Pamela Brookes - The Squiggle Code (Letters Make Words)

DOG ON A LOG

Pup Books

Book 2

I am not a Reading Specialist or certified educator, but I do have a lot of experience teaching my daughter with dyslexia how to read. At times, it was difficult to determine what to do and how to do it. It is my hope that the information provided within this book will make the journey a bit easier for other parents. The content provided herein is for informational purposes and does not take the place of an evaluation and teaching plan provided by a credentialed educator. Every effort has been made to ensure that the content provided here is accurate and helpful for my readers. However, this is not an exhaustive treatment of the subject. No liability is assumed for losses or damages due to the information provided. You should consult a credentialed educator for specific guidance on educating your child, yourself, or others.

DOG ON A LOG Books

Tucson, Arizona

Copyright 2019 By Pamela Brookes

All Rights Reserved.

For information, contact the publisher at

read@dogonalogbooks.com

Public Domain images from www.clker.com

Traceable letters (except lowercase b) by

Print Designs by Kris

Traceable DNealian font and lines (except lowercase b with arrows or stars) created by DN KidLetter.

http://guindo.pntic.mec.es/jmag0042/kidfonts.html

Stars and internal arrows added by Pamela Brookes.

Library of Congress Control Number:2019906177

www.dogonalogbooks.com

THE

SQUIGGLE CODE

(LETTERS MAKE WORDS)

DOG ON A LOG Pup Books

Book 2

By Pamela Brookes

Edited by Nancy Mather Ph.D.

Sight Words Introduced in

The Squiggle Code

L etter Group 1: the , is

Letter Group 2: a, and, to, has

Letter Group 4: does, go, of

Letter Group 5: her, says

From

Before the Squiggle Code

Spoken language is a code. The code starts with random sounds that we group together into words. Then we put several words together to make sentences. By talking and by listening to each others words and sentences, we share ideas with other human beings.

Reading and writing are another type of code for sharing ideas. This code involves squiggles. We happen to call those squiggles letters.

We put squiggles on a piece of paper and tell a child, Tell me what this says.

Yet those squiggles are silent. They do not make any noise. Surely children must think we are crazy that we can get sounds out of squiggles.

Children trust us so they try to make that madness happen. If they are lucky, they have patient adults that show them how the squiggles make sounds and that groups of squiggles combine to make words.

Part of the best way to help someone learn to read is to make sure they can hear the smallest sounds in words which are called phonemes. And before we can teach them the small sounds, we must make sure they can hear the big sounds.

So, the beginning of learning to read is making sure the student can hear words. That may seem silly since most people learn to talk when they are just babies. Yet if they havent thought about what a word is, how can we expect them to turn squiggles into words?

This book will help your child, or even an adult learner, learn to hear each word in a sentence. Once they can do that, they must learn to hear syllables in each word. (Identifying syllables will also be an important skill when they are trying to read. Once they are taught the six types of syllables, it will make reading and writing a lot easier.) After they can identify the syllables in a word, it will be time to hear the individual sounds, the phonemes, in a word.

And then we tell them that each sound has a squiggle. If they put those squiggles together, they will make words. And if they can look at the squiggles someone has placed on a piece of paper or on a computer screen and they can make all those squiggles make a sound, they will have broken the squiggle code. That is when reading begins.

DOG ON A LOG

Parent and Teacher Guides

Book 1. Teaching a Struggling Reader:

One Moms Experience with Dyslexia

Book 2. How to Use Decodable Books to Teach Reading

Available for free from many online booksellers or

read at www.dogonalogbooks.com/free

Introduction

H umans naturally learn to walk and talk. These days, most of us learn to read. However, reading is not a natural process. For people to learn to do it well, most must be given direct instruction in how to do it.

Scientific research has shown that the best way for most people to learn to read is by using phonics. The student learns to hear sounds in words then associates those sounds with squiggles that we call letters. Next, they learn to blend those letter sounds into words. If they are learning to read in English, they must also learn about all the different letter combinations that can sometimes make the same sounds. They must also learn about the words that do not follow the phonics rules.

Your child, or possibly an adult learner, learned to hear the sounds in words in DOG ON A LOG Pup Book 1 : Before the Squiggle Code (A Roadmap to Reading.) If your child has not mastered the skills in that book, they are not ready for this book. As I pointed out in Before the Squiggle Code , you would not want someone to build your house if they put the roof on before the concrete floor was finished drying. The walls would sink into the concrete plus the foundation would be full of footprint impressions and nails that were dropped while the walls and roof were being built.