THE JILLY BEAN™ READING PROGRAM©
The Jilly Bean™ Reading Program© is a computer adaptation of a phonics based reading program (The SMITH-DILLER Reading Program developed by Jill Smith, M.A., in the 1960’s and modified by Howard Diller, M.D., in the 1970’s).
STAND ALONE PROGRAM
The Jilly Bean™ Reading Program© is for young people in a school setting, a remedial setting, or at home. There is another version of the SMITH-DILLER Reading Program for adults. It is called Wake Up Your Reading©.
PRINT MATERIALS ARE AVAILABLE BUT NOT NECESSARY.
The teaching is done at the computer. The Jilly Bean™ Reading Program© has flash cards, workbooks and readers that are compatible with the computer lessons. These hard copy materials are available, too, but they are for reinforcement.
The SMITH-DILLER reading programs (in all of the versions) is a program that is particularly successful with learners who seem to be less efficient in the traditional educational environment. The approach used in these programs is consistent with other phonics based programs.* It has been shown to be successful for all learners. It is especially appropriate for young children who are “at risk” for reading problems and older students who have not become truly efficient readers.
PROGRAM SPEAKS TO THE STUDENT
After the student has been signed in, there is a pretest page showing the words (or just consonant sounds when in the PRIMER) which the teacher can use or not, as seems appropriate. On the next screen those words are spoken in a clear voice with graphics to illustrate the meaning of the words.
TOO FEW ESL TEACHERS?
This makes the program particularly effective for English as a Second Language (ESL) students. A teacher who speaks the language of the learner is not necessary after the student understands the mechanics of the computer. The computer mechanics are very simple, so this happens quickly.
DOES THE STUDENT NEED SLOWER SPEECH?
The speech or oral presentation can be slowed down for students who might benefit from this option. Learning Disabled students with an Auditory Processing Disorder might find this especially advantageous.
The words are shown in clear, big, print. In the beginning of each lesson there is a picture to go with the voice reading the word aloud. The auditory and visual modalities are addressed simultaneously here.
These words to be learned within the lesson are offered on another screen that has an oral presentation, but in this later screen the only words that are spoken for the student are at the top of the screen. The student can refer back to those spoken words at the top or refer back to the screen where the words were introduced and spoken if that feels helpful.
After the introduction of the new words on the screen at the beginning of the lesson (where all the words are read aloud to the student and the next screens with some spoken language, there are challenge/activity screens that reinforce the learning of those new words. Challenges are presented phonetically.
AUDITORY-VISUAL-TACTILE
The use of the keyboard adds a tactile component to the experience, making it a tri-modal experience.
Research has proven without question that phonetic reading programs are very effective.** Students who have learned with this particular phonetic program (when it used only print materials) learned. They learned well.
Our students learn well, and they fulfill the three concerns of the authors and of our company. Our “THREE R’S” are:
RESPECT for the student, REINFORCEMENT, AND REPITITION.
Subsequent screens/lessons in the Jilly Bean™ Reading Program© will include the previously learned words and words that are part of the next phonetic word pattern the student needs to master. This approach will be repeated throughout the entire program. The subsequent lessons will reinforce previously learned words and focus upon the new words being added to the student’s reading vocabulary.
As stated above, the teacher can slow down the delivery speed of the oral presentation of words for any student who might find this valuable.
ESL TEACHERS NOT NECESSARY
A teacher who speaks English and the language of the learner is not necessary for this program to work. The only real instruction that requires facilitation by an adult is to show the student how to manage the computer to begin the program. Once the student is familiar with the first lessons, the same “shell” is used throughout all the modules. No further instruction is required because the screen arrangements stay the same as the learning gets progressively harder; all new words are spoken for the learner. Jilly Bean™ is therefore very appropriate for English As a Second Language classes where bilingual teachers are in short supply.
STUDENTS’ WORK CORRECTED
The computer program corrects the student’s responses. If the accuracy level falls below 90%, the computer will recycle the student through similar material until the accuracy level standard is met.
When that accuracy standard has been met, the student will automatically be moved on to the next lesson in the module (or to the next module of the program if that is appropriate).
HARD COPY REPORTS AVAILABLE.
The program will report the success of the individual student as well as the success of a whole class, the school, or the district at large in terms of the academic goals addressed. For instance the report on success with the very first module will specify mastery of consonant-vowel-consonant words with a short a sound.
This computer reading program presents phonetically consistent vocabulary first, beginning with three letter words with short vowel sounds (words like pan, man, pat, pit, hit, ten, den, hot, pot, fan, fin, etc.). When the student has mastered these configurations, the Jilly Bean™ Reading Program© moves on to words that have a consonant blend at the beginning, a short vowel, and then a single final consonant (words like plan, clam, trim, drum, plum, flat, etc.). The next stage would be words with a consonant blend at the end of the word, and after that words that begin with a consonant blend and end with a consonant blend with a short vowel in the middle (words like clamp, clump, plump, tramp, grump, etc.).
The Jilly Bean™ Reading Program © works slowly and steadily through every pattern or configuration that exists in the English language.
IRREGULAR WORDS
A few irregular words are introduced early in the program in order to allow sentences to be constructed, but most irregular words (those that have been over used and have been very abused down through the centuries and no longer are pronounced as they are spelled or no longer are spelled as they are pronounced) are introduced toward the end of the program. These irregular words are very confusing to the person new to learning to read English. For instance the word “is” should be pronounced “iss” if it were still enunciated the way it was in Chaucer’s time, or we should have changed the spelling of it to “iz.”
We introduce just a few of these highly irregular words in the beginning, allowing the student to read sentences. The student learns to decode many of the phonetically regular words in the English language before including too many non phonetic, confusing words.
The remaining irregular words are taught later, but they, too, are taught in a pattern-approach. “mother,” for instance, is highly irregular in the way it is pronounced, following few of the phonetic rules of English. We teach this word along with brother, smother, other, etc., all of which are similarly irregular. We teach these at the end of the program, when the management of phonetic rules is so well established that the student’s mastery of the phonetic rules is not disrupted by over exposure to irregularities.
This approach allows the student to learn phonetic analysis reading techniques and to integrate them with a visual analysis ideographic approach.
Reading comprehension challenges are imbedded in each lesson.
Advanced knowledge of the computer itself is not necessary at any of the levels.
The same approach to reading is available for older persons in the other version of the SMITH-DILLER Reading Program, Wake Up Your Reading©.
These computer versions of the SMITH-DILLER Reading Program allow the academically efficient learner to go speedily through the lessons. It also allows the less efficient learner to proceed at a pace that is more comfortable. The efficient learner and the inefficient learner both succeed and end with mastery.
* The SMITH-DILLER Reading Program is philosophically consistent with Alphabetic Phonics, The Orton Gillingham Method, the Herman Method, the SRA Basic Reading Series, Merrell Linguistic Reading, Phoenix Learning System, Palo Alto Linguistic Readers, and Let’s Read. It is even consistent with the Hooked on Phonics Program, though all of these programs including Jilly Bean have far greater depth than the program from Hooked on Phonics.
** Please contact us if you would like information on research into phonics based reading programs.
