the

Copyright 2000, 2004, 2012 Mountcastle Company

All Rights Reserved
Michael Levin and Charan Langton

No part of this books and its electronic versions (ebook, pdf files, pictures) maybe
reproduced, transmitted in any form or by means of electronic or mechanical, including
photocopying, recording, posting on internet or a network, or any other information
storage method without the written permission of the publisher.

For home use only.

Mountcastle Company
2305 Camino Ramon, Ste 217
San Ramon CA 94583
mntcastle@earthlink.net

www.readinglesson.com

ISBN 0-913063-02-9

Library of Congress Catalog Card Number 99-64110

Art work by
Barabara Zeiring
Edited by
Dana Stevens, Irene Elmer

Also try
www.mathlesson.com
  Welcome  to  the  Reading  Lesson

We all want our children to read. With great pride we watch our children learn the alphabet and sing
the ABC song. We buy picture books and read to them every night. When she can recognize a
particular word or he can write his name, we are thrilled. But this is still far from reading the way we
understand it. We try to teach reading, but often do not know where to start. So easy for us, reading
seems so difficult and confusing to teach.
We found ourselves in this situation when our daughter was four years old. She learned the alphabet,
and we were waiting for her to start reading some simple words. We bought software programs for
learning to read but found them shallow and often haphazard. Disappointed, we began to make our
own simple exercises and stories for her to read. We read books on reading instruction for children,
researched academic material, talked to parents and teachers, and began to develop a simple daily
reading program. Michael’s understanding of child psychology and development, and my desire for a
simple, easy-to-follow method, led to the program you hold in your hands.
We have created The Reading Lesson for parents who want to teach their children to read and for
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instructors teaching basic reading skills to children. The program is suitable for both homeschooling
and classroom use. It is structured, clear and simple but it does require direct involvement of the
parent or a teacher, which we believe is a key element in learning to read.
The Reading Lesson is designed for any child who shows interest in books and reading. Some
unique features of this course also make it useful for older children with reading difficulties. The
Reading Lesson was first published as a software package and tested with over 200 families and
schoolrooms. The excellent results and the enthusiastic feedback we received encouraged us to
publish this book.
The right way to teach reading to children
Learning to read is the most important task facing the young child and to fail at it is a serious matter.
Although most children learn to read during the first two years of elementary school, they do not
necessarily go on to read fluently or with pleasure.
Currently, there are two popular ways of teaching reading – the Phonic method and the Whole
Language method. For some years now, there has been an ongoing controversy regarding these
techniques, and each has its strong supporters.
The Phonic method, the basis of this book and considered superior by many, focuses on teaching
the child to read small sound units first, and then to combine them into larger units – words. The
awareness that combinations of letters represent unique sounds is the key essence of the Phonic
method.
The Whole Language method, also known as Look-and-Say, does not break the word into sound
units. Instead, it teaches the child to recognize the word by memorizing it as you would a picture.
The theory is that the brain can translate directly from the written unit (the word) to the meaning.
By knowing the context, the reader anticipates what is coming, and can often speed up the
recognition process by guessing.
Research tells us that a fluent reader employs word-recognition while reading, but reverts to a
process of breaking down the unfamiliar word into recognizable sound units. The fluency comes
after years of decoding new and unfamiliar words using phonics and then incorporating them into
memory. The key factor in fluency is developing this ability to effortlessly recognize letter units and
words. Without this essential skill, we would be limited in vocabulary and reading comprehension.
At first glance, Phonics and Whole Language methods sound contradictory, but in fact, they
complement one another in building reading fluency. Phonics if used alone is not enough. Although
most English words can be read using simple phonic rules, there are many that defy these rules.
English is a hodgepodge of words from many cultures and countries. For the young reader, it
appears confusing and inconsistent. The vocabulary is vast, the pronunciation is often irregular, and
the exceptions are as numerous as the rules.
The majority of children – nearly 80 percent – can learn to read regardless of the teaching method
used. But for the other 20 percent – particularly those with reading difficulties – the combination of
Phonics and the Whole Language is the best way to teach reading.
What makes this program special
• the Reading Lesson offers an easy-to-follow recipe for teaching children to read. It takes a child
with no reading skills to about the second grade level in reading. Never-too-hard and never-too-easy,
step-by-step the lessons teach phonics and build the sight vocabulary.
• We begin the lessons with three to four sounds and introduce sight words as we go along.Word
recognition skills develop through the use of key words. Once these key words are learned using
Phonics, we encourage the child to read them as sight words to gain fluency. Certain words such as
you and do are difficult to explain using the phonic principles. These and other non-phonic key words
are presented as sight words.
• the Reading Lesson uses a controlled vocabulary of developmentally appropriate words. The
vocabulary of the program closely corresponds to the 500 most commonly used words in English.
We use many of these words as key words.
• the Reading Lesson does not follow the alphabet. Instead, we begin by teaching the most
common letters in the English language. That way, the child can begin reading words and simple
stories from the very first lesson. There are no boring drills. All reading is context oriented. You will
hear your child say, “Look, I can read!” after the very first lesson. Happiness is knowing that you are
making it possible.
• the Reading Lesson uses only lower-case letters in the first ten lessons of the course. Often
young children do not know the lower-case letters well. Realizing that ninety-five percent of all
letters in print are lower-case letters, this is where we start. Upper-case letters are introduced later in
the program. For children who know the capital letters of the alphabet, the transition from the
lower-case to the upper-case letters is easy.
• the Reading Lesson uses special typography. The letters are large in the early lessons and get
smaller as we progress. The words are spaced far apart, and page clutter is kept to a minimum. We
use special symbols to help the child learn the complex and irregular rules of English pronunciation.
Children often confuse certain letters, such as b and d. There are special marks to help the child
distinguish these two letters.
• the Reading Lesson is designed for children ages 4 to 8. Since most children in this age group
cannot follow if-then rules, or rules such as i before e except after c, we have kept all rules to a bare
minimum. Your child will learn these rules in due course as part of the school curriculum. We do
not even teach the difference between vowels and consonants. As you will see, your child can learn
to read just as well without knowing any of these rules.
• the Reading Lesson concentrates primarily on teaching the child to decode, that is, to read.
Decoding should not be confused with reading comprehension. Our goal is to give the children
basic reading skills so they can begin to read independently.
How  to  use  this  course

How to do the lessons

There are twenty lessons in this book. Before starting a lesson, we suggest that you read the
instructions for that lesson. Take a moment to practice how to say the sounds. Each letter is paired
with a picture. This paired-associative learning technique is the most effective mnemonic tool to
enhance your child’s memory of the new sounds.
You need to be consistent in how you sound out the letters. However, a word of caution is needed:
no two children or even adults will say a sound in exactly the same way. Regional accents and
children’s relatively weak auditory and articulation skills account for the variations. In the classroom
this fact is particularly obvious. It is impossible to make all children say a sound in the same way.
Encourage your child to make the closest possible sound to the one suggested in the lesson but
allow some leeway. Blending sounds and reading new words is what counts. Learning phonics is an
important, however, an intermediate step. So do not insist on absolute accuracy in sounding out the
individual letters if it is difficult for your child.
You may consider purchasing the Reading Lesson CD-ROMs. Through animation and simple
games, these multimedia companions will make learning to read fun. For very young children, we
suggest, the Sounds of Letters DVD, another good way to teach phonics. You will find
information about these products at www.readinglesson.com.
For many young readers (including children who are familiar with the alphabet), the letters in words
seem to melt together. The instructions in Lesson One show how to blend the sounds. The bars
under each sound unit will help your child to identify and separate the letters she already knows.
These bars are there as guides and are used to blend the sounds into words. This process is called
sounding out. At first, blending is difficult for most children. You will need to help the child but he
will get better at it with practice.
Each lesson consists of words, exercises and short stories. When reading the words, ask the child to
tell you what the word means. Before you read the story, read the title and talk a little bit about the
content of the story. In the first five lessons you might read the whole story aloud to the child
before he tries it himself. Ask your child to tell you what happened in the story afterwards. Your
child may also enjoy these stories on our animated the StoryBook CD-ROM.
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Approximately 250 key words form the basis of reading skills in this course. Each lesson introduces
a set of key words. Your child should learn them well before you proceed to the next lesson. These
words are used in later lessons. If the child has problems recognizing these words, please go back
and redo them.
How fast should you go
The length and the pace of the daily lessons will vary with the child’s age and abilities. We suggest
the following schedule:
• For children under five, one page per day
• For children between five and six, two to three pages per day
• For children over six, three or more pages per day

Children have a very short attention span. Try to keep each lesson under fifteen minutes and spend
no more than five to seven minutes per page.
If your child is young, don’t rush. Work at a leisurely and comfortable pace. Remember: you have
plenty of time to complete the course and, if necessary, to go back and repeat the course before your
child starts reading instruction in school.
Your child will need assistance. Be ready to help with the difficult words by sounding out the letters.
In first three lessons, try to do each page twice. You will notice how much more easily the child
reads the second time – but don’t let her skip pages, even if she is sailing through the program. We
also advise not to repeat the pages more than twice. It serves no purpose. Just go on ahead even
though the child has difficulty with some words. Some pages may be harder than others. Just keep
going. Repeated exposure to the key words assures success.
If your child is reluctant to do the lessons, you may be going too fast. Slow down the pace. Always
try to stop the lesson just before the child gets bored. If your child is having real trouble staying on
task and learning the material of the first lessons, he may not be ready for this program. Put it aside
for the time being and try again in a few months.
In every lesson, there are individual sentences as well as little stories. Most children prefer to read
only the stories. They are happy to show-off, and love to be praised when they do it right. The
sentences, although they contain words from the stories, present somewhat greater reading difficulty
because the child cannot guess the words from the context. Stories make guessing easier. Children
need to develop both of these types of reading abilities, so we advise not to skip the sentences just
because the child does not want to do them.
Children learn to read faster and more easily if they learn to write letters and words at the same time.
Our brain receives direct messages from the movement of our finger joints and remembers the
shape of each letter. Through writing exercises, a connection between sound and letter is made. We
recommend the Writing Lesson companion course for daily practice to learn complementary hand
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writing skills.
Bear in mind that at first the progress will be slow. Most children do not do as well as you might
expect until about the seventh lesson. This is not surprising, for many concepts are complex and
new. Each lesson presents new challenges. But reading fluency will come with repeated exposure as
the child learns to decode words and recognize them by sight. It will be your responsibility to
maintain a regular schedule. Most children need a lot of encouragement and praise during this
period. How well the child does at this point largely depends on how motivated and involved you
are.

How to stay on course

All new learning is hard. The common hype that learning has to be fun is just that – hype. All real
learning requires effort, and this is true for both adults and children. It is our experience that even
the brightest children may sometimes resist doing the lessons. Young children do not understand
the value of reading and wonder why they must make all this effort when mom can just read it to
them.
Here are some techniques that might help the child stay interested and motivated:
Give your child a little reward for finishing each page. Let him put a sticker in the corner. Let her
color the pictures or the lesson number at the top of the page. You can also ask your child to
“autograph” the page when it is finished. All these rewards will also serve as bookmark for the next
day’s lesson while giving your child a feeling of accomplishment.
We have included a progress chart in the back of this book. You may want to put a copy on your
refrigerator. After finishing a lesson, the child can add stickers, stars or his signature to it. A color
version of this chart can be downloaded from our website.
Your child may enjoy playing the token game. In this game, the child earns a token (a penny, a
sticker, or even a kiss) for each word done correctly and loses a token (instead of losing a token, he
might get a gentle pinch) for each word done wrong. You may also read the story to the child
(immediately after he has read it), and make deliberate mistakes while reading (such as changing the
word sat to swim, or dog to dinosaur). Your child will have great fun correcting you.
We have found that children enjoy many of these games. But even more important, as they learn to
read, children build self-confidence. And this confidence your child will carry through life.
How to work with the computer program
If you have purchased this book with the Reading Lesson software, we suggest that you first do
each lesson on the computer and then work with the book. The computer brings the sounds alive
and helps the child grasp the blending and phonic concepts. We would like to emphasize that the
Reading Lesson CD-ROM is not a computer game and will require guidance. You will need to sit
together with the child as she goes through the lessons on the computer.
We would like to hear of your experiences with this program, and we welcome your comments and
suggestions.

Michael Levin Charan Langton

 one
Lesson one c

1-1
 one
one c o s a t

We start our first lesson with the five letters commonly used in English.
They are c, o, s, a, t.

Your first instinct may be to call these letters by their alphabet names. Try not to do
this. In this course, we are going to concentrate on the way letters sound. The name of the
letter and its sound are often different. To complicate matters further, the same letter often
has more than one sound. For example, the letter a in alligator and the letter a in ate sound
entirely different.
How to read
Read c as the first sound in the words cat and cap. Point to the letter
and say, “This is [c] as in cat.” Ask your child to repeat after you. You
may also ask for other words that start with the same sound. Do not
correct your child if he or she comes up with words that start with the
letter k, such as kitten or kite. It is the correct sound that matters.

Read o as the first sound in the word octopus. Other examples of this
sound are olive and ox. Do not read it as the first sound in the word
oak or old.

Read s as the first sound in the word snake. This is a hissing sound
[sss], not [sah] or [es].

Read a as the first sound in the words alligator and apple.

Read t as the first sound in the words turtle and tiger.

If, after a few pages, you find that your child has difficulty recognizing letters, have him do
the writing exercise at the end of the lesson first. In writing practice, the “writing” 2 looks
different from the “reading” a. Simply explain to the child that this is the same letter.

We will explain in this lesson that a combination of sounds is called a word. Words
make up a sentence, and sentences make stories. We will also introduce the period. Explain
to your child that this dot means that the sentence is over.

We suggest that you do only one page per day initially. Try to do each page twice and
start each day’s lesson by reviewing the last page from the previous day. Before you read
the story together, read the title and the whole story to your child.

1-3
 How to blend the sounds.

In the beginning, when you read the words, - first touch the bar under each letter and
sound it out slowly - [c], then [a], then [t] - to make sure that your child recognizes each
individual letter in the word and knows its sound.

Then go back and read the sounds a little faster, without stopping in between. You will
read this first word as ccc-aaa-ttt. Now ask your child to read the same way without
pausing between the sounds. When you read correctly without stopping in between, the
resulting sound is very close to the way the word will be read. Slide your finger across the
bars faster and read the word. Then ask your child to read the same way.

As described here, this procedure may seem a little cumbersome, but after only a little
practice you will see how effective it is. You may find that even if you do not read exactly as
we suggest, your child is still able to read the word. Children vary greatly in their ability to
go from the individual sound to the sounding of the whole word, and you and your child
will work out your own method very quickly.

On the next page, we explain a few simple concepts that your child will need to know.
Perhaps he already knows them. Please go over these concepts with your child anyway.

cat cat cat cat

Say [k] Say [a] Say [t] Slide finger faster

across the bars and say
[cat]

1-4
The basics. one

c This is a letter.
It has a name and it has a sound.
The name of this letter is [see]
and its sound is [k].

cat This is a word.

cat sat. This is a sentence.

This dot is called period.

We put it at the end of the sentence.
It has no sound.

1-5
 Let’s learn new letters
Please point to the letter and read the instruction under it.

c
The name of this letter is C.
It makes the sound [k] as in cat.

o
The name of this letter is O.
It makes the sound [o] as in octopus.

s
The name of this letter is S.
It makes the sound [s] as in snake.

a
The name of this letter is A.
It makes the sound [a] as in alligator.

t
The name of this letter is T.
It makes the sound [t] as in turtle.

1-6
Let’s sound out these letters.
Ask child to sound out each letter. Then ask him to circle each letter that makes
one
the sound [k}, [o], [s}, [t], and [a].

c s o

o t c
c a t

s o t

a s c
t o a

c s a
1-7
 Connect the letters with the picture.

o t

a a

s s

t a

c c

a s

s o
1-8
Let’s read.
First read each line aloud, then ask your child to read it.
one

a t at

t a ta

s a sa

c a ca

a c ac

1-9
 Can you first find the letters c, then o, then s and then a and t?
Ask your child to point out, one at a time, each of the letters.

c s o

o t c

c a t

s o t

a s c

s a t

1-10
Let’s combine the sounds.
First show child how to read, and then ask child to read with you.
one

c a ca

s a sa

c o co

a t at

a s as

a c ac

1-11
 Let’s read words.

s a t sat

c a t cat

c o t cot

t a c tac

s o c soc

1-12
Let’s read these words again. one

a t at

s a t sat

c a t cat

at cat sat

1-13
 Can you read these words without help?

at

sat

cat

cot

1-14
The words here are the same as on the opposite page. one
But one letter in each word fell off. Which letter is missing?

at

sat

cat

cot

1-15
 Let’s read these lines.
Ask child to point to the period.

sat

cat sat.
This is a period.
This dot shows the end
of the sentence.

a cat.

a cot.

sat a cat.

1-16
Now let’s read a story about a cat. one

cat.
a cat.

a cat sat.

1-17
 Let’s read these lines.

a cat.

a cot.

at cot.

at a cot.

a cat sat.

1-18
This is a story about a cat who sat on a cot. one

sat a cat.

at a cot

sat a cat.

1-19
 Connect the letters with the pictures.

a a
s c
t s
o o
s t
a a
t s
t t
o o
1-20
Key words from Lesson one
Go over these words a few times with your child.
one

at

cat

sat

1-21
 The capitals.
Here is an another way to write the letters.

a A
s S
t T
o O
s S
a A
t T
s S
a A
1-22
 two
Lesson two m

THE READING LESSON

www.readinglesson.com

2-1
two m d r

Lesson two introduces the letters m, d, and r.

How to read

Read m as the first sound in the word monkey.

Read d as the first sound in the word dog.

Read r as the first sound in the word rabbit.

Try to be consistent in pronouncing the sounds. First say the sound yourself and then ask
your child to repeat it. Remember to read the letter as it sounds and not by its alphabet
name [em, dee, ar]. We know that this may be hard in the beginning (probably harder for
you than for your child).

In this lesson and in subsequent lessons, point out the written lesson number on the
corner of the right-hand page. This will help her to learn to read numbers.

We can now make more words. This may not be easy for your child at the beginning.
Be prepared to offer help along the way. You may need to show your child that we read
sentences from left to right. Many children tend to read words in columns, which makes
them lose their place on the page.

After reading the stories, ask your child to point out words such as cat, dad, and tom.
This will help him develop sight memory for the words. Also encourage your child to tell
you what she thinks is happening in the story. Provide lots of encouragement and praise.
 Let’s learn new sounds.
Read the instructions under each letter to the child.

m
The name of this letter is M.
It makes the sound [m] as in monkey.

d
The name of this letter is D.
It makes the sound [d] as in dog.

r
The name of this letter is R.
It makes the sound [r] as in rabbit.

2-4
Let’s sound out these letters.
Ask the child to say the sound of each letter. Then find and circle, one at a time,
two
all the letters that make the sounds [m], [d], [t] and [r].

m d r

r m d

m d r

r m d

m d t

t d r

m t d
2-5
 Let’s read new letters and new words.

r d m d m

c s m t o

a d r a s

mom dad

tom sam
2-6
New and old words. two

at sat

rat mat

am sam

sad mad

dad mom

cot dot

2-7
 Read these words.

om mom tom

ad mad sad

at sat cat

at rat mat
2-8
Break the code and read the word. two

2-9
 Now let’s read sentences.

sat at.

cat sad.

mom sat.

dad sat.

dad mad.

tom sad.

2-10
Dad is mad at Tom. Can you tell why? two

tom sad.
dad mad

at tom.
2-11
 dad sat.

cat sat.

rat sat.

cat sad.

at dad.

dad sad.

2-12
Sam shows his reading lesson to the cat and the rat. two

sam sat.

cat sat.
rat sat.

2-13
 tom cat.

mom mad.

sad tom.

tom sat.

sad sad tom.

dad mad.

2-14
Tom is mad at the cat. Can you tell why? two

tom mad.
tom mad

at cat.

2-15
 Match the letter with the right picture.

d m
a o
m d
s r
d c
m t
d c
r o
t t
m m
a d
2-16
Key words from Lesson two two

mom

dad

mad

sad

rat

2-17
 The capitals.
Here is an another way to write the letters. Copy them in the middle.

a A
m M
d D
r R
s S
a A
m M
s S
a A
2-18
 three
Lesson three g

th

THE READING LESSON

www.readinglesson.com

3-1
 three
three g e th

Lesson three introduces the letters g and e, and the letter combination th.

How to read

Read g as the first sound in the word girl. Remember not to call it
[gee].

Read e as the first sound in the words egg and elephant.

Read th as the first sound in the words that, the, and this. Do not
read it as the first sound in the words thin and thing. Teach your child
to recognize this letter combination as one sound.

This lesson introduces silent letters. The silent letters do not have a bar under them. In the
word the, for example, there is no bar under the letter e; this is a silent letter. Skip it when
you sound out the word. Double letters, such as ss in the word mess, are pronounced as
one letter. You will see how quickly your child will accept these new concepts. Children are
comfortable with clear rules, no matter how illogical they may seem to an adult.

Your child may now be able to sound out some new words independently. Often,
however, children will guess the words by their shape or by the context, rather than
sounding them out. This is to be expected. Your child is just beginning to get it. All
children need some time to work out their own reading strategies, so don’t give up now.
This is particularly true if your child is young. Stay with it and you will see progress.

We will now start to drop the bars under some of the familiar words. Encourage your
child to read these words quickly by sight instead of sounding them out.

In this lesson, we will use the comma for the first time. You may explain that a comma
means that we have to pause a little before we continue reading. Practice “resting” at the
comma with your child.

!2

e has no bar under it. Skip it.

It is a silent letter.

3-3
 Let’s learn new sounds.
Read the instructions under each letter to the child.

g
The name of this letter is G.
It makes the sound [g] as in girl.

e
The name of this letter is E.
It makes the sound [e] as in egg.

!
The letters T and H are a team. They make
the sound [th] as in this and that.

3-4
Let’s sound out these letters.
Ask the child to say the sound of each letter. Then find and circle, one at a time,
three
all the letters that make the sounds [e], [g], [th], [m], [d], [t], and [r].

g e th

e th g

g th e

e g th

th e g

e g th
r m t

d t e

th t d
3-5