Review: Phonics Pathways: Clear Steps to Easy Reading and Perfect Spelling, 9th Edition

Author: Dolores G. Hiskes
Copyright: 2005
Publisher: Jossey-Bass
Binding: glued soft-cover
Number of Pages: 266

Review by Jeff Vehige

I picked up Phonics Pathway because the Jessie Wise and Susan Wise Bauer recommended it in the first edition of The Well-Trained Mind. When I mentioned to a friend that I had bought this book, she wrinkled her nose and said, “Let me know what you think,” implying, of course, that I probably wouldn’t think much of it. Nothing could be further from the truth. I love Phonics Pathways.

Ms. Hiskes presents a systematic approach to teaching phonics. The first five lessons” focus on short-vowel sounds; then the program moves to two-letter blends using the short-vowel sound, blends such as “ma,” “me,” “mi,” “mo,” and “mu.” At first, this confused me since the letter combination of “m-e” is really a word that uses the long “e” sound. The same is true with these combinations: “s-o,” “n-o,” “h-e,” etc. My first time through the book I didn’t understand Ms. Hiskes’ method, but I decided to trust her; the book was in its 9th edition, after all, and the Wise ladies had recommended it. It turns out that Ms. Hiskes knows what she’s doing. Once a child masters making two-letter short-vowel blends, the child moves on to three-letter short-vowel words—words such as “men,” “son,” “not,” and “hen.” Thus, the second step that may seems so strange is essential to getting kids ready for three-letter words.

For the next 100 pages or so, Phonics Pathways focuses on short-vowel mastery by teaching children words with basic twin-consonant endings (-ch, -th, -sh, etc.). Then around page 100, the long-vowel sound is introduced by using the “magic e” or “silent e” rule that you find in words such as “cane,” “Pete,” “hide,” “note,” and “tune.” My son had some difficulty with the transition from short-vowel to long-vowel, but after some time he got it.

The next 60 pages or so focuses on various beginning and ending sounds. The twin-consonant endings that were taught in the first half of the book are now taught as beginning sounds (ch-, th-, sh-, etc.), and endings such as “-ing,” -ang,” “-ed,” “-er,” are formally introduced.

Unfortunately, after page 160, I found the book to become almost useless as a daily program. Every sound in the English language is covered, and some sounds are so rare that it’s easier to teach them as they turn up in your child’s reading. For example, it’s important for a child to know that the “eigh” combination makes the long-a sound, but I found it was easier for my son to remember this rule once he encountered words such as “eight” and “weight” in his own reading.

Another problem with the Phonics Pathways—and this was my friend’s problem, the reason why she wrinkled her nose when I mentioned it—is that Ms. Hiskes provides little help in terms of games and activities. You’re pretty much left on your own here. (I should mention here that the text is black-and-white, which I like because it means there’s nothing to distract kids from focusing on reading.) However, I didn’t necessarily find the dearth of activities (or the B&W text) to be a problem—but that probably has to do with my own Spartan-like pedagogical methods than anything else.

A third problem with the book is that Ms. Hiskes refuses to teach sight words. This is easily remedied if, once your child starts learning the long-vowel sounds, you bring the Dolch List into your phonics/reading curriculum. That’s what I did, and by the time we hit page 160 in Phonics Pathways and had worked our way through the Dolch List, my oldest was reading at a solid 2nd-grade level.

Despite these “quibbles,” the program works. My oldest is 7-1/2-yrs. old and he reads fluently books like The Magic Tree House, A to Z Mysteries, and The Boxcar Kids, and he can comprehend enough in books like Famous Men of Greece and The Aeneid for Boys and Girls that he’s able to talk about them intelligently and answer general questions. And my daughter, who almost 5, is 40 pages into the book (three-letter words), seems to enjoy it, and is progressing faster than I’d anticipated. I highly recommend this book.

Review: Little Stories for Little Folks

Little Stories for Little Folks: Catholic Phonics Readers by Nancy Nicholson

Third Edition 2004, Catholic Heritage Curricula. $26.95. Pre-K through 1st grade: 4 levels, 45 stories to fold into booklets, bound Parents' Guide, Silly Willy Sentences activity, and Catholic flashcards on stiff cardstock.
Reviewed by Ana Braga-Henebry, M.A.

Our third child, now a deep voiced high schooler towering me by several inches, learned to read with me when he was five years old using these little folding readers. This new edition has a new cover and some additional materials, but the readers themselves are the very same I used ten years ago! He looked at these the other day and could remember many of the stories.

The bulk of this program consists of four levels of readers that we tear out and fold in four. I made color coded envelopes out of construction paper ten years ago, the same envelope I am using with our youngest this year. I tucked the envelopes in a pocket folder, and as we folded and read each little book, it was neatly stored.

The little books follow a simple sequence of phonetic sounds, beginning with the "short a" in the first title At Mass. What we like about these is the fact that we begin from day one reading a little story. None of my children enjoyed very much reading pages of words in other readers. These have a few new words displayed on the little book's cover, but each little book is one independent whole story. These mini-stories are delightfully Catholic, and succeed in being at the same time funny and suspenseful enough!

This latest edition has a nice new glossy cover and several cardstock pages with phonics strips and illustrated phonetic sound cards to cut. Silly Willy Sentences strip are also included, introducing basic syntax concepts. A separate Parent's guide booklet is included, with simple guidelines for teaching to read with this program, and booklet-by-booklet directions for introducing the new sounds and words.

Available from Catholic Heritage Curricula

From the author: "Teaching word families is probably the most gratifying way for a child to quickly discover that there are patterns to words and that they can read a LOT of words even when they are just beginning. Nothing breeds success like success! Drill, with the exception of flashcards in the pre-reading stage, can seem so pointless and dry to the child that it is almost self-defeating. They want to READ! The best way to practice sounds is within words within sentences within interesting, short stories!"