have received thousands
of encouraging letters about our Step One course on the Internet.
If you think parents don't want to help their children or that
they don't care, read the letters below. There are so many
letters and testimonies we could share with you. Step One works!
But YOU have to have the faith in it to make it work for you.
Please read all the letters. You need to be aware of what the
general public is saying about Foundational Phonics.
Here are a just a few that begin the numerous, positive
testimonies.
Many are letters from parents who have written us because they wanted to help their children learn to read. Some have realized their own lack and wrote to seek help for themselves:
Hi, I am Joy Keller and I am very interested in the phonics classes you have to offer on the internet. I would like to enroll my two daughters in your program. Also,I would be interested in more information about the classes.It appears (my State) is still determined to use the 'Whole Language' concept...and my daughter Sonia is already showing signs of unexpected reading difficulty.
Also through your classes it will help me to teach my daughters better. I never finished school and the English language is very hard for me to understand. I don't recall being taught the basics of early years and that's when they start teaching the phonics to students. So I guessed I didn't have it in school. So while I use your program with my kids it will benefit me also.
I am part of an inner city Christian ministry in low income apartments in (Name of State). Many of the kids don't know how to read very well. Several of us would like to help the kids and parents read. The apartment complex is setting up a room to do this. I am interested in your program. I will pass this information on to the coordinator at the apartment complex.
The management corporation has received a grant from HUD (and are supplying some funds themselves) to set up this program and are counting on volunteers to teach what the residents request. They have requested English classes (mostly Hispanic, many non English speakers), GED help, and tutoring for their children.
I am really excited about your program as I was helping a 10 year old read words and definitions from his homework and he could barely do it. I have since found out that the schools just expect kids to memorize words and regurgitate them. Thanks again for your program. It is how I learned to read in the 50s. Thank You!
We, Bill and Janae Cooksey, were interviewed on television Channel 42 regarding our free Phonics-reading program located in Northern California which we were getting ready to offer. We were given the opportunity to present a little of what we do and to offer our classes to adults who wish to teach their children.
A viewer got on the phone to her granddaughter and quickly explained that we were offering free adult Phonics. The granddaughter age 21 who resided with her parents in another State made a commitment to come and live with Grandma for a year so she could take our program in a physical location close to her.
You see, she could not read very well. She had not been taught Phonics in school and graduated in a special education class. Although Kathy's grandparents on both sides were ministers, both her parents were former drug addicts and her dad was a victim of Agent Orange in Viet Nam.
Kathy had a difficult upbringing and could not remember things. As a passenger in a car, she would be two blocks down a road before something she saw on the side of the road would register in her brain. There is one exception. She is able to remember Scripture quite easily and has the reputation of being a determined young lady. Nevertheless, Kathy just never ventured from home because she was far too insecure.
Flying in from a fifteen hundred mile trip, she arrived at 6:00 PM and the very next day had to go another two hours to the Phonics class here in Modesto. She would be late returning to her grandparent's home but she had a definite desire to improve herself and receive a boost in her reading education.
Once she and Grandma were at the class with us it was less than one half hour later when she expressed, "This Phonics class is the promised hope I've been waiting for!" In time Kathy's memory improved as she began to focus. Grandma was committed to working every day with her.
Faithfulness and commitment is the key to
helping anyone learn to read. Your success in our program will
depend 100% on the commitment you make and your willingness to
follow through on a consistent day to day basis. Your student's
entire future may depend upon your making this Phonics program
your A number one priority! Imagine ANYONE trying to survive in
this world of fast paced technological advancements without being
able to read!
YOUR STUDENT NEEDS YOU!!!
Another lady who came to the classes has a ten year old son who learned to read by the whole language approach and was not taught Phonics. Although learning to read was easy for him, his six year old sister who was adopted from Peru just hated to read and wouldn't even try. She wasn't being taught Phonics in school either.
Mom came to only the first class and took our ideas home with her. Both children were enthralled and worked happily together on an original Cooksey game and song. By class time, the next week, the child who hated to read was spelling all the words she could find in books, videos, and everywhere she looked. All of a sudden her interest in reading has soared and Mom is delighted.
A man about twenty-four years old who has Downs Syndrome desired to come to the classes so badly that he came on his own with Dial-a-Ride, even though he had been told he had to have another adult present with him. Of course, we allowed him to attend. After class he insisted on signing up. He really wanted to improve his lifestyle.
Statistics have come out which state that in Stanislaus County alone (California) there are 50,000 illiterates! This county is not that big. The library in Modesto wanted $108,280.00 for its own staff to organize just to service (not educate) 100 people with volunteer unpaid tutors in 1996.
There was an article in the "Focus on The Family" magazine about a high school teacher who fooled everybody for about twenty years into thinking that he could read when he couldn't. He is one person out of many that is living a double life. He covered his illiteracy up, as do many people, by having others (in this case, his students) read for him.
The adults who have come to the phonics classes have to first learn consonants and vowels. They are not familiar with phonetic sounds, even though they speak those same sounds every day. The need is overwhelming!
The success and uniqueness of this program is attributed by many to be the result of our original curriculum, developed over twenty years and tried and tested by certified teachers for over four years.
For how much money would you be willing to sell your ability to read? How much money would it take to buy your child's ability to read? A million dollars? A billion?
Imagine if the word cat looked like "zfu"
to you. Imagine if the sentence, I love you, looked like "E
pudr sig". It would be a foreign language to you. If you can
help just ONE person learn the names and sounds of the Alphabet,
what a change that would make in his or her life. At least they
would have a starting point in which to launch out into the world
of reading.
WE'RE COUNTING ON YOU!!!
AND NOW TO CONTINUE WITH THE LETTERS:
My child was only two years and three months old when I put her on your program. My neighbors and friends laughed at me and said I was just a crazy lady. But I know that certain parts of our culture are difficult to overcome and some people are biased because of it. That places my child in a precarious position as she grows up. I wanted to prove her intelligence and give her a better chance in life but I didn't want to force or frustrate her. She LOVED your program and within two months she was singing songs about the Alphabet letters and the vowels! She knew most of them when she saw them on a chart. Now she has just turned three and she recognizes short three letter words by the sounds of the letters. Her brothers, both a few years older, are astounded at her progress and are asking me why didn't I do more for them? It has encouraged my sons to try harder in school and their grades are improving. Thank you for taking the time to make your phonics course available and thank you for caring!
.....I would like to know more about your phonics classes in the Internet so I can teach my little brother. I am 17 years old and he is 13 but he can't read.
I am 50 years old. English is my second language. I am from Spain and I would like to enroll myself in your phonics classes on the Internet.
I am interested in learning about how to teach phonics to children. Presently I am concerned about my nieces and nephews who are learning to "not read" with the whole language method.
My girls are age 2 and 5. I realize that age two may seem young. However, this child has been able to follow the stories and identify Mama and baby letters. The older child could move at a faster pace, but I do not want to go too fast for the younger child. Do you have any suggestions on how to help go at a pace that is good for both children? I have been asking the older child to help her younger sister learn. This keeps her involved and makes her feel very important. She is a great assistant.
My daughter is in 1st. grade and was doing well. I've worked with her on a program called reader rabbit. AT this time Ive not gotten the next step because it's $65.00. I throught she was doing well, I've keep in touch with her teacher often . Then one day I got a note home saying that they were putting her in a program called SOAR for kids who had problems with reading. Her teacher never let me know that my daughter had started having problems. I'm hoping this will help, because I can't afford the new program.
Oh the little boy I was going to help also, his mother wouldn't bring him by, so I thought I would help him by giving her the information over the phone but she's not willing at this time to put the time into it.... What can I do when his mom won't bring him by? I want to help him but I'm confined to a wheel chair and I don't drive.
YOUR SUCCESS DEPENDS ON
PERSISTENCE,
DETERMINATION AND HARD WORK
Ours is a scholastic course and we start at the very beginning. There are NO exceptions! If you do not want to begin with basics then ours may not be the course you are looking for. We tell parents: You can teach someone how to read!
It takes time, dedication, effort and lots of patience!
But YOU can do it!
AND THE LETTERS CONTINUE:
The following three letters are from the same superviser "Mom":
LETTER #1 (November 23, 1997)
Hi,
I'd like to enroll my daughter in your reading course.
Her name: Rebecca (Last name withheld) Age 6 enrolled in public schools my name:(withheld) (Address withheld) New York
...found you through excite, under "learning to read" core problem: Rebecca is" instructionally disabled" Reasons for taking your course.
Thank God we found you! Rebecca and I have worked through lesson one and part of lesson two. She nows tells me that she doesn't want to go back to the old way, that now we are having fun. Thank you, Thank you. So please enroll us in your classes, and keep us updated.
a very grateful parent, (Name withheld)
LETTER #2 (November 24, 1997)
Dear Bill and Janae,
I just wanted to thank you for the encouragement you offered in your email. You were right, I am amazed at Rebecca's progress. After an 1 1/2 hour of today's lesson, she just wanted to keep going and going and going. After our ' formal lesson' from you, Becca read four simple books aloud, something she has never done before. I can't thank you enough for this miracle,
LETTER #3 (December 18, 1997)
Dear Janae and Bill,
I just wanted to update you an Rebecca's progress with your course. We are just starting lesson five and Rebecca's progress is remarkable. Her willingess to learn is like a miracle. She reminds me every morning that she is looking forward to her classes when she returns from school. If I'm running a little late, Rebecca is there "bugging" me to start her lesson. She really loves your course.
I think the most wonderful thing about your course is the closeness we have developed as parent and child. I thought we had a strong relationship before we started, but now it is much stronger. I can see everyday how much my child trusts me to be there for her, and we can go through almost anything together. I don't think I realized how important I was to my child. Funny that reading problems could lead us to such blessings. It's had an a big effect on our whole family,and all of it positive.
Thank you so much for putting your course on the web. We know Rebecca is going to read, and read very well at that. I don't want to gush, but I really believe our family has gotten much much more than reading lessons from your course.
Thank you and have a wonderful holiday,
(name withheld)
LETTER #4 (January 23, 1998)
Dear Bill and Janae,
I just wanted to let you know about Rebecca's first report card since we started your on-line course. What an improvement!!!! Of course, as her parent, I don't think the report card reflects her enthusiasm or excitement as she is learning to read.
Now the report card. First, our school has changed from any grading to something they invented called 'Continuum Grading' in reading, writing , spelling, handwriting, listening skills, and speaking skills. The student is given letters in academic achievement and numbers for effort. I hope I can explain it.
Well, Becca went from the 1st quarter,where she was going to be labeled "learning disabled" to the 2nd quarter, where she is now called an Emergent Reader. She skipped right over the middle catagory of being classed 'Early emergent Reader"!! All that learning since the middle of Nov. when we started your courses!! Rebecca has made the same progress in the "Writing and Spelling Continuum."
In handwriting, Rebecca went from NI," Unsatisfactory, immediate improvement needed", to S, "Satisfactory & Consistent"!!!! I wish I could send you an example of her writing , when we first started , Rebecca did not correlate the letters and sounds at all. All letters were random and unshaped. Now, her letters are beautiful and fully formed. She skipped right over class I, which stands for "Fair, inconsistant , improving".
We have spent a lot of extra time on lessons 7 and 8, because the holidays and illness broke our routine. We will start lesson 9 today, and I look forward to our work. Thank you again for putting your classses on line. Just think where Rebecca would be in school, mislabeled by a teacher's shortcomings, instead of the bright, happy learner she is today. It would not be an exaggeration to say that you have changed Rebecca's whole life. God bless you for your generosity and caring spirits.
Thank you for helping us, Mom
I am a paraprofessional in a 2nd grade classroom. I assist the children who are having difficulty reading. I don't know if this will work for me as I do not have the Internet in the classroom. I am willing to try to see if this will help the children. I work with 5 children.
Hello, my name is Eric and I am a special needs teacher in the middle schools here in NC. I have many 6-8th grade students who are presently reading at no more than a 2d grade level. I need help!!! These are bright intelligent young people who are hungry to learn how to read and I feel totally inadequate...I am a first year teacher...but not your typical first year teacher as I am the "non-traditional" student (48 years old) All that aside...I am desperate to find a structured A-B-C plan to teach my students to read. I have one student in particular in mind that has requested after school help. I will begin your program with this student but would like to follow it for the other students in my class.
(Letter continues after a few days:)...Thanks for the input. I started some basic intro stuff this A.M. to get them ready. It dawned on me that I am not sure if my students know their alphabet....played a little game...found at least two students who are not sure. Once I familiarize myself with your material I will begin a more intense beginning. But until after Christmas I will assess where they are at. My student that I told you about is suspended (comes with the territory, unfortunately) but he will be back this week...I hope. Thanks so much for your input. I will write again later...thanks so much....see ya!)
Hello, My name is Nancy and I am interested in you program for my son, Jon, whom I homeschool for Kindergarten. He is 4 1/2 and wants to learn how to read so badly. The phonics program which was included in his curriculum is not enough. Could you help me??? I am willing to do anything you say to teach him. I don't have a college degree but feel I am intelligent and able to do it.
I am very excited about participating in your on-line phonics course. Thanks for accepting my application. I plan to start as soon as possible.
Our State Community College is implementing a new pilot program for ESL students. The program previously was heavily grammar based. Now the focus will be on getting the students ready for the workplace. They have to have the skills necessary to be able to communicate and be understood by their employer and fellow employees. I have been to just one training session, so I will have to see how your program could fit into our new curriculum. Each level has about 40 competencies that each student must achieve and understand before progressing to the next level. However, the texts that have been selected only cover about 75% of those competencies. The teacher must supply the remaining 25%.
Obviously, the student must be able to use the correct pronunciation. That is where I think I will be able to use what I will learn from your program. As the teacher, I can plan my lesson to meet the individual needs of my students, as long as I meet the 40 competencies. I have always used supplementary materials in my class. It keeps my teaching up to date and fresh. My students are more interested because it isn't the same old subject done over and over at each level.
Again, thanks for including me.
...I was just visiting your website when I suddenly got chills of joy. I have been searching for somethng like this for what seems to be eons. I am very interested in learning more about your free online phonics reading program.
I am a special education teacher working with students in grades 9-12. Many of my students have a lot of difficulty with even the most basic reading skills. I have tried other reading programs, but they're boring to the kids. The program will be used with several 14-19 year old special needs students at our area high school in New England, USA. (This is a rural public high school.) My name is Brent Fields, their teacher. I read about your program on the Web.
...I am an adult. I had been out of work for 2 years. I am living in Toronto, Ontario. Right now I am in computer training courses that offered by non-profit organization. The training will be finished at the end of March, 1998. My instructor advises me to improve my English skills in my spare time.
When I found your on-line free
English program I rejoiced! I am so happy about it. I want to
participate in your program. I will try my best to complete it.
Thank you once again.
I did a net search for On-Line
phonics and found your address.
My son William is 9 years old, in grade 4 at ... P.S. London,
Ontario, Canada. he is in a french emersion school. they have
started learning english this year. William is unable to grasp
written english. English is our first language at home.
My daughter, age 10, grade 5 at the same school shares the same problem.
Both children receive extra help at school, but progress is slow.
I am interested in receiving information on your program. I am an avid reader who was taught to read with phonics. I want to share the joy of reading with my children. As it stands now reading is a painful task for them.We are very excited to find this program.
...Mandy's school teaches whole language. I do not have a problem with the program in general, it's the lack of emphasizes on phonics. In order to "get through the curriculum" not enough time is spent on building a strong foundation in phonics. As a result, Mandy can not spell. Due to her embarrassment over this, she hates reading. And writing is a chore.
Ever since grade 2, Mandy has struggled. This year we've had her eyes and hearing tested. She wears glasses, but only needs to wear them for reading. The hearing tested normal, but because she seems to spell so phonically, i had a speech pathologist test her for processing problems. Mandy has a slight weakness in memory and processing, but nothing serious. I think her biggest problem now is low self-esteem because she can't keep up to her peers.
Mandy is a very willing student. Her teachers have all said that she's a determined person and is very co-operative. This has only come about in the last year. When she started grade 5, she began to give up as soon as things got too hard. Mandy knows that we will be starting this program today and that it will take effort on her part.
My 33 year old boyfriend has difficulty reading. He doesn't know the sounds of letters. I would like to dedicate myself to helping him through this program. I would like to get all changes & updates. See info you request on your site below
Hello, I'm a 31 year old father of four and I have problems reading and spelling. My childern have the same problem. Can you help? My reading problem holds me back in life. I don't want my childern to have the same problem.I don't understand my I can't read very will. If you can help please Email me. Thank you! God bless you!
I want sign my grandson up for the phonics classes. He isn't three yet, but he has been able to identify the capital and lower case alphabet since he was 18 months old. Phonics is the how I learned to read and spell. My children and my husband didn't learn with phonics. While my children can read and enjoy reading, none of them can spell well. My husband doesn't read well either.
I can't begin to tell you the difference your program is making with my grandson. As I mentioned before, he is HDLD so it is somewhat difficult. We can't spend as much time at one sitting as I would like, but I don't want to push him or take a chance on discouraging him. He is making progress. We sit sometimes only 15-20 minutes at a time. We try for 3-4 times a day and on weekends we manage to get more time in. It is a slow process, but he is retaining the lessons much better on a one-to-one basis than he does in school. His self-esteem is improving, and he asks a lot more questions than he ever did. As I said we are moving slowly, it may take quite a while but I have much time on my hands and nothing is more important to me than my grandchildrens happiness and to help them attain their goals whenever I can. God bless you both for the gift that you are giving to so many. I will write again in about a month to let you know how we are progressing. Thank you again.
Thank you for the quick response to our enrollment request! We were delighted! We are originally from ..., but have lived in ..., Texas, and Germany as a military family! We have lived in England for a year and a half now, and will be remaining here for another 2 1/2 years before moving on to another base in...Italy? Turkey? Maybe back to the States? We love traveling and learning of new cultures, so we will be happy (almost) anywhere!
You asked what curriculum we are using in our homeschool. Four years ago, when my son began homeschooling, we used Calvert. Two years ago, with more experience, information, and confidence under my belt, I began using Usborne books as the core of his curriculum and have been happy with them. Unfortunately, Usborne doesn't publish phonics books per se, and my son needs an intensive system of learning phonics. He was taught to sight read in the Department of Defense schools he attended in pre-K to 2nd, then labeled dyslexic, which I do not believe.
The past few years of homeschooling were "healing" years, and my son has begun recapturing his love of learning and feels he is quite intelligent and capable - ah, success! I am curious about this program and it's results with my son - it will be interesting to discover if it is possible to "retrain" him and to what degree. I do believe that his abilities and skills in reading will improve with this program and we are all excited about this wonderful opportunity for my son !
My other child, age 6, is not reading and I have not emphasized it in his curriculum. I am using "delayed formal education" with him, waiting until age 7 to begin teaching him reading intensively. However, he has shown an interest in learning the sounds of the letters and delights in trying to remember them, so it seems development in this area is stirring. He seems to be a visual learner, while my one son is an auditory learner, and I am not expecting reading to be difficult for the second child.
Good luck with your move to Las
Vegas! We will be starting the phonics program today and will be
happy to send frequent reports to you. We travel a great deal
around Europe whenever the opportunity arises, so don't worry if
a bit of time elapses between reports - unlike books, our
computer is difficult to take with us on these trips!
Thank you for your support and encouragement. Mom
I had received your email
about the enrollment in the on-line English course. However, I
don't have any body that can supervise my learning. Would that be
a solution for my situation? I am very eager to learn English. I
need to have a better English skill in order to get a job in
Canada.
Thank you and looking forward for your reply.
I am an adult. I had been out of
work for 2 years. I am living in Toronto, Ontario. Right now I am
in computer training courses that offered by non-profit
organization. The training will be finished at the end of March,
1998. My instructor advises me to improve my English skills in my
spare time. When I found out your on-line free English program, I
am so happy about it. I want to participate in your program. I
will try my best to complete it.
Thank you once again.
...I was searching the internet
for information to help me teach my children to read at home. I
am so excited about your website. My son Jackie is 5 years old
and wants to read right now and is frustrated because he can't
yet. He is getting there but too slowly for his liking. I showed
him your website and he immediately pulled up a chair and asked
me to find the part that he could start learning to read. He was
ready to start the first lesson right then and there!
> Dr. Gerald M. ..., D.C., B.Sc.(Hon.), M.Sc., C.H.N., C.C.R.D.,
C.N.M.
Thank you very much for pointing me to your www page for teaching phonics.
I am sorry that it took several days for me to make my visit there. One really big problem was a messed up hard disk on two computers. One had to be replaced with a used disk which isn't working yet. The other I had to fix myself very slowly.
Your program looks great. The problem is that my main shortage is people-teachers. There are only a few people in the large nation of Indonesia who have the same main goals which I have. Those of us who have the longest term goals must budget our time very carefully to reach the maximum number of people. I wish that I had teachers who could help me teach your lessons and many other lessons which I have developed myself but I don't have any at the moment.
Thank you again for pointing me to your excellent program. Please pray that I will get teachers who will help me teach it.
Linda (pseudo name) and I were delighted to have an opportunity to read through your various internet sites and learn a little of your journey... what an exciting time! It sounds like the years have been interesting and rewarding for you both. Your "Teach Someone You Love To Read" program is just wonderful. What a concept ... and what a delightful way to share a little of yourselves in a way that can make such an enormous difference to people around the world ... privately, quietly and effectively.
..... when I enrolled for college to take a degree.... I was turned down by the college because I could only read at an eighth grade level. I had been raised in LA, Calif., and I never had phonics in grades 1 to 12. The next day I found a grade school teacher who taught a class in phonics to anyone who would try to learn to read. Bottom line, three months later I finished my phonics course and retook the college's reading exam and scored on a 2nd year level college reading. Sincerely, .... PS. I have a nice BA degree...
......Thanks for the PHONICS program and your individual interest. Thanks again for your excellent program and we will do our best to pursue it to the finish. Thanks!.....
First of all, I think this is wonderful!! I teach students remedial students in first and second grade and am interested in what you have to offer on-line. ....Our school is set up with the internet but no one really utilizes it. We also have .....parent classes weekly. Some of our parents may be interested in this and could use the schools' internet. Once again I am thankful for people like you who are out there trying to help others become successful!!
Dear Phonics Friends, ....I was so happy to find your page on the internet tonight. I am a mother of three and homeschooling. My pre-kindergartener is chomping at the bit to read and is very teachable, yet we've had little success finding anything on the web for her to try out. Here is the information you requested. Please let me know what to do next. Sincerely,
I found your web page about teaching reading. I am very interested in phonics beng used to teach reading. I am not sure how your program works and what you are offering. Could you send me information. I am looking for a good reading program to be used to supplement public school children. I would like it to be available for parents who realize that the public school are failing and that they need to provide additional instruction.
.....I am interested in your phonics classes you have on the Internet. I am spanish speaking and I would like to enroll myself in your classes. Would you please let me know more about your phonics classes on the Internet.
......I think that it's wonderful that you and your wife had put this phonics program in the Internet for people like me to get the help that we need. I am 48 years old and reading has always been a struggle for me. Thank God now I will finally be able to learn to read the correct way.
