Read Assure: Guaranteed Formula for Reading Success with Phonics. Everett Ofori

       Dedicated with gratitude to my brother, Chief Stephen Abraham.

       Other books by Everett Ofori

      Succeeding From the Margins of Canadian Society: A Strategic Resource for New Immigrants, Refugees and International Students Written by Francis Adu-Febiri and Everett Ofori © 2009 – ISBN 978-1-926585-27-7

      Contents

Acknowledgments

Note to Teachers, Parents, and other Reading Coaches

Acknowledgments

      Much gratitude to Ms. Yuko Bernard, of Bernard English School, Japan, for giving me the opportunity to share my phonics ideas with young learners at the Bernard schools (Ibaraki).

      The success of this program is evident from the numerous young people, who through this program, have found joy in reading and are therefore able to approach their study of English with something akin to ecstasy.

      Many thanks also go to Mr. Frank Pridgen, Manager of Bernard English Schools, who has been a champion of phonics instruction and has provided invaluable comments to improve this book. In addition, all the teachers who have wholeheartedly adopted this book for use in their classes deserve commendation and their experiences and comments regarding how to make this book more useful to their young charges will always be welcome.

      Finally, any errors or omissions in this book remain solely the responsibility of the author.

      Sincerely,

      Everett Ofori

Note to Teachers, Parents, and other Reading Coaches

       Why phonics?

      Phonics allows new readers to link sounds with letters. Children as young as four can be taught to read using phonics. When taught right, the parent or instructor will be pleasantly surprised at how quickly a child can catch on to reading in English. Many children’s books in English contain very difficult words: Rumpelstiltskin by the Brothers Grimm; Mr. Fitzwarren in Dick Whittington; Brobdingnag in Jonathan Swift’s Gulliver’s Travels. You will be amazed that once children have acquired the rudiments of phonics they can manage to read, sometimes with just a little help, such difficult looking words.

      Children have no difficulty at all understanding the concept of linking each letter with a particular sound. It is but a short leap for them to extend this knowledge from short two and three letter combinations such as “ba” and “na” to “banana” or “can” and “did” to form “candid.”

      It is also liberating for a kid to understand, for example, that fan is made up of three sound units: /f/ /a/ /n/. Soon enough there will be exceptions for the child to learn but these exceptions will be welcomed by any child who is continuing to mature mentally and thus is able to grasp subtleties and challenges to previously-learned conventions! Children, even as young as four and five, based on my experience of teaching children that young, possess the capacity to understand that, in some cases, two letters instead of one represent a sound unit. For example, in the case of short, /sh/ represents one sound unit while /or/ represents another sound unit and /t/ represents yet another sound unit.

       High frequency words

      There are a number of words that appear so frequently in English that learners need to know them as soon as possible. These words can also be taught through phonics but they are so important that they should be drilled into the minds of learners both through repetition and phonics. Some of these words are presented below.

       High frequency words that need to be drilled into learners through frequent exposure, including spelling, reading, writing, and phonics.