Claims for Patent: 8,202,099

Summary for Patent: 8,202,099

Title:	Instructional system and method for learning reading
Abstract:	A system for teaching reading to very young children and first-time English students provides and uses one or more sets of instructional alphabetic letters, double-consonant phonemes, a relatively larger group of three-letter words of only short-vowel sounds, a relatively smaller group of three- and four-letter words with long-vowel sounds, and specifically designed subsets and/or combinations thereof, where the separate letters and words in the set is fewer than 100. The words in the instructional set are particularly selected to avoid phonetic confusion, ease pronunciation, engage student interest, provide teaching leverage based on each subset, and accelerate learning. In one embodiment, a particular 48-word instructional word set is distributed onto eight, 3-D, instructional blocks in a manner that preserves the subset-based teaching method. In other embodiments, the system can be presented on flashcards, magnets, printing on clothing or wallpaper, and through instructional computer software (home, internet, or PDA).
Inventor(s):	Lancaster; J. (James) Justin (Quechee, VT)
Assignee:
Application Number:	11/966,930
Patent Claims:	1. An educational apparatus for teaching phonics, spelling and reading, the apparatus comprising a plurality of structural units, each including a first face and at least one additional face, a 3-letter word indicia imprinted upon each of said first faces, one word to a face, wherein each of said 3-letter word indicia indicates a different word, a 3-letter word indicia printed on the at least one additional face of each of the plurality of structural units, wherein each 3-letter word indicia on each of the said first faces constitutes a first word member of an instructional word-pair of which instructional word-pair a second word member is located on a face of another of the plurality of structural objects, wherein each instructional word-pair comprises two 3-letter words differing by substitution of a single letter. 2. The educational apparatus of claim 1, wherein each 3-letter word indicia is an English word. 3. The educational apparatus of claim 2, wherein the apparatus comprises structural units having a totality of between 11 and 49 faces, each face bearing 3-letter word indicia imprinted thereon, including one face bearing a word beginning with the letter "Q" and wherein all the letters of the English alphabet are represented at least once in the word indicia imprinted on the faces, and each vowel A, E, I, O and U occurs as the only vowel in at least two words, wherein a 3-letter word indicia on one first face of a first structural unit is a first word member of an instructional word-set of at least eight words, which instructional word-set further comprises nouns pertaining to at least one mammal, bird, bug, part of the body, food, color, and natural object, and at least one verb. 4. The educational apparatus of claim 3, wherein the faces bear the imprinted words BUG, COW, FOX, HEN, KIT, JAM, LEG, QUA, RED, SUN, VAT, YES, WET, and ZIP. 5. The educational apparatus of claim 2 wherein the apparatus comprises structural units having a totality of between 11 and 49 faces, each face bearing 3-letter word indicia imprinted thereon, the words being drawn from the group BUG, SON, SIX, ANT, PIG, BOX, ELF, NUT, TOY, BIB, BAT, TOP, DAD, CUP, LOG, FAT, ARM, SIT, WOW, PAT, DOG, MOM, DIG, EGG, MOP, JAM, LIP, BOY, BAG, RED, POT, WET, NET, HUG, CAT, SUN, BED, LEG, HEN, CAN, FOX, OWL, MAN, JAR, DOT, COW, NAP, and TEN. 6. The educational apparatus of claim 5, wherein the faces bear indicia representing 48 words drawn from the group. 7. The educational apparatus of claim 6, wherein each of the 48 words are presented on a separate face of each of eight 3-D blocks, wherein a first 3-D block contains the words BAT, BOY, ARM, NAP, CAN, and LOG, a second 3-D block contains the words CAT, DAD, JAM, HUG, SUN, and BOX, a third 3-D block contains the words COW, ELF, FAT, WET, MOP, and BED, a fourth 3-D block contains the words DOG, MAN, NUT, PAT, WOW, and TOY, a fifth 3-D block contains the words FOX, MOM, RED, DIG, CUP, and TOP, a sixth 3-D block contains the words HEN, SON, EGG, SIX, JAR, and BAG, a seventh 3-D block contains the words OWL, BUG, LIP, SIT, POT, and NET, and an eighth 3-D block contains the words PIG, ANT, LEG, TEN, BIB, and DOT. 8. The educational apparatus of claim 6, wherein each of the 48 words is presented on each of 48 3-D blocks, wherein each word is placed on a first face of the block in only capitalized printed letters, on a second face in only small printed letters, on a third face with first-letter capitalized and remaining letters small, on a fourth face in only small cursive script, on a fifth face in first letter capitalized cursive and remainder small cursive script, and upon a sixth face is shown a picture depicting an object or action corresponding to the word presented on that block. 9. The educational apparatus for teaching phonics, spelling and reading, according to claim 6, wherein the plurality of structural units are eight 3-dimensional blocks, each block having six faces. 10. The educational apparatus for teaching phonics, spelling and reading according to claim 1, wherein the plurality of structural units are 3-dimensional blocks, each having six faces. 11. The educational apparatus according to claim 1 wherein the plurality of structural units, each including a first face and at least one additional face, are at least one of flashcards, computer graphic representations, magnetic surfaces, 3-D blocks, and clothing. 12. The educational apparatus of claim 1, wherein the three-letter words comprise at least 20 word-pairs. 13. The educational apparatus of claim 1, wherein the instructional word-pairs further comprise at least one word-pair in which the sequence of letters of the first member is reversed in the second member, and wherein the words are placed on a face of structural units that comprise two or more three-dimensional blocks, one word to a face, and the first and second words of the at least one word-pair are positioned on different blocks. 14. The educational apparatus of claim 1, wherein a set of words corresponding to the words imprinted on faces of the structural units further comprises at least one symmetrical word that reads the same forward or backward, at least one forward-backward word-pair wherein the first word of the word-pair reads in reverse with respect to the second word of the word-pair, at least one word-pair wherein only the first letter changes between the pair, at least one word-pair wherein the last letter changes between the pair, and at least one word-pair wherein the middle letter changes between the pair. 15. An educational method for teaching phonetic awareness and reading by using a plurality of structural units, whereby each structural unit comprises a three-dimensional body and a plurality of faces, the method comprising the steps of imprinting a 3-letter word on one of the faces of each of the structural units, assigning an associated 3-letter word as a second member of an instructional word-pair to be associated with the 3-letter word of said imprinting step, wherein the associated second member comprises at least two letters in common with the imprinted word, and marking said associated second member on a face of a different structural unit, one word to a face. 16. The educational method according to claim 15, wherein the step of assembling a set of three or more structural units the faces of which comprise a set of three-letter words of between 13 and 49 three-letter words further comprises assembling a set of nouns pertaining to at least one mammal, bird, bug, part of the body, food, color, and natural object, and at least one verb, and the method further comprising the step of using the structural units to improve the phonetic awareness of a student by creating discourse with the student on the topic of at least one of the at least one mammal, bird, bug, part of the body, food, color, and natural object, and at least one verb. 17. The educational method according to claim 16, wherein the step of assembling a set of three or more structural units the faces of which comprise a set of three-letter words of between 13 and 49 three-letter words further comprises assembling a set of between 24 and 49 three-letter words, marked one word to a face, drawn from the group BUG, SON, SIX, ANT, PIG, BOX, ELF, NUT, TOY, BIB, BAT, TOP, DAD, CUP, LOG, FAT, ARM, SIT, WOW, PAT, DOG, MOM, DIG, EGG, MOP, JAM, LIP, BOY, BAG, RED, POT, WET, NET, HUG, CAT, SUN, BED, LEG, HEN, CAN, FOX, OWL, MAN, JAR, DOT, COW, NAP, and TEN. 18. The educational method according to claim 16 further comprising the set of three-letter words of between 13 and 49 includes nouns pertaining to at least four people, five mammals, two birds, two bugs, three parts of the body, three foods, four kitchen objects, a color, two numbers and two natural objects, and at least five verbs, and wherein the step of using the instructional system to improve the phonetic awareness of a student further comprises wherein discourse with the student is engaged on the topic of at least four people, five mammals, two birds, two bugs, three parts of the body, three foods, four kitchen objects, a color, two numbers and two natural objects, and at least five verbs, as part of the instructional process. 19. The educational method for teaching phonetic awareness and reading by using a plurality of structural units according to claim 15, further comprising the steps of picking a first structural unit and displaying a first face of the first structural unit, the first face showing a imprinted 3-letter word imprinted thereon, reading aloud the imprinted 3-letter word, displaying alongside the first structural unit a second member of the instructional word-pair corresponding to the imprinted 3-letter word, reading aloud the second member of the instructional word pair, and pointing to the difference in spelling between the words of the word pair. 20. The educational method according to claim 15, wherein the method further comprises assembling a set of three or more structural units comprising a set of three-letter words of between 13 and 49 three-letter words that have the structure consonant-vowel-consonant, wherein all the letters of the alphabet are represented in the set and each vowel A, E, I, O and U occurs as the only vowel in at least two words.

Details for Patent 8,202,099

Applicant	Tradename	Biologic Ingredient	Dosage Form	BLA	Approval Date	Patent No.	Expiredate
Emergent Biosolutions Canada Inc.	BAT	botulism antitoxin heptavalent (a, b, c, d, e, f, g) - (equine)	Solution	125462	03/22/2013		2027-01-03