How do Nardagani Symbols Work?
The Nardagani program helps eliminate the guesswork involved in reading by teaching twelve simple symbols, which make the connection between word sounds and the written text. Students see how to pronounce the letter or word at a glance—suddenly there is no more guessing of letters or struggling to read English. But how do the Nardagani symbols actually work and what was Narda Pitkethly, CEO of Nardagani, catalyst for creating the symbols? We decided to talk with Narda and ask her these exact questions.
Nardagani: How do the Nardagani Symbols teach students how to read English?
Narda Pitkethly: The Nardagani symbols help students learn to sound out words. The Nardagani symbols are easy to learn because they are simple shapes, dots and lines. The Nardagani symbols live under the fourteen letters of English that make more than one sound, so that people can easily learn how to sound out words. The Nardagani symbols work better than the best ESL schools in USA. Some students report that the symbols are like reading comprehension strategies for adults.
Nardagani: How did you create the Nardagani symbols?
Narda Pitkethly: I was looking at online reading comprehension programs and realized how much easier it would be to learn how to read English, if my learn how to read program had simple shapes to cue the student as to how to sound our words. I started to create the symbols by putting one sound on a 3 x 5 card. Since there are 38 sounds, I had 38 cards when I was done with this part of the process. Then, I put each letter, or combination of letters on each card that could make the sound on that card. At this point, I created the Nardagani Sound Map, which is a list of all 38 sounds. Then I created a symbol for each letter that makes more than one sound.
Nardagani: How do most students learn and understand the Nardagani symbols?
Narda Pitkethly: When we have a child struggling with reading, having a symbol to let them know what sound to make helps tremendously. We have simple ‘catch phrases' to help students remember and relate to each symbol.
This story is a good example of how our symbols work. One of my students, named Michael, was in eighth grade, but his reading level was at the third grade. The first time I met Michael, he came into my classroom with his head hanging low. He said, “I’m a dummy. I can’t read. I have to take another reading class.” Within the fifteen minutes of our class he perked up, “These symbols are cool! I’ve never seen anything like this!” The next time we met he came bouncing into class exclaiming, “I’m seeing all the silent letters!” The interesting thing to me was that our symbols are not out in the world, yet Michael connected the concept that silent letters are everywhere, and he could ’see’ them. Michael learn to read easily with our program. Michael was reading with his class within three months.
