Frequently Asked Questions

1. How does the Natural Phonics Primer: A Universal Safety Net for Literacy relate to RtI (Response to Intervention), the major approach to reading intervention in America today?      

   The poem below was inspired by one of Mr. Potter’s 3rd grade tutoring girls, who was in RtI (Response to Intervention) in 2022. Her mother said, "I saw no improvement till she came to you one short month ago." Upon inquiry, the girl explained that all she did in RtI every day was take reading comprehension tests - one after the other - on a computer. There was no systematic, structured, cumulative instruction in the English alphabet code. It may seem hard to believe that a mere four one-hour tutoring sessions could teach a child more about reading than over 100 hours of RtI, but in this case - that’s a fact! 

   RtI was part of the 2004 Federal IDEA legislation which mandates that all public schools implement a 3-tier (levels) program to assure appropriate reading instruction for all student regardless of ability level. This well-designed and well-meaning program has largely failed to improve literacy in America. The current SoR (Science of Reading) movement is seeking to address the reasons for this failure by a more precise definition of best-practice that would lead to students on the lower two tiers receiving effective instruction more aligned with current research than the Reading Recovery and Leveled Literacy Intervention programs which have been major factors in preventing RtI from accomplishing the desired improvement. Our Natural Phonics Primer is our attempt to provide the missing foundational elements that will assure success for every student. 

     The picture at the head of this page is the Natural Phonics Primer: A Universal Safety Net for Literacy before I turned it into a book to sell. The colors represent three developmental stages: Lift off (yellow folder: single-letter short vowel sounds), Earth Orbit (green folder: vowel sounds spelled with 2 & 3 letters), Moon Landing (red folder: irregular spellings). This approach is designed to complement any curriculum to provide a Universal Safety Net to assure success regardless of any potential weakness in the curriculum or difficulty a student may have. 

        RtI Blues

I wouldn’t call it depression.

I guess you could call it the blues.

But the folks who run RtI

Seem to have no clues.

It’s all so perfunctory:

A sophisticate illusion

Dreamed up by scholars

To hide their mass confusion.

My student goes to RtI each day

To take another test

When she needs to learn the code

So, she can really be her best.

But they think it’s comprehension

That the kids need to improve

And thus, the real solution

They manage to exclude.

So may I suggest a Phonics Primer

It’s as Natural as can be

A real Safety Net for Literacy

To set the captives free.

                                                                                                                      Don Potter June 28, 2022.

3. Do you know anyone else who has experience with this approach?

Yes, I do. Kathy Alfke-Simpson in Clinton, Indiana has been using this approach with great success for many years. In fact, it was Kathy who encouraged me to combine my three folders into a single hardback book that she could use purchase and use in her Reading Boot Camp program. Her Reading Boot Camp program is an exciting program featuring her own Smart Chart (a comprehensive phonics chart) and my Natural Phonics Primer. Kathy is one of the most experienced and successful phonics teachers in America today. She has been able to train a whole army of volunteers to teach the Natural Phonics Primer. Her Reading Boot Camps are springing up across America. One of the enormous advantages of the Natural Phonics Primer is that it does not take years of training to become an effective teacher or tutor. Here is Captain Kathy's Introduction and Review of the Natural Phonics Primer. 

4. Is tutor training available?

Definitely! Mr. Potter has published an introductory video and one video for each of the 50 instructional exercises. They are all available on the Videos page of this website. The videos are short but complete. Mr. Potter explains every spelling pattern, along with the pronunciation and meaning of every word. Teachers, tutors, and parents can watch the videos to prepare themselves to teach material effectively. Older students may work through the program on their own. All the major spelling patterns in the English language are presented. It is recommended that students watch the videos several times to gain a thorough understanding. A Student Video Viewing Record is available.   

5.  Is the program effective with dyslexics?

Yes. Quite frankly, the improvements my students diagnosed with dyslexia experience with the Natural Phonics Primer are often mindboggling. Mr. Edward Miller (author of the Miller Word Identification Assessment) and my mentor, Samuel L. Blumenfeld, thought that some dyslexia was caused by the common practice of having kids memorize Dolch or Fry sight words without teaching then phonics or spelling. They claimed that kids taught to view words as wholes (configurations) without considering all the letters often developed a reflex on the right side of the brain to view words as memorized wholes (pictures) and resort to guessing as a major means of word identification. The Natural Phonics Primer trains the brain to automatically process all the letters from left to right thereby improving fluency (speed + accuracy), with the consequent reduction in guessing, which inevitably leads to higher comprehension - and even greater enjoyment. Here is one of my first Miller Word Identification Tests in 2003. Here is a sample Word Identification Strategie Analysis that I did in 2003. Here is a MWIA YouTube Video I did in 2008 explaining the test. After giving at least 2,000 of these tests since 2003, I consider it a Poor Man's fMRI, capable of giving useful insight into the strategies students use to identify words. In fact, I call my tutoring non-invasive brain surgery! With just a few hours Natural Phonics Primer tutoring, students experience dramatic improvement on this test, which inevitably leads to higher overall reading achievement. 

6. Is the Natural Phonics Primer a multi-sensory program? How does it differ from Orton-Gillingham approaches?

I combine these two questions since the Orton-Gillingham (O-G) approach features multi-sensory instructions. I was trained in three O-G programs: The Herman Dyslexia Program, Project Read: The Language Circle, and Spalding's Writing Road to Reading. I taught Herman and Spalding, but not Project Read. Here are my Notes on Orton-Gillingham for those who wish to learn more about the approach. I personally teach the Natural Phonics Primer with multi-sensory instruction as a means of preparing the student to do the timings at their calibrated speed. I teach both manuscript and cursive handwriting to fluency and make sure they can spell all the words both with letter names and in writing. Here are 5 Brain-Based Reasons for Teaching Handwriting by J. Richard Gentry. The Natural Phonics Primer is a perfect reinforcement for any dyslexia program a school may be using, making up for any potential weakness in the adopted program, hence A Universal Safety Net for Literacy. I distinctly remember when my school district removed the handwriting and spelling books from our classrooms in 1995 as part of the Whole Language Movement. I predicted then the dramatic decline in literacy following their unwarranted exclusion from the classroom. 

7. Is the Natural Phonics Primer designed to replace regular programs of reading instruction?

No. The Natural Phonics Primer is a supplemental program. Yes, it can be used to teach beginning reading, but I consider it more of a supplement. As the subtitle suggests, it is A Safety Net for Literacy: a failsafe backup just in case the primary curriculum fails any student for any reason. The redundancy is similar to that of NASA's space program, which employs significant redundancy (backup systems) to ensure the success of every mission. It is important to keep in mind that decoding ability is the main predictor of reading comprehension, which explains why our focus on decoding leads to major improvements in comprehension. It is inexpensive insurance that assures success. 

8. What about the Science of Reading?

I am happy to say that my program and tutoring are completely up-to-date with the Science of Reading. Be sure and listen to Emily Hansford's blockbuster ARM report, "Sold a Story," which explains that a lot of reading failure today is due to defective reading programs such as Guided Reading and Leveled Literacy Intervention that became very popular in American schools.  To name a few leaders in the field, I have carefully followed the work of Marilyn J. Adams (Beginning to Read), Keith Stanovich (Progress in Understanding Reading), J. Richard Gentry (Brain Words), David A. Kilpatrick (Equipped for Reading Success), Stanislas Dehaene (Reading in the Brain), Mark Seidenberg (Reading at the Speed of Sight), Louisa Cooks Moats (Speech to Print), Anita Archer (Explicit Instruction), I. L. Beck (Making Sense of Phonics), Diane McGuinness (Why our Children Can't Read and What We Can Do About It) and Daniel T. Willingham (The Reading Mind). The timings grew out of my study of Lindsey Ogden's Precision Teaching. 

9. What Phonics Charts do you recommend?

There are a number of good phonics charts available. Louisa Moats' charts are widely used due to their linguistic organization. I have found the Phonovisual Charts to be the highly effective and very easy to use. I buy the 8.5 x 11 charts to give to all my students. The Introductory Natural Phonics Primer video explains my use of the charts. The charts can turn any look-say reader (book) into a decodable text. In fact, I daily use the 1957 centennial edition of the Alice & Jerry Reading Series with my beginning readers following Mary Pecci's Approach. Here is a YouTube video I did for the Phonovisual Charts several years ago. Another excellent phonic chart (Smart Chart) by Kathy Alfke-Simpson, a seasoned Natural Phoincs Primer teacher, is available from her Reading Bookcamp website. 

10. What about sight words?

The term "sight word" is very complicated term and liable to serious misunderstandings that can be unhelpful and perhaps even lead to harmful practices. Throughout most of my career in education, the term sight words referred to high frequency words that students were expected to memorize, usually without reference to spelling. Recently researchers in the Science of Reading have started applying the term to any word students can identify instantly. So, we have two conflicting definitions: the common one and the scientific one. Parents immediately notice that I do not teach any words (Dolch or Fry) with mere look-say, whole-word memorization. You can find more information on sight words on my Blend Phonics website. The Miller Word Identification Assessment compares a student's speed and accuracy reading a list of 50 sight words (Dolch) with a list of 50 short-vowel phonetically regular  words. Interestingly, the students who were taught sight-words in their schools often will read all the sight-words correctly and miss over 50% of the phonics words, which indicates a lack of phonics instruction. We are adamantly opposed to the unfortunately common practice of sight word (the Dolch and Fry kind) memorization. The shortest path to true sight word fluency is through phonics and spelling. 

11. Why do you insist on teaching both written spelling and spelling orally with letter names. 

I believe that the neglect of good handwriting and spelling instruction is a major cause of the decline in reading achievement. I teach all my students to write the alphabet from a to z fluently, first in manuscript then cursive.  I also teach letter names so my students can spell the words orally. As strange as it may sound, I rarely get a student who can write the alphabet fluently from a to z at the outset of tutoring. Remember to have the student say the word before and after spelling it. Always illustrate the words with oral sentences, especially for homonyms. The way to build sight word fluency is to create as many links or associations as possible: sound, sight, spelling (oral and in writing), meaning, emotion, actions, etc.  I recommend my Shortcut to Manuscript and Shortcut to Cursive for good free programs and Zaner-Bloser Handwriting for a superior commercial program. Here is my Zaner-Bloser Teacher Training Video. For commercial spelling programs, Zaner-Bloser Spelling Connections by Dr. J. Richard Gentry is second to none. Many of parents get good results with Spectrum Spelling . My students have won many awards with the Cursive Is Cool handwriting competition. 

12. In a typical one-hour tutoring session is the Natural Phonic Primer all you do?

No. We generally read a story or two from a developmental grade level reader such as the Alice and Jerry series by Mable O'Donnell or the Pathway Readers. More advanced students read from tradebooks. I also include direct instruction in handwriting in both manuscript and cursive. They learn to use a printed dictionary, which  is a valuable skill lacking in all my tutoring students.  

13. Have you published any other books?

Yes. I have published 15 books: Don's Store. 

14. What do you recommend as a followup for the Natural Phonics Primer?

First Suggestion: That is a good question. For student who are still below their minimun calibrated speed, I highly recommend going through the program a second time striving for a higher speed. One 17-year-old girl improved three grades levels (3rd to 6th) first time through the program then three more grade levels (7th to 9th) the second time, her experience was not unique among my students.  

Second Suggestion: My Beyond Basic Phonics: English Morphology 101 is a perfect followup, and entirely free. I plan to publish a paperback. It focuses on the Latin and Greek elements of English with a helpful section on English homonyms. Videos for Beyond Basic Phonics are available for free. This is a powerful aid for advancing reading skills involving multi-syllabic words. Dr. Marcia K. Henry's "Organizing Decoding Instruction" led me to create this powerful program for advanced readers.

Third Suggestion: Read! Read! Read! Students who finish Exercise 50 (Earth Orbit) become free readers and can read independently anything on their grade level. Students who complete Exercise 72 (Moon Landing) the first time through generally are reading above grade level. Turn them loose in the library! 

Fourth Suggestion: Struggling readers will benefit from working through an old fashioned developmental reading series that feature vocabulary and word frequency controls. I recommend three: (1) Mary Pecci Readers are availabe for first grade only, (2) Alice and Jerry by Mable O'Donnell for 1st through 5th grades (Flashcards for Alice & Jerry), and (3) Pathway Readers by the Amish (Fashcards for Pathway Readers) for first through eight grades. All words are listed in the back of the readers in order of introduction in the stories along with the page number where first introduced. Teaching the word BEFORE reading them helps eliminate guessing. 

15. What about comprehension? Do you teach comprehension skills?

To that question, I can give a resounding, "Yes!" Comprehension is always front and center in my tutoring. I learned this from Hazel Loring and Dr. George González. Hazel Loring, in her 1980 Reading Made Easy with Blend Phonics for First Grade, taught me to ALWAYS use a verbal sentence when teaching blending skills. Dr. González taught me how to teach Eight Powerhouse Comprehension Skills to my  bilingual students when reading stories, five of which are literal and three are inferential. Here is a short video I did years ago illustrating the Hand Signal for each skill. The modern concept of Orthographic Mapping explains why this practice of making rich connections leads to sight word fluency and high comprehension. 

16. What is your dream for the Natural Phonics Primer?

My dream is that administrators across America will come to understand that the simple procedure of having every student complete all 3-stages of the Natural Phonics Primer program every year at their minimum calibrated speed is a viable way to assure that every student acquires and maintains the foundation skills necessary for grade level reading achievement. I should like to hear from any school that implements the plan. The results will be worth publishing.