Category: WKL/Reading Bear
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In Memoriam: Charles Boone, Philanthropist Responsible for Reading Bear and WatchKnowLearn
This day before Thanksgiving, I sit to write about a man I am thankful for. I celebrate the contributions to online knowledge of Memphis-area philanthropist Charles Boone. Now that he has passed away—August 28, 2020, at the age of 85—I feel privileged to be able to share something he asked me to keep private, until…
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Teaching reading — two suggestions
America’s literacy problems could be solved if parents, preschool teachers, and daycare workers did just two simple things. One is obvious. One is not. First, we should read a lot more to our babies, toddlers, and preschoolers — say, at least an hour per day. That means picking up a good old-fashioned book, putting a kid in…
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Please read: my challenge to kindergarten and first grade teachers
Dear Teachers(and those who support teachers, please listen in), I will buy your class $100 worth of books, and donate whatever anyone else pledges below (more on that in a bit), if you successfully execute the following. (I can do this for only one teacher. But if more people pledge money for other teachers to…
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Reading Bear improvements
Here’s our latest Reading Bear update. We’re not done working on Reading Bear–which will always remain a non-profit, free website to teach reading through phonics and vocabulary. Here’s a quick progress report. Alternative reading systems soon supported. We’re putting finishing touches on a feature allowing us to reorganize our words into the order in which they appear in…
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E.’s reading progress
(No, that’s not a picture of E. He doesn’t have glasses.) Just a short report here. I’m delighted with 25-month-old E.’s reading progress. We are not studying phonics nearly as carefully and systematically as we did with H. We have been going through (more or less randomly) the two ending blends presentations, adding s, and…
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A challenge to first grade reading teachers: read in one year! No excuses!
In the course of responding on the “readbygrade3” mailing list (I’m a subscriber), I came across this page on ReadingRockets.org. I was greatly struck by the fact that, here in 2012, professional advisers to reading teachers state that, by the end of first grade, a good student “has a reading vocabulary of 300 to 500…
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Reading Bear’s First Press Release (Please Share!)
FOR IMMEDIATE RELEASE Contact: Dr. Joe Thomas 901-484-3347 INNOVATIVE NEW WEBSITE, READING BEAR, TEACHES PHONICS AND VOCABULARY FOR FREE Wikipedia Co-Founder’s Latest Project Launches to Acclaim MEMPHIS, TENN., OCTOBER 11, 2012 – The co-founder of Wikipedia has embarked on a new web-based project aimed at teaching children to read in a new innovative, multi-sensory,…
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Reading Bear: Rave Reviews
Reading Bear has enjoyed excellent preliminary reactions from a wide variety of online sources. The following is just a selection, most of this in reaction to our 2011 launch, not to the full set of 50 presentations that we completed in August 2012. Our Favorite Endorsements & Mentions Larry Ferlazzo added us to three “best…
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Reading Bear is complete! Why it works.
After many months of development, I can finally announce: Reading Bear is complete! Reading Bear now has a full set of fifty presentations, with an average viewing time of about 15 minutes each. I haven’t added up the time, but it’s around 12 hours total. It covers a huge number of phonics principles, systematically. Over 1,200…
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The uses of Reading Bear
After reading some feedback from a recent survey I performed on the Reading Bear website, it strikes me that some people don’t understand how to use the site, despite the availability of help with this, including a help video. I think I understand the trouble people are having. The trouble is that there are many different…