Frequently Asked Questions

Q.  Who can benefit from the American Dream Reading Program?

A.  Early readers…Attain a head start with the reading and language arts process which can begin as early as age 4.  These skills include the multi-sensory approach to reading and printing the letter sounds, decoding by covering every letter before the vowel, reading color words by configuration, and learning to discriminate among the b, d, p.
Accelerated first graders… Enhance learning in the first grade
Moderately-paced first graders…Prevent reading and language arts difficulties …. Typically, these are the children who are placed in the “middle reading groups” and who are not keeping up with the rest of their group.
Delayed first graders …Intervene to prevent reading and language problems… Without early intervention, these children could be retained or moved to a special education class.
Special needs children…Intervene using specific techniques to enhance learning and self-esteem
5%-6% of the population who cannot read at all

Q.  Who can teach this program?

A.  Elementary and special education teachers, parents, grandparents, guardians, mentors, tutors, etc. can find success for a child or a group of children through the use of the carefully guided repetitive instructions prescribed in the program.  Since each book comes complete with directions and is designed to teach phonics, reading, writing, and spelling there is no need for a separate teacher’s edition, a separate phonics book, a separate handwriting book, a separate reading book, etc.  The only prerequisite is the instructor use the INSTRUCTOR’S TABLE OF CONTENTS at the beginning of each book to learn how the program works. Explicit directions for the instructor are located on each page of the textbook.

Q.  How does the program work?

A.  The reading and language arts program is systematic, developmental, and progressive with explicit phonics and decodable text which lays the foundation for skills in learning. The methods used to begin the reading process are simple. The instructor and student(s) will be taken through the process step by step.

Volume I, American Dream Series 1… I Will Learn to Read!, encompasses the first 9 WEEKS of a school year. The curriculum includes “teaching reading…from the beginning.”

Volume II, American Dream Series 2 … I Can Read!, includes WEEKS 10-18 of a school year. The textbook continues to address the stumbling blocks to learning as described in Volume 1 for special needs children.

(Volumes III and IV are available on request)

Q.  What makes this program successful?

A.  There are no gimmicks, no videos, and no tapes.
There is no memorizing of a “chunk” or an ending in a word.
There is no reliance on sight vocabulary.
There are no flashcards with the exception of color words with emphasis on configuration.  Memorizing “chunks,” reliance on sight vocabulary, and reliance on flashcards are anxiety-producing for the children.
There is no reference to long or short vowels because these terms are not meaningful to the children. Very simply, children learn that vowels have two names… a very strong name and a very weak name.

The children learn to:

• Comprehend the phonemes (sounds) using a multi-sensory approach
• Print with ease and enjoyment using the Check, Check, Dash Method
• Discriminate reading and printing the b d p
• Decode using the strong boy vowels and the weak boy vowels which are the characters that represent the vowels
• Spell accurately by “finger-spelling”
• Punctuate and capitalize words in a sentence
• Comprehend sentences, paragraphs, and stories
• Answer questions in complete sentences
• Sequence events
• Write contractions correctly

Q.  Why does my child print from the bottom line and then up?

A.  The child who prints from the bottom line and then up is a child who has difficulty with spatial relations. In other words this child has difficulty focusing and frequently loses his place on a printed page. His printing is untidy, and he finds printing cumbersome.  Therefore this child needs to "ground" himself...to be safe to locate a beginning as to where he can start to print. So when a teacher says, "Write on the line," he instinctively goes to the bottom line to begin his letter and then goes up. We see this specifically when the f, t, c, e, i, r are printed. This child will also confuse printing the b and d frequently.

Children need formalized handwriting lessons. This comes from a study from the University of Maryland where it was determined that those first graders who had formalized handwriting lessons did better academically than those first graders who did not.

Some instructors teach capital letters before the lower case letters. They do this because it is easier to instruct children to begin from the top of the line to the bottom of the line. However, when do young children use capital case letters? They only use them at the beginning of their own name. Therefore we, as teachers need to teach children the lower case letters first. How do we do that?

The answer here is: Children write is spaces, not on lines. Teach the child the Check, Check, Dash Method briefly described under "Major Stumbling Blocks to Learning." For example, to print the letter l, go to the top of the first check space and make a straight line down to the second check space. Don't go into the river! For the c, go to the second check space, put a dot in the middle of the second check space, go up like a candy cane to the dotted line, and then come down and around to the bottom of the second check space. Don't go into the river!