How Zoo-phonics was developed

Zoo-phonics was developed by two experienced teachers in answer to the needs of their students

Zoo-phonics is a method developed to make children strong readers and spellers using a “phono” (hearing), “oral” (speaking), “visual” (seeing), “kinesthetic” (moving), and tactile (touching)—whole brain approach. Students actually learn the sounds of the alphabet and advanced phonemic concepts through an easily understood, concrete method of presentation.

Zoo-phonics was developed by two experienced teachers in answer to the needs of their students. The developers of Zoo-phonics, with its accent on reinforcement through the multi-modal approach, are convinced that this system offers an outstanding alternative to past and present methods of teaching reading and spelling. It ties in easily with any reading series, literature and language arts program that a school may use.

Current research supports the Zoo-phonics Program. It is used throughout the United States and internationally as a highly successful language arts program.

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A note on the recent loss of our illustrator Irene Clark...

"This month we lost our beautiful Irene Clark (photo, below on left), who was our original illustrator of our adorable Zoo-phonics animal letters. Irene helped write the original kindergarten manual with Gigi Bradshaw and developed our Spanish sister program for Zoo-phonics. She will be missed by so many people who received her love, her beautiful flower arrangements, her wonderful cards she drew and the messages she wrote inside of them.

Irene had a constant heart for others and lived tirelessly to meet their needs. She and her husband, Al, were active in helping build the Groveland Library and establish its museum before they moved to The Meadows in Napa, CA. Once there, Irene was involved in Vespers and often gave the sermons when the pastor couldn’t be there. She always arranged the flowers for Sunday. Irene was there for every elderly friend and never let anyone go without a kind word, a prayer or a hug. She was a truly inspirational lady and she will be missed more than words could ever express."

—Char Wrighton & the Zoo-phonics Staff

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Meet the authors/developers

Zoo-phonics was born in the classroom. In 1983, Georgene "Gigi" Bradshaw (photo, right side) began using kinesthetic techniques tied to phonics to teach reading and spelling to her students. Her unique and highly successful approach quickly caught on with other teachers, including her sister Charlene "Char" Wrighton (photo, middle).

Gigi and Char, with illustrator Irene Clark (photo, left side), have taken Gigi's original techniques and made them the "Essences" and foundation for the Zoo-phonics Program, developing a comprehensive, balanced, literature-based method for teaching reading and spelling.

Gigi and Char retired from the classroom to devote full-time attention to Zoo-phonics' curriculum development and the training of teachers in phonetic instruction. Materials, readers and teaching techniques are continually being developed to support teachers and students in the classroom, and parents at home. Zoo-phonics has gone across the country and the world to become an international program.

Every aspect of the program has been field-tested and found to be effective. Educational research has repeatedly supported the focus of phonics in early reading programs, as well as the educational benefits of pictorial mnemonics and kinesthetic approaches to learning that are unique to Zoo-phonics.

Zoo-phonics en español, developed by Irene Clark, was launched in the fall of 1994, using the same brain-efficient and creative teaching techniques original to Zoo-phonics in English.

Gigi Bradshaw holds a Masters Degrees in Education and Curriculum with credentials in Regular and Special Education.

Char holds five teaching credentials and four degrees, including a Master’s degree, an Administrative Credential, a Child Development Program Director’s Certificate and will graduate with her Doctorate in 2010. She is an expert in curriculum, child behavior and child development and was recently voted Tuolumne County Chamber of Commerce’s “Entrepreneur of the Year.”

Irene Clark, a master of various art media, has studied in the United States and Argentina and has won several awards in artistic competitions.

What motivated you to create the Zoo-phonics Program?

The children in our classrooms motivated us. We were Special Ed Teachers. If the children needed curriculum adjusted to their needs, we made the adjustments. These adjustments became the "essences" of Zoo-phonics.

What do teachers find most appealing about the Zoo-phonics Program?

The joy that Zoo-phonics brings into the classroom through the Animals, the movement, music, game format and through the ease with which the children learn the basics of reading, spelling and writing.

What makes Zoo-phonics different?

In Zoo-phonics, we take something that is very abstract (reading) and through music, stories, puppets and games, turn it into something that is concrete and understandable to young children.

Zoo-phonics:

a) Uses 26 animals to teach letter shapes and sounds
b) Teaches the lowercase letters before introducing capitals
c) Teaches letter sounds before letter names
d) Teaches a body movement, or "signal," in association with each Animal/letter of the alphabet; these "Signals" aid memory and bring fun into the classroom
e) Treats the alphabet as a whole and goes from "a-z"
f) Teaches short vowels before long vowels
g) Uses "word family" patterns to teach reading and spelling, because children are "naturals" at finding and remembering patterns

How does Zoo-phonics differ from the traditional method of teaching phonics?

Current research supports the Zoo-phonics Program. Zoo-phonics teaches lowercase letters and sounds first. When these have been learned, uppercase letters and letter names are introduced. The alphabet is taught as a whole and in sequence. Zoo-phonics does not believe in teaching one letter per week. It teaches the alphabet from "a-z." To make it fun, the children sing and move to the Zoo-phonics alphabet song entitled, "Come Meet us at the Zoo" (from the Zoo-Phonics Music That Teaches CD). A Body Signal is taught from "a-z" in association with each Animal. Not only is this beneficial to a young child's physical development, but it aids memory (for "When the body moves, the brain remembers"), and it's fun!

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Zoo-phonics understands the importance of phonemic awareness!

Phonemic awareness, a precursor to phonics, is important to teach from the very beginning. According to Liberman, Shankweiler and Liberman, “There are high correlations found by others between preschooler’s phonological awareness and later reading skill.” Training preschoolers and kindergarten children in phonemic awareness will have a “salutary effect on future reading skill.”

—The Alphabetic Principle and Learning to Read,” by Isabelle Y. Liberman, Donald Shankweiler and Alvin M. Liberman (Reprinted by the National Institute of Child Health and Human Development from Phonology and Reading Disability: Solving the Reading Puzzle)

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