What's in the Toolkit for Teachers

The Reading Revival Scheme is the best method of teaching children to read because it works with the child's instinctive learning processes. This is why results with this scheme have been spectacular. The motivational effect experienced by young children who suddenly understand what reading is all about cannot be exaggerated. We have seen this scheme deliver astounding results.

With this toolkit, every child in your class can be reading to some degree by the end of one term. A few children will be fluent readers, most will have a good grasp of half the most used words in the English language and be ready to become fluent and a few children, who learn more slowly will have reached Books 3 or 4 level which is the ‘take off' point, when a child realises that reading is actually possible to him or her. But there should be no children who haven't begun to read.

USING THE SCHEME FOR A WHOLE CLASS OF MIXED ABILITIES

This scheme is extremely cost effective, because one toolkit can be used to teach a whole class of children, even those who struggle with reading, leaving no need for the school to invest in expensive reluctant reader initiatives. In fact, the toolkit has helped children whose teachers had tried everything they could think of to improve the child's reading ability, but with little success until they tried the Reading Revival method.

The easy way to start reading with a class is to take them all together to learn the first twelve words. The process is exactly the same as with one child (see the Road to Reading instruction book in the main toolkit), but it is much quicker, of course, to take the whole class together. Then, when you are sure that most of the children in the class have a good grasp of the twelve words, it will be time to start taking the children individually every day. Start by testing exactly how many words each child really knows and be sure each knows the twelve words well before starting Book 1. Once this point has been reached, the instructions in the Road to Reading book apply and can be followed through to the end. This is not time-consuming, so just five minutes for each child a day is sufficient - but essential.

HOW EASY IS THE SCHEME TO USE?

The toolkit is extremely easy to administer. All the teacher needs to do is essentially oversee the child while she/he commits the words on the word cards to memory, then guide the child as he/she realises that they can actually read the books one by one. The Reading Revival storybooks have been specially crafted so that once the twelve words are learned and Book 1, or maybe Book 2 is finished, the teacher's input is minimal, as the child assimilates new words with ease and little help. Be prepared to help the child transfer from the large flashcards to the smaller print book (as explained in the information sheets) and the teacher's task will become less as the child simply needs to be guided through the remaining books. One or two pages per day is sufficient and takes usually less than five minutes at this stage, but if the school allows it, the child could take the book home and read to a parent. However, it is advisable to ask the parent to hear just one or two pages only each day as the teacher needs to monitor the child's reading rather than the parent allowing the child to speed through book after book. It's possible - but not necessarily advantageous!

A WORD ABOUT INDIVIDUAL TEACHING...

If the thought of taking each child in the class individually for five minutes every day strikes fear to your heart..... please remember that Reading Revival only takes one term to complete for most children. Take the trouble to make Reading Revival your priority for this one term, and you will find that the children will learn phonics that much quicker and so will be at the stage you would have expected by the end of the second term. But now they will be able to read anyway - so you will find the time has been very well invested and the children will be way further ahead than if you had started solely with phonics.