Uncovering the Logic of English: A Common-Sense Solution to America's Literacy Crisis

Denise lays out in very simple way the complexities of learning and teaching reading. no matter what your age is you can benefit from LoE. You will find rules never heard of and ways to help your students to understand the English language in a new way.

Denise Eide has successfully answered the oft quoted, and false statement that "English spelling is inconsistent, illogical, and, for some, impossible." She has taken a complex subject, made it understandable, and provided a step by step process to teach ANYONE to read proficiently. There is no longer any excuse for a student schooled in America, whether at home or in a public or private setting, not to learn to read with comprehension by the time they complete first grade. There can no longer be any reason that a middle school student, or an adult who was mis-taught cannot be rescued and re-taught to read proficiently.Who needs to read and understand and apply the irrefutable information in "Uncovering the Logic of English?"* Professors in every college of education where elementary school teachers are being prepared to teach kindergarten, first, and second graders to read. Today, the overwhelming "philosophy" of reading instruction is based on the false and harmful belief that students learn to read the way they learn to speak. NOT SO...learning to read is a skill to be learned, just like one learns to play the piano, or the harp, or build a house. It requires a step by step set of rules that must be mastered if one is become a good pianist, or harpist, or carpenter.* Reading "coaches" and "reading supervisors" and "kindergarten, first, second, and third grade teachers. Sad to say, the giant publishing companies in America (four of which control 75% of the textbook market) print what they think teachers will buy. They do not care that the information presented is not based on decades of research. They do not measure the methods of instruction against what works....thus, school districts spend billions on textbooks that are dutifully used by untrained, but well intentioned teachers. And so, our illiteracy rates in America continue to burgeon each year...students are placed in Special Education, or drop out of school, or are underachievers, simply because they are not taught the basic logic of the English language.* Home School Moms, are probably the most well educated and savvy of all the teachers in America because they are not saddled with the false teaching "strategies" of whole language. There are other products being successfully used that can be used to teach a student to read, but "Uncovering the Logic of English" is one of the best, simplest to use, and most inexpensive teaching tool available today.* Education writers in popular periodicals or news outlets need to read this book. It will provide a basis for offering "a solution" the next time another report is released noting the poor student reading achievement that has lulled Americans into a trance of inaction, and continues to plunge countless students into a lifetime of greatly limited possibilities.* TV and Radio Talk Show hosts often pontificate about the low achievement of students in our schools, but usually offer no alternative solutions. This book offers some excellent "one liners" that can be quoted like: there are a "finite number of tools that unlock the mystery of 98% of the words in the English language. When these 104 tools are presented, all students can succeed." Or, there are "26 letters in the English alphabet, that represent 44 sounds, and there are 74 ways to spell those sounds and 30 "rules" that when applied make complete sense out of learning English. If these tools are learned, and they CAN be learned, in first grade for most, and no later than third grade for 95 % of students, then they can read what they can talk about and understand. No problem with comprehension either.* Everyone else who cares about the unacceptable illiteracy rate in America should read this book. You will find, as I did, that there are many helpful, interesting, and practical "rules of the road" that you will find fascinating as you explore your language.There is no magic involved here. It is simply applying what has been known since "Hornbooks," the "New England Primer," or Noah Webster's "Blue Backed Speller" were used to teach a nation to read proficiently, with fluency and comprehension.As my colleague Dr. Reid Lyon, Director of the National Institute of Child Health and Human Development says: "Denise Eide has written a gem of a book that brings light to the way in which words are read and spelled. This is a very useful book for teachers, parents and anyone interested in bringing the joy of reading to our nation's children."Dr. Robert W. Sweet, Jr.PresidentThe National Right to Read Foundation[...]

I heard about this book on a homeschooling listserv that I belong to. As a parent of at least one dyslexic child, I knew we needed an intensive phonics approach to reading and spelling. This book is absolutely amazing! I learned things I had never been taught myself, and I have a PhD!The book starts with an overall discussion of the often unknown fact that English is actually a very logical, phonetic based language. The problem is that most children in the US are never taught the full extent of the 104 phonic sounds that make up the English language. If a child understands these 104 phonetic rules, that child will be able to read (decode) 98% of ALL English words. While this may sound like a lot of rules for a child to remember, when teaching children "sight words" (or reading as if English were a pictorial language), children are often expected to memorize 100 words by First grade and over 300 sight words by 3rd grade. So, it is actually much easier for a child to teach intensive (or whole) phonics. Basically, sight words give a child a fish while phonics teaches a child to fish.The book then goes on to introduce these phonics rules in a fresh and engaging way. It is easy to read, doesn't bog you down with unnecessary information. It gave me enough information that I could use it as my reading/spelling spine for my children - then build our own curriculum from there. I am so happy to have found this book at the beginning of our journey.I would recommend this book to every parent and teacher in the country. It will truly revolutionize the way you think about the English language! It will also inform, if not transform, the way you teach reading and spelling. As a dyslexic myself, it was truly as if the "logic of English" was opened up for me. Wow!

This book was recommended in a blog I subscribe to. As a middle school language arts special education teacher (learning disabled) this has been a treasure. Many of my students have not learned the most common rules of english spelling and decoding. This book lays out rules for spelling and grammar that make sense. Reading and writing English is not a mysterious, complex code when one is familiar with the basic and more infrequent rules of the English language. This book has helped me craft a meaningful component of my Tier II Response to Intervention Reading/Writing Essentials class. I highly recommend it to any teacher who has ever wondered why "have", "give" and "live" don't follow the "CVC silent e" rule. There is a perfectly good reason and I will leave to you the pleasure of discovering it for yourself when you read this book.

Very good book for people struggling with pronunciation. The author explained all the phonics in detail - the reason I am giving four star is the phonics links in the book don't work on Kindle however, they work on iBook.