Beginning or Struggling Reader Workshop: Lesson 1

Phonics: Anyone who teaches reading knows that children need phonics in order to be able to learn to read.

•What is phonics? I like to think of phonics as the “magic” of reading. When you are teaching phonics, you are teaching children the letters and sounds and how words are put together:

This is the letter A. The letter A says “Aaaaah” or A

Phonics is not just learning the 26 letters and all of the sounds the letters make. It is also teaching students to hear the sounds in each word so that they can write and read.

Let’s pretend that a child is looking at a page with words on it. All of these words are like a written code (or secret language). When a child knows and understands phonics, they understand the code.

•In summary: Phonics is learning the relationship between letters and sounds and being able to apply that knowledge to reading and writing familiar and unfamiliar words.So, let’s do an example: The word “Cat” •Cat has 3 letters and 3 sounds… c/a/t

•Let’s look at the word “kick” – Kick has 3 sounds but 4 letters: k/i/ck

•In the English language there are 44 sounds (phonemes)

When teaching reading, you will teach all of these sounds. When you are starting with a beginning reader, you start with the easier sounds (like s, t, p) and then as your reader understands and can read and write those letters, you teach the “harder sounds” (digraphs, blends) like “th, sh, ch”

So, how do you get started?

The first thing you are going to want to do is to test your little reader. Whether you have a beginning or struggling reader, you will want to know what your reader knows (or doesn’t know)

Homework assignment: Do the phonics assessment (linked here) – Do not assume you know what your student knows or does not know! This is an important step! I want you to test your reader using the test. When you are done with the test, feel free to take a picture and send it back to me here, or just drop me a note and let me know how your little reader did. On Friday we will see how we can put all the pieces together to help your reader to read confidently and have a love for learning.

Want to see the other lessons in the workshop?
1) Phonics, (Here is a link for the phonics lesson)
2) Sight Words (Here is a link for the sight word lesson)
3) Confidence, (Here is a link for the confidence lesson)
4) Fluency. (Here is a link for the fluency lesson)
5) Comprehension (How to help teach your little reader – Here is a link for the comprehension lesson)

About the Authors:
Madreen Karle is a master first grade reading teacher with over 30 years of classroom experience. She taught reading in a special needs and English as a Second Language classroom. After retiring she wrote a reading program to help others learn how to teach reading. She is a trusted educator and author of 5 books to help teach children to read and write. In addition to her books, she is a mentor for 3 websites that give reading teacher tips (Mrs. Karle’s Sight and Sound Reading, Mrs. Karle’s Reading Patch, and Mrs. Karle’s Handwriting Patch). Through her teaching she learned that confidence was the key to learning to read. A child who is not confident at reading does not like to read and struggles to read. Mrs. Karle created “sunshine moments” to help teach children how to grow their confidence and learn to read.
Meeghan Karle Mousaw (Madreen’s daughter) has her Master’s in Special Education. She has 7 years experience teaching children to read online. In addition, she developed a curriculum to teach children handwriting called The Handwriting Patch. With the Handwriting Patch learning is fun because children learn to draw and learn handwriting at the same time. In 2019 The Handwriting Patch curriculum became an amazon best seller the first year it was released, helping thousands of kids learn handwriting with a unique, fun method. She is mom to 6 kids, each with differently learning abilities and struggles.
The Reading Patch was established by the creators of Mrs. Karle’s Sight and Sound Reading. Together they have been featured on the NBC media outlets. Over the last 7 years in their online platform, Madreen and Meeghan have worked tirelessly with teachers, homeschoolers and parents looking to help children learn to read to become a trusted authority in teaching children to read and advocating early literacy skills. They often partner with other educational experts to deliver the most current information to the Reading Patch community.

Madreen Karle and Meeghan Karle Mousaw
Madreen Karle is a master first grade reading teacher with over 30 years of classroom experience. She taught reading in a special needs and English as a Second Language classroom. After retiring she wrote a reading program to help others learn how to teach reading. She is a trusted educator and author of 5 books to help teach children to read and write. In addition to her books, she is a mentor for 3 websites that give reading teacher tips (Mrs. Karle's Sight and Sound Reading, Mrs. Karle's Reading Patch, and Mrs. Karle's Handwriting Patch). Through her teaching she learned that confidence was the key to learning to read. A child who is not confident at reading does not like to read and struggles to read. Mrs. Karle created "sunshine moments" to help teach children how to grow their confidence and learn to read.

Meeghan Karle Mousaw (Madreen’s daughter) has her Master’s in Special Education. She has 7 years experience teaching children to read online. In addition, she developed a curriculum to teach children handwriting called The Handwriting Patch. With the Handwriting Patch learning is fun because children learn to draw and learn handwriting at the same time. In 2019 The Handwriting Patch curriculum became an amazon best seller the first year it was released, helping thousands of kids learn handwriting with a unique, fun method. She is mom to 6 kids, each with differently learning abilities and struggles.

The Reading Patch was established by the creators of Mrs. Karle’s Sight and Sound Reading. Together they have been featured on the NBC media outlets. Over the last 7 years in their online platform, Madreen and Meeghan have worked tirelessly with teachers, homeschoolers and parents looking to help children learn to read to become a trusted authority in teaching children to read and advocating early literacy skills. They often partner with other educational experts to deliver the most current information to the Reading Patch community.