Xerox - Learning to Read

To assist children learning how to read, we offer small group instruction that focuses on the six syllable types. Using Road to Reading, and Wilson Language, each week children receive instruction that meets them at their instructional level. Typically children meet in small groups with a teacher three or four times a week for 20 – 30 minutes each. Students manipulate letters on a sound-board to make words which change one sound at a time. For example: (hat, hit, hot, not, cot, cat, mat, map, mop.) At other times they play games (such as Go Fish, Bingo, Word Sorts and board games) to practice these skills. In a third session they are asked to write words, sometimes sorting them into columns (such as short a, short i, short o), sometimes writing complete sentences.  Finally each child reads one-on-one with an adult to practice these skills in context.

Currently we have four groups of children benefitting from this program. We have early readers working on cvc syllables with blends and digraphs (such as lift, glass and ship). A second group is working on reading cvce syllables (such as cake, bike). Another group is working on two syllable words and words with vowel teams which make one sound: ay, ai, oy, oi, oa, aw, au and ee. Finally, a group of older students who have been introduced to all six syllable types are working on decoding multisyllable words and words with endings such as -ed, -tion, and -ture.