Fishing With Phonics is extremely teacher friendly. The Fishing (Teacher’s) Guide included in each kit describes and explains the program in detail and how to implement it. A relaxed entertaining two hour training DVD and study guide is provided with each Teacher Tackle Box kit which
demonstrates the fundamentals of the program. Observations of an actual class session are included. These training methods can help prepare a teacher, paraprofessional, tutor or home school parent on how to use the program effectively.

Diane Parks, principal of the Blue Ribbon elementary school in which this program was first piloted states, “One of the benefits of Fishing With Phonics is that it is a systematic approach that is very easy to use for all teachers. Even beginning teachers are able to implement the program successfully with very little preparation time. The children love it.” (Click here on IT WORKS! to read what other educators have to say about the program.)

All the 60 lessons of the program are contained in one sturdy spiral bound student workbook which can be purchased from Crossroads Publications or printed at your district graphic arts department. There is no shuffling, passing out, and picking up of page after page each day. No materials copy time is required. All the needed sight word and phoneme flashcards are included in each kit. The teacher simply needs to teach the lesson. Minimal prep time is needed. Just pick up your Teacher Tackle Box and start teaching!

One of Donald Clark’s greatest talents as an educator is to inject joy into classroom instruction through constant humor, novelty, and kinesthetic games that reinforce the objectives he is teaching. This product he has created, Fishing With Phonics, is no different. Cartoon graphics are used throughout the program giving a semi-comic book kind of look to the materials which the students love. They associate something fun and entertaining with reading. Classroom kinesthetic and team games are included in the program which the author has used for years and which break the monotony of the structured routines this program requires. These games are demonstrated in his workshops and in the DVD training.

After introducing her second graders to Fishing With Phonics, a dual language second grade teacher, Tonya Garza, said, “When I tell my kids we are going to get out our Fishing With Phonics books they begin clapping. They love the lessons.” (Click here on IT WORKS! to read what other educators say about this program.)

Donald Clark, the program author, states, “When the students you are serving have faced continual difficulty in their reading classes or have been slogging for years through the mud of boring leveled readers and state test preparation materials, daily transfusions of humor are required to keep them motivated and encouraged. The kids need to associate fun and games with reading. I personally would be even more ADD and ADHD than I already am if I had to sit in classes in which the teacher seems heavily burdened, rarely laughs, never acts silly, and never tells jokes. Laughter is the medication that is needed for all teachers and students in all classrooms in order to increase the love of learning and achievement in our schools.”