Make learning to read so much easier and more fun

We can make learning to read so much easier and more fun if we use the ingredients that create engagement--self-expression, play, belonging, surprise, curiosity, beauty, jokes, novelty and on and on.

Lowest on the list of what creates engagement is memorizing unless what we're memorizing has deep meaning for us like our phone # or a new friend's name.

The Science of Reading establishes one fact: Many, perhaps most students need structured practice in phonics. However, there's nothing in this research that suggests this practice should be rote, tediously long, or outside of a meaningful context.

Please consider how to create the most meaningful reading experiences and draw your structured practice from engaging texts.

Previously I offered two poems as examples of meaningful texts that could form the basis for inquiry into phonetic patterns. The most basic, and therefore the most decodable poetry form is the chant. The chant has 2 line stanzas. The first line repeats a word that captures a repeating pattern like a sad cat--meow, meow, meow, OR a baby crying wa, wa, wa,
the second line of the stanza says what motivates or causes the repeating action:

meow, meow, meow
the cat is sad

wa, wa, wa
the baby is hungry

run, run, run
the kids have a fun run in the sun

The beauty of chant poems is that students quickly learn to write them so they are naturally immersed in phonics (often involving invented spelling). A poem can be one or several stanzas long. It can have baby, animal or world sounds and repeating actions as the chant lines.

Sing, sing, sing
Birds sing in the spring

Ding, ding, ping
I hear a ringing thing

Also, the chant can show duration if we use words like sit, wait, wonder, listen...

sit, sit, sit
I sit and wait for my Mom to come

wonder, wonder, wonder
i wonder if she forgot
(I hope not)