for Elementary Reading programs

Story content should present:

• A universe that rewards virtue and punishes vice, where good and evil are not moral equivalents
• Behavioral role-models that demonstrate civility, sensitivity, humaneness, and non-destructiveness
• Generally positive attitudes toward, and relations among, children, parents, and other adults
• Sensitive treatment of benefits to children of strong, stable, two-parent families
• Equal stress on Europe's literary, religious, and cultural heritage compared to other regions
• As much note of conflicts between individuals within social groups, as between social groups
• Diverse views on current controversial issues, when raised (e.g., "global warming," feminism, evolution)
• Standard spelling, correct grammar, and grade-level appropriate English vocabulary
• No sensational violence, offensive language or illustrations, occultism, or deviant lifestyles (e.g., homosexuality)
• No pattern of pejoratives stigmatizing one group and superlatives idealizing another
• No politically-correct stereotypes of oppressors and/or victims by race, class, creed, or gender

Methods of teaching reading should:

• Teach the simplest phonemes first and the most complex phonemes last.
• First practice phonemes individually, and then in words and sentences.
• Teach individual phonemes before teaching their combinations.
• Teach students to sound out each letter or blend of letters before pronouncing unfamiliar phonetically-regular words.
• Call "decodable" only those phonetically-regular words all of whose phonemes students have practiced, and only those phonetically-irregular words that they have practiced.
• Avoid teaching/visually presenting phonetically-regular words as sight ("high-frequency," "vocabulary," or "story") words.
• Separate learning to read from reading comprehension until after students can read well, teaching student comprehension with teacher-read materials in the meantime.