Welcome to the Arthur Reading Workshop website. At this site you will find The Science of Reading Words and Dyslexia seminar and the Science of Teaching Beginning Reading workshop. Follow the links above or to the right to access the seminar or the workshop materials.

Charles Arthur – Bio

After 30 years teaching, (special education, counselor, classroom), Charles retired in 2000 and, along with his wife, Sharon, and son, Michael, began work on starting charter schools. By 2007 six schools were in operation. For a complete list of the six k-5 or 6 schools, with information on each school, see arthuracademy.org.

Charter schools are publicly funded schools.  In Oregon, they are contracted directly with local district school boards. Typically, they specialize in programs or teaching approaches that are not available in the district schools, thus offering parents additional options for their child.

The specialty offered by the Arthur Academy Charter Schools is based on the Direct Instruction Programs developed and researched by Siegfried Engelmann and colleagues from the University of Oregon.

Late in the further development of these schools, staff conducted several workshops.  Many of the materials made available at the workshops on reading have been placed in this website under the heading of “The Science of Teaching Beginning Reading”. The first-year program of teaching reading, kindergarten or first grade, is broken down into 21 distinct steps or teaching progressions, with supplementary materials.

In addition to these events, Charles has developed materials on the more theoretical aspects of reading under the heading, “The Science of Reading Words and Dyslexia”.  These materials provide research background and have been approved by the Oregon Department of Education for information on dyslexia. Dates and times for a yearly seminar are posted on this website.

A third area of interest has been in conducting parent training classes in how to help teach their kindergarten or first grade child to read. These classes are offered to parents whose child is not attending Arthur Academy. Materials are specially designed for the home and use the same approach to teaching as the charter schools. Dates and times for these are also posted.