Phonics Road

I've had such mixed emotions about Phonics Road, a program we were sent to review from Schola Publications. My final emotion is high praise, but it took some effort to get there. This is not a program you enter into lightly.

The Phonics Road to Spelling and Reading approaches reading with an analogy of a Foreman and a beginning Apprentice. It isn't anything remotely akin to a gimmick, it is an educational philosophy...one that I agree with wholeheartedly. It is firmly rooted in the design of a classical education. Stage by stage, the student is introduced to concepts as he develops his skills and adds more tools to his toolbox.

The introduction in the Foreman's binder is 16 pages well worth reading. It begins with a history of language itself, beginning in 55 bc. I have read these details before, but Barbara Beers shares it so admirably. It was a fascinating read. I have spent years studying the classical model and Ms. Beers expressed so succinctly, from just pages 8-10, all that I desire in an education.

The recommended method of carrying out these philosophies was not nearly so easy to adopt. Once done, I see the advantage, but it was a stretch for me to get there. The program is laid out well, but most of the instruction is through a series of 10 DVD's, to be watched before each lesson. I am not an auditory learner. I am, however, very tired by the end of the day, when I have free time to watch training videos. The discs are training sessions with Barbara Beers, dressed professionally, standing in front of a chalkboard and instructing teachers in each week's lessons. I fell asleep every. single. time.

I'm torn on this. I think it really is necessary to see and hear the lessons. However, I really need to be able to read those same instructions later, perhaps as a refresher before each day's lesson. I appreciate the way Saxon gives the teachers the words to say and probable responses from students in their early math instructor guides. I would LOVE to see that added to this program. But, it isn't terribly complicated and I was able to do fine without having written instructions.

My next snag was in sharing it with Honor. The Lesson Plan schedules the student to learn 3 - 4 letters per day for the first two weeks and then 3 - 4 vowel teams and letter combinations for the 3rd and 4th week. Honor knew her letters and basic sounds quite well before starting. She could write all of her capital letters. She was reading beginner readers quite happily. But we started over with this new method of teaching the student to write the lowercase letter as they learn the various sounds each letter can make. On day one, we introduced lowercase 'a' and the idea that it has more than just its short sound. It has three sounds. It says 'ah'? But I thought "o" said 'ah'??? We also taught c, which says /k/ and /c/, the letter d (lowercase d that was frequently confused for 'b',) and lowercase 'f'. Lowercase 'f' had both of us in tears. But the book comes with an Ideas and Activities page with lots of great ways to practice letter formation (without tears.) We spent a full week learning the letters recommended for day 1. In fact, we spent nearly a week on every lesson scheduled for the first four weeks. Honor is an excellent artist and a good beginning reader, but her hands just did not seem to be ready to carefully form those letters. Also, all these new sounds were a brand new concept to her and a brand new way of teaching reading for me. We persevered patiently though and, while it did take a lot longer than recommended in the book, it was well worth it.

After those first four weeks, each week is spent in a brief spelling test and collecting new rules and tools in the student's binder. These flew quickly and we even did several lessons a day sometimes. Once the foundation was laid, everything else seemed to fall into place.

Now, let me explain why I think it was worth the extra effort. At first, I spent a lot of time shaking my head and wondering how I could give it anything but a negative review. It just did not seem natural to me to confuse a child with so many facts. Shouldn't they be shared in layers? Then Sarah started piping up and sharing the many sounds of the letter "o". My three year old was picking it up alongside her sister by accident. Neither of the girls were confused. It wasn't too much for them. And then it occurred to me: how much had I taught and then untaught my boys? By the time we sat down for handwriting lessons, they had already adopted their own unique methods for putting pen to paper and it wasn't very pretty. We had some bad habits to break. If I had started formation as we started with sounds, there would have been no need for formal handwriting programs. And the sounds that we taught and then retaught, the frustrations I could have saved them! The spelling rules we kept giving exceptions for!

My oldest was especially frustrated because he is a stickler for those rules. It took him two years to get to the reading level Honor is at now. We started with the short vowel sounds. We did the many beginner readers full of 3-letter words. But there aren't many books that stick to those narrow rules of basic beginner sounds. It wasn't long before we had to throw those long sounds out there. "What? Now it says its name, too???" And then, looking utterly betrayed, came the day he ran into the word "want". "So now you're telling me it has a third sound???" Can you imagine how this looks to a kid? Before he can quite grasp one concept, he is convinced that he doesn't really know much about it at all - that there potentially thousands of sounds (might as well be to a child) that he doesn't know and that he might never figure it all out. It's overwhelming and frustrating.....like wandering around in a dark gymnasium with your reference point moving with you.

Breaking things down, rule by rule, gives concrete knowledge to the child. I'm now convinced this method, which I now know to be called the Orton Gillingham Approach, is the way to go. And this perfectly follows the method of teaching in All About Spelling that I raved about for the boys' spelling program.

The Level One set comes with everything you need:
A Foreman’s Construction Guide, in a heavy-duty binder, which includes:
Brief History of English
Plot Plan (DVD instructions)
Blueprints (lesson plans)
Rule Tunes (easy little songs to help remember those rules)
Building Codes (Answer Key)
Tool Drill Cards (large letters and letter teams on one side, details on sounds and formation on back)

And an Apprentice’s Building Manual, also in quality binding containing:
Blueprints (primary-lined sheets for spelling tests)
Building Codes (worksheets for accumulation of rules for the student to record)
Composition (primary-lined sheets for the student's sentences)
First Readers (for the students to read and then illustrate themselves)
Handy Dandy Clipboard (comes with transparency sheet to cover worksheets for practice)
Student Tool Cards (smaller flashcards)
Pencils & Transparency Pens

The cost for the entire kit is $199, which might seem steep. But it is a very thorough program, is completely reusable, and covers Spelling, Writing, Reading, Grammar, and Composition! and I had planned to teach reading to Honor and then graduate into First Language Lessons. This would be followed by Rod and Staff Grammar 3. But, looking ahead in the Phonics Road, I'm seeing some things that will be review in R&S 3. I'm anxious to see where things go from here.

For more thoughts on this program, be sure to check out the TOS crew.

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