Donald L. Potter
Goals of this Tutoring Resources
1. Provide highly effective, easy-to-use materials for teaching reading, writing, and spelling to students of all ages.
2. Encourage public and private schools to adopt a science based spell-to-read approach to teaching reading.
3. Motivating and training teachers in the fine art of teaching manuscript and cursive handwriting.
4. Offering powerful assistance to teachers and parents helping young students whose reading levels were adversely
affected by the Covid 19 Pandemic.
Other Free Reading Resources
1. Blumenfeld’s Alpha-Phonics Self-Tutor
For the very best program for beginning or remedial reading, I recommend my Self-Tutor edition of Samuel L. Blumenfeld’s famous Blumenfeld’s Alpha-Phonics. Blumenfeld’s Alpha-Phonics Self-Tutor Manuscript.
2. Audio for Blumenfeld’s Alpha-Phonics Self-Tutor
You may access my free audio instruction for Blumenfeld’s Alpha-Phonics Self-Tutor from my One Drive. I designed the audio to be entirely self-teaching. It can be used for review after the tutoring session or before the tutoring session to prepare the student to make the best of the face-to-face instructional time. Mature, motivated students can master the whole program on their own with the help provided by the audio.
There is one set of flashcards for each of the 10 logical steps in the program. The cards are designed to provide the necessary spaced repetition to develop an automatic phonics reflex and full orthographic mapping (sight-word recognition). Flashcards in Power Point.
4. Reader First Readers Anthology
This anthology contains 10 decodable readers and one book of poetry in a single volume, covering every spelling pattern in the English language - following the 10 Steps in the program. I believe they are the finest decodable readers available anywhere today at any price. First Readers in Power Point. Here is a Progress Chart.
Linguistic Introduction to 44 English Speech Sounds
1. Sound-to-Symbol Associations.
It is important to pronounce the phonemes (individual English speech sounds) correctly in order for the students to be able to apply them to decoding words. This video is a practical mini-course in English linguistics for teaching reading. Scientists would call the associations or relationships phoneme-grapheme correspondences.
2. Facial Diagrams for Phoneme Production.
These facial diagrams will be of great help to new teachers. They are designed to go with the training video above. Students also benefit from seeing how speech sound are formed in the mouth. A mirror is very helpful here.
These cards are based on the Spalding Phonograms adapted to the Alpha-Phonics Scope and Sequence. I have taught the program successfully with them and without them. Here is more information on the Phonograms.
Assessment Instruments
Suggested Reading Assessments for Tutors
Assessments are essential for planning appropriate instruction and measuring progress. This document is a compilation of the test I have found valuable, including alphabet, handwriting, phonics, dyslexia, and grade level. I prefer these excellent assessments over the more expensive commercial tests because, although free, they give me very comparable results. My experience is that students who score well on my free assessments will also score equally well on the expensive commercial tests. This allows me to keep my tutoring expenses down to something parents can easily afford.
Beyond Blumenfeld’s Alpha-Phonics self-tutor
1. Beyond Blumenfeld’s Alpha-Phonics Self-Tutor
I wrote this very advanced level of reading instruction for students who have mastered Blumenfeld’s Alpha-Phonics Self-Tutor. Beyond Blumenfeld’s Alpha-Phonics Self-Tutor is generally appropriate for students beginning in third or fourth grade through college. The approach goes directly to the Anglo-Saxon, Romance (French and Latin,) and Greek Layers of the English language. It teaches the prefixes, suffixes, roots, and Greek combining forms in an easy-to-understand manner using expert audio instruction. The last section on English Homonyms is very helpful for vocabulary building and improving spelling.
2. Audio Instruction for Beyond Blumenfeld’s Alpha-Phonics Self-Tutor.
The audio instruction makes the program self-tutoring. The pronunciation and meaning of all the words are explained in detail.
3. Dr. Marcia K. Henry’s 1990 essay, “Organizing Decoding Instruction.”
Dr. Henry's essay serves well as an introduction to my approach for improving student reading ability beyond fourth grade by teaching the Anglo-Saxon, Romance (Latin & French) and Greek layers of English.
Don Potter's Handwriting Videos
1. Manuscript
This video is a detailed, step-by-step approach to teaching fluent (legible and fast) manuscript handwriting. The letters are taught in alphabetical order so the students gain equal proficiency with each letter. Here is the same method without midlines.
2. Cursive
This video provides detailed instruction on how to teach fluent cursive handwriting. My students won a national handwriting competition six years in a row. This method gets results and is easy to teach. I explain various letter forms so the program can be used to help prepare teachers to teach the different commercially available programs.
Don Potter’s Crash Course in Spelling
The most difficult thing in the world is to catch up a student who is behind in spelling because of a lack of a solid, grade-by-grade spelling program like the Zaner-Bloser Spelling Connection by Dr. J. Richard Gentry. I have developed a spelling program based on the Ayres Spelling Scale along with select homonyms, of which the latter are perpetual bugbears for students.
Recommended Commercial Handwriting and Spelling Programs
I highly recommend Zaner-Bloser Handwriting and Spelling-Connections. My experience teaching Dr. J. Richard Gentry’s Spelling Connections convinces me that it has no equal. Here is a Detailed Stroke Description for Zaner-Bloser Manuscript. Here are my Alphabet Tapping and Writing Exercises.
Questions for Educators::
1. Why are NONE of my tutoring students able to write the alphabet fluently? (Is anybody teaching handwriting?)
2. Why can NONE of my tutoring students pass the Gentry Grade-Level Spelling Test? (Is anyone teaching spelling?)
3. Why are ALL my tutoring students being asked to memorize Fry Sight-Words? (Is anyone teaching phonics?)
4. Why can NONE of my tutoring students use a dictionary to find a word, definite, or pronounce it? (Does anybody care?
"RtI Blues” by Mr. Donald Potter
HMH Into Reading Spelling Supplement
Most of my tutoring students come from HMH Into Reading classrooms. The program is basically a balanced literacy program with an emphasis on leveled readers. The weakest part of the program is the spelling component, which is especially unfortunate give the insights of cognitive scientists study reading on the importance of orthographic mapping for the development of fluent reading.
First Grade Fluency Exercises for Teaching HMH Into Reading: Shifting the Balance in Balanced Literacy. I developed these fluency exercises to help teachers achieve 100% success teaching their HMH students to read and spell. The spelling words for each week in the HMH Into Reading Scope & Sequence are arranged in 5 x 10 matrices with a dot every fifth worth to facilitate the timing. I suggest that students should achieve rates of 40 words per minute or above for each Fluency Exercise. I believe it is possible for the students to thoroughly map these word and achieve total mastery every Friday, with an aggressive program of daily instruction as outlined on the first page. The students should be able to spell and instantly identify all the words in the progarm at the end of the year, which will prepare them for success in second grade. HMH Into Reading.
The Science of Reading
Videos from the Reading League.
1. Learning to Reading Words: Is it a Visual Memory Task?
2. Orthographic Mapping: What it is and Why it is important
3. Syllable Patterns and Syllable Division
4. Phoneme vs. Phonological Awareness: Knowing the Difference Matters for Assessment and Instruction.
5. Recent Advances in Understanding Reading Development and Difficulties: Prevention & Intervention.
6. Oral Reading Fluency: Understanding it to Improve it.
7. Strategies for Teaching Irregular “Tricky” Words.
8. Dispelling Misconceptions of Dyslexia. I do agree that some dyslexia is inherited, but I highly suspect that much of what passes for dyslexia is simply the logical result of inappropriate beginning reading instruction. Dr. Murry gives hope for improvement if appropriate instruction is afforded. I have taught people as old as 41 to read so I agree that it is never too late.
9. The Science of Reading a white paper by Laura Steward, Author and National Director for The Reading League.
10. Lyn Stone Orthographic Mapping Explained.
11. Popular animated presentation of Dr. Kilpatrick’s Orthographic Mapping. Reverse Sentence Reading
12. The Reading Wars: Phonemes or Whole-Words? A easy-to-understand YouTube presentation, 6:13 minutes.
13. Dyslexia and the Importance of Teaching Foundation Skills by Dr. Richard Gentry, whose Zaner-Bloser Spelling Connections is the epitome of a sound, science based spelling program that would greatly improve students' reading and writing. This article was based partly on my correspondence with Dr. Gentry.
14. Tipping the Scale on Fountas & Pinnell. A short post on the downside of Guided Reading and Leveled Literacy Intervention. The same writer very up-to-date, informative article on “Research-Back Reading Instruction.”
15. 5 Practical Assessment Tips for Tutoring Struggling Readers. This is Psychology Today article (8/3/201) by Dr. J. Richard
Gentry on how I test students to find out their real needs in order to provide optimal remediation.
16. Creating Dyslexia: It’s as Easy as Pie by Samuel L. Blumenfeld. This late scholar goes the heart of the problem.
17. The Essential Linnea Ehri. "A Research-Based Explanation of How Children Learn to Read" by David Parker.
18. Creating Better Readers and Writers: The Importance of Direct, Systematic Spelling and Handwriting Instruction in Improving Academic Performance by Richard Gentry, PhD., and Steve Graham, Ed.D represents the best current research.
19. Dr. David Kilpatrick. 1. How We Remember Words, and Why Some Kids Don’t. 2. Understanding the Role of Phonemic Proficiency in Boosting Reading Skills. 3. FAST (Phonological Awareness Screening Test) Test, which I give to all my students. 4. Facilitator’s Guide to to Essentials of Assessment, Preventing and Overcoming Reading Difficulties .
20. Dr. Mark Seidenberg: 1: Phonemes, Speech & Reading. 2. Becoming Phonemic. 3. Reading Learning and Instruction.
21. Reading and Spelling Skills. Slides by Linnea Ehri.
22. The Science of Reading, Winter 2020 by SCORE, State Collaborative on Reforming Education
23. Right to Read Inquiry & Teacher Librarian Journey to Structured Literacy. This is a story of one teacher’s journey from Reading Recovery & Balanced Literacy to Structured Literacy.
24. 10 Reasons Why RtI Doesn’t Work by Faith Borkowsky. RtI Blues: by Don Potter
25. Orthographic Mapping: How Do We Learn New Words (Sept. 2021) LaTondra Robinson, Bethani Welch. Mississippi Department of Education. Training slides. Very helpful.
26. Alabama Department of Education Infographic on The Science of Reading for Parents.
27. Balanced Literacy vs Science of Reading: What’s BEHIND this Debate?
28. Colorado Dept . of Education: Training by David Kilpatrick. This is the general access version, which is available for free but not credit.
29. Mark S. Seidenberg: “Where Does the “Science of Reading” Go From Here? A presentation at the Yale Child Study Center 12/4/23. Sketchy outline, but complete summary. Here is the voiceover of the lecture.
My Goal in an Aphorism
My goal is to present a program
with the simplicity the teachers desire
and the effectiveness the kids deserve.”
Mr. Potter's Approach to Education
To teach the heart,
Where lies the gold,
My goal shall always be,
With warm love and true kindness
For all the world to see.
By Donald L. Potter 1/1/2014
