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Developer's Aims of the Program

Dr. Malik tried for many years several programs that purported to teach children to read and used the process of elimination on various methods, and strategies.  Many of the students that needed to benefit from these programs were mostly problem readers and underachievers.  The problem with learning to read for these students was simply not knowing how to apply word attack skills.  Over a span of many years Dr. Malik worked to develop a method for reading that involved rhyming vowel sounds and titled it Phonics, Rhythms, & Rhymes.  This Phonics reading program also evolved from a collection of lesson plans used in a middle school that eventually found its way into elementary classrooms.  Now, this program starts with the Test of Phonics Skills (ToPhS) which is a diagnostic test that measures known Phonics skills and resultingly places students on the appropriate level of instructions.

First, this Phonics program captivates students when they hear a story of characters that etch a lasting memory of short vowel sounds.  The rhythms and rhymes are included in the story to form a phoneme-grapheme linkage to which Phonics rules also apply.  This method not only teaches students to read by mastering decoding skills, it also teaches encoding skills which improve spelling and speaking.  Moreover, students learn articulation, listening skills, and how to successfully apply each.

Most Phonics resources rely heavily on memorization of numerous hard to remember question and answer rules.  Yet, when the student's memory fails there are no quick recovery clues to rely on that will break the letter-to-sound code, consequently the teacher and the student may become discouraged with the efficiency of the task.  However, with the rhythms and rhymes method the student refers to simple rime clues to break the letter-to-sound code which is easy and reliable.   Once this approach is mastered it becomes easier to decode unfamiliar words almost without failure.

Oftentimes, when it becomes necessary to accurately decode unfamiliar words many students fall short of knowing phonetic techniques.  Administrators, teachers, and parents are genuinely concerned about low reading scores, however low reading scores of under-achievers persist in spite of efforts to elevate them.  Nevertheless, there is continued support to perpetuate reading programs that give schools more-of-the-same, which is inadequate for the task of elevating reading skills to attainable levels.

Teachers are primarily trained to use the rote memory and whole language method of teaching reading.  Reading programs can and must incorporate Phonics to best prepare pre-readers for the reading challenges of literacy.  Yet, too few teachers take the time and the opportunity to incorporate Phonics into reading instructions, hence the genuine reason is simply that they were taught to read with a different method.

In other cases, teachers slightly touch upon the Phonics method, and merely to the extent of a few lessons when a program in Phonics requires more.  There is no justification for this slight in classrooms where other methods are not doing the job adequately.  Especially, when there are students failing, not only reading but other subjects, because of inadequate reading skills.

In any case, the elements of phonemic awareness and Phonics must be taught to students with methods they can best understand, otherwise the child has not been given the best possible opportunity to learn to read. Thus, the ability to read is the single most basic skill needed for student advancement and survival in the field of work. This program is wrought with extensive research and is the basis of Phonics, Rhythms, and Rhymes which will give children a better chance to advance and survive.

mrp@PhonicsRhythmsRhymes

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