NO MORE DICK, JANE AND SPOT: TEACHING KIDS TO READ INVOLVES COMBINATION OF METHODS

Cape Girardeau children don't see Spot run anymore.

The traditional primers -- which immortalized characters like Dick, Jane and Spot 00 were classroom must-haves as late as the 1970s for teaching beginning readers and improving their skills.

But the word recognition and memorization taught in the textbooks were largely done away with during that decade after researchers discovered not all children were learning to read using those methods, and they set out to discover the source of their problems, said Dr. Sue Watt, assistant director of the Harvard Graduate School of Education's Jeanne Chall Reading Lab in Boston, Mass.

The literacy center opened in 1966 to train teachers and collect data for research while teaching local students to read.

As primers were done away with, researchers developed a variety of ways to teach children to read, and all methods were considered the "next best thing" in educational systems at one time or another, Watt said.

Reading instruction is a cyclical process, Watt said. Schools often throw out whatever method they are using in favor of something new that researchers demonstrate is successful.

That's what happened with the Dick and Jane books used a quarter-century ago, and it's also what caused the phonics and whole language instructional methods that followed over the next 20 years to be nudged out of the limelight.

Today, more teachers are using the most successful components of a number of teaching methods to try and help every child develop good reading skills early in their scholastic career.

"We've been doing this ever since we started teaching reading," said Watt. "As we react to old methods of teaching and find other methods that seem more effective, we also find that new methods have glitches in them too. We have to go with what seems to be working."

Balanced literacy

Cape Girardeau teachers are among those buying into the idea that children learn best with a combination of approaches.

The use of a phonetic approach to reading was developed in the 1960s and established in the early 1970s as an alternative to simply reading from primers. The approach teaches children to "decode words" by focusing on their ability to perceive individual sounds and match letters in words, Watt said.

But the widespread use of phonics was phased out in the 1970s and 1980s as the concept of whole language became popular.

The whole language concept combines reading, writing and speaking to teach children the value of literacy. The emphasis in this teaching method is on teaching children to enjoy reading without focusing on spelling mistakes, reversed letters or misused punctuation.

"With current research, we've had to go back to teaching for phonological awareness, which is knowing how to recognize letters in print and relate them to correlating sounds," said Watt. "But this fits in with reading literature, and it fits beautifully with writing."

Several years ago, Cape Girardeau schools developed a districtwide written curriculum that follows this idea. It is called a balanced literacy approach, and teachers are receiving training using the approach through the Southeast Missouri Literacy Project.

Balanced literacy combines the study of individual letters and their sounds. It is the basis of teaching phonics with the word recognition that is common to teaching from primers and includes sharing children's literature and independent writing. Watt said independent writing rarely has been used in the early grades over the past two decades.

The district is only just beginning to track reading levels to determine students' progress and has no hard numbers to detail success or failure rates.

But Cathy Evans, Cape Girardeau schools assistant superintendent of elementary instruction, said she believes they have finally hit upon the best approach to literacy.

"We've got a program going that doesn't drop any skills," Evans said. "I feel really comfortable with the way we're doing things now, because by approaching it from all different areas you're hitting on all the areas in the different ways children learn."

Evans said the district follows a 12-step approach to teaching children to read that includes reading groups, individual reading time, whole class involvement where the teacher reads aloud, spelling and writing.

Flexibility is key

Sue Hellwege, a kindergarten teacher at Blanchard Elementary School, said the balanced literacy approach helps even her slowest readers make reading gains.

"Even the one who isn't quite ready to read can sound out words and get the beginning of that skill," she said. "Sometimes the summer gives them the growth and maturity that they need to make them ready to read."

Hellwege still uses the alphabet posters and large writing tablets on easels many of her students' parents may remember, and she even has a few primers her children enjoy.

But today's primers are more varied and reflective of today's culture than the Dick and Jane books of the past, she said.

"We're back but more colorful with more vocabulary and things they can relate to more so than the old series," said Hellwege.

Watt said the use of primers, varied types of reading throughout the school day, the use of creative writing, and even allowing children to play using refrigerator magnets or puzzles shaped as letters all are effective teaching methods because they can reach children who learn best by hearing, seeing and physically manipulating words.

"The big picture is we want all children to read," Watt said. "There's just really no one method that's going to solve everybody's problems. That's why we need to have all the components that go into what we call a balanced program."

Parents can help

First-grade teacher Mary Ann Lewis said parents can reinforce classroom teaching methods while reading with their children at home. Cape Girardeau teachers use a basic combination of "read to, read with and independent reading" that can be duplicated at home, she said.

And by listening to their children read and setting a good example by reading themselves, parents can ensure children maintain or improve reading skills over summers and other school breaks, said Hellwege.

"It gives them a chance to share one-on-one time with their children in a meaningful way," Hellwege said. "They get the love of reading, the joy of reading, and they feel good about themselves. That's what reading is all about."