Reviewer: Gisela Giardino I'd like to tell you a story about a boy named Sven. He was in the fifth grade, autistic, and he couldn't read a single word. Not "it," "me," "the" - nothing. His teachers told his family
that he may never learn to read. With my simple reading program,
I taught Sven to read. My story begins when my daughter
was in the first grade. She was a challenged reader. At that time, I didn't know
about challenged readers. "Everyone can read, right?" Wrong. According to the U.S.
Department of Education, last year, 19% of high school
students in America graduated unable to read
above a third grade level, which is considered
functionally illiterate. That's nearly 1 in 5 students, or half a million new graduates, each year. How can anyone graduate high school
not knowing how to read? Teachers are doing everything they can
to help these kids, but the traditional way
of teaching reading does not work for many students. According to the National
Assessment of Adult Literacy, "In America, 85% of juvenile delinquents
and 70% of prison inmates are functionally illiterate." Illiteracy is the number one predictor
of future criminal activity. There is a solution,
and this is how it came about. In my 20's, I went to Japan
to teach English. I needed to learn Japanese,
and I was told to learn to read first. I discovered that the Japanese
have developed a system called hiragana, which makes reading so easy,
I learned in a week. I didn't know the meaning
of the characters at first. The point is that I could sound out
and correctly pronounce Japanese. Ten years later, when my daughter's
reading challenge opened my eyes, I decided to take what I learned in Japan
and adapt it to English. With the help of a reading specialist,
I wrote down all the sounds of English. Then, I analyzed our alphabet. I discovered that of our 26 letters, 12 make only one sound, but these other 14 letters
make multiple sounds. The "A" makes four sounds,
the "C" makes three. The "O" makes eight different sounds! I believe this is why English
is so difficult. Let's take "C" as an example. The three sounds of "C" are in "cat," "face" and "ocean." I was also surprised to discover that these 17 letters
are sometimes silent, meaning they do not make a sound in many words. Think for a moment
about these four examples: there is no "B" sound in the word "doubt," no "G" sound in the word "sign," no "S" in "island," and no "W" in "who." The program I developed
is called "nardagani." I found a way to expose
all the sounds of the 14 letters. Underneath the letters
is one of these symbols. These symbols let the reader know
what sound to make. They also guide students
in learning to sound out words. I'm going to teach you
two of these symbols. First, everyone's favorite symbol. The square is your lips,
the line is your finger, and the sound it makes is "shhhh." The "shhhh" sound can be made
five different ways. With one "S" in "sugar," two "S"s in "mission," and "S-H" in "sheep," a "T" in "vacation" and a "C" in "social." The triangle symbol lets the reader know
the "ooo" sound is needed. The "ooo" sound can be made
four different ways, with one "O" in "move," two "O"s in "school," an "E" in "flew" and a "U" in "super." How about those silent letters? They're underlined and easy to see. Here is an example
of our symbols in action. Notice the three different sounds of "U." We hum a tune for you. Dr. Jeffrey Wilhelm, distinguished professor
of English education at Boise State University and a nationally recognized
literacy expert, conducted a small scale
teacher research study with our program. He concludes that it works because it reduces
the cognitive overload that is typically experienced
by those learning to read English. We have conducted several pilot programs
in detention facilities, which were highly successful. Nardagani has been approved
by the Idaho State Department of Education for use in Idaho schools. Using nardagani, Sven, in 5th grade, learned to read with our symbols
in eight one-hour lessons. (Applause) He was elated to be able to read books
coded with our symbols. (Video) Sven: It was pretty hard, but when I started to work with them, it is now easy. I'm going on safari. (Laughter) I see zebras graze on safari. Wow! I see animals all around me on safari. (Applause) I did it! Narda Pitkethly: You did do it! (On stage) So Sven learned
to read our coded books in eight one-hour lessons. Several months later, he no longer needed the symbols. Last year, in high school, Sven became a proud member
of the National Honor Society of America. (Applause) Sven says, "I once thought reading was impossible; now I know all things are possible." Thank you. (Applause)
