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Bridge to
Reading
Teach your child to read
Use
the Capabilities of a Computer to Enhance Learning
Bridge
to Reading is a computer program that takes a
child on the journey from being a non-reader to being a
beginning reader. From the first screen, the child is
reading a story. Pictures, sound, and animation provide a
context for reading and hold a child's interest.
Bridge to Reading has
a continually increasing reading level, both in
vocabulary and sentence complexity. It starts with 'Cat'
and moves slowly to 10-15 word sentences. Words are
gradually introduced through the events on the screen
that provide a meaningful context for their
comprehension. Introduction of new words is carefully
spaced out, so that previous words have become familiar,
but there is constant learning. Every word has at least
eight repetitions, several close to the place it was
originally introduced.
Each word is introduced in
such a way that its meaning is reinforced from the
context of the sentence and the graphics on the screen.
Since each use is within a meaningful context, the word
becomes a meaningful object, a word attached to a
concept. Conceptualization means that words are in
long-term memory, while things learned by rote are often
only in short term memory. The habits and skill of
reading English are also learned while reading the
story--the action moves from left to right, to reinforce
the directionality of the print. Children are shown that
sentences start with capital letters, and are introduced
to commas and question marks. Sentence structure and
syntax are learned naturally, by reading real sentences.
Bridge to Reading
concentrates on 105 of the most common words:
conjunctions, prepositions, article and "to be"
verbs. All of these are less tangible than concrete
nouns, and so may be more difficult to remember when not
presented in context. However, these are the words which
are very common in everything that we read, and facility
with them makes reading smooth and easy. The 100 most
common words make up about 50% of the words in children's
literature. Seventy-four of the words on the Dolch sight
word list are in Bridge to Reading. By
becoming familiar with these very common words, children
can concentrate on new words in the sentences, while if a
child stumbles on several words in a sentence, he may
lose the meaning of the sentence as a whole.
Because of the intensity
with which children work on it, thirty minutes is long
enough for a child to work on the story, even though most
children do not want to stop. Depending on the child,
they will finish the story in about 12 sessions, which
need not be on consecutive days. In our experience, after
a 3 week Christmas break, kindergartners remembered
everything they had already learned.
By the end of chapter
seven, children will have learned 105 of the most common
English words, and be used to reading sentences with
dependent clauses, prepositional phrases, conditional
sentences, gerunds, etc. Of course, they won't know the
names of these grammatical constructions, but they have
heard them and spoken them. Now they can read them. We
have found that some words that a child did not know when
pre-tested were known when they came up in the context of
the story. Reading for meaning is not only a powerful
motivation for reading, but it also helps focus and
organize things previously learned, including things
learned before the child started the program, or learned
elsewhere in than a formal education setting.
Real Learning
Bridge to Reading
is fundamentally different from most of the educational
games and 'edutainment' programs currently on the market.
It has no 'shoot-em-ups', high scores or other
distracting elements. In most educational programs, the
reward, in sound and animations, is extrinsic to the
action the child is supposed to perform; it is a treat
given for a trick. In this program, the reward is
intrinsic. That is, as in reading a book, the reward of
reading is to finding out what happens next. In using
this program the children spend 90—95% of their time
reading and spelling out text that is the core of an
interesting story. By reading and writing himself,
instead of being read to, the child is actively engaged
in the learning process.
All of the children with
whom we tested the program for at least 4 sessions were
able to read meaningfully by the end of that time. While
their vocabulary was still limited, they were reading and
comprehending the story (as shown by the fact that they
could discuss what they had just read, read with correct
inflection, and could select the correct word when a
sentence was given with a word missing, and a choice to
be made). Comprehension was not separate from reading the
story. All of the children we worked with enjoyed using
the program and were proud of their new skills.
We have also tested the
program with children at schools for the hearing impaired
and for children with ADD/ADHD and other learning
disabilities. Some of these children made slower progress
but all learned quite well. Their teachers agreed that Bridge
to Reading was very helpful with these children
Real Reading
is Reading for Meaning
With Bridge to
Reading comprehension is an integral part of
reading from the very beginning. The use of a computer
allows an engaging story to be conveyed, read and enjoyed
with an extremely simple vocabulary. Bridge to
Reading does not rely on the contrived sentences
of 'rhyming word' systems. From the first screen, there
is a plot and a continuing desire to know what happens
next. Pictures that move can illustrate new words, and
also provide an enticement for the child. The child
identifies strongly with the characters on the screen and
sees their own role as active, not passive.
Bridge to Reading
provides a 'bridge' for a child to cross from non-reading
to being able to actively read on his/her own. This jump
is the most difficult and generally the least rewarding
part of learning to read, because it usually involves the
rote memorization of things that have no meaning to the
child, instead of a real story. Once real reading has
been achieved, vocabulary grows easily as the child
eagerly reads more and more.
Most of the words in any
new text will be familiar to the child. The child will
also have learned skills in obtaining meaning from
context. In contrast, if reading is just another chore,
even a conscientious "good student" will read
only as much as he has to. Only reading for meaning is
fun. If the very first part of learning to read is easy
and engaging, reading will be seen as rewarding. Bridge
to Reading doesn't just teach reading, it also
teaches that reading is fun.
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