| Why Hooked on Phonics Works |
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We all want our children to be happy, successful, well-rounded kids. With that goal in mind, our mission at Hooked on Phonics® is to create educationally sound tools that are fun for kids and easy for parents to measurably improve their children’s learning and help them reach their full potential. Our products are expressly designed to build children’s confidence and ensure success.
Hooked on Phonics content is:
- based on current research about how children learn best
- developed with the help of leading educators
- tested with kids
- interactive and fun
- presented in colorful, vibrant, visually appealing ways
| Approach & Techniques |
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Over two million families and thousands of schools have turned to Hooked on Phonics® products because of our unique, proven learn-practice-play approach. We provide children with bite-sized pieces of new information in every lesson so they are able to master each new concept and achieve success every night.
The easy-to-follow learn-practice-play approach works like this:
Learn new skills or concepts.
Practice the concept until it is mastered.
Play fun games or read great books to apply and reinforce new knowledge.
Children learn at their own pace, mastering each new skill before they move on to the next. Practicing and reinforcing new skills is designed to be fun, and every experience ends with a celebration.
| Understanding Phonics |
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What is Phonics?
Phonics is method of teaching reading, based on sounding out letters to read words. Let’s say you learn that the letter i makes the /i/ sound, and the letter t makes the /t/ sound. When you read these sounds together, /i//t/, you have the word it. You just learn to read the word it using phonics. It’s that simple!
Why Choose Phonics?
Research shows that phonics instruction produces significant benefits for children of all ages, abilities, and socioeconomic backgrounds. Research has also shown that systematic phonics instruction is a valuable and essential part of a successful reading program. The Hooked on Phonics Learn to Read instructional approach is based on this research, building systematically from letters and sounds, to reading words, sentences, and stories for meaning.
Word Recognition
It is well documented that the ability to recognize words is a critical factor in beginning reading development. Through the Hooked on Phonics Learn to Read workbooks, library of books, and Visual Phonics™ DVDs, children are exposed to words both in isolation and in context, with exercises designed to help achieve automaticity.
The Role of Print Exposure
The more children read, the more opportunities they have to develop fast, automatic word recognition and decoding skills, which are the building blocks of great readers. Hooked on Phonics Learn to Read includes books and stories by award-winning authors and illustrators that are integrated into the program to correspond with the child’s specific decoding ability and level.
Readability
Children vary in the amount of practice they need to decipher a word, and reading text that is tied to their independent reading level (90 to 95 percent readability) is critical. Designed to instill confidence and success, the Hooked on Phonics Learn to Read library of stories and storybooks are at least 90% readable. This means that when a child finishes a lesson, he has learned the decoding skills to read at least 90% of the words in the next story or storybook with no help.
Sound-Symbol Relationships
Studies have demonstrated that the best predictor of early reading ability is a child’s understanding of how words are made up of sounds. Hooked on Phonics Learn to Read provides instruction in sound-symbol correspondence and practice in these associations at the word and sentence level.
Phonics and Reading Together
Perhaps most importantly, research shows that systematic phonics instruction combined with reading is the most effective way to develop good reading skills. Hooked on Phonics Learn to Read includes books and stories woven into the program at the appropriate level so the child can read for meaning and enjoyment.
| Homeschooling |
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More and more families are making the decision to homeschool their children as an alternative to public or private schools. The National Center for Educational Statistics estimates that in 2007 over 1.5 million families were homeschooling, and that number continues to grow (see NHES report). If you are one of these parents or caregivers, Hooked on Phonics products are a powerful tool for education in a homeschool setting. Easy and effective lessons make for confidence and success. Whether you are new to homeschooling or a seasoned veteran, Hooked on Phonics gives children the fundamentals to become successful learners. The instructional approach and techniques used in our programs are based on research and address each stage of a child’s cognitive development.
| Research |
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