All,
Merry belated Christmas! This is all I’m going to do–up to 42 sets, which is just a few word lists short of all of them in the back of Flesch’s great pro-phonics polemic, Why Johnny Can’t Read.
Download them here:
http://www.mediafire.com/FleschCards
Sets 31-42 are much bigger files, because I guess MediaFire now allows larger file sizes.
Also, I have revised my “How to Use These Cards” file (which I will reproduce below). It has a lot more detail than the old one.
Feel free to rehost/share these if you like (not for profit).
“DadDude”
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Some notes from the producer of these cards
Here’s how I started out my very young son reading, using these cards. First, some background. We had read a lot to him. In the end, that is much more important than working with flashcards. We both read and did these cards during mealtimes, when he was a “captive audience.†He recognized his ABCs by age 18-20 months, through a combination of many, many trips through alphabet books, the LeapFrog Alphabet Bus (any number of other tools would do the same), and probably some other tools.
We began with these cards at age 22 months, and he was physically able to pronounce all of the (simple) words on the cards. I was not just showing the cards; I did ask him to say the words on the cards. But it wasn’t as brutal as this may sound. We took it in stages and I was gentle every step of the way. Also: I went whole card set by whole card set, rather than adding new individual cards and retiring old.
Here is the step-by-step procedure we followed:
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The first time through a card set (typically, 12 cards), I didn’t ask him to say anything. I just read the word (while running my finger under it); then pronounced each letter slowly and clearly (“kkk–aaa–tt”); then a little faster; then put the whole thing together. Then I turned over the card and gave my boy the card, and talked about the picture. Sometimes, if the word was new, I would try to explain the meaning of the word in as simple terms as possible. Words I felt I couldn’t explain, I didn’t use (and are not in this package).
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The second time through the card set, I would begin by doing the slow-sounding-out thing. Then I would repeat, but speeding up a little. Then I would ask: what is it? And then he would get it, almost every time. After doing this several times, he would get the “game.” If he ever had any trouble with a word, I would, of course, simply read it for him. The aim was always to keep it low-pressure.
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The next few times through the cards, sometimes I would ask him to sound out the word, but he wasn’t as interested in this. He would usually just read the word right away, or else wait for me to sound it out, and then read it. Whether sounding it out himself out loud, silently, or having me do it, I think he got the idea.
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After he was reading all of the cards in a set without mistake or much of a pause (or me sounding them out at all), we’d move on to the next set.
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I taught him to say “that’s enough.” If he said “that’s enough” when we were doing cards, we would stop instantly and not do any more that day. If he seemed reluctant for a few days in a row, we’d take break for a week or so. If after a week or so we came back to cards and he still wasn’t interested, we’d take another break for a few weeks—even a month, once or twice. Then we’d come back to them and he’d be all interested again. I can’t expect it would work that way with everyone, but it worked that way for us–go figure.
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After a couple months (ten of Flesch’s word lists, or so), I don’t think I sounded out the words much at all after the first time through a set. I would sound out the words the first time and after that he’d be able to figure it out himself. Sometimes he would stare at a word without saying anything for a while, then he’d just come out with it. I think he was sounding it out in his head. He now (at age 3½) reads silently–very fast, as far as I can tell. I watch him reading books, over his shoulder, and I look at his eyes moving over the page. I obviously can’t tell if he’s catching all of the words, but the eyes are going back and forth very quickly and moving down the page quickly. He is able to answer questions about what he’s read.
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After a few more months (by the time we were to Flesch’s word lists 20-30 or so) I almost never had to sound out words in advance. I would just explain the new rule, maybe just giving an example or two, and then he would just read the new words perfectly the first time. But we kept doing the cards anyway, to solidify his phonetic understanding. I was glad we did.
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As he became better and better, his interest in the cards waned, and we rather gradually tapered off using cards. The last time I was regularly making new cards was a little over a year after we started. Since then I did make one set of cards but I felt rather silly doing it, because he knew the words perfectly well–it was pretty pointless. So that’s why I’m not going to be able to go over all of Flesch’s word lists, I’m afraid. If someone else wants to finish my work, I’ll be happy to upload it to the MediaFire space.
Frankly, the whole process was pretty painless, and I recommend it, but I am not a reading expert. I hope the step-by-step instructions above make it more plausible, if you’ve had doubts. If your child is old enough (obviously, this can’t be done with kids whose mouths/voices can’t make the sounds) and you don’t have any philosophical objections, try it and see if you have similar luck. Of course, your mileage may vary. I’d be curious to hear if anyone had an experience similar to ours, though. My wife, who witnessed the whole process, was totally convinced that it was my cards, more than Your Baby Can Read or anything else, that taught our son to read. I agree.
We just finished re-reading Pinocchio this evening, not at all an easy book for a 3-year-old, and he read most of the last page by himself, pretty quickly, with excellent intonation, even making the character voices and everything. At age 3 years 7 months, I think he’s sounding out words (not necessarily understanding them–that’s harder to measure) at about the fifth grade level.
Videos showing our progress:
http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=T9d38WJIV10 (29 months)
http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=46XbfN3c09A (33 months)
http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=8iHU2yAIu8U (40 months)
