My seventeen-year reading experiment with Ella is over. It seems like only yesterday that we found out we were pregnant with her, and I started thinking about teaching her to read. I vowed from the very beginning that I would do everything I could, using everything I’d learned as a teacher and as a parent of two excellent readers, to ensure she reads well.
When I think back to that time the word desperation comes to mind. By that time, I’d learned how important reading well is for children and I was desperate to ensure Ella was a great reader. I was also desperate to prove that the way I teach reading is effective.
And, man, was it a successful experiment!
You may be thinking, “Why are you saying the experiment is over now?” As a former teacher, I hesitate to say it, but it is because of standardized testing. Ella has taken the last big reading test of her pre-college career. Last summer, she took the ACT exam for the first time. She did very well overall (stupid math brought her down a bit), but in the reading section she scored 36. That’s as high as you can score on the ACT. She did not miss a single question in the reading part.
Based on her testing history, I was not surprised. While waiting for her score report I had decided that if she gets a 36, that will be the final proof. I also decided I would share how she was able to do it. I need to share how she did it because I firmly, unequivocally, and without hesitation believe that if other parents start as early as I did, and work as hard as we did, and use the same method, their children can be very successful. I cannot guarantee a 36 on the ACT reading section, but I can guarantee those children will be reading to the best of their ability.
This is the final report on my reading experiment.
The experiment was initiated because I was desperate to ensure that Ella is a good reader and to prove my method of teaching is effective. On the former, I was desperate because as a teacher I saw how successful in school good readers are, but also because I saw how much of a struggle school is for poor readers. I also wanted Ella to have the same experience with success her two older siblings had. Witnessing year after year the struggles of poor readers left a deep impression on me. It is not a pretty sight.
I first started teaching reading in 1993. In 1996 I began teaching reading in a way that was not common at the time. I won’t spend time going in-depth about the method, but suffice it to say, it still isn’t common. I taught my first two kids to read this way and then thought I was done until I had grandkids.
But life had different plans by bringing our miracle baby to us. When I found out we were pregnant I was stunned, then excited. It didn’t take long before I was thinking about teaching that new baby to read. I’d say that is the moment the experiment started.
That was a little early, maybe. I did start reading to Ella en utero, but not at the point she was only a few cells. I’m not that crazy. I waited until she was moving around a bit and then I started reading.
I’m not that crazy, but I’m a little crazy when it comes to teaching reading. I wish I could bottle that crazy and sell it. The sequence of things that have happened during my life are somewhat unique and what drove me to this point. That is an entire book on its own though, so I won’ t include it here. Since I can’t bottle it, I hope what I’m sharing here will serve as that bottle. Drink up, reader!
As mentioned, I started reading to Ella en utero. I don’t know if that is effective. There is research that supports it. It sure didn’t hurt anything and I’m sure Jennifer enjoyed all those picture books.
The real experiment started after Ella was born. I’ll lay out the plan now.
The first step in the experiment was to flood Ella with language. This included reading, of course, but also talking and singing.
Step two came much later and involved teaching Ella 70 phonograms and the 109 associated sounds.
Step three started soon after step two and was mostly concurrent. As she learned the phonograms and sounds, she started learning to blend the sounds to form words.
The final step was to read. This sounds simplistic, but it was a lot of work in the beginning, and it continued for all those years leading up to the ACT test where she scored 36 and completed the experiment.
That was the setup of the experiment. Doesn’t sound difficult. It was based on the experiences I’d had before Ella was born. This experiment was to be much more rigorous than how I’d taught my first two children to read. Those experiences with my first two had a great impact on teaching Ella to read.
Before we begin documenting the experiment, though, I want to share that I blogged about Ella’s learning to read experience. The blog covered our experience from birth to the point she started reading on her own. You can read about it here: http://www.teachingellatoread.wordpress.com.
Now we can get started!
I did not read to Ella in the hospital. There was a lot going on and I’ll stipulate once more, I’m not crazy. When we got home, though, I read to Ella that first day. The book we read was Snuggle Up, Sleepy Ones, which became one of Ella’s favorite books. It was worn and tattered in the end. Ella was lucky to have two siblings to read to her as well. Lauren was 15 and Hayden was 11 when Ella was born. With two parents and two siblings reading to her, she was flooded with reading.
I could share many stories about how we read, talked, and sang to Ella, but that is not what this is for. Plenty of stories in the blog, though.
Now, let’s move on to step two: teaching Ella the phonograms. There’s a story behind my discovery of the phonograms that I enjoy sharing whenever possible. My journey in introducing and using them with my children was nothing short of miraculous. If you’re interested, you can read more about that elsewhere—it’s an absolute page-turner!
By now, you’ve probably picked up on how excited I was to teach Ella to read. After two years of daily reading, plenty of talking, and a bit of lousy singing, I decided it was time to introduce her to phonograms. After all, I’d heard stories of kids learning to read at two—why not Ella?
Of course, that was way too early. But no harm done—Ella didn’t mind me showing her flashcards while saying the sounds. It was just another way for her to hear speech, so I don’t feel bad about it. Was it a little ridiculous to start that soon? Absolutely. But hey, I was just excited to get the process started!
I went back to what I had been doing. Sometime around here I started singing the phonograms sounds to Ella instead of the alphabet song. I’m a lousy singer, but she didn’t seem to mind. Letter sounds are so much more important than letter names. I can still remember thinking, I bet she will learn them faster once we start thanks to my singing. Despite my less-than-perfect singing, it didn’t do her any harm—no matter what I imagined in my head.
It was another year or so of constant language directed at Ella before I brought out the phonograms in earnest again. This time they took, and we were on our way to reading. It was time to see the fruits of all that previous labor.
The importance of waiting until a child is ready can’t be overstated. I’ll admit, though, during that time after the first failed attempt I probed for Ella’s readiness upon occasion. I did that because I also believe when a child is ready, it is important to get started. It was all part of the experiment.
It was slow going in the beginning, of course. This is true of much new learning. The program is built on only introducing a few phonograms at a time and ensuring they are known very well. This is important because once it is time for a child to start blending the phonograms together to make words, they can’t spend time thinking about the sounds of the phonograms.
Again, I will not spend much time going into detail on the experiment. Need I remind you of the blog where there is much detail? I’ll just tell you that it was a challenge as a parent both with teaching the phonograms and watching Ella blend them to make words. It was achingly frustrating in the beginning.
But again, just as with most learning, slowly but surely Ella got better and better. It snowballed, in fact. The more work we did, the better she became, and the faster she got better. No surprise there. The work must be done.
Once she knew most of the alphabet phonograms, I had her start reading from a series of very basic beginner books call Bob Books. It was exciting to watch her improve and realize she was reading books for real.
We used a web site called Book Adventure once she started reading more advanced books. At Book Adventure she read books and was then able to take tests over the books. This was a great way to ensure she read with comprehension as well as a great motivator. At the time I was a huge believer in defining a goal to work toward and with Book Adventure, Ella’s goals were based on earning points for each test taken and passed.
If I were to do this experiment again, I would rely more on intrinsic motivation and less on extrinsic motivation. I’ve recently read research that recommends this approach. The danger of extrinsic motivation is that children will believe they should read for a prize and miss out on learning the joy of reading. I guess we dodged a bullet on that one because Ella does enjoy reading.
One thing that started happening as Ella improved, I found inexplicable at the time. She started reading words she had never seen before as if she had seen them before. Because I had read with her so much, I knew every word she had read before and was accustomed to seeing words coming up with which I knew she would need help.
After about a year, though, she started reading those words almost instantly. Just like all the words I knew she knew. It blew my mind at the time. I was like, “How the heck did she know that word?”
I had no idea at the time what was going on, but I do now. A couple years ago I was listening to a podcast called Sold a Story when I heard this discussed during one of the episodes. Come to find out, it is called orthographic mapping. Learning to read with phonograms helps to create a map in a child’s brain that connects letters and the sounds they make. The better they get at mapping, the faster they can read words. That’s what was happening with Ella. I am happy that this experiment introduced me to orthographic mapping because developing this is one of the most important things that can happen to a reader.
I continued to both put names to things I’d seen during the experiment and learn completely new things. As I started the experiment, I knew I would be more consistent and structured with Ella. But all the new knowledge was a huge bonus! The experiment was more effective than I’d imagined it could be because of it.
After much work, Ella mastered all 70 phonograms and the 109 associated sounds. I have video proof of her accomplishment. Video proof that took an inordinate amount of effort. It is difficult for a four-year-old child to maintain focus long enough to give 109 sounds of 70 phonograms. After many attempts, Ella did it! Did she need to do it? No. That was just for me.
Upon completion of that vanity project, I continued to provide Ella with progressively more challenging books to read. This was a crucial part of the experiment because without more challenging books, she would not have grown the way she did.
At this point, the hard work was done. It was sometimes a challenge to keep Ella reading. She tends to read voraciously for a while and then not read at all for a while. I fought the not-reading-at-all phases before realizing that’s just how she operates. Her voracious periods more than made up for the not-reading periods.
I tried to motivate Ella to read by recommending good books and praising her when she was reading. I didn’t go back to rewarding her for reading as I had done earlier in the experiment. She managed to find a lot of books she enjoyed and that was great motivation for her. I also read many of the books she read so we could discuss them, and she seemed to enjoy that. I mostly enjoyed her choices. I wrote a blog post on this strategy if you would like to learn more.
It was amazing to see the books she was capable of reading. So many great books, including many of the classics during her high school years. I believe this experiment shows that if children are capable readers, the cast of books they are willing to read expands exponentially.
I could have ended the experiment once she started reading books like this and that would have been legitimate. But honestly, I didn’t even remember it was an experiment at the time. That ACT test brought it all back to me. After that, I knew I had to write a report detailing the experiment. I’m glad I could share this with you.
Reflecting on this seventeen-year experiment, my motivation was rooted in both a deep desire to ensure Ella would thrive as a reader and to prove that the method I use is as effective as I believed. Witnessing the struggles of poor readers and the success of strong ones, I was determined to give Ella every possible advantage, and to show, both to myself and others, that a structured, consistent, and early approach to reading could yield remarkable results. The outcome speaks for itself: Ella’s ACT reading score is not just a testament to her hard work, but to the effectiveness of this method. I firmly believe that if parents begin early, remain dedicated, and use these strategies, their children, too, can reach their fullest reading potential. I encourage every parent to embrace this journey—not just for the scores, but for the lifelong joy and empowerment that results from becoming an excellent reader.
