Speak - Write - Read series

Speak - Write - Read series - A Storybook and 22 Reading Books for Children

Created by Martin Hardiman in collaboration with Waldorf UK, Speak - Write - Read offers a storytelling journey into literacy, which nurtures learning within the meaningful context of an engaging story. As the title implies, this approach begins with speech and systematically demonstrates how to turn the words we say into writing, before providing decodable reading books that echo the ongoing narrative. Speak - Write - Read combines well-structured linguistic phonics methods with Waldorf insights to empower children to enjoy writing and reading within a meaningful and imaginative context.

The set includes 22 reading books, carefully structured to be at the appropriate level, matching the letters that are learned and the progress of the story. The set also includes the storyteller's narrative in a separate storybook, along with an introduction to the approach.

To ensure success, the amount of text per page in each reading book is limited at first, but increases considerably as more letters and initial spellings are introduced. At the end of the scheme, the learner should have begun to master the initial code, or as Rudolf Steiner put it in Discussions with Teachers,

"If we proceed rationally... the children will be able to write simple things that we say to them or that they compose themselves. If we stick to simple things, the children will also be able to read them...'

Illustrated in full colour, the readers are well-produced in A5 format, 148 x 210 mm. 18 of the books have 8 pages and 6 have 12 pages. The storybook and introduction has 80 pages in A5 format.