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What makes our books easy to use
For the instructor: BRI (Beginning Reading Instruction) stories are designed to do the heavy lifting of literacy instruction – the main requirements for the teacher are telling the pupil to 'Say the sounds and read the word'; stepping in to correct errors; and using the questions supplied to cultivate speech, language and communication and enhance comprehension. A few minutes with the Getting Started with BRI guide will equip even an inexperienced parent/grandparent/carer with the knowledge to confidently embark on their homeschooling journey. Whilst for the classroom teacher, BRI provides the abundance of extra decoding practice that many pupils need to prevent them from falling behind. Initial and Mastery Assessments offer transparent proof of progress.
For the learner: the clarity and simplicity of instruction, the meticulous introduction of each letter(s)/sound correspondence, the varied practice within lively decodable stories, and questions designed to cultivate communication and comprehension combine to make the process of learning to read as straightforward as possible. Rigorous attention to decoding through-the-word facilitates blending and segmenting skills, allowing automaticity to develop. Damaging habits like guessing are eliminated from the start. The adventures of lively, mischievous animal characters stimulate children’s interest and imagination, aiding the transfer of new information to long-term memory.
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ARI (Advanced Reading Instruction) is a continuation of BRI’s easy-to-use decodable readers underpinned by the scientific principles of Synthetic Phonics. The programme gradually builds in word and sentence complexity until a competent, confident reader emerges.
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MRI (Mature Reading Instruction) follows this tradition, with over eighty darker and more nuanced decodable stories, poems and plays, from Macbeth to Medea, for teenagers and adults. MRI’s flexible Lesson Plans include Comprehension and Discussion Questions, Storyboarding, Oracy, Prosody, Spelling, Vocabulary Development, Phoneme Breakdown, Sentence Reworking, Syllable Chunking, Crosswords, and Recall Quizzes.
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Level your child should start with
Four-to-five-year-olds embarking on their literacy journey should start with BRI (Beginning Reading Instruction) Level 1A. The five sounds and three words of the first few expressive stories provide the gentlest possible introduction to reading.
For slightly older children who still struggle with foundational skills, the BRI Initial Assessments ascertain the appropriate Level at which to start; anyone comfortably passing the Level 3 Assessment should move on to ARI (Advanced Reading Instruction) Level 1 Initial Assessment.
For teenagers and adults who have fallen through the educational net, the MRI (Mature Reading Instruction) Initial Assessments indicate the optimum Level to start.
For all programmes, a Mastery Assessment, on completion of each Level, provides confidence-boosting proof of improvement for student and tutor alike.
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How to help a child struggling to read
There are many reasons learning to read can be a struggle; sometimes as simple as unclear instruction and insufficient practice or poor memory/concentration; sometimes more serious developmental issues or cognitive impairment.
BRI-ARI’s decodable books are designed to tackle these issues, based on decades of scientific evidence and widely-trialled classroom practice. The programme focuses intensively on the essential skills of blending and segmenting as each new piece of the English Alphabetic Code is introduced with the utmost care and repeated in varied contexts. By embedding instruction within stories, children’s attention is immediately engaged, their communication skills encouraged and recall enhanced, with the tales themselves acting as a hook to long-term memory.
Each of BRI (Beginning Reading Instruction) and ARI (Advanced Reading Instruction)’s hundreds of little tales also comes with a series of questions designed to enhance comprehension, speech, language and communication.
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How to teach older children, teenagers and adults to read
MRI (Mature Reading Instruction) offers a second chance to those who have fallen through the educational net.
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The clear, gradual and much-practiced introduction of each new fragment of the English Alphabetic Code provides the essential framework for developing the elements of true literacy – comprehension, fluency, vocabulary, prosody.
The programme’s abundance of stories, plays and poems from around the world provide a wealth of cultural capital whilst detailed Lesson Plans ensure that every student reaches their potential.
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Please see our Blog Teaching a Struggling Child, Teen or Adult How to Read for more information.