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Vision: Mission: Statement of Purpose: Countless books, articles and learned studies have sought to declare peace in the reading wars between various instructional techniques, most notably phonics (which teaches word-decoding skills before textual meaning) and whole language (which emphasizes textual meaning). However, no peace seems to be forthcoming. The reading wars, it is clear, are waged not on the front of technique but on whether our children have access to schools, educators and most importantly, the material needed to teach our children. Due to this reading war, kids across the world, especially kids in rural areas and impoverished communities are delayed in getting involved in an early start reading program, leaving them at a disadvantage to compete with their counterparts (locally and globally). By first grade, most children are expected to read fluently. These disadvantaged children, however, cannot meet this expectation, and they must play the role of catch-up for the rest of their academic lives. It is one thing to talk about reading and another to talk about teaching reading. Reading is both an acquired taste and an acquired skill. Taste is fed by skill, and skill requires discipline in acquisition and discipline in teaching. Discipline from both the learner and the teacher must be present. It is a technical effective manner, therefore teachers must first learn how to instruct in a way that will engage their students and give them the tools necessary to read, write, spell and comprehend. In light of the aforementioned, this curriculum will aim first to teach each instructor the skills that he or she needs to own in order to be an effective teacher. Once those skills are acquired, the teacher will then be able to teach his or her students using state-of-the-art materials to instruct guided reading, alphabet, phonemic awareness, reading comprehension, reading fluency, and vocabulary building. The teaching resources will include culturally competent, professionally developed, and downloadable books, lesson plans, worksheets, and reading assessments. Because this program will be delivered over the Internet, this comprehensive reading curriculum will be upgraded on a regular basis. New books, lesson plans, and other resources, will be added, thus continually expanding its wealth of materials. The web site will have downloadable books plus teaching and learning materials. This curriculum will target kids 2-7 years old. Sample Reading Programs: Financing the Project: Time-Line: Resources Needed:
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