Lorna Simmons, author of Saxon's Phonics program for the early grades, has created this remedial phonics program for students grade 4 through adult. It follows a very systematic, incremental approach to teach reading, spelling, and vocabulary. It teaches students "coding"—marking letters and groups of letters with both common and specialized marks (e.g., macrons for long vowels) to show their sounds within words.
The program is designed to be taught from the extensive teacher's manual. Lessons are scripted and include detailed instructions and tools for using all components of the program. Student workbooks are essential, but they are not self-contained and do not provide instruction.
The Classroom Materials component of this course includes an audio cassette for pronunication, a set of classroom master forms (for assessment and record keeping), plus six sets of laminated cards: letter cards (letters and letter clusters), picture cards (key words), spelling cards (teach regular patterns), sight word cards, and affix cards (prefixes and suffixes). This is an excellent program, but it's not for the fainthearted. It will require a good deal of presentation and interaction. But, if you have an older child who is not yet reading, this might be the best investment of your time.
