Customer Reviews

Teach a Child to Read With Children's Books: Combining Story Reading, Phonics, and Writing to Promote Reading Success

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The author's target audience is parents who are teachingtheir children to read at home, and he writes in a comprehensiblemanner for those not steeped in educational jargon. On the other hand, he avoids the trap of telling his audience simply what to do as if parents or non-education professionals were not able to grasp the basic principles of literacy development; therefore, this is a book of not only "how to" but "why" and should be quite refreshing for parents who want to know just how reading comes about. The author grounds his beliefs about reading not only in research but also in extensive experience in teaching children to read so that there is a firm connection between theory and practice.

No doubt about it--the act of reading is enormously intricate; yet, the straightforward explanation of language acquisition, the interactive reading process, and observable behaviors of early readers should de-mystify the complex reading puzzle for parents. The author has, therefore, skillfully communicated that teaching a child to read is doable without reducing learning to read to some type of simplistic activity. Further, he states the importance of phonics AND places it right where it belongs in the entire reading process--as a valuable tool for the child's word recognition strategies in the context of real reading and real writing. Reading is so much more than merely learning phonetic elements, and the author addresses what the "more" is for the reader.

Throughout the book are ample real-life examples of teaching children to read and specific suggestions for parents based on literacy research and actual experiences. Included is a lesson plan format, record-keeping forms, lists of materials, strategy development explanation and activities, and recorded dialogue between parent and child as the child is guided through a book for the first time. This latter section of the book is very helpful--this is what a sit-down, read-with-me lesson really looks like. At the end is a lengthy bibliography of books children customarily enjoy--leveled for a parent's convenience.

I am a teacher with 25 years experience in kindergarten and first grade classrooms AND a teacher of parents about reading as well. I would have recommended this book to any one of the parents of my students and do recommend it to parents who are home schooling and those who are interested in how their children learn to read. My suggestion for Mr. Thogmartin is to somehow make his book accessible and available to parents of the various cultures in our society.

I used this book with my daughter when she was 5. We had tried a variety of approaches when she expressed a desire to read. She learned enough phonics and sight words to read some very basic readers but balked at continuing with workbooks, no matter how colorful and fun they were supposed to be. This book enabled us to move to the next level. Although I would be leery of using this book to teach reading from scratch, it is great for those children who think they don't need reading instruction any more.

You are able to introduce new concepts painlessly while reading regular books. You use one book for several days and create your lesson based on the words that the child has a problem with in the first reading. The section at the back of the book was especially useful for me because it gives an example of how an average lesson using this system would work. Theory is fine, but it can get jumbled in my brain if I don't know how to put it into practice!

Other reviewers on this site have covered this book in much more detail, and you should check their reviews as well. This is more of a testimonial that the method is helpful. Mr. Thogmartin's book and a set of magnetic letters will get your child past the "hat-cat-sat" stage with a minimum of fuss.

The contents of this book have been wonderful in implementing a successful reading program for my own children. After many starts and stops with complete phonics based programs, this book was a refreshing approach, that actually worked! Very, very applicable for any home-based instruction. Not to mention an enjoyable learning process, as the children themselves help to pick out their "lessons."

At the end of the first day of school in my second year as a first grade teacher, a little girl came up to me at the end of the day. She said, "But, Teacher, we can't go home yet. I haven't learn how to read." So the next day, I came prepared with predictable books and activities that would allow every child go home on that second day with a sense that he/she could read.

Mark Thogmartin presents the same philosophy in his book. This book made me think about how I could tie phonics instruction in more closely with predictable books. I came away from this book with concrete ideas and plans that will help children understand connections in reading, phonics, writing, and enjoying stories.

This book is written at a level that is easy to understand and easy to put into practice. It empahsizes that writing is an important part of the process of learning to read, as well as phonics.

The book list offered in the appendix are very helpful in finding books appropriate for the level your child is reading at, from pre-reading, to second grade level.

If you want good, practical, easy to understand information on how to teach your child to read, or even how to improve their reading, I recommend this book.

I enjoyed this book very much and thought it offered a good balance, using phonics and real books. I used it with my daughter, and it has been another useful component in her learning how to read. It is also very inexpensive compared to all those packaged programs available! Recommended books are listed at the back of the book. I'd heartily recommend this title.

I'm a former elementary school teacher and homeschooling mom and this book was very helpful to me. Dr. Throgmartin uses principles of Reading Recovery (a highly successful program used in schools for students who are behind) and shows how to integrate the best elements of phonics and whole language research to help your child get the meaning from the text, which, after all, is the point of learning to read. He includes simple assessments and log sheets to help you scientifically track progress. Of special interest was his explanation of whole language instruction and reasons for bias of many Christian educators against it. Actually, my own bias may have kept me from even reading the book if it weren't for the chapter on Reading Recovery, which, while teaching, I had observed to be the best remedial reading program used. Although I don't follow his program to a T, the elements I added to my son's phonics and writing instruction made an immediate change for the better. The only possible caution is his recommended book list. Although it doesn't contain anything blatantly offensive, there are many better books out there. However, he does give guidelines for rating book levels so you could start with the books your child already has and build from there. Overall, this book is easy to read and understand. I highly recommend it to teachers who rely heavily on phonics instruction or just want to spark their students' love for reading.

I really appreciate this author's defense of teaching reading using real literature. I'm glad that many kids can maintain interest during a strictly-phonics program, but there may be many whose love for books will be lost along the way while reading nonsense syllables and sounding out words that don't fit the phonics rules. Using the very successful Reading Recovery program as inspiration, the author attacks what really makes sense to the smallest of readers.

This author explains the three strategies used by all good readers - context (Does this make sense?), syntax (Does it sound right?), and phonics (Does it look right?). He encourages little readers to use the pictures and all of their reading tools to unlock the text.

The teaching style advocated in this book makes just as much sense in a regular conversation over a library book as it does in a formal one-on-one lesson. For someone wishing to implement a formal program, record-keeping resources and a leveled book list are included.

Very well written and a lot of useful information. Don't let this one slip by, your child will thank you.

I have read numerous books on teaching reading. I am also familiar with several in-school and home phonics courses. I have never seen the boring repetitive instruction that the author rails against. His descriptions sound more like the work of a few seriously uncreative individuals, rather than a well purchased program. I get the feeling the author does not know nearly as much about phonics as he thinks he does, and may have gotten his ideas from a few incompetent teachers. The idea that non-phonics programs are rejected by Christians because they are associated with "non-christian men like John Dewey, a progressive educator and singer of the First Humanist Manifesto" is ludicrous and just plain offensive. Phonics programs are used, not only by Christian schools but by expensive private Montessori schools because they work! I can usually find some good ideas even in Whole Language books, which are not my favorite. I finished this book without taking a single note.