Reading Changed My Life - Townsend Press

Daisy RussellPhonics involves “sounding out” letters and syllables.“When I was reading on my own, and I cameacross a word I didn’t recognize, I had no way todecipher it,” Daisy explains. “With Earl sitting therebeside me, I learned how to break a word into itsparts.”To her surprise, working with a tutor turned outto be a lot of fun. “We kidded around all the time,”Daisy says. “For instance, I remember when I firsthit the word ‘people.’ With its silent ‘o’ there in themiddle, I could not figure that word out. WhenEarl finally told me what it said, I studied it andsaid, ‘That doesn’t say ‘people.’ It says ‘PEEOPLE.’ So ever after that, when the word wouldcome up in our lessons, we’d say ‘Pee Ople’ and getto laughing so hard that the director would comeover and say, ‘If you two don’t quiet down, you’regoing to have to leave!’ ”Once Daisy began to develop the tools sheneeded, her progress was rapid. And as her reading49