a child taught this method should be able to recognize 349 words by the end of the first grade; 1,094 by the end of the second; 1,216 bythe end of the third; and 1,554 by the end of the fourth grade. Learning to read this way is supposed to be more meaningful and fun. This way of teaching iscurrently used by nearly all of the schools in the United States. It is clear that the current high illiteracy rate is directly due to this scientifically invalidated approachto reading instruction.Another approach is called intensive, systematic phonics first. With this technique, children are taught how to sound out and blend the letters that make up words ina specific sequence, from the simple to the complex. Today, educators call this method the "code" approach because it teaches the skills and logic children need tounderstand the English spelling system. When a child comes to school he or she has a spoken vocabulary of up to 24,000 words. Children taught to read usingsystematic phonics can usually read and understand at least as many words as they have in their spoken vocabulary by the end of the third grade.Teaching children to read is the most important objective educators have to accomplish. Reading is a prerequisite for everything else, not only in school but in lifeitself. Western civilization has taught its children to read using an alphabetic approach ever since the Phoenicians invented the alphabet and the Egyptians stoppedwriting in hieroglyphics. English is an alphabetic language that, when written, uses letters to represent speech sounds.When students were taught to read, they consciously identified the speech sounds and learned to recognize the letters used to represent them. They were thentrained to apply this information to "decode" the names of unknown written words, understand their meaning, and comprehend the information presented as acomplete thought.The English language contains approximately half a million words. Of these wor...
