The Rhyme and Reason Reading Program Digital Bundle
$99.00
Reading is the most important skill you’ll ever teach your students, and that’s kind of intimidating right?
Let me help you. The Rhyme and Reason Reading Program is a complete evidence-based reading program that you can use in your Montessori elementary classroom.
Description
eBook and Digital Files
The Guidebook:
- Every lesson you need is provided and scripted out. No guesswork. There are “adult-facing” notes for you to understand the material deeply, and “student-facing” notes to explain the concepts simply.
- There are 20 lessons which include phonemic awareness training, how to use the materials, history lessons, and spelling patterns of English. Follow up suggestions are provided for each lesson so you can provide meaningful practice for your students.
- There are historical lessons that help integrate the curriculum into The Fourth Great Lesson, and give a reason for some of the weirdness about English spelling.
- The scope and sequence is written out clearly, so you’ll always know what to do next. (Also the materials are numbered and color coded, so just keep chugging along the rainbow and you’ll do fine.)
- I hate doing things without knowing why. I’ve included explanations for every component of the program.
- The program is based on the science of reading, but I made sure to leave out the jargon. I explain what research shows to be the best practices in plain English.
- Authentically Montessori. I went back to Maria Montessori’s original writings about her Italian reading program (the one that brought her international acclaim), and demonstrate how The Rhyme and Reason Reading Program aligns with the Montessori method.
- Spelling is integrated at every level. You do not need a separate spelling program.
- The 300 page PDF book will be instantly delivered to you at checkout!
The Materials:
- Every material you need is provided in this download.
- The guidebook teaches you how to use all of these materials and I offer suggestions for organization as well.
- Every card is labeled for easy sorting and storage.
- 42 hand drawn picture cards for developing phonemic awareness. Each picture represents one of the forty-two sounds (phonemes) of English.
- 600+ black and white picture cards are the main material for the program. The front of the card has a minimalist image and the back of the card has the word written in print and cursive.
- 56 mini decodable readers, so your student can practice the skills they’ve learned.
- 56 flip booklets accompany each set of cards so that the student can practice decoding without picture clues.
- The printable digital files allow you to replace lost or damaged cards easily.
Bonuses:
- Diagnostic tests so you know where to start your students in the program. No guesswork.
- Digital materials get free updates for life.
- Suggested reading for the adult to learn more about the science of reading.
- Suggestions for organizing the materials in your classroom.
- Decodable reader book recommendations.
- Printable PDF downloads of all the charts in the book including the scope and sequence and spelling pattern frequencies.
Some further notes:
- All of the PDF files are designed to be printed double-sided.
- I print on cardstock paper. Personally, I don’t laminate.
- For the flip booklets, I cut up colored scrapbook paper to make the “covers.”
- See this blog post for storage suggestions. The largest card material is 3×3.5 inches.
This listing is only for the digital downloads, if you’re looking for a physical copy of The Rhyme and Reason Reading Program book, hop on over to Amazon.
This program is open source. Reach out to me through the contact form if you make Montessori materials and you want to make materials that will work with the Rhyme and Reason Reading Program.
Compatible Materials
This program was designed to be “open source.” If you are a Montessori material maker and you would like to make materials that work with this program, I welcome your collaboration. The link to your shop will be listed here. See this file for specifications.
- Your product could be here!
FAQ
Q: Is this program appropriate for children under six?
A: The core methodology is appropriate for children under six, and this program includes lessons on phonemic awareness, sandpaper letters, and the moveable alphabet. These can be taught to children starting at age three.
However, the lesson templates were written with the second-plane child in mind. The lessons include etymologies, histories, and are generally more wordy than is appropriate for a first-plane child. You will need to make modifications to suit their needs.
I prefer the watercolor images to the black-and-white pictures. Why did you switch art styles?
The watercolor images are hand drawn by me, It simply wasn’t feasible for me to hand-drawn 600+ images by myself.
Where can I find out more?
Visit the blog! I have written several posts related to the reading program.
2 reviews for The Rhyme and Reason Reading Program Digital Bundle
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David Murphy –
Dr Maria Montessori prided herself on being a scientist who based her ideas on careful observations and the science of her times. Following in Dr Montessori’s footsteps, Emily has investigated the latest research on reading, writing, and spelling to create a new reading program for the Elementary classroom. It’s apparent that she has put a lot of time, effort, and thought into this program, just as she does with all of her other original materials. (You should see her Timeline of Life!) The materials that accompany the book are attractive and easy to understand. As well as being well researched, the book is well organized, with every attempt to make the program easy to understand and easy to implement.
In Part I of the book, the research as to why English is so complex is laid out, and the author provides great background information on how English has evolved. In Parts II, III, and IV, the reading program is carefully laid out in a logical sequence. The materials are attractive, color-coded, and user-friendly. The sequence of lessons is easy to follow. There’s a wealth of information, including information about the individual sounds that English uses and the idiosyncrasies of English spelling. You get answers to questions that you never knew you had!
Without the crucial skill of reading, learners cannot access and use the keys that of Dr Montessori’s universe of Cosmic Education. As an AMI-trained, Elementary guide with over twenty years of experience, I highly recommend this new, evidence-based addition to reading programs for Montessori classrooms.
Trina @DIYCorportateMom –
This is the reading program I wish I started with. Although Emily classifies her program design more for the elementary child, the foundation and the structure of her program is one I would’ve appreciated – in hindsight, *needed* – at the beginning of even teaching my child letter sounds. What makes this more for the elementary child is the evidence-supported recommendation that writing is done with reading, which skips the younger preschool child’s essential stage of handwriting as a purely fascinating motor refinement without any meaning to the symbols.
I read the book from cover-to-cover, with a critical mind because the Montessori preschool approach we followed for my now-elementary learner had many gaps when it came to phonograms and an approach to sight words that actually have logical tools to decode instead of just memorize. Every critical question that I had was answered by Emily (don’t skip the FAQs) competently and concisely. Everything from cover-to-cover shows an evidence-based and deeply-planned program designed to fill in gaps that real learners experienced.
Emily will even tell you what alternative spellings she does NOT include so this open disclosure is helpful to DIY your own examples if needed for your child rather than leave it as a discovered gap in a critical moment when my child is reading (it’s happened often enough to us!).
What’s eye-opening about this program is that 1) it is faithful to a sound-based approach (the most developmentally correct learning approach to language) even with the more advanced phonograms (for example, her approach to decoding “le” such as “Apple” is phonetic instead of a spelling rule!); and 2) it faithfully uses Montessori principles to teach them : storytelling scripts and inviting hands-on materials scaffolded in a helpful order that has not been done in current reading programs. It’s pretty much the holy grail in reading programs!