Volume 3, Issue 1
$225 billion is the estimated annual cost of low literacy skills in the form of welfare payments, crime, job incompetence, lost taxes, and remedial education. (American Library Association)
$72 billion is the estimated annual cost of low literacy skills in the form of longer hospital stays, emergency room visits, increased doctor visits, and increased medication. (National Academy on an Aging Society)
65% of adult prisoners are functionally illiterate. (Correctional Education Association)
49th -- The rank of the United States among the 156 United Nation member countries in its rate of literacy. (United Nations)
46% of American adults cannot understand the label on their prescription medicine. (Journal of American Medical Association)
14% of all individuals have a learning disability. (Learning Disabilities Association)
Discover Intensive Phonics will teach students of any age HOW to read.
Did you know that there are hundreds of private, community and corporate foundations around the country just waiting to give grant money to the right facility? Locate the money that is out there waiting for you. Visit our web site www.readinghorizons.com for state-specific grants.
You can also check out the following sites:
Need help writing a grant? These sites may help:
First of all, a lot depends on the class you have. If the students have had the opportunity to be taught Discover Intensive Phonics in kindergarten, they will come into your class with a good working knowledge of the name, sound and formation of the alphabet, and blends. They should also be able to write any three-letter word, most blend words, and read most controlled reading to that point.
On the other hand, you may have a class where the kindergarten did not bring students to this level, so it will be your job to teach the material mentioned above. This will necessitate more time, of course. It is the goal for a first grade class to complete the course through the two decoding skills. If you have not received a copy of the Kindergarten and/or First Grade Time Line, just give HEC a call at 800-333-0054, and a copy of that information will be sent to you. These time lines were prepared by a kindergarten and a first grade teacher, each of whom have taught Discover Intensive Phonics for over five years. Their experience and suggested time line is very valuable and should be of significant help.
Linda Eversole Nationally Certified Trainer Discover Intensive Phonics for Yourself
(If you have any questions you would like answered by one of our certified trainers, please e-mail HEC at info@readinghorizons.com.)
We recently added a "Customer Comments" section to our web page (www.readinghorizons.com). We would like to encourage those who use Discover Intensive Phonics materials to give us feedback. Customer input has been a driving force for change and improvement of our products over the last 18 years. Please take the opportunity to share your experience and ideas.
We are pleased to announce the release of a new version of our Windows Elementary Discover Intensive Phonics for Yourself courseware (WE2.0). The courseware lessons in version WE2.0 still mirror the skills taught by the Discover Intensive Phonics reading system. The management system component, however, has been completely re-designed. It is now possible for administrators to export and import individual students or groups. More student data is displayed on student progress reports. There are now two alternatives for students who are already familiar with the alphabet. When setting up a student record the administrator can select the “Skip ABC” button, which will override the letter formation component of the alphabet lessons (2-29); or, the student can run an “Abbreviated” course, which condenses the 28 alphabet lessons into just two lessons. Users still have the option to run a pre- and post-test for students and the system automatically administers four interim tests. WE2.0 has been designed to run on Windows 95, 98, NT, 2000, ME or XP. Please call for more details and to request a free demonstration CD-ROM.
President George W. Bush’s "No Child Left Behind Act of 2001" appropriates federal funding to improve America’s public schools. A total of $900 million has been appropriated for FY 2002 for the Reading First program and more is promised in upcoming years.
Reading First is designed to help every child in every state become a successful reader. Reading First acknowledges that high quality reading instruction is a national goal, but places responsibility on the local level. Every state has the potential to receive Reading First grants. To be eligible, reading programs must systematically and explicitly teach five key early reading skills. The method must be founded on scientifically based reading research. The following five skills prove how the Discover Intensive Phonics for Yourself approach meets these requirements.
The ability to hear, identify and work with individual sounds or phonemes in spoken words. The Discover Intensive Phonics for Yourself reading system utilizes a unique marking system which allows students to identify vowels, vowel sounds, digraphs, and so forth, within whole words. Marking the words strengthens the visual ability to identify patterns. A “blending” and “sliding” process where the consonant sound is joined with the vowels helps students pronounce words smoothly, left to right.
The relationship between letters of written language and the sound of spoken language. Discover Intensive Phonics for Yourself offers a systematic, explicit phonics method in which students are taught to read and spell by learning the 42 sounds of the alphabet, 5 phonetic skills and a 2-step skill for decoding multi-syllable words. Discover Intensive Phonics for Yourself teaches synthetic phonics in a sequential and cumulative manner.
The capacity to read text accurately and quickly. Discover Intensive Phonics for Yourself provides a foundation of sounds and skills that will give students the knowledge to read, spell, and write. The secret is daily practice, drill, and review. The conclusion is that students can use the 42 sounds of the alphabet, 5 phonetic skills, and decoding system with great expertise, not only in language arts, but in all subject matter.
The words students must know to communicate effectively. Discover Intensive Phonics for Yourself is language based. It supports the transfer of phonics knowledge to all language arts: spelling, listening, writing and vocabulary development. Vocabulary development begins with the formation of the first three-letter words and continues throughout the course.
The ability to understand and gain meaning from what has been read. Discover Intensive Phonics for Yourself teaches the sounds of the alphabet, an easy decoding system for attacking unknown words and helps improve listening skills. Listening is the beginning of understanding and understanding what you read is comprehension. Discover Intensive Phonics for Yourself teaches the phonic elements in a logical order, simple to complex. The sound-symbol unit is then read and spelled in words; those words, in turn, are couched in sentences; the sentences, in turn, are placed in simple stories.
President Bush is committed to “No Child Left Behind.” According to the Department of Education, the Reading First application will be published in the Federal Register around April 1, 2002. The expert panel review process will begin May 1, 2002. Applications received before June 12, 2002 will be reviewed by June 28, 2002. Applications received after June 12, 2002 will be reviewed on a rolling basis.
Discover Intensive Phonics for Yourself will be invaluable in helping you to motivate and enthuse students while teaching them the most important skill they need to succeed in life...the ability to READ! We provide a complete package of classroom materials, interactive computer courseware, and teacher training workshops. Discover Intensive Phonics for Yourself will leave no child behind. The approach has been proven to work with all children including learning disabled, low level readers, and dyslexic students. Start planning for your Reading First grants now and don’t forget to include the Discover Intensive Phonics for Yourself reading approach in your plans to teach all children to read by grade 3.
The past is history, the future a mystery, and today is a gift. That is why it is called the present.
The Reading Horizons-Discover Intensive Phonics computer courseware has been helpful to my students. Having the ability to hear the correct pronunciation of each sound, slide, blend and finally the whole word is of great value to myself as a teacher as well as to the student. This allows me to work with or monitor the progress of other students at the same time. Another benefit is detailed but simple explanations of the rules so that the student doesn’t just accept that a word sounds or is spelled a particular way, but learns the reason why.
-Contributed by Cheryl Ward Literacy/ESL Instructor Macclenny, Florida
Klamath Adult Learning Center is the result of a collaborative agreement between two school districts and our local community college. We now have all ESL (adult and teen) learners, all beginning adult readers, and are moving toward placing some teen high school completion students in Reading Horizons. We serve approximately 1,300 students each year. You are helping us! Thank you for a superior product. Thank you for your customer service and for your newsletter. My staff and I enjoy reading about success.
-Contributed by Beverly Prescott Director of Adult Education Klamath Adult Learning Center
As a recently retired principal, I want to share a success that I had with Intensive Phonics. We used Intensive Phonics in our ESL program. One of our students worked in a large, very prestigious hotel. He spoke no English when he started the class. Four months later, he responded to his supervisor, “You are absolutely correct.” She called my office to see what program we were using, and asked if I could bring the instructor and Intensive Phonics to the hotel to teach other non-English speaking employees.
-Contributed by Sue Kugel Newark, Delaware
I want to let you know how wonderful the learning program, Discover Intensive Phonics for Yourself is. Your program was recommended by the principal at my childrens' school a couple of years ago. Well, you can’t imagine the improvement that my children and I have had. Last year, my son Eric went up two grade levels in his reading. My daughter Samantha has a B+ in her spelling this year. I’m a very proud parent! I love the Discover Intensive Phonics for Yourself CD program. I will continue to recommend it to my home school friends.
-Contributed by Lethe Torgerson Underwood, Minnesota
Let me introduce myself! I am a home-schooling mother with nine children in various grades from kindergarten to twelfth grade. I have used many phonics programs over the years before I chose Discover Intensive Phonics as my very favorite. Professional in its scope and sequence, it proceeds clearly without any clutter. This program has a logical order to it without any obscure rules for rarely used words. Each level is practiced perfectly before progressing to the next with a sensible amount of review built in along the way. Facilitating the uniqueness of my children, this special system uses a variety of teaching modes covering all the different learning styles. Using this superior phonics program, they have become excellent readers!
Now for the best part! The HEC computer software program incorporates perfectly the essence of and procedures in the original Discover Intensive Phonics. In our home school, this program is like having another phonics teacher who never tires and is always patient and kind. It wonderfully reinforces what I am teaching. The female voice used for the program is sweet, pleasant, and encouraging. The children find the program interesting and easy to use with each lesson the perfect length for young attention spans. Reading Horizons' Elementary software program has greatly improved our home school and I would heartily recommend this valuable tool.
-Contributed by Karen Petitmermet Molalla, Oregon
A ten-hour workshop will be conducted March 29-30, 2002 for one certification credit through the Heritage Institute / Antioch University. This workshop will be held at Totem Falls Elementary School in the Snohomish School District. It is open to any teachers in the area. The cost is $105.00. Anyone interested should contact Becky Marks by phone (425) 337-4171 or by e-mail becky.marks@sno.wednet.edu.