The Best Way to Teach Reading

http://www.nytimes.com/2016/09/27/opinion/the-best-way-to-teach-reading.html

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To the Editor:

Re “A School Where the Students Learn to Read by Sculpting Words,” by Jim Dwyer (About New York column, Sept. 23):

As the mother and grandmother of Montessori-educated children, I can attest to the schools’ superior style of teaching reading. The use of “sandpaper letters” and phonics gives children at the early age of 3 to 5 years control of their language skills.

The sandpaper letters are a tactile way of feeling each letter and learning its sound as they move into syllable sounds.

Having been taught by the phonics system myself in the early 1950s and later teaching phonics as an educator myself, I can attest to its superiority at any level over whole language, which has been in vogue.

ABIGAIL E. PILGER

Dunwoody, Ga.