Reviews for Phonics from A to Z: A Practical Guide

The average rating for Phonics from A to Z: A Practical Guide based on 2 reviews is 4 stars.

Review # 1 was written on 2018-04-23 00:00:00 Annie Gentry This book was fascinating to me. In first grade a good reader reads 1900 words a week while a bad reader only reads 16! (Don't quote me on that, but it is something to that effect). I'm sure this book was written just for new teachers although it is a very accessible book and didn't feel very academic. As someone who didn't learn phonics as a kid and hardly learned to read at all in school this book answered so many questions I've had for a long time. There were a ton of things I didn't know, and too much to remember from just one reading. There were tidbits on just about every letter, a break down of the likely hood a "rule" is correct, and lists and list of words for kids. It was easy to get the big picture on how kids should learn to read and how to evaluate and help them along (at least in theory). I only have one kid, who has not shown any trouble with reading, so I pretty much read it for myself. Even so I would recommend it to a curious parent to check it out of the library as there are some good games like the "word ladder" by Timothy Rasinski which is a fun little puzzle covering so many of the skills kids need to practice. And not that I imaging many people would make this mistake, but the author mentions that reading the same text multiple times is good for a number of reasons, which I did not know. I had been trying to find new books all the time because my kid would memorize stories the first time we read them. His preschool teacher had told me he could read, but in my mind I thought, oh she doesn't know how many of those stories he can tell without the book. I didn't want to read the same thing with him because I didn't think he could learn to read if he had already memorized a book. Now I feel kind of like a jerk as it seems obvious that is a really good way to learn as something becomes more and more familiar. Practice makes perfect, right?

Review # 2 was written on 2013-07-10 00:00:00 Benoit Legare Phonics A-Z gives a summary of phonics and teaches the basics of phonics awareness. It gives practical suggestions for phonics lessons and gives special instruction for struggling readers and ELL students. There are ready to use lesson plans, games and learning center ideas. For those teachers that work with struggling readers, this book helps to explain the reasons behind our phonics rules which in turn made it easier for me to explain why letters make the sounds they do in a word. The book is geared toward elementary, but I think all teachers could benefit from the ideas in this book.