The Reading Made Simple Method Explained

​The Reading Made Simple method: How and Why Reading Made Simple Works

​Reading Made Simple is a highly structured programme of synthetic (building from sounds to words), systematic Phonics that utilises what is called the spiral method of teaching phonics. The spiral method emphasises the introduction of concepts slowly, over time and gives pupils plenty of practice and repetition.                                                                                                                                                               
Reading Made Simple teaches phonics through a process of incremental development and continual review.

How does Reading Made Simple use Incremental Development?

Reading Made Simple breaks the learning of phonics down into small, manageable pieces.    
Reading Made Simple introduces these pieces a little at a time and lets phonic concepts build upon one another. This incremental development, as it is called, is designed to spread skills and knowledge development out over time, developing confident readers and writers.

Reading Made Simple chunks phonic information; that means it presents phonic concepts in bite-sized pieces, over a longer period, so that learning becomes less of a strain on a student’s working memory, leading to longer-term information retention and lessening frustration in the long run. This is the main component that makes it suitable for all children, including those with a processing difficulty of any kind.

Reading Made Simple is based on well-established and long-standing educational studies. ​

Continual Review

The other feature that characterises Reading Made Simple is the importance placed on continual review, practice and assessment. 
With Reading Made Simple, phonic concepts are reviewed and practised periodically, integrating older concepts into newer lessons and cumulatively giving children lots of practice and repetition over the course of the programme. Drawing on experiential knowledge of the points in learning where many pupils falter, extra practice has been built in to help children progress as seamlessly as possible. The lesson packs available for the special needs streams (both Tom and Jack stories) provide the more intense study needed by these pupils and are available to schools and home educators on enquiry.

By placing a stronger emphasis on practice, repetition and dictations, Reading Made Simple can help with information retention and in making phonic skills more automatic (known as procedural fluency), leading to greater reading and writing fluency, and further, to good reading comprehension.

Because this constant repetition and practice is done over time, the learning of phonics can therefore be less frustrating and stressful for some children,  particularly those who tend to get overwhelmed by too much information too soon, whereas those without any difficulties make good progress with ease.

Conclusion

Reading Made Simple may look from the outside like any other phonic programme. On the inside, it differs much, especially from Level 1 onwards. Find out more!

About Reading Made Simple