FAQ

Our online program is developed for students in third grade through adults. Our program benefits those individuals who are not reading and spelling commensurate with their intellectual capabilities. Older students and adults who struggle with reading tend to blame themselves and believe that their inability to read is due to some intellectual shortcoming on their part; this is rarely the case. Students who struggle with reading (and spelling skills) do so as a general rule because they did not receive a proper foundation in phonics as young children.

Our online program is one of the only online phonics programs developed specifically for older students and adults. Most phonics programs are written for young children in grades kindergarten through the second grade. Very few phonics programs are developed from the outset to teach phonics in a manner suitable for older students and adults. The hundreds if not thousands of phonics programs written for young children in kindergarten through the second grade are simply inappropriate and ineffective for the mature learner.

One example of how our program is developed specifically for older students is the fact that nonsense words are used in a number of our lessons in the first half of the program. Please see the next question below for more information regarding the rationale behind using nonsense words to teach phonics to older students and adults.

Nonsense words (words which have no meaning) are used extensively in the first half of our program. Examples are Print Lesson 20 /  Print Lesson 24 / Print Lesson 25 / and Print Lesson 28. Older students may know thousands of words by sight. Often the only way to insist that these students rely upon their knowledge of phonics to sound out words is to present them with words they have never seen before. The same principle is equally true for spelling dictation. Some students have memorized the spelling of hundreds or even thousands of words regardless of whether or not they understand the relationship of letters within a word and the sounds those letters represent. When students are asked to read or spell a nonsense word, they must rely exclusively upon their knowledge of phonics; there is no memory component involved and thus no other way to be able to read or spell a nonsense word. View this page to watch the video that introduces nonsense words to students.

Almost all adults who struggle as readers, do so because when they were children in grades kindergarten through the second grade, they did not receive a solid foundation in the phonetic code of English. And once students go beyond the second grade, most schools no longer focus on teaching foundation reading skills and instead teach subject content instead. Research shows that students with poor reading skills entering the third grade, will fall further and further behind as they get older. Our online program teaches the phonics foundation that students failed to receive as young children.

English is a phonetic language which means that the letters in our alphabet represent sounds. Phonics teaches the sounds the individual letters in English represent and the underlying rules governing how words are pronounced and spelled.

Three nationally-mandated studies of what constitutes effective basic reading instruction have been conducted in the first decade of this 21st century by the countries of the United States, Great Britain, and Australia. The three reports issued by independent panels of reading experts from their respective countries all reached a common conclusion – beginning reading instruction must teach systematic, direct phonics instruction to be effective. Please see this page for more information regarding science-based reading.

The Internet has changed everything in education among nameless other fields of human endeavor as well. Now for the first time ever in history, it is completely possible and realistic for an adult to teach himself to learn to read and spell in the privacy of his own home without an instructor. How is this possible?

Our online phonics program combines audio, video and text in 720 online lessons. Students watch a video introducing each lesson, then watch a video or series of videos embedded in each lesson that correspond to the print lesson. All of the instructions, all of the information, all of the drills necessary for a student to master the reading and spelling process are presented in a tightly-structured format. Students proceed one-lesson-at-a-time through all 720 online lessons and complete the over 400 worksheets embedded within our online curriculum. Then approximately every third lesson a student is presented with a quiz he must pass with a score of 80% or higher before being permitted to proceed to the next lesson. 203 quizzes are embedded in our online program.

A student does not have to be computer literate to complete these lessons. All of our lessons are point and click. No other skill is required to be able to proceed through our online lessons.

Our program was developed from the outset for older students and adults who want to improve their reading and spelling skills. People of all ages and backgrounds have succeeded as students in our online program. One is literally never too old to learn to read and spell or to uplevel one’s reading and spelling skills. Watch a television interview with a grandfather who learned to read using our program.

Our online program is designed to help students in third grade to adults; however, we also publish a print version of our phonics program for children in kindergarten through the second grade. Please see this page for more information regarding our K-2 print edition. We also publish a print edition of our 3rd grade to adult program. Please see this page for more information regarding our 3rd grade to adult print edition.

203 quizzes are embedded in our online program. After approximately every third or fourth lesson, a student takes a spelling quiz to see whether or not he has adequately learned the material in those lessons. View this page to take the first phonics quiz presented in our online program.

Decoding words accurately (phonics), reading words fluently, and spelling words correctly are the three key skill strands developed in this phonics program. English is a phonetic language because of the fact that our letters each represent a specific sound or in some instances more than one sound. The decoding process consists of associating sounds with the already-known letters in the word and blending those sounds together to identify a word. The activity of spelling reverses this process. The identity of the word is already known; it is the spelling of the word that must be discovered. The student first identifies the number of sounds he hears in the dictated word and then tracks or represents those sounds by writing the letters of the alphabet which represent the various individual sounds he has identified within the dictated word.

Spelling dictation is an intrinsic part of our phonics program; half of the instructional activity in this program consists of dictating the words from each lesson to students. A major purpose in dictation is to establish for the student the direct and consistent relationship in English between letters and their sounds. Students also develop vocabulary skills during dictation; each word is dictated not only in isolation but also within the context of a sentence to illustrate the word’s meaning.

Decoding and spelling are mutually reinforcing activities; both rely upon referencing the sound/symbol relationship of the English alphabet. Decoding is not just a process of recognizing words from sight memory, just as spelling is not as is often commonly believed, just a process of memorizing the spelling of words. Instead research has established that both activities of reading (decoding) and spelling (encoding) are inextricably interwoven and mutually-reinforcing of the other. Decoding or sounding out a word requires that a student associate a sound with each letter or letter team within the word and then requires that a student blend those sounds together in order to pronounce the word. Spelling reverses this process and requires that a student become aware of the individual, discrete sounds within a word and then associate a letter or letter team with each sound in the word to spell the word.

The ability to read words accurately is a necessary skill that must be mastered by all emerging readers and a skill whose acquisition is justifiably celebrated both by teacher and student alike. But reading words accurately is not enough; a student must also be able to read fluently. Reading rests upon a hierarchy of skill development. Students must become capable of reading words both accurately and fluently.

Reading fluency is the ability to read words automatically without the need to discover the identity of the word first. Reading fluency is the single best predictor of reading comprehension for students by the end of third grade. Students who read fluently read with a much higher degree of comprehension than do those students who continue to struggle to discover the identity of words they encounter in print.

Fluency is an essential skill strand that has often been neglected in reading instruction; yet research overwhelmingly and consistently emphasizes the relationship between reading fluency and comprehension. All too often teachers conclude that once students are able to read with accuracy, they will be able to read fluently. Research on the other hand has established the fact that the transference between decoding accuracy and reading fluency is not automatic. Fluency is a skill that can and must be taught, and students who receive fluency training experience marked improvement in their ability to read with accuracy, fluency, and understanding.

Students who read and then repeatedly reread text while receiving guidance and feedback become better readers. Explicit instruction in fluency aids struggling readers of all ages from elementary grades through the middle school and high school grades and adults as well. Without the ability to recognize text automatically, the student’s primary focus while reading is on decoding words instead of comprehending the meaning that the flow of words on the page conveys. Fluency is the bridge that connects a student’s ability to decode words accurately with the ability of that student to read with understanding. Developing reading fluency is a key instructional strand in our online program.

Absolutely not. Students usually begin to see improvement almost immediately even while still working in our first 10 free lessons. The further an individual proceeds through the lessons, the more progress an individual can expect to experience.

Orton-Gillingham (OG) is an approach to teaching reading; it is not a specific curriculum. The philosophy has been in use since the 1930s and focuses heavily upon teaching the relationship between letters and sounds. Orton-Gillingham employs a multi-sensory approach to establish and integrate new neural pathways in the brain to enable individuals who have previously struggled with reading and spelling to improve. The OG approach was initially developed for individuals diagnosed with dyslexia, and it is considered by a majority of reading experts to be the most effective approach for teaching reading to individuals who struggle in this area. But Orton-Gillingham is not just effective in helping those identified with having dyslexia or a learning disability learn to read and spell. The O-G approach can help anyone become a better reader and speller, not just someone diagnosed as being dyslexic or learning disabled. In fact the research has shown that this approach is particularly effective, even vital, for helping all students in the lowest 40% of the student population, that group of students who struggle with basic reading skills.

No. Dyslexia is a clinical term used to describe a language processing difficulty. There is a wide-range of estimates as to what the percentage of the population has dyslexia. Estimates range anywhere from 5 to 20 percent of the population; most professionals accept an agreed upon percentage as somewhere between 10 and 15 percent of the population. But we know in the United States alone, approximately 40 percent of school age children are either somewhat behind or grossly behind in reading. These numbers alone disprove the notion that most people with reading problems have dyslexia. The vast majority of people who struggle in reading, do so not because they are dyslexic or learning disabled or intellectually handicapped, but because they were not taught phonics as young children.

Historically science-based reading, that is reading instruction that includes a vigorous phonics component, has not been universally taught to students in grades kindergarten through second grade. Many school systems and colleges of education where teachers receive training and certification have persisted in using discredited reading methodologies for decades even after indisputable empirical evidence has proven that systematic phonics must constitute the core of any successful beginning reading curriculum. Thus that vast number of individuals who have experienced a life-long struggle in reading, have struggled not because of having dyslexia or even a learning disability. The vast majority of these individuals have struggled because they simply were never taught the phonetic code of the English language in a systematic way as young children. Studies show that students who fail to receive this phonics foundation by the end of second grade as a matter of general course will never receive that foundation and as a result will continue to fall further and further behind as they progress through the upper grades of school.

Phonics is the core, foundational skill necessary for ESOL students to master English! Most ESOL programs do not teach English phonics in a systematic way and instead teach phonics in an arbitrary, hit-or-miss fashion. In fact many ESOL students do not even realize that English letters represent sounds! Our phonics instruction is tightly-sequenced and systematic. We teach English phonics in its entirety.

English is a phonetic language – letters represent sounds. It is critical for English Language Learners (ELL) or students who are English Speakers of Other Languages (ESOL) to learn the relationship between letters and the sounds they represent. Our program starts at the most fundamental level by teaching the sounds represented by the individual letters of the English alphabet. Gradually additional information is introduced – short vowel sounds, consonant blends, consonant teams, rules governing syllable division, and rules that identify the basic syllable patterns of English. Students learn to read, spell, and pronounce one-syllable words and then two, three, four, five and six syllable words as well.

By mastering English phonics, students will be in the optimal position to be able to learn to read, write and comprehend English. English phonics is the key skill necessary for ESOL students to master in order to be able to achieve success in learning English as a Second Language!

First of all, it is all but impossible to find an online Orton-Gillingham program that offers direct instruction for older students and adults.

Do a web search for “Orton-Gillingham online instruction” or “Orton-Gillingham online instruction for adults”. You will find many online courses designed for the teacher who desires to become certified as an Orton Gillingham instructor, and you will also find Orton-Gillingham instructors who offer online instruction. The average cost across the United States for an Orton-Gillingham trained tutor is $108 per session. But what you are not likely to find in such a search is an online program that offers a reading course that an individual can enroll in on his own where he can teach himself to read and spell using Orton-Gillingham-based instruction.

The We All Can Read Online Program is unique because it offers an online Orton-Gillingham-based reading program for the cost of $54 per month for an all-inclusive subscription that allows access to all 720 of our online lessons. Students are able to proceed at their own pace and teach themselves phonics in the privacy of their own home without the necessity of hiring a tutor or teacher. Most Orton Gillingham instruction is extremely expensive and out of the economic reach of most middle-class individuals/families. But with our program one does not have to spend a fortune to access state-of-the-science instruction! And our system works!

There are so many variables. The age and maturity of the individual is a factor. Some students have a better background in reading than do others. Some learn faster. Some put more time in per day. Some students have a higher degree of motivation to learn than do others. So there is no one set answer as to how long it will take. But for anyone starting from the very beginning, it will probably take at least a year to complete all 720 lessons. But the good news is that individuals usually begin to see improvement almost immediately, even within the first 10 free lessons. Then the further one proceeds into the lessons, the more improvement one can expect to experience.

Learning phonics is a skill-based activity much like learning to play a musical instrument. The more one can practice, the better will be the results. A person who spends one-half hour each day in the lessons will make faster progress than will a person who is able to allot only fifteen minutes a day. But even 15 minutes a day devoted to working in the lessons can have a very powerful and immediate effect in terms of a person improving in his reading and spelling skills. Each lesson on average takes about 15 minutes to complete.

Not at all. It is relatively rare to find someone who cannot read at all, someone who is totally illiterate. Most older students and adults will recognize many if not most one-syllable words and be able to spell many of those words as well. But these same individuals will struggle to identify any word they encounter that they have not already memorized because they don’t know how to sound out words. Sounding out words is a key skill in phonics. Memory is a useful tool in reading, but for one who struggles with reading, memory can only go so far and is not by itself enough to enable one to become a fluent, successful reader. As words increase in complexity and become two, three, four, five and even six syllables in length, memorization is not enough. One must learn to analyze the sounds represented by the letters in the word to decode those words correctly and to spell them accurately as well.

Our program, any phonics program, must begin with the basic units of sound represented by consonants and short vowels. Thus it is necessary to begin instruction with short, one-syllable words. Our program uses nonsense words in the first half of the program to address this very issue. Most older students and adults will recognize one-syllable words. But with a nonsense word, no memory component is involved. View this page to watch the video that introduces nonsense words to students.

While this program by necessity begins with using one-syllable words to teach phonics, the concepts will gradually, systematically grow in complexity. Ultimately students will learn to read and spell four, five and six syllable words.

The We All Can Read Program is thorough and comprehensive. Some students require a great deal more repetition than do others to master concepts and skills. Our program’s philosophy has always been to provide an abundance of material for each new discrete element introduced so that even the most challenged student will have enough material to access in order to master the concept/skill being taught. However, not all students will require the same amount of repetition to learn a new concept/skill and thus do not need to complete the same number of lessons. Our lessons are ordered so that it is possible for the more advanced students to skip lessons or portions of lessons when appropriate.

In order to meet the needs of students who represent such a large cross spectrum in terms of age and background, we offer three instructional tracks that the teacher or student can choose between. The three tracks are not absolute and set in stone but rather represent a continuum of options for the teacher or student to choose between. View this page for more information on our three instructional tracks of instruction.