Phonics and Gospel of Mark

Phonics and Gospel of Mark concerns the immense advantage of using the Gospel of Mark to improve a student's ability to read by the superior method of phonics.

The version made available here is preferable for several reasons. Only two brief passages, totaling only about a half-dozen verses, are potentially inappropriate for young readers and thus are altered or omitted in the individual chapters linked to below for phonics instruction. Also, the archaic term "disciple" is not phonetic and it is replaced with the better translation as "student", which is phonetic and its repetitive use helps improve reading skills.

The many advantages of using the Gospel of Mark and the version here include:

• the Gospel of Mark is predominantly phonetic in its English translation, with a helpful repetition of multi-syllable words and some but infrequent sight words;
• the Gospel of Mark is written in a style of great interest and benefit to children and a youthful mindset, with surprising twists, refreshing candor, speaking to and praising children, and occasional repetition which helps children;
• the phonetic words in the Gospel of Mark have a helpful variety among the 44 phonetic sounds in English;
• the Gospel of Mark has a manliness, which is of greater interest to boys who otherwise are often subjected to effeminate, often uninteresting fairy tales;
• the Gospel of Mark is pro-child, emphasizing respect for them, giving credit to them, and urging adopting of their outlook by adults;
• the Gospel of Mark introduces mathematical concepts like the multiplication of the loaves that is fascinating to all, perhaps particularly boys, and uniquely recounted on two different occasions by Mark;
• use of the phonetic word "students" rather than the archaic, non-phonetic "disciples", as "students" is a simpler term having far greater significance to a learner;
• an opportunity to learn "Son as man" rather than the confused, mistranslated "Son of Man"; and
• the Gospel of Mark has a length that is a good reading project, broken into chapters that take only a two or three days apiece to read.

For focusing on improving reading, the verse numbers can be a distraction and it is better to use a text without them, such as the chapters identified below. The verse numbering is not part of the original Bible anyway.