Uncovering the Logic of English: A Common-Sense Approach to Reading, Spelling, and Literacy

A must read for teachers teaching phonics. It literally DOES explain the logic of our language in clear, simple, easy to read format. Charts are very helpful. Should probably be a required reading textbook for pre service elementary teachers.

I’ve been tutoring struggling readers for over 10 years. I found this book early on, and it completely changed the way I teach. It’s amazing!!

I homeschool my 7 year old granddaughter and this book has been a life saver. I am 60 and never knew all the rules to make spelling easy. This book gives all the rules and examples of the why's and how's of spelling and reading the English language.

I have never enjoyed a book or product so much to write a review, but I felt compelled in the case of Denise Eide's text. As a child who struggled with Dyslexia (and has now become an Educational Therapist helping others to read); spelling, and reading rules, in general, were difficult topics, despite my love of words. When I decided that I wanted to help children learn to read and discovered that, in fact, there is a logic to reading, I attempted to read through dictionaries and search everything I could to find out the history and etymology within English words. I tried to test specific reading rules to see how they worked, took certification classes, and bought copious materials. I found an overwhelming about of information. Unfortunately, most of it, inconsistent, missing explanations, or in many cases, just incorrect. Additionally, these resources are geared for a young audience and appear to dismiss a wide variety of relevant words to an adult reader. Eide is the only one who fully committed to breaking down the language as systematically as possible, and in it, readers will find rich appendixes and in-depth explanations.This is the first book that productively framed my learning. It is clear, logical, concivce, and well organized. Furthermore, this book has given me the tools to generate reading programs for students that make sense to my mind and the kiddos I teach. Thank you!!

I was first introduced to Wanda Sanseri's Spell to Write and Read (SWR) approach when my daughter was just 3, but knew that was the technique we wanted to use to teach her to read. We began simply teaching the phonograms then started the SWR curriculum for kindergarten and first grade. I was familiar with Denise Eide's Logic of English book and the accompanying curriculum - had been receiving the LOE newsletters. After much frustration with the SWR format, I explored the Logic of English website further and discovered that it seemed to be a "new and improved" SWR. I bought Uncovering the Logic of English and was amazed at how the same SWR principles had been simplified! I contacted the Logic of English folks and was told that transitioning to the LOE curriculum would be easy to do. Oh my goodness, was it ever! Not only does Uncovering the Logic of English lay out the English language in a way that makes sense, but the LOE curriculum makes teaching it a breeze! The Logic of English folks have it all laid out in such an easy-to-follow program. At 6 years old, our daughter is reading Little House books (the real ones - not the kiddie versions), Marguerite Henry books, and adult Bibles - I attribute her reading success to an approach to English that makes sense - the Logic of English! Logic of English has removed SO much frustration from our English education - it's fun, and we can actually explain WHY English is the way it is. I bought my sister a copy (she used SWR) and want to give copies to teachers involved in the formative years of reading skills development. I've also enjoyed understanding the "whys" of English and find myself sharing with others "Hey! Do you know why words are spelled like....?" Yeah, I guess Uncovering the Logic of English has unleashed the English geek in me :)

It's not an easy read, but it is much less dry than I expected. She really made an effort to make it informative. I am not all that familiar with the various sound markings (/a/ and the like), so there are pages I have had to read more than once to figure out what sounds she's talking about. But I have found some really interesting gems about English even in the first few chapters. I have a general interest in understanding the structure of language (probably because we homeschool our kids) so I am a motivated reader. I look forward to finishing this book and recommend it to anyone who wants to dig deeper. If concepts like 'i before e except after c' and 'a silent e at the end makes the vowel say it's name' annoy you and the fact that the exceptions sometimes outnumber the 'rules' makes you pull out your hair, then you'll enjoy this book.

Great for helping to understanding how kids learn to read

I love the contents of this book. I am a homeschool mom and only have been homeschooling for the past year for my preschooler. I really wanted to make sure before diving into teaching her how to read that I had a method that made sense. There’s a lot of different styles of Learning how to read, and nothing really settled well with me until I started reading about the phonics system. I love how deep this book goes into teaching English and understanding it even better. I feel smarter and I feel more adequately prepared to teach my daughter and my son.

I recently took an Orton Gillingham course which was jam packed with pedagogical information regarding similar content. I really appreciated the more casual but clear way Uncovering The Logic of English was presented. The two together work very nicely. I highly recommend this book!

- Writing style is very good- In depth knowledge- It helps students- It is a very good book

This book just teaches what I’ve been looking for! It is really impressive the cirurcigal precision the author addresses many issues of the English language dias to make them more understandable! Put simply, AWESOME!

For those who need support to identify spelling cues this is a great little book.

We are not native English speakers, so we needed desperately some support to help our children understand English language after we have finished understanding it... :). This book proved to be very useful for us as well and using parallel with the videos and the app makes a better understanding (this starting to look like a paid advertisement, but it's not...still, but I hope it will be... :) ) The only problem is that it is US English and we've been warned in school to try to avoid US pronunciation to learn, but still haven't found a better way and spending almost their whole day in school will be a greater influence on their English we just may get deepened by the explanation from this book.