WHY I CREATED PHONICS FIENDS
In school, I was one of the kids who didn’t catch on to reading. Dick and Jane was the standard reading book. If you are not familiar with Dick and Jane books, they are sight reading books. Young readers are supposed to memorize the words, which are repeated over and over. The text goes something like this, “See Dick. See Jane. See Spot. See Dick run. See Jane run. See Spot run.” I can still remember the teacher calling on each student to read a page out loud. I kept listening to what my classmates were saying, but didn’t know why they were telling such a boring story. When it was my turn, I decided to make the story better, “Dick and Jane are running because they hear the ice cream truck and they have money and they want Bomb Pops. Spot is running after them because he is their dog and he does whatever they do.” The kids in my class were laughing hysterically. My teacher frowned at me and asked me to read the words on the page. “I don’t understand.” So, I was the kid who stayed after school every day while my teacher patiently taught me how to read. And sometimes, that’s what it takes. But, I now believe, and scientific research backs my belief, that sight reading, by itself, is not a good way to teach reading.
Education was my major in college. I was fortunate to student teach at a school that was trying out a new reading program. The program combined phonics and sight reading. Each student was given a black and white text book, void of illustrations. The books were just text. The first page featured a few letter sounds and a few sight words. In a few weeks, the students were reading a little bit. Each day they paired up and read to one another. They were learning to read by understanding how reading works. They learned that words were created with letter sounds, and that knowledge helped them read and write words. By the end of the school year, every student in the class could read. It was amazing! And it made sense to me. But the teachers weren’t thrilled with the program, because it was boring and they had to find all of the extra worksheets and activities to fill an hour of reading time. A lightbulb went off in my brain. I would invent a reading program like this one, but mine would be exciting!
I’ve been working on the “exciting” reading program all of my adult life. I’ve created several reading programs. Many were all creativity and not a lot of practicality. I wanted to make something that was very hands-on and not worksheet intensive. My reading program had to be super fun!
Last year, I listened to the podcast, “Sold a Story.” The journalist told several stories about people, like me, who had struggled to learn to read. And now, as adults, helping kids learn to read is a passion of theirs. The podcast explained one of the mysteries of why many children aren’t learning to read. The new reading programs are bright and colorful and look like lots of fun, but they are based on the old sight reading method. One of the dads on the podcast said something like, “They are teaching kids to pretend like they are reading.” When the pandemic hit and parents had to homeschool their kids, many parents realized their kids didn’t really know how to read. They had bright, colorful, fun-looking reading programs that were teaching them to read the “wrong way…” by guessing at the words. She ended her podcast by reminding the listeners that just learning how to read is fun.
After listening to the podcast, I went back to my reading program. I had used it to teach many kids how to read, but it really needed to be designed so that parents didn’t find it overwhelming. So, I took the best parts from my previous ideas. I created a new set of characters; the Phonics Fiends. (I like the Fiends because they seem like they’d make sounds instead of words.) I simplified everything. And I rewrote the entire program.
Each unit is now a 14 page workbook that will help parents go through the steps of how reading works. The first unit, Phonics Fiends 1, starts small by introducing the letter sounds f, m, n, s and short a. These are the easiest letter sounds because, other than short a, you say the sound when you say the letter name. The first unit includes four sight words: the, is a, and I. These are some of the most commonly used words. They generally don’t follow the rules of phonics –you can’t sound them out. They are words you have to memorize to be a good reader. But phonics is the key to becoming a great reader. Knowing how letter sounds work to form words is so important. Understanding phonics not only makes students better readers, it can make them better spellers and writers, too.
I created Phonics Fiends to make teaching reading make sense to parents, and learning to read fun for kids. My website includes 15 reading units that go step by step through the letter sounds and sight words your child needs to know to be a successful reader. Try unit 1 for free to find out if this reading program works for your child. I think you’ll be impressed with the results!