FREEBIES

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 our products, 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. 

Some freebies may be obtained just by ordering from AVKO. For many of our freebies, you need Adobe Reader 5.0 or later

Free Video | Tutoring | Samples |  | Curriculum | Information

Offers for HomeSchoolers:

• Secrets of Successful Homeschooling (A 61 page E-book) Courtesy of The Old School House Magazine.
• Links that should be helpful

One Free book with each order. May be new or used. Two FREE books with every order over $50.00.  One New & One Used. Orders over $100.00 will receive 4 books. Choose your own category of books from and let us know the approximate grade level (K-3, 4-6, 7-12).

1. Adventure
2. Bible Stories
3. Biography
4. Black History
5. Christian
6. Christmas
7. Classic Literature
8. Composition
9. Crafts
10. Geography
11. Girls (Especially for)
12. Grammar
13. Health
14. History
15. Literature Textbooks
16. Math
17. Mystery
18. Pre-K Read-to-Me Books
19. Science
20. Sports K-3, 4-6, 7-12
21. Vocabulary
22. Well used "antique" books

We are able to give these away because they were donated to us either by NAEIR or school libraries. Some are new. Some are discards. Just let us know when you order which kind of books you would like.

Teaching Aids:

• 50 Easiest Words to learn to spell
• 2 & 3 Letter Words
• Grade 1 Vocabulary
• Latin & Greek Roots
• Starting at Square One Index   (The entire book is FREE with membership in AVKO)
• Test for Tutors  If you think you know phonics, you should take this test!
• FREE DAILY Tutoring
• Phonic Patterns not Systematically Taught in any Phonics Program
• The Differences between British and American English spellings

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
  Dyslexia a Natural Phenomenon by Jack Ferguson
  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 what it is a complete failure.
   
• Spill Chick A letter in which every word is misspelled but spell check can't catch even one of them.
   
• "Underlining  or Highlighting: Cueing the Computer Brain" an essay taken
  directly from The Teaching of Reading and Spelling: a Continuum from Kindergarten through College and which shows an easy way to help develop a better vocabulary. 
   
• 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., John 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, Members of Boards of Education, Directors of Adult Community Education, and Family Literacy Organizations.  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
   
• What Good Readers Learn That is Never Taught and Poor Readers Never Learn Unless They Are Taught

Freebies that can be used to teach Comprehension Skills

• Aphorisms for Comprehension
• Fun with English Heteronyms

Samples from AVKO pages, Lessons, even Chapters from AVKO books so.  Visit our Samples page for links to samples of our products.

For University Researchers and the NICHD and the U.S. Department of Education

• 97% Literacy in 25 years: An achievable Goal if Set.  A Challenge to Universities and The Department of Education.
• Project Spelling A Proposal to the U.S. Dept. of Education.
• Spelling Research Survey (Attn: University Graduate Students)
• A Challenge to University Researchers
• A Short Summary of Traditional Spelling Research
• Word Difficulty Survey (Easily replicable.  Mode & Median are 100%!)
• Research on Learning Styles: Request for Rebuttal by Cathy Shank.

• Adult Literacy Organizations
• Parents & HomeSchoolers
• Teachers & School Districts
• University Students
• Phonics Quiz
• Reading Assessment

AVKO will also give workshops at homeschool conferences helping parents in the art of tutoring reading, spelling, handwriting, and keyboarding. 

If you have comments about this website or additional summaries of specific spelling research along with citations, questions concerning spelling, phonics, learning disabilities, homeschooling, etc., you are encouraged to e-mail DonMcCabe@aol.com.  We appreciate any comments that will help us make this website even more useful. 

Call Toll Free:  1-866-285-6612
Fax:  (810) 686-1101
E-mail: Webmaster: avkoemail@aol.com 
or  Write:  
Don McCabe, Research Director

AVKO Educational Research Foundation
3084 Willard Road, Suite W
Birch Run, MI 48415-9404

All donations are greatly appreciated.  If you would like to support our mission which is to raise the level of literacy to the point where the words, illiteracy, phonemic awareness, learning disabilities, dysgraphia, family literacy, adult literacy, and illegible handwriting will no longer have relevance, please mail your tax-deductible check (in U.S. dollars) to The AVKO Educational Research Foundation, 3084 Willard Road, Suite W, Birch Run, MI 48415-9404.  The AVKO Foundation is recognized by the IRS as a 501(C)3 publicly supported organization working with teachers, parents, tutors, and homeschooling parents, publishing materials developed by its research, and providing free daily tutoring at its local reading clinic.