Mom Creates Phonics Program During Quarantine to Help Students Who Fell Behind in Lockdown

Colorful story books in rhyme allow parents to teach their children by simply reading a book. Geared toward visual learners, author and illustrator Jolie Canoli finished the phonics series during lockdown. Canoli believes the books can help children who have fallen behind from COVID-19 quarantine closures.

West Bend, WI, July 10, 2020 --(PR.com)-- Author-Illustrator Jolie Canoli (aka Dr. Jolie Williams) is releasing new teaching aids for parents and schools that help visual learners. “I started developing this program teaching my own children to read, but during quarantine I was able to complete the program and prepare it for print. I think it’s needed at this time.” Canoli believes the program can help children that have fallen behind in schooling. “These books and playing cards are designed to make teaching phonics easy for parents. It’s as simple as reading a bedtime story to your child; or playing games like Go Fish or Memory can reinforce phonics sounds.”

Parents are concerned about the lost school time resulting from quarantine, and rightly so. A recent study found “kindergarten children will lose 67% of their literacy abilities during COVID-19 school closures.”

Equipping parents to teach literacy at home is at the heart of Canoli’s program. “I’ve received a lot of positive feedback from parents and their children,” Canoli shares. “Several parents admitted that they didn’t know all the sounds the letters made, or why, and the illustrations have forever sealed that new understanding in their minds.”

Many studies have found that in order to thrive in reading students must have phonics instruction, and this especially true for those with dyslexia. Sight words or whole language reading methods teach children to memorize words, guess, and estimate, but they fail to instruct children to decode words. It is estimated that a human being can learn no more than 800 sight words in a year, and as one ages that pace declines. English has over one million words; at the pace of 800 words a year, it would take children 1,250 years to learn all the words in the English language,

Phonics teaches children how to decode any word, and understand their structure. Giving children instruction in phonics provides them with the tools to enjoy lifelong learning through reading.

To read phonetically, children must understand that a symbol (A, B, C) signifies a sound, and then merge those sounds to form words. Canoli’s phonics books aim to make it easier for children to acquire these abstract thinking skills by creating letters that look like sounds children are already acquainted with. Children don’t need to take an extra step of connecting an image with a symbol; instead the image is the symbol.

Myriads of letter books can be found with letters set next to images, like A for ant, B for ball, and C for cat. But for the visual learner, those letters are boring black blobs set next to an appealing picture. Canoli makes an A that looks like an ant, and a C that looks like a cat. More than that, Canoli aims to teach higher age groups in-depth language comprehension by teaching spelling rules and all phonetic sounds. For instance, children learn three A sounds- A like ant, A like acorn, and A that looks like its mouth is open, saying “ah!” Similarly, C is a happy cat that both says ‘k’ and a hissing cat that says ‘ssssss.’

Considering some parents may not have funds for these products, she is reaching out to schools to help equip their visual learners with these tools. Parents are encouraged to speak to their school to request these items for their children. “My desire is to see visual learners like my son find a lifelong love of learning,” Canoli shares. "if these products can help enjoy learning, then all the work has been worth it.”

Jolie Canoli/Dr. Jolie Williams is a homeschool mother of four, author, illustrator, and performing artist.

For further media information contact: Jolie Canoli at jolie@joliecanoli.com, or see her website at www.joliecanoli.com, or call 262-388-4038.
Contact
Think Voyage Publishing
Jolie Williams
262-388-4038
www.Joliecanoli.com
ContactContact
Categories