Educational aid and method of using same

• US 4,437,837 A
• Filed: 12/11/1981
• Issued: 03/20/1984
• Est. Priority Date: 12/11/1981
• Status: Expired due to Fees

• Current Assignee: Elinor Gilloon, Shirley I. Schnettler
• Original Assignee: Elinor Gilloon, Shirley I. Schnettler
• Inventors: Schnettler, Shirley I., Gilloon, Elinor
• Primary Examiner(s): Grieb, William H.
• Application Number:
  US06/329,728
• Time in Patent Office: 830 Days
• Field of Search: 434/167, 434/178
• US Class Current: 434/178
• CPC Class Codes: G09B 17/00 Teaching reading teaching lip-reading G09B21/00

Abstract

An educational method uses an ordered group of instructional elements having a series of sentence indicia thereon. A first sentence indicia includes first alphabetic indicia representing a first single high-frequency word to be learned and at least a first rebus indicia representing a word equivalent cooperating with the high-frequency word to help form a first sentence. The first sentence facilitates the decoding of the first alphabetic indicia. A second sentence indicia includes second alphabetic indicia representing the single high-frequency word to be learned, and at least a second rebus indicia representing a word equivalent cooperating with the high-frequency word to help form a second sentence. Third and fourth sentence indicia include respective third and fourth alphabetic indicia representing a second single high-frequency word to be learned as well as at least respective third and fourth rebus indicia representing word equivalents cooperating with the third and fourth alphabetic indicia to help form respective third and fourth sentences. An auxilliary learning reinforcement aid is used to play a game for reinforcing the learning of the high-frequency words introduced by the instructional elements. The first sentence indicia is displayed to the learner, who is requested to read and decode the first alphabetic indicia representing the single high-frequency word to be learned. The second, third and fourth sentence indicia are displayed in like manner. The method is then continued with additional instructional elements, followed by the use of the reinforcement aid.

Claims

1. A method of using an educational aid for facilitating the instruction of learners in the ability to read comprising, in combination:

an ordered set of instructional elements for use seriatim according to a teaching plan, each element including;

background means having indicia thereon;

said indicia including an ordered series of sentence indicia;

a first one of said sentence indicia including a first alphabetic indicia representing a first single high-frequency word to be learned and at least a first rebus indicia representing a word equivalent cooperating with the high frequency word to help form a first sentence to facilitate the decoding said first alphabetic indicia in accordance with a teaching plan;

a second one of said sentence indicia including a second alphabetic indicia representing said single high-frequency word to be learned for repetition purposes and at least a second rebus indicia representing a word equivalent cooperating with the high frequency word to help form a second sentence to facilitate the decoding said second alphabetic indicia in accordance with the teaching plan;

a third one of said sentence indicia including a third alphabetic indicia representing a second single high-frequency word to be learned and at least a third rebus indicia representing a word equivalent cooperating with the second high-frequency word to help form a third sentence to facilitate the decoding said third alphabetic indicia in accordance with the teaching plan, wherein said third one of said sentence indicia includes a fourth alphabetic indicia representing said single high-frequency word to be learned for reinforcement purposes;

a fourth one of said sentence indicia including a fifth alphabetic indicia representing said second single high-frequency word to be learned for repetition purposes and at least a fourth rebus indicia representing a word equivalent cooperating with said second high-frequency word to help form a fourth sentence to facilitate the decoding said fifth alphabetic indicia in accordance with the teaching plan;

displaying the first one of said sentence indicia to the learner according to the teaching plan;

directing the attention of the learner to said first alphabetic indicia representing said single high-frequency word to be learned for explaining said word to the learner;

displaying the second one of said sentence indicia to the learner;

requesting the learner to read said second sentence to facilitate the decoding of said second indicia;

displaying the third one of said sentence indicia to the learner;

requesting the learner to read said third sentence to facilitate the decoding said third alphabetic indicia; and

repeating the displaying and requesting steps for the fourth and any additional ones of said sentence indicia;

whereby each subsequent sentence indicia includes at the most only one new alphabetic indicia representing a single new high-frequency word to be learned and possibly some alphabetic indicia representing one or more previously learned high-frequency words.

2. A method according to claim 1 wherein said background means includes a flat sheet composed of an opaque material.

3. A method according to claim 1, wherein the opaque material is paper material.

4. A method according to claim 1, further including an auxiliary learning reinforcement aid including a set of game elements for use seriatim according to a teaching plan, said elements including individual background means, each one of said means having a front face bearing a different alphabetic indicia representing one of said high-frequency words to be learned represented by the corresponding alphabetic indicia of said instructional elements and having a rear face bearing a different sentence indicia representing a sentence including the high-frequency word represented by the indicia on its front face.

5. A method according to claim 1, further including displaying the fourth one of said sentence indicia to the learner, and requesting the learner to read said fourth sentence to facilitate the decoding said fourth alphabetic indicia.

6. A method according to claim 1, further including providing an auxiliary learning reinforcement aid including a set of game elements for use seriatim according to a teaching plan, said elements including individual background means, each one of said means having a front face bearing a different alphabetic indicia representing one of said high-frequency words to be learned represented by the corresponding alphabetic indicia of said instructional elements and having a rear face bearing a different sentence indicia representing a sentence including the high-frequency word represented by the indicia on its front face.

7. A method according to claim 6, further including displaying the front face of said game elements seriatim;

requesting repeatedly the learner to read the alphabetic indicia thereon;

distributing the game elements to the learner when the indicia on the front faces thereof are correctly identified; and

requesting repeatedly the learner to read the indicia on the rear faces of the distributed game elements.

8. The educational aid of claim 4, wherein said game elements are each composed of paperboard material.