• Visualizing and imagery techniques for teaching reading skills include:  visualizing any nouns, having the reader elaborate on what he/she sees in the noun; pictures that come to mind from reading or spelling; the reader describing what is seen in a sentence; describing what is seen in a paragraph. This strategy for teaching literacy is part of the mental processing students need to develop comprehension.  Utilizing a search engine on the Internet, type in visualization lessons or techniques;  several resources are available.

• Mapping Inner Space, by Nancy Margulies, is an excellent source for rapidly using stick drawing for graphically representing text read, for prewriting, notes on a lecture or movie, as a book report, etc.  Many remedial readers are more graphically literate than semantic, while many semantic learners are not visual or graphic learners.

Right brain and left brain students process language differently.  Using the Gestalt method, all mental processes for learning and mastery are accessed and reinforced daily on as-need basis for both right brain and left brain students, by-passing the methodical process using phonics and syllables that are usually mastered by left brain, right eye students.

Kinesthetic learners are right brain, right eye and right ear. All processing is on the right side, closing down normal channels for learning how to read because of language deficiencies.  Learners have difficulty staying 'on task' as a result of random attention to the lesson.  They need both oral and visual input at the same time for learning to read.

• Their movement, however slight, is not their fault and is in fact a sign they are trying to learn and to anchor the information.  They must move, even slightly to process the information.  The movement may be rubbing their hands, arms or legs; wiggling, moving their arms or feet, etc.  Because they get in trouble for trying to learn by their movement; they soon give up and become disabled failures and school dropouts to avoid discipline consequences.

• If you have a kinesthetic student, encourage them by telling them you know why they must move and you approve of moderate movement, and then show a more appropriate way to move without disturbing the class.  This right side profile is generally nonreaders, with other learning and behavior problems.  Left side logic learners are more natural learners for language.

• "Teach each sound-spelling correspondence explicitly.  Not all phonic instructional methods are equally effective.  Tell the children explicitly what single sound a given letter or letter combination makes is more effective in preventing reading problems than encouraging the child to figure out the sounds for letters by giving clues.  Many children have difficulty figuring out the individual sound-spelling correspondence if they hear them only in the context of words and word parts." 
 
• "Teach frequent, highly regular sound-spelling relationships systematically. Only a few sound-spelling relationships are necessary to read.  The most effective instructional programs teach children to read successfully with only 40-50 sound-spelling relationships. Writing can require a few more, about 70 sound spelling relationships."   See Research finding related to reading.

Both recommendations describe the 3-Step System precisely as do other 'Panel' recommendations.

Visual tracking also creates a different learning and memory process for learning to read.  The loss of reader's visual nerve strength results from intense concentration trying to maintain normal eye movement, leaving very little energy for recall and comprehension.  Filling in the blanks created by this problem is another benefit of dialoging.

Follow this Daily Warm-up

Start 3-5 days after introducing each tutorial on the software lessons for vowels, Borrowers and 47 Combinations, or interacting with one or two lessons on pencil & paper tasks using the audio CD. 

• Students should orally pronounce each Combination while viewing the Combination Chart.
• Orally repeat rules to control C, G, & Y.
• Say long and short vowels in isolation.

This complete exercise varies between 8-15 minutes.  It is excellent for improving the 'learning time' of the 3-Step System.  All reading sounds are orally reviewed.

• Students must see and say the Combinations in isolation and in words as often as possible.... like learning the alphabet.  This is their foundation for reading different levels of genres.  Blends may be added to the daily warm-up, if appropriate.  Reducing the number of times per week of seeing and saying the reading sounds depends on the class make-up; age, ability level, etc.

The most efficient use of the system for reinforcement and memory occurs during reading when unknown words are met and decoded immediately, either by group participation or individually by marking the unknown word with pencil and paper, on chalkboard, white board or overhead projector.