Lesson Plans and Homeschooling
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How important are lesson plans in homeschooling? They depend a great deal on the personality of the parent who is homeschooling, but most see the great benefit of well-structured lesson plans. Lesson plans will enable parents to provide the structure that is needed for children to learn and apply the information being taught. In teaching reading, for example, the structure and sequence are far more important than most may realize.
A study conducted at Harvard by Dr. Jean Chall concluded that about 70 percent of individuals will learn to read regardless of the method employed, but 30 percent will not. This is because roughly 30 percent are accessing a different part of their brains when dealing with language. Reading instruction done systematically is a more effective way for any reader, but for that 30 percent, it is a necessity. These learners already have an issue with processing language, even verbal language sometimes, and putting information in sequence is difficult for them. “Naturally this will affect their ability to read and spell correctly. After all, every word consists of letters in a specific sequence. In order to read one has to perceive the letters in sequence, and also remember what word is represented by the sequence of letters in question” (http://www.audiblox2000.com/dyslexia/sequencing.htm). As they struggle working linearly, left-to-right, they often sound out the word, pronouncing letter sounds out of sequence. Sequence is something that must be taught and practiced for these learners to find success.
The National Reading Panel has found that programs that teach phonics systematically and explicitly are the most effective. Systematic phonics instruction is an organized method of teaching children the letter-sound relationships in a manner that starts with the simplest concepts and builds to the more complex. Some of us may have been taught this way when we were younger, but even so, most of us do not remember the sequence or how we were taught. Dr. Sally Shaywitz has said, “What is so critical and so unique about learning phonics in this way is that it allows the reader to apply his accumulating knowledge to deciphering and reading words he has never seen before. No other method of teaching reading can make this claim” (Shaywitz, Overcoming Dyslexia, p. 200). If we want to give children this systematic, explicit phonics instruction, we need to have a solid resource that helps us teach this information in the most effective sequence. This is where lesson plans become vital in helping with our instruction.
Reading Horizons offers scripted lessons plans in easy-to-use manuals that help parents know what to instruct and how to instruct this invaluable information. The practice pages, games, and software are all correlated to the manual to support the sequence. The software also teaches the sounds and skills in the same explicit fashion. This program follows all that research has said is essential to produce efficient readers. The few minutes it may take in preparing the lesson will pale in comparison to the return of confident, empowered readers.
Shantell Berrett has a B.A. in English specializing in reading and dyslexia. She has three wonderful kids ages 13, 11, and 7. Her 11 year old son has dyslexia and is the reason she works in this field in writing, research and educating in schools and at home. Visit her website at ReadingHorizonsAtHome.com.
