M-1-M-2-and-M-3

For many children, this book will not have a long term benefit. Let me explain why. There are three main methods to teaching reading: whole language, aural and phonics. A good lesson plan includes all three of these. The reason so many children today cannot read is because most public schools are only teaching whole language. What these children need is lessons in phonics, which this book only includes at an introductory level.

If your child knows phonics then this book will be wonderful as it describes whole language training perfectly and also provides some help with the aural training. It would also make an excellent supplement to a phonics course.

However, if your child is reading the word "straight" as "starlight" or other similar mistakes, this book will be of no help. Find some phonics books and teach these to your children. Hooked on Phonics is so popular for a very good reason.

You must bear in mind that learning to read takes time. When reviewers rave that their child learned to read terribly fast, that's usually a bad sign. Whole language is so widely used because students pick up reading very quickly at the beginning levels. Unfortunately, they will not be able to go into intermediate and advanced level unless they go back to the beginning and learn their phonics.

In case it's of interest to you, I'm a student of education research and development.

What I was looking for when I purchased this book was a compilation of reading theories. I found that...but as an added bonus I also found a step-by-step book outlining how to take a student from where they are to where they should be. This book is truly amazing in its approach. As a middle school teacher, I found it applicable to even 6th and 7th grade students. Wilbur's advice is respectful to children and free from worksheets and diagnostic tests. It get to the heart of reading--the interaction between the child and the text. Applying the strategies in this book has allowed me to change the futures of some of my students.

Peggy Wilber's book has helped rescue my son from his reading difficulties. Two months ago, Mrs. Wilber evaluated my son for reading difficulties and immediately got us started using the methods described in her book. He had endured one year of intensive phonics to no avail. Mrs. Wilber explains that in order to read well, children need to learn the phonics and also see the connected print. For a child with dramatic reading difficulties, she offers many suggestions to help them improve their skills. In the two months of using her system, his reading has improved one grade level. There is no holding him back now; he continues to improve and reads everything he can get his hands on.

The methods are research-based, well explained, easy to use, and effective. My son loves the auditory games and looks forward to our daily reading sessions. Before we started, he had been overheard saying "I hate reading." Within a month he had changed his tune to "Reading is fun! I love reading." I appreciate that the methods are easy for me to use at home and backed by much research. Most of all, I appreciate that they work.

Mrs. Wilber KNOWS children. She knows how their minds work, what they like, how they operate. She also knows parents--what they want, what they dislike, what they are willing to do. Those elements, combined with her vast knowledge of literacy, allow her to create an attractive and effective method for tutoring children and instilling in them a love for reading.

I highly recommend this book. Please read it a few times before implementing it in order to get the big picture and understand the whole process. You won't be disappointed.

I bought this as a summer enrichment book between 6th and 7th grade for my son. Overall, its a very good book. He responds better to the more humorous line of scholastic books so this one felt a bit too much like school to him to really *take* to with a whole heart.

In school there is an expectaion that the children already know how to search and my son did not. They are getting research projects in early grades...4th in my sons case and probably younger with no real concept of how to find information. This book is a good way to start to learn how to find information. It isnt exactly what I thought it would be...in that where to find the information is on a sholastic web page clearly labeled at the top of every exercise.... that said..its a start.

Children are very computer savvy in alot of ways but I have seen my son try to research a science project and get very frustrated. When trying to find information on dolphin eyesight...it occured to him to list dolphin eyesight but not marine eyesight, dolphin sight, porpoise, dolphin vision, dolphin anatomy....just for example...

I think that this book could have been a bit more helpful in this light. However I will say that the book clearly states it helps *get kids web-savvy* not improve their search ability... that was my interpretation. The other thing is that the children are always directed to a sholastic web page which is noce for safty issues.

I wish this felt more like a game than it does... It feels a bit too much like school for my son to really *enjoy* in a summer-time sense... I think he has found it to be helpful even if he wasn't overly excited (in a fun sense) about the time he spent doing it.