We have used this and the earlier editions of this phonics, or linguistic, based reading program for years. We have never had a student who didn't do absolutely great! Parents who submit to end of the year testing are often happy to report their child's tests results show them to be well above the 1st grade reading level! Included below are:
1) an overview
2) course materials listed
3) criteria for selecting curriculum
4) sample pages from the workbooks
5) sample pages from the phonics worktext
6) skills index (not including the phonics worktext)
OVERVIEW
Parents sometimes wait until after first grade because of the fear to teach a nonreader how to read. There is no need to worry with this program. It includes three soft back readers, three workbooks to use with the readers, and three teacher's guides. The latest edition has tests built into the workbooks. The teacher's guide gives you everything else you need to manage the program including: a 36 week schedule which balances the readers with the workbooks and tests, an introduction to the series, word recognition test pages, step-by-step testing instructions, test answers, and test answer score charts. The teacher's guide does not include the skills covered in the phonics worktext.
Because our program is parallel to the Orton-Gillingham techniques some reading specialists use this program with other Orton-Gillingham materials. However, by starting out with our program, particularly in a one-on-one setting no other materials, outside the phonics worktext, should be needed.
The Readers and their Workbooks
While this course teaches your child how to read and read well it does more! It also includes reading comprehension strategies. These include: main idea, predicting outcomes, cause and effect, and more.
Looking at most of the so-called "reading programs" on the market that are used in the classroom it is a wonder how any child manages to learn to read. Most have five readers, three smaller and two very large; five workbooks; tests, plus an array of enrichment worksheets, journals, folders, and other miscellaneous supplies. Not only is it a material overload, most are not truly linguistic (or phonics) based. If schools across the country adopted this program reading problems could vanish.
To ensure success from the start the first lesson in the reading text begins with the following three very easily decodable words: cat, fat, and Nat and the two sight words a and is. By the end of the third book your child should read the following story:
| Pills for a Horse Dr. Mack was a horse doctor. She went to Good Luck Ranch to look at Ken and Pat's sick horse. "Dr. Mack," Pat said, "Jet kicked and bucked. He pitched us into the mud. Jet is very sick. He got a chill. We cannot let a horse pitch us. He has to get well." "Do not look so sad," Dr. Mack said to her. "It will not be much of a job to get Jet well. I have horse pills for sick horses." It was a big pill. But it was not much for a big horse. Jet took it. Jet got well. He ran and kicked. Pat and Ken are happy Jet is well. Jet is happy Dr. Mack had big horse pills. |
A teaching parent who also happens to be a first grade reading specialist declared the 1st and 2nd grade phonics to be the finest phonics text she has ever seen. While the reading program can stand on its own merit the phonics worktext provides extra reinforcement. This gives us greater assurance the student is given enough to truly master decoding skills. For extra fun and practice there are six "Cut-Out Fold-Up Books" bound into the worktext.
While most phonics texts are extremely "busy" these are not, yet they are graphically appealing. They are also very comprehensive and provide a logical sequence for systematic progression of decoding skills. While not made for any particular reading program, they are a nice addition as students need a strong foundation in decoding skills to progress. Because the phonics worktext reviews much of the language skills learned in most kindergarten programs you may not want to start at the beginning. Instead, have your student take the in-book tests to determine where you need to begin. When you see your child having difficulties back up a bit and begin there.
While this approach tailors the program to your child it makes it impossible for us to create a schedule for you as there is no way for us to know how many pages are to be covered each week. To find out you need to subtract 320 (the total number of pages in the worktext) from the page your are beginning at to determine how many pages are left. Take that number and divide by how many weeks you have left in the school year, which should be somewhere around 32 to 34 depending on how many weeks it took to complete the review tests. The quotient is how many pages you should try to cover each week.
As discussed above the phonics worktext begins by reviewing the consonant sounds, much of which you most likely will skip. To see the complexity of reading skills taught over the course of a school year the last story, not including the Cut-Out Fold-Up Books", is provided below.
| SUPER REVIEW Read the story. Then write words from the story to complete the sentences. Tim and I climbed up the sagging steps and looked in the window. We saw boxes and dusty tables. We walked in. The creaking made us afraid. Tim felt a tapping on his head. Then a big blob chased us out of the house! I screamed and woke up. Mom hugged me and tucked me in again. It was only a dream. 1. The house's steps were _____ . 2. A scary blob _____ the children. 3. The girl's mother _____ her and _____ her in. page 304 |
What makes this reading program superior? |
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1st Grade Reading Course Materials Include:
1) three two color soft bound reading books (New Edition!)
2) three charmingly illustrated workbooks with built-in test books (in this New Edition only!)
3) three teacher's manuals with schedule
4) a tear-out full page bulletin board schedule
5) a full color phonics worktext
FYI: Our Criteria For Selecting Course Materials
These course components meets all our criteria. First and foremost on our list is the curriculum must be visually appealing but not too "busy". See the sample pages below. It must also have student appeal while being as self-instructing as possible. In addition it must be comprehensive and adaptable to different learning styles. Because we specialize in providing write-in texts for our text supported courses we focus first on consumable text books and then, in all fairness, compare them to their hard-bound counterparts. We were delighted to discover, once again, that these consumable texts came in first place in all categories.
Course materials must offer a balanced amount of work. If, for example, there is not enough course material it cannot be comprehensive enough while too much creates another host of problems. These include not allowing enough time to cover all the concepts or to go over concepts not readily understood. There is also the problem of student and teacher burn-out in addition to not having enough time for recreation and other family activities. See articles SACC, One Subject a Day, and Testing.
| Our Criteria Listed: Course materials must... be visually appealing but not too busy have student appeal; be enjoyable be consumable where possible; (98% are worktexts) typically produce higher scores on standardized tests have the quality of "teachability"; easily understand be as self-instructing as possible (age is a factor) | be comprehensive be adaptable for different learning styles have cost effective teacher's supplies be the most current possible not convey values that conflict with family values not be in line with Goals 2000 (a.k.a. Out-based Education) need less time to achieve high academic achievements contain a balanced amount, or volume, of material |
Reading Workbooks
Book 1 Workbook
Upon completion of the program students master first grade reading concepts. Teacher's instructions appear at the bottom of each workbook page making them self-contained. However Teacher's Guides are required for the built-in test booklets found in the back of each workbook. Below is a work page from the beginning of the course.
Book 2 Workbook
Below are two work pages, one showing the beginning of the book and the other towards the end.
Book 3 Workbook
Below are two work pages and a page from the Teacher's Guide. The first workbook page shows the beginning of the workbook and the second shows a page from the built-in test booklet which is followed by the corresponding page from the Teacher's Guide.
From the built-in test booklet found in the back of the worktext:
From the Teacher's Guide:
Phonics Worktext
The following shows clear directions and immediate application in an appealing format.
What child wouldn't be delighted with this worktext! This is far too cute to be school work!
Other language skills are covered in addition to decoding skills
Skills Index
1st Grade linguistic based reading program
| Core Skills | |
| Decode words of the CVC spelling pattern Decode words of the CVCe spelling pattern Decode words of the CVVC spelling pattern Decode minor spelling patterns and irregular spellings Recognize minimum contrast in spelling of words Recognize sight words Apply known patterns to decode new words in print Develop concepts for vocabulary words Understand multiple meanings of words Understand word order in sentences | Find and/or recall details Understand literal meaning Make inferences Relate story theme to personal experiences Use normal stress and intonation Write words in reading vocabulary Write phrases and sentences Make artistic representations to show comprehension Develop original stories and/or story endings Appreciate poems and stories |
Book 1 Skills Index | ||
| Secondary Skill: Focus & Review | ||
| Capitalization in sentences Punctuation question mark context clues period exclamation mark | Capitalization of names Phrases Possessives Sequence Pronouns and referents Pronouns and referents | Inflected forms (-s ending); Capital and lowercase forms Sequence Capitalization Sequence Punctuation Pronouns and referents Sequence |
| Additional Skills: | ||
| Phrases beginning with an a Phrases beginning with the Choral reading Statements using not | Drawing conclusions Adjectives fat, mad, sad, bad Pronoun he Phrase at bat | Making generalizations Pronouns he and she Adjectives mad, bad |
Book 2 Skills Index | ||
| Secondary Skill: Focus & Review | ||
| Skills previously covered plus: Interrogative transformation | Punctuation: quotation marks Adjective transformations | Negative transformations Classifying |
| Additional Skills: | ||
| True false statements | Subject noun and verb | Adjectives |
| Book 3 Skills Index | ||
| Secondary Skill: Focus & Review | ||
| Literal phrase Details Word Order Following Directions | Main Idea Predicting outcomes Cause and effect Details | Following directions Sequence Drawing conclusions Classifying Paragraphs |
| Additional Skills: | ||
| Skills previously covered plus: Plurals Contractions | Skimming to locate information Alphabetical order Antonyms | Complementary concepts Possessive forms Inflected forms (-ed endings) |
All Initial Consonants
All Final Consonants
All Double Consonants
All Medial Consonants
All Short Vowels
Long Vowels: oa, o-e, igh, i-e, oa, o-e, i-e, ea, ee, ai, ay, a-e, ea, ee, ai, ay, a-e, u-e, ow,, ea (as long a) ei(gh)
Consonant Clusters: Initial clusters with r, l; Final Clusters with t, ld, mp, nd; Initial Clusters with s, w
Digraphs: Initial Digraphs: qu, wh; Initial and Final Digraphs: ch, tch, th, sh
R-controlled Vowel: ar
Contractions and Possessives
Inflected Endings: -s, -ed, -ing, -ed, -ing, -es
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