Review: Uncovering the Logic of English

[Mystie]

I just finished reading and reviewing Denise Eide's Uncovering the Logic of English. I thought I'd share some of my thoughts here, too. Anyone else read this book? What'd you think?

 

 

Denise Eide's Uncovering the Logic of English made it to the top of my to-be-read stack because I wanted to see what she had to say before I get started with real reading instruction for my newly-five-year-old daughter. If you did not receive phonetic reading instruction, or are a logical & systematic thinker, or were taught and believe that English doesn't make sense, then this little book could be a game-changer in the way you see the language and therefore the way you teach it.

 

 

 

Thankfully, my conclusion confirmed on every page was that the best thing to do was continue with TATRAS. TATRAS might not be as thorough in spelling rules as The Logic of English, but it teaches the big ones in the context of reading rather than writing (the gigantic rule & bicycle rule for hard and soft sounds, the cake rule, etc.), does teach vertical phonics (all the sounds of a letter or multi-letter phoneme at once), and does teach almost all the multi-letter phonemes she lists.

 

At least in our house, phonics and early reading instruction happens in 5-10 minute sessions on the couch two or three times a week with casual reinforcement as opportunities arise in normal life. For us, TATRAS isn't a program we follow so much as a tool I use to remind myself of the phonemes, phonograms, and rules so I can teach in bits and pieces as we go along, using the actual TATRAS binder as needed. I teach (or, at least, have taught) reading by feel rather than by system.

 

 

However, I now can see from Eide's book that this approach has worked for me because I am intuitive and my oldest two were intuitive (rather than logical) learners. They learned to read without much work or agony and could read fluently before I taught them all the phonograms or rules. It is the literal-logical thinkers, Eide says, who suffer the most from poor or incomplete phonics instruction. I have no idea what my next three reading students will be like, so I am glad for the reminder that vertical phonics and phonogram instruction are effective. If I end up with a literal-logical child (heaven help me), my current materials will work, but I will likely have to teach them more thoroughly and completely, not leaving loose ends as I did with the older two.

[Alessandra]

Thank you for this. It gets great reviews on Amazon -- I love this one:

 

Uncovering the Logic of English will be really helpful for teaching reading to children who are mathematical pattern thinkers...

--Temple Grandin author of Thinking in Pictures

 

and it is only $7.99 on Kindle!