`Phonics phones' help with reading.(Capital Region)

Byline: KENNETH C. CRWOE II Staff Writer

SARATOGA SPRINGS - At the Lake Avenue Elementary School, the students are practicing their reading with a very low-tech piece of equipment, a "phonics phone."

At a time when many are focused on using the Internet and computers in education, teachers around the country are using white PVC pipe cut and assembled into the shape of a telephone receiver to help teach reading.

"We're using them as a technique allowing the children to hear themselves read," said Diane Benton, a first-grade teacher.

"They can all be reading a different story without disturbing anyone else. No one could hear what they were …