The Writing Road to Reading was one of the first purchases I made when I began to teach my son. It was recommended on classical-homeschooling.org as being a great resource for teaching reading to children. It really is a great resource!
The Writing Road to Reading teaches a phonics based method for learning to read. Unlike other phonics programs it recommends using writing as the means to teach phonics. Children learn to write each letter as they learn the sounds that each one makes. As time goes on, they are quizzed by writing the correct letter for the sound they hear.
After the letter sounds are learned, the student progresses to learning the rest of the 70 phonograms (letter combinations that make certain sounds). The same method is used to learn these. You simply show the child a flash card with the phonogram written on it and then say each sound to him. He says that sound(s) back to you and writes the letters.
What I love about this method is that it is so thorough. Children are not taught just the main sound that a letter (or letter combination) makes, instead from they start they learn each sound that the phonogram makes. Both of my children caught on very quickly to this method.
Here is a post that I wrote almost two years ago showing a bit more about how I began using this book with my son: Reading and Writing in Action
Once you have the phonograms down, you move on to learning words from a very long list in the back of the book (it covers many years of instruction). Each child keeps a writing notebook where they can write the words that they learn. The point is for them to have a place to reference the words they have learned and study how they look and which rules they follow.
The Writing Road to Reading has a marking system where the child breaks apart each word they learn and notes which sound each letter makes, the breakdown of syllables, and any rules that are needed to read the word correctly. This is a little tricky to follow at first, but it really helps once you get the hang of it.
Here are a few pictures of what my son’s writing notebook looked like the first year.
The first part of the notebook where my son would write the phonograms and words I quizzed him on each day.
The second part of the notebook where I wrote each new word we learned, marking it according to the system.
This year I added teaching the spelling rules that The Writing Road to Reading incorporates. They are really helpful rules (many that I did not know!) and are not too hard to remember. I veered a bit from the recommendation of the book and made my own notebook that has one rule per page. We go over one rule per week and write down a few words that follow the rule. The idea is that once all the rules are learned, we will go through the word list in the book and add the words we learn to their appropriate rule column. Here is an example of one of the pages:
The one thing that should be noted is that The Writing Road to Reading is not a lesson plan type of curriculum (though I think you can get that from the Spalding website). While the book is very detailed in explaining the method, and contains a great wealth of information, you have to put together the lessons. I loved putting together these plans when I was teaching my son (and my daughter took two naps each day!), but now that I have two to teach (at different reading/writing/spelling levels) I am finding it hard to spare the time to plan this all.
I wouldn’t change using this book for the world. I think the method is amazingly effective. My son is a fantastic reader (and a very young reader) because of these lessons, but if you don’t have the time to put into it this might not be the curriculum for you. If you can handle piecing information together into your own lessons, or if you only have one child you are teaching to read and write, I heartily recommend The Writing Road to Reading!
~written by Amy Maze
Great review! We used the Writing Road to Reading approach at a co-op that my daughter attended in her early years. I love their focus on writing, which gave my child a tangible reason to learn her phonics. We incoorporated writing into a lot of her homeschooling through the years, and this phonics approach has been a very helpful one for us, too. My daughter is a teen now, and still loves to write!
Thank you Betsy. Thanks for the great testimony of the principles taught in the Writing Road to Reading!
I use this with my son, too. I’ve also used it successfully with several ESL students. It’s great!
Awesome! Thanks for sharing your good experience!
I too have use The Writing Road to Reading with my children – it is fantastic!
Thanks for sharing! I think it is so helpful for parents to see other people’s comments when they are trying to decide on which resources to use with their children.
Have you tried Spell to Write and Read? It uses this method from Writing Road to Reading but in a useable format for homeschoolers. There are lesson plans and spelling lists and reference pages that the kids build. Once you know the method then I just pick it up and do the lesson for that day. Might just be the ticket for you.
You know, I read about that when I was trying to figure out what to use this year. So you have enjoyed using it? I recently started All About Spelling to help reinforce the spelling aspect of it all, and so far I really like it. I felt like I needed more of a plan for spelling, but was comfortable applying the principles from WRTR myself for reading and writing.
Thanks for the suggestion!
As a public school teacher for thirty years with a doctorate in Curriculum, I can say that the Writing Road to Reading program is second to no other phonics/spelling/handwriting/reading/writing program out there. Yes, it takes time but the ELA is totally integrated and takes time to teach in any format. Every other program I have seen does not have the depth or breadth of this curriculum. Sadly our district decided to “fizzle out” on its use (they removed the writing part to save time but then lost the handwriting and connection to letters and sounds making it less beneficial) due to perceived impact on learning and loss of wow factor. Ironically we have struggled the past 5-6 years to find something as effective. This program is the definitive method for teaching the English language skills.