Freebies - AVKO

AVKO offers a variety of free supplies and services for helping you on your way to learning how to teach using our methods and to help you better understand dyslexia in general. We offer samples of AVKO materials, informative essays, links to other organizations, free books, information regarding dyslexia, our research, the use of the Bernice Webb Memorial Library, and even free daily tutoring here at the AVKO Reading clinic in Birch Run, Michigan.

Members have access to other freebies, including $400+ worth of e-books and additional readings for comprehension. Learn more about the instructional materials, training materials, games, and reference materials available for free with individual or deluxe membership.

Recommended Supplemental Books on Amazon.com

For many of our freebies, you need Adobe Reader 5.0 or later.

Offers for HomeSchoolers

AVKO books on clearance
Google Books — download PDF books in the public domain for free.
Secrets of Successful Homeschooling — A 61 page e-book courtesy of The Old School House Magazine.
Links to other useful organizations
Homeschool.com’s Top 100 Websites

Teaching Aids

The Complete I Before E Rule – with Explanations (PDF on Scribd.com)
Create your own Sequential Spelling tests
Customizing Sequential Spelling to fit your situation
A Short Listing of Words That Tend to Defy Phonic Analysis (PDF on Scribd.com)
A Listing of Basic Words That Tend to Defy Phonic Analysis (PDF on Scribd.com)
Miscellaneous Word Families with Silent Letters (PDF on Scribd.com)
Readings for Comprehension
Pre-tests and Placement tests for Spelling
Disable the Backspace Key for Teaching Typing (PDF)
The Problem with Compound Words
50 Easiest Words to learn to spell
2 & 3 Letter Words
Grade 1 Vocabulary (developed by www.TampaReads.com)
Latin & Greek Roots
Starting at Square One Index (The entire book is FREE with AVKO membership)
Test for Tutors If you think you know phonics, you should take this test!
Phonic Patterns not Systematically Taught in any Phonics Program
The Differences between British and American English spellings
How to Develop Your Own Sequential Spelling Tests
The Complete I Before E Rule
The AVKO Sample IEP
Latin and Greek Roots
The Parts of Speech by David P. Tower and Benjamin F. Tweed
Phonic Patterns Seldom if Ever Taught Even in Phonics Programs
An Index of Basic Phonic Patterns by Vowel Types
Phonogram-to-Sound Chart (courtesy of The Phonics Institute)
Spell Check
Syllabication Rules
Underlining (or Highlighting): Cueing the Computer Brain

Informative/Educational Articles Relating to the Teaching of Reading

What is Dyslexia?: The Official Definitions and Their Translations into Plain English.
Children’s Reading Disability Attributed To Brain Impairment (NICHD)
Dyslexia a Natural Phenomenon by Jack Ferguson
Redefining Literacy; Learning About Learning to Read:
A Conversation with Sally Shaywitz and Marcia D’Arcangelo
PDF Versions:
Official Definitions Translated
Diagnosis and Other Characteristics of Dyslexia
Is Prof. AVKO Right? by Don McCabe
Phive Phones of Reading by Sebastian Wren
Read by Grade 3? Say What?! Don McCabe explains why no reading program ever can be complete by the end of Grade Two and why the teaching of reading must continue throughout the school years.
Reading Recovery: Just the Facts by Bill Carlson. Gives a good insight into why the Reading Recovery movement got started and why it is a complete failure.
Spill Chick (from The Teaching of Reading and Spelling: a Continuum from Kindergarten through College) A letter in which every word is misspelled but spell check can’t catch even one of them.
The Whole Language School of Golf by Dr. Kerry Hempenstall. One of the best, and funniest, explanations of why whole language doesn’t work.
Whole Language: What it is, What it Isn’t by Mary Bowman-Kruhm, Ed.D., Johns Hopkins University. A good explanation of what Whole Language should be.
We Confused Literature with Literacy by Jane Fell Greene, Ed.D.
Open Letter to Parents, Educators, and Boards of Education. Stop discriminating against your most important minority: parents who want to learn how to help their children learn how to read.
Can You Draw an At? by Betsy B. Lee
Characteristics of Good Readers: Things that are Never Taught, but are Somehow Learned