It is with the hope of aiding the earnest teacher in the accomplishment
of this purpose that "How To Teach Phonics" is published.

L.M.W.




LEARNING TO READ


Every sound and pedagogical method of teaching reading must include two
basic principles.

1. Reading must begin in the life of the child, with real thought
content. Whether the thought unit be a word, a sentence, or a story, it
must represent some idea or image that appeals to the child's interests
and adjusts itself to his experience.

2. It must proceed with a mastery of not only words, but of the sound
symbols of which words are composed.

The child's love for the story, his desire to satisfy a conscious need,
gives him an immediate and compelling motive for mastering the symbols,
which in themselves are of incidental and subordinate interest. While he
is learning to read, he feels that he is reading to learn and "symbols
are turned into habit."

If the child is to understand from the beginning that reading is thot