authorHOUSETM
Phonics, Rhythms, and Rhymes
Where Phonics Comes Alive in the Classroom . . .
TEN KEY BENEFITS OF THIS PROGRAM
1 . . . an interesting program for kids.  Instantly, students become interested upon hearing a fable with characters that etch lasting memories of short vowel sounds.  Enlightened teachers from around the world are using this program.
2 . . . a research supported and Rhythm & Rhyme method for mastery that makes it near effortless to decode unfamiliar words.  First, with the al's egg is off us fable, then the Rhythm & Rhyme method where students refer to simple rhyming clues that make decoding easy.
3 . . . detailed lesson plans, activities, and answers provided on individual pages.  Phonics, Rhythms, and Rhymes is comprised of Levels K, A, B, C, and I with approximately 3000 pages combined.  The teacher's guides are easy to use with the accompanying texts/ workbooks.  The corresponding pages make it uncomplicated for teachers to teach, students to practice, read, and spell.
4 . . . compatible with critteria referenced tests being used in schools across the nation.  Many standardized tests assess children on phonics skills:  Our program helps students for this and other aspects of testing.
5 . . . uniquely divided segments allow teachers to take a few minutes of a class period, or an entire class period to teach decoding skills.  Explicit phonics must be an intricate part of an overall reading program in elementary, and a program for those who have failed reading regardless of their grade level.
6 . . . developing excellent readers of regular education students, learning disabilities, slow readers, problem readers, non-readers, and bilinguals regardless of age.  This comprehensive tried and tested effort will increase reading scores tremendously.
7 . . . utilizing the modality methods that match learners with their strengths.  Research supports that using rhythms and rhymes as a part of an overall method of teaching can creatively address all types of learners.
8 . . . our systematic Phonics approach of teaching reading has for years taken its proper place beside adopted texts.  This program achieves the desired outcomes that the curriculum expects by learning to read quick, easy, and exciting. Moreover, it fits well into our classroom standards for students' pre-testing, assessments, and teacher evaluations.
9 . . . an escape into a world where children can enjoy learning to read, and communicate with sets of simple understandable rules. One such objective is actualized with our fable, Al's egg is off us which will assist teachers tremendously in helping highlight a student's strengths. The solutions are simple, once weaknesses are transformed into strengths, thus students can get out of the `hole and learn their way.
10 . . . language that parents will understand, although the program is written principally for teachers.  Thus, virtually any teacher or parent can take this reading program and teach a child to read, comprehend, and understand from the beginning to the end.
Mastering all of the Reading objectives throughout this Reading Program will enable the student to reach these outcomes:
1.         Given basic words in isolation and in context, the student will read the word silently and aloud.      
2.         Given unknown and unfamiliar words in isolation and in context the student will utilize word attack skills silently and orally to decode vowels, consonants, blends, digraphs, trigraphs, diphthongs, monosyllable and multi-syllable words.
3.         Given passages to read orally, the student will demonstrate the ability to utilize word attack skills when reading words in context materials or words presented in isolation.
4.         Given passages to read orally, the student will demonstrate expression and fluency appropriate to the reading material requested.
5.         Given passages to read at the student's current instructional reading level, the student will answer comprehension questions factually, inferentially; by reading the answers orally, silently, and by answering orally and in writing.
6.         Given words in isolation and in context at the student's instructional level, the student will demonstrate the ability to utilize word analyses skills.
7.         Given vocabulary words at the student's instructional level, the student will demonstrate the ability to use words appropriately in sentences orally and in writing.
8.         Given spelling words that the student can read, he/she will spell them correctly in list tests, sentence tests, and application of learned words in written assignments.
Research establishes two facts about children's phonological skills beyond any doubt.  First, specific skills develop innately in children as they grow.  They learn to isolate and detect, normally from an early age relatively large units, such as syllables and rhymes.  It is easy to suggest plausible reasons for this connection. Primarily, alphabetic letters represent the phonemes in words.  The development of sensitivities to rhymes make reading easy.  Integrating rhythms and syncopated responses refine reading and make Phonics, Rhythms, & Rhymes fun!
The objective of teaching students to read using the phonics approach is to build decoding skills, which are vital in deciphering unknown words.  Assessments that require recall of sight words measure dissimilar skills than those required to decode unknown words.  Therefore, tests that measure sight word recall skills and tests that measure word analysis skills must be separate.  Tests that assess both skills at the same time are inadequate to rely on for specifically poignant data, because of the differences in objectives.  Tests that assess both skills simultaneously are useful, however inadequate for determining a student's placement in a curriculum that requires decoding skills.  Inaccurate analysis and diagnosis of skills needed in basic reading can lead to inefficient and fragmentary skills in a literacy program.  
A Phonics assessment that measures Phonics skills through recognition, identification, and articulation of letter sounds, blends, and words is a necessity. This test must be primarily used to place a student at a skill level in the scope and sequence of a literacy program.  This instrument can be exercised as a resource for testing, not only, decoding (enunciation), but encoding (spelling) phonics skills.  In contrast, many criterion referenced reading tests incorporate sight words memorization for determining grade placement.  While ToPhS utilize only phonetically spelled words to inventory decoding skills for sequential growth.  The grade level skills in this test have been criterion-referenced by research of the most recently published texts of several widely used tests and Phonics programs combined.  The aim of this reading inventory of basic skills is primarily for use in elementary, however middle and high school underachievers may benefit from the use of this Test of Phonics Skills.
mrp@phonicsrhythmsrhymes.com
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