Product Description

* Is your child halfway through first grade and still unable to read?
* Is your preschooler bored with coloring and ready for reading?
* Are you worried that your child will become lost in overcrowded classrooms?
* Did you know that early readers hold an advantage over their peers throughout school?
* Do you want to help your child read, but are afraid you'll do something wrong?

SRAs DISTAR® is the most successful beginning reading program available to schools across the country. Research has proven that children taught by the DISTAR® method outperform their peers who receive instruction from other programs. Now for the first time, this program has been adapted for parent and child to use at home. Teach Your Child to Read in 100 Easy Lessons is a complete, step-by-step program that shows patents simply and clearly how to teach their children to read.

Twenty minutes a day is all you need, and within 100 teaching days your child will be reading on a solid second-grade reading level. It's a sensible, easy-to-follow, and enjoyable way to help your child gain the essential skills of reading. Everything you need is here -- no paste, no scissors, no flash cards, no complicated directions -- just you and your child learning together. One hundred lessons, fully illustrated and color-coded for clarity, give your child the basic and more advanced skills needed to become a good reader.

Teach Your Child to Read in 100 Easy Lessons will bring you and your child closer together, while giving your child the reading skills needed now, for a better chance at tomorrow.

Product Details

• Amazon Sales Rank: #465 in Books
• Published on: 1986-06-15
• Original language: English
• Number of items: 1
• Binding: Paperback
• 395 pages

About the Author
Siegfried Engelmann is a professor of education at the University of Oregon, and has written many books on teaching, including Give Your Child a Superior Mind. He is the originator of Direct Instruction, the most successful approach to teaching, and he has developed more than thirty direct instruction programs. He has provided teaching demonstrations with a wide range of children -- consistently showing that they could learn much more than had been achieved with traditional teaching.

Excerpt. © Reprinted by permission. All rights reserved.

Chapter 1

LESSON 1

TASK 1 SOUNDS INTRODUCTION

1. (Point to m)I'm going to touch under this sound and say the sound. (Touch first ball of arrow. Move quickly to second ball. Hold two seconds.) mmmmmm. (Release point.)

2. Your turn to say the sound when I touch under it. (Touch first ball.)Get ready. (Move quickly to second ball. Hold.) "mmmmmm."

(To correct child saying a wrong sound or not responding:) The sound is mmmmmm. (Repeat step 2.)

3. (Touch first ball.)Again. Get ready. (Move quickly to second ball. Hold.) "mmmmmm." (Repeat three more times.)

4. (Point to s.)I'm going to touch under this sound and say the sound. (Touch first ball of arrow. Move quickly to second ball. Hold.) ssssss. (Release point.)

5. Your turn to say the sound when I touch under it. (Touch first ball.)Get ready. (Move quickly to second ball. Hold.) "ssssss."

(To correct child saying a wrong sound or not responding:) The sound is ssssss. (Repeat step 5.)

6. (Touch first ball.)Again. Get ready. (Move quickly to second ball. Hold.) "ssssss." (Repeat three more times.)

TASK 2 SAY IT FAST

1. Let's play say-it-fast. My turn: motor (pause) boat. (Pause.) Say it fast. motorboat.

2. Your turn. Wait until I tell you to say it fast. motor (pause) boat. (Pause.) Say it fast. "motorboat." (Repeat step 2 until firm.)

(To correct child saying word slowly -- for example, "motor [pause] boat":) You didn't say it fast. Here's saying it fast: motorboat. Say that. "motorboat." Now let's do that part again. (Repeat step 2.)

3. New word. Listen: ice (pause) cream. (Pause.) Say it fast. "icecream."

4. New word. Listen: sis (pause) ter. (Pause.) Say it fast. "sister."

5. New word. Listen: ham (pause) burger. (Pause.) Say it fast. "hamburger."

6. New word. Listen: mmmeee. (Pause.)Say it fast. "me."

7. New word. Listen: iiifff. (Pause.)Say it fast. "if."

8. (Repeat any words child had trouble with.)

TASK 3 SAY THE SOUNDS

1. I'm going to say some words slowly, without stopping. Then you'll say them with me.

2. First I'll say am slowly. Listen: aaammm. Now I'll say me slowly. Listen: mmmeee. Now I'll say in slowly. Listen: iiinnn. Now I'll say she slowly. Listen: shshsheee.

3. Now it's your turn to say the words slowly with me. Take a deep breath and we'Il say aaammm. Get ready. "aaammm."

(To correct if child stops between sounds -- for example, "aaa [pause] mmm":) Don't stop. Listen. (Don't pause between sounds a and m as you say aaammm.) Take a deep breath and we'll say aaammm. Get ready. "aaammm." (Repeat until child responds with you.)

4. Now we'll say iiinnn. Get ready. "iiinnn." Now we'll say ooonnn. Get ready. "ooonnn."

5. Your turn to say words slowly by yourself. Say aaammm. Get ready. "aaammm." Say iiifff. Get ready. "iiifff." Say mmmeee. Get ready. "mmmeee." Good saying the words slowly.

TASK 4 SOUNDS REVIEW

1. Let's do the sounds again. See if you remember them. (Touch first ball for m,) Get ready. (Quickly move to second ball. Hold.) "mmmmmm."

2. (Touch first ball for s.) Get ready. (Quickly move to second ball. Hold.) "ssssss."

TASK 5 SAY IT FAST

1. Let's play say-it-fast again. Listen: motor (pause) cycle. Say it fast. "motorcycle."

2. mmmeee. (Pause.) Say it fast. "me." iiifff. (Pause.) Say it fast. "if." shshsheee. (Pause.) Say it fast. "she."

TASK 6 SOUNDS WRITING

(Note: Refer to each symbol by its sound, not by its letter name. Make horizontal rules on paper or a chalkboard about two inches apart. Separate writing spaces by spaces about one inch apart. Optionally, divide writing spaces in half with a dotted line:-----.)

1. See chart on page 24 for steps in writing m and s.) You're going to write the sounds that I write. You're going to write a sound on each line. I'll show you how to make each sound. Then you'll write each sound. Here's the first sound you're going to write.

2. Here's how you make mmm. Watch. (Make m at the beginning of first line. Start with a vertical line:

Then add the humps:

(Point to m.) What sound? "mmm." First you're going to trace the mmm that I made. Then you're going to make more of them on the line.

3. (Help child trace sound two or three times. Child is then to make three to five m's on top line. Help child if necessary. For each acceptable letter child makes, say:) Good writing mmm.

4. Here's how to make sss. Watch. (Make s at beginning of second line. Point to s.) What sound? "sss."

5. First you're going to trace the sss that I made. Then you're going to make more of them on the line. (Help child trace sound two or three times. Child is then to make three to five s's on second line. Help child if necessary. For each acceptable letter child makes, say:) Good writing sss.

LESSON 2

TASK 1 SOUNDS REVIEW

1. (Point to m.) I'm going to touch under this sound and say the sound. (Touch first ball of arrow. Move quickly to second ball. Hold two seconds.) mmmmmm. (Release point.)

2. Your turn to say the sound when I touch under it. (Touch first ball.) Get ready. (Move quickly to second ball. Hold.) "mmmmmm."

(To correct child saying a wrong sound or not responding:) The sound is mmmmmm. (Repeat step 2.)

3. (Touch first ball.) Again. Get ready. (Move quickly to second ball. Hold.) "mmmmmm." (Repeat three more times.)

Copyright © 1983 by Siegfried Engelmann

Customer Reviews

Neglects Basic Rules
This book came highly recommended and so we got it for our 3 year old girl. We are 2/3 of the way through it and she's reading quite well when she's motivated(When the grandparents are over!). The book does well introducing new sounds. Overall the book has done really well but it neglects teaching rules of grammar. For instance, it introduces the word "said" and has them sound it out, but then tells them you just say it differently without explaining why. This can be confusing as they have the child sound everything out. Also, it doesn't teach when and why to use long vowels compared to short vowel sounds as in the word "like". It just makes the e smaller so that they don't pronounce it. For quick learning to read, this book is definitely helpful and concise, but the verdict is out as to whether we will have to reteach many basics that are not covered.

Worked well for one child, not the other
MY EXPERIENCE
After using this method on one of my children I was singing its praises. My son and I got to about lesson 50 and he was off on his own. We used the remaining lessons as practice. So, I pulled it out with my daughter...3 different times. The first two she wasn't ready. The third time she was. However, she never "took off on her own" and relied exclusively on the book's instructions throughout. (See below for the problem we had with that.) We worked to about lesson 70, and then switched to another method, another phonics based program, and she has accelerated at a greater rate since that switch.

MY LIKES
The lessons are short, taking 5-10 minutes in the beginning, and 15-20 by the end. (We skipped the writing component of each lesson entirely.) Sometimes we would split the latter lessons into two since 20 minutes seemed to be a bit long for intense concentration for my kids. I love that with every lesson comprehension is checked. I knew they comprehended their reading. This book operates on sounding words out, and taught proper technique in doing so - in fact the beginning lessons are devoted almost completely to developing this technique. This has been an invaluable tool for my kids. I also personally liked that the lessons were scripted. That was very helpful to me.

MY DISLIKES
This book is replete with editing errors! Not misspellings, but markings primarily. I would say a good 50% of lessons have at least 1 edit error to some degree or another. Also, while sounding out words is a worthwhile technique, this method does not distinguish phonemes to the degree I personally wanted, which created difficulty for us in sounding out. For example, for `ow', the book has them sound out the letters separately (`o'-`w') as opposed to teaching `ow' together, which has a different sound. To be fair, this book does teach some phoneme combinations (e.g. `sh', `ch', `er'). I just wished for more.

IN SUMMARY
This is an inexpensive and fast method that many have had great success with. I recommend at least a try with this method, but followed up with a supplemental phonics program for a solid foundation. (Keep in mind, with this recommendation that I am a phonics advocate.) My last recommendation is to be willing to skip the writing component of each lesson if need be. In my experience, my kids were ready to start reading before they had the fine motor skills necessary to write.

Mom of 4 year old
When my son started asking what letter does this word or that word start with all day we decided he really just wanted to learn to read, so I found this book. I am now teaching my[...]to read (and write). The thing I didn't expect was that my [...] daughter would start sounding out letters and words in the grocery store!!!