Recently, a teacher who had ordered a level of GATE+ received her materials and looked through them. She was so impressed with the quality and depth of the materials that she showed her colleagues. They quickly realized they wanted the program for their classrooms too. The teacher picked up...
Read more The renewed enthusiasm over the past few years for phonics instruction has been heartening. I have believed in, and therefore taught, phonics skills since the beginning of my teaching career in 1970. (In fact, I am the proud owner of a well-worn 1967 edition of A Guide to Teaching Phonics, by June Orton.) Phonemic awareness and basic phonics skills are essential foundations on which students build toward the ultimate goal of reading: comprehension. So, through the phonics wars and beyond I continued to teach phonics to my students (and I still do today).
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