Easy-for-Me™ Teaching Manual 1

Stories and visuals serve as potent instruments for engaging and educating children. Young learners naturally gravitate toward visual stimuli, stories that captivate their imagination, and interactive, tactile experiences. When crafting each letter of the alphabet, align its shape with a recognizable object. This association links the letter's form with its corresponding sound. By incorporating images, children can seamlessly connect letter shapes with their phonetic sounds. The addition of stories and imagery reinforces the memorization of letters and their associated sounds. Furthermore, the inclusion of hands-on and tactile activities enhances the learning experience.

Teaching the alphabet in the traditional alphabetical order, as seen in the alphabet song, isn't inherently magical or more effective. Letters in words don't always follow the alphabetical sequence either. Alphabet Tales takes a different approach by presenting the alphabet in a deliberate order that enables young learners to construct simple words right away. This approach offers a clever and practical way to demonstrate the purpose of letters to children. For instance, Alphabet Tales introduces the Letter A and its associated sound first, followed immediately by the letter T. This allows children to form the word "AT." Subsequently, the introduction of the letter C forms the word "CAT," and so on. By showing the practical application of letters and their sounds, Alphabet Tales provides a more meaningful and engaging way for young children to learn.

Sight words are critical in early literacy because they make up 80-90% of the words children encounter in text, and recognizing them instantly greatly simplifies reading, improving fluency and comprehension. These high-frequency words, such as "the" and "and," enhance reading fluency, comprehension, and confidence, laying the foundation for more advanced literacy skills, reducing cognitive load, and supporting performance on standardized tests and overall language development. In a nutshell, mastering sight words is essential for building strong reading skills in children.

SnapWords® are designed to cater to diverse learning styles, particularly accommodating visual learners who benefit from associating words with images, seeing the whole word before delving into details like phonics, spelling, and decoding. This approach begins with presenting the entire word, allowing learners to establish a visual memory of the word's form before exploring spelling patterns and phonics rules, ultimately empowering them to tackle more complex, unfamiliar words. While sequential methods typically start with teaching details before introducing the whole word, SnapWords® recognize that right-brain dominant learners thrive by grasping words and phonics holistically.

For individuals with a left-brain dominant learning style, who think in words and handle abstractions adeptly, the images on the front of the cards may appear redundant or distracting. The unadorned word on the back may align better with their preferences. However, for right-brained visual learners, the inclusion of images is indispensable. These images enable them to create a mental picture and store the entire word in visual memory, matching their cognitive style. This image then serves as a recall anchor, even when they encounter the plain word. If asked how they remember the word while reading, they will often attribute it to the image stored in their visual memory.

SnapWords® take a comprehensive approach by incorporating body motion to engage kinesthetic learners, activating body memory. Additionally, the inclusion of sentences aids in comprehending and using words correctly within the context of sentences. This multifaceted method ensures that SnapWords® address various learning preferences and provide a holistic learning experience.

Embrace a holistic approach to learning to read, one that engages multiple regions of the brain and the body—a comprehensive "whole body/brain learning" strategy. This method taps into the brain's optimal learning mode, which is through sensory input encompassing body movement, visuals, tactile experiences, and tangible objects, as opposed to static images. To effectively support kinesthetic learners, consider the following tips: encourage physical replication, link abstract concepts to tangibles, involve hands-on learning, employ multimodal teaching, and integrate problem-solving with tangible objects. 

Complete the learning cycle to ensure the learning process forms a full circle. When you teach through all three modalities, the second step involves allowing the child time to deepen their understanding by drawing, writing a phrase using the new word, and illustrating it. The final step is when the child can articulate and demonstrate what they've learned, showing you the drawings they've created and discussing their learning journey. This process ensures that information is absorbed, organized, and committed to long-term memory, and then it is shared verbally and tangibly—an exceptionally effective and beautiful learning approach.