Teaching Phonics to Teens and Adults.

It is even more important to use efficient, proven methods with teens and adults. This page summarizes our remedial readers page and highlights in information that is especially important for an older student who has struggled for years. You can read the full remedial readers page for more detailed information about how to remediate reading.

This statement from the remedial readers page is copied in full as almost every older student feels like a failure when they should not:

A remedial student needs to be continually reassured that they are not stupid, they are smart; their troubles are the fault of the method used to teach them to read, not anything they have done. The podcast series "Sold a Story" explains what is happening with these methods and why they persist.

While older students also need to get back to the basics and learn phonics, older teens and adults are also more easily able to Incorporate morphology and 2+ syllable words into their remediation. This keeps them working on higher level words while learning the basics. This practice is both more efficient and more motivational. 

Methods and books that incorporate morphology and higher level words:

40L’s Syllables Spell Success lessons.

James Williams, We All Can Read, 3rd Grade and Above, includes nonsense words.

Miscese R. Gagen, Back on the Right Track Reading, use card stock to make letter tiles.

Marcia Henry, Words, integrates phonics, spelling, and word study with word roots and prefixes.

Games

Teens and adults may also not want to use phonics games, although some do some enjoy them. You can make using games a choice, not mandatory, depending on the desires of the student or the overall class. See our game page for ideas if your student wants to incorporate games into their learning. Using games does extend learning time and makes it more fun but many older students do not want anything seen as childish in their lessons. The Greek and Latin word root bingo game is one game that is enjoyed by all ages and is not seen as childish since it works on higher level roots and words.

Leveraging Strengths

Teens and adults can build on their strengths while improving on missing skills. They are better able to be self teaching with the aid of charts and diacritical markings.  Charts to help learn sounds and their spelling patterns:

40L’s vowel and consonant charts, for looking up sounds and their sound/spelling patterns.

40L’s Vowel Team Charts, for learning spelling patterns of vowel teams.

After learning the diacritical markings used in McGuffey’s readers, students can use the free McGuffey’s readers to build their reading skills and vocabulary. The books are free to print from Gutenberg press. You need the PDF version to see the diacritical markings. There are also kindle versions available. There are reprints of several different versions of the McGuffey Readers. The 1879 version with diacritical markings has a blue and orange cover. The 1830 Mott Media edition lacks the diacritical markings and has a brown cover.

The McGuffey readers have difficult words diacritically marked to make them easier to sound out, and later books have definitions for difficult words. Students generally need to start near the end of the 2nd reader or somewhere in the 3rd reader depending on their reading level. It is best to start slightly below comfortable reading level and build up reading skill by having your student read a passage or two a day. After being guided through the process of using McGuffey readers and using the markings, older students can be self-teaching and grow their reading abilities on their own, using their strengths to achieve reading success.

Syllables and Spellers

Since adding in syllables and Webster’s Speller, 40L volunteers have seen its students progress to much higher reading grade levels. teens and adults are much better able to tackle the 3 to 7 syllable words in Webster’s Speller than younger students. The focus on syllables draws attention to phonics basics while allowing work with high level words.  40L’s Syllables Spell Success lessons integrate Webster’s Speller into the later lessons and explain how to teach using syllables and a speller.  See our Webster’s Way page to delve into its rich history, explore its educational benefits, and explain why it continues to be a valuable resource for teaching reading today.

Spelling

Incorporating spelling is especially important for teens and adults. Older students may have tried several interventions based on reading. Phonetic spelling instruction is helpful for improving both reading and spelling. Phonetic spelling instruction approaches reading from a different and more challenging angle. You should add a bit of spelling instruction to each reading lesson. You can use a few words you have taught that lesson or words that follow that same pattern. Our spelling page has more information about how to teach spelling. 40L also has free online spelling lessons.

For older students who have experienced failure for years, it is critical for them to know that older students can experience success. With good methods and perseverance, they can experience success and flourish. 40L volunteers have achieved this success with countless students. You too can embrace this reading journey and achieve success!