Nardagani is Different From Other Reading Programs
Dr. Jeffrey Wilhelm, a Nardagani advisory board member, a distinguished professor of English education at Boise State University in Boise, Idaho, and a nationally recognized literacy expert, answers questions regarding what makes this online reading program unique.
How is Nardagani Different from Other Reading Programs?
Dr. Jeffrey Wilhelm: Basically, most reading programs focus on phonics or what are called utility phonics. It’s a very complicated business because there are over seventy utility phonics, as well over 200 phonemic rules in English. Nardagani simplifies this to a very small number, and, I think, helps kids to overcome that cognitive load. So, it’s a very radical approach, and a very different approach. It’s one that works or we have found it works with the most intractable challenges of students who can’t read—who don’t know how to decode.
Is Nardagani easy to learn?
Dr. Jeffrey Wilhelm: What we found was that Nardagani is quite simple to learn, and that teachers could learn it in a couple of hours. They could likewise teach parents or students to be peer tutors, and they could do it quickly and it was successful.
In our teacher research study, we had several students who were struggling readers, who were resistant readers, who had struggled with reading for many years achieve breakthroughs. This, in tern, made them relieved and joyful, and then able to then do their school work, pleasure reading, and pursue actual reading lives. We saw huge shifts in attitude, and huge shifts in capacity throughout the study with many different kids.
What do you think the primary strength is of Nardagani?
Dr. Jeffrey Wilhelm: When I think about the use of Nardagani, I think that it’s primary use is in helping the significant percentage of kids who really struggle with that decoding hump or can’t get over it. It simplifies the process. It demystifies the process. It provides a way forward for students who have damaged learner identities. These students have struggles with conventional ways of teaching reading.
Would you recommend Nardagani to reading teachers?
Dr. Jeffrey Wilhelm: I’d certainly recommend that it would be part of any reading teachers’ repertoire and any school who has kids who struggle to decode should make it part of their program.
Dr. Jeffrey Wilhelm: One thing that is very important to me is to keep asking, what if it were otherwise? What if there were other ways to do this? And, in the case of reading, we have very standard and conventional practices that tend to work for most kids. However, there is a significant number who it doesn’t work for, and I think it’s very important that we go to the mat and find these new ways of teaching. So that the human potential of these students, so that their capacity doesn’t get wasted. Then we can actualize their intellectual flowering, because reading is so important to that, and that is why I am tireless in searching for techniques that help students that struggle, and I think Nardagani has been a revolutionary technique for me.
