Pennington Publishing Blog

Sam and Friends Phonics Books

Many grade 6 teachers are curious about the Science of Reading and (SOR) and, specifically, what a complete SOR phonics-based lesson looks like for struggling readers in grade 6. Following are two complete lessons (free) to study and try out with your students. Lesson 5 is a beginning short vowel /u/ focus, and Lesson 40 is a more advanced diphthong /ow/ focus. The lessons are 90 minutes each and include initial instruction and weekly review activities.

Each word recognition (phonics) lesson includes these instructional routines and resources:

1. Phonemic and Morphological Awareness
2. Blending, Segmenting, and Spelling
3. Sounds and Spellings and Heart Words Practice
4. Say It! Spell It! Read It! Word Chains:
5. Sam and Friends Phonics Books (Decodable texts on the lesson focus and review, featuring read alouds, comprehension questions, word fluency practice and timings, re-reads)
6. Elkonin Sound Box Dictations, Personal Sound Walls, and Morphology Walls

CLICK TO VIEW LESSON 5 GOOGLE SLIDES AND PRINT VERSIONS

CLICK TO VIEW LESSON 40 GOOGLE SLIDES AND PRINT VERSIONS

The author, Mark Pennington, is an MA reading specialist. Mark is happy to answer any questions about these lessons or how to implement SOR with your struggling readers. Email mark at mark@penningtonpublishing.com.

Grammar/Mechanics grade 6 teachers, phonics, phonics lessons, science of reading, science of reading lessons, science of reading programs

Sam and Friends Phonics Books

Many grade 5 teachers are curious about the Science of Reading and (SOR) and, specifically, what a complete SOR phonics-based lesson looks like for struggling readers in grade 5. Following are two complete lessons (free) to study and try out with your students. Lesson 5 is a beginning short vowel /u/ focus, and Lesson 40 is a more advanced diphthong /ow/ focus. The lessons are 90 minutes each and include initial instruction and weekly review activities.

Each word recognition (phonics) lesson includes these instructional routines and resources:

1. Phonemic and Morphological Awareness
2. Blending, Segmenting, and Spelling
3. Sounds and Spellings and Heart Words Practice
4. Say It! Spell It! Read It! Word Chains:
5. Sam and Friends Phonics Books (Decodable texts on the lesson focus and review, featuring read alouds, comprehension questions, word fluency practice and timings, re-reads)
6. Elkonin Sound Box Dictations, Personal Sound Walls, and Morphology Walls

CLICK TO VIEW LESSON 5 GOOGLE SLIDES AND PRINT VERSIONS

CLICK TO VIEW LESSON 40 GOOGLE SLIDES AND PRINT VERSIONS

The author, Mark Pennington, is an MA reading specialist. Mark is happy to answer any questions about these lessons or how to implement SOR with your struggling readers. Email mark at mark@penningtonpublishing.com.

Grammar/Mechanics grade 5 teachers, phonics, phonics lessons, science of reading, science of reading lessons, science of reading programs

Sam and Friends Phonics Books

Many grade 4 teachers are curious about the Science of Reading and (SOR) and, specifically, what a complete SOR phonics-based lesson looks like for struggling readers in grade 4. Following are two complete lessons (free) to study and try out with your students. Lesson 5 is a beginning short vowel /u/ focus, and Lesson 40 is a more advanced diphthong /ow/ focus. The lessons are 90 minutes each and include initial instruction and weekly review activities.

Each word recognition (phonics) lesson includes these instructional routines and resources:

1. Phonemic and Morphological Awareness
2. Blending, Segmenting, and Spelling
3. Sounds and Spellings and Heart Words Practice
4. Say It! Spell It! Read It! Word Chains:
5. Sam and Friends Phonics Books (Decodable texts on the lesson focus and review, featuring read alouds, comprehension questions, word fluency practice and timings, re-reads)
6. Elkonin Sound Box Dictations, Personal Sound Walls, and Morphology Walls

CLICK TO VIEW LESSON 5 GOOGLE SLIDES AND PRINT VERSIONS

CLICK TO VIEW LESSON 40 GOOGLE SLIDES AND PRINT VERSIONS

The author, Mark Pennington, is an MA reading specialist. Mark is happy to answer any questions about these lessons or how to implement SOR with your struggling readers. Email mark at mark@penningtonpublishing.com.

Grammar/Mechanics grade 4 teachers, phonics, phonics lessons, science of reading, science of reading lessons, science of reading programs

Teachers often ask which assessments are appropriate for screening, placement, and diagnosis. This reading intervention flow chart should offer some guidance. All assessments are free to use! Most include audio files and Google forms for easy administration and grading. All but one assessment (the fluency) is administered whole-class. Visit the author’s Pennington Publishing store for corresponding instructional resources.

Click https://blog.penningtonpublishing.com/wp-content/uploads/2023/12/Reading-Intervention-Flow-Chart.pdf  to access all links on the Reading Intervention Flow Chart.

Grammar/Mechanics free reading assessments, MTSS, reading intervention, reading intervention flow chart, RTI

Reading Intervention Checklist

Fitting together all the puzzle pieces for an effective reading intervention program, grounded in both strands of Scarborough’s reading rope, can be challenging. A simple Reading Intervention Checklist may provide teachers with a well-deserved pat on the back or provoke an instructional adjustment or two.

“Teaching reading is rocket science,” Louisa C. Moats says. Like a rocket, effective Tier 2 and 3 reading intervention for older students has plenty of moving parts. If parts are left out of the design, Tom Hank’s “Houston, we have a problem” is more than likely the consequence.

The following Reading Intervention Checklist serves as a diagnostic tool to answer, “What instructional components should be included in a research-based reading intervention program for older students?” The checklist is comprised of program sample links to The Science of Reading Intervention Program resources. Samples include both Google slides for teachers and students and print versions.

The Science of Reading Intervention Program has been specifically designed for grades 4-adult students in Tier 2 and 3 reading intervention; ELL, SPED, and adult literacy. The flexible, scripted (no prep), and accelerated program resources focus on both stands of Scarborough’s Reading Rope: word recognition and language comprehension.

Reading Intervention Checklist

Word Recognition (Phonemic Awareness, Spelling, Phonics) 
CLICK TO SEE THE QUICK VIDEO OVERVIEW

1. Phonemic and/or Morphological Awareness
2. Blending, Segmenting, and Spelling
3. Sounds and Spellings and Heart Words Practice
4. Say It! Spell It! Read It! Word Chains
5. Sam and Friends Phonics Books
6. Elkonin Sound Box Dictations, Personal Sound Walls, and Morphology Walls

Language Comprehension  
CLICK TO SEE THE QUICK VIDEO OVERVIEW

1. Background Knowledge Mentor Texts
2. Vocabulary and Morphology
3. Syntax in Reading
4. Reading Comprehension Strategies
5. Literacy Knowledge, Elements, Genre

Assessment-based Instruction 
CLICK TO SEE THE QUICK VIDEO OVERVIEW

Whole Class Diagnostic Assessments with Corresponding Lessons

*****

The Science of Reading Intervention Program

Grammar/Mechanics comprehension programs, phonics programs, reading intervention programs, Tier 2 reading intervention, tier 3 reading intervention programs

AT&T Archives, Britannica Online

Reading Rules versus Patterns?

If you’re a child of the ‘60s… strike that. If you’re a human being other than a teacher, the word “rules” tends to have a negative, or at least a mixed, connotation. Being a reading podcast and webinar addict, the “r” word is a frequent subject among two prevailing approaches to teaching reading: speech to print and print to speech. As a gross generalization (rule?), adherents to the former tend to be anti-rule, and practitioners of the latter tend to be pro-rule.

Although I have gained much from the speech to print approach to reading instruction, I find the anti-rules focus to be much ado about nothing. I recently benefitted from a wonderful set of reading intervention video trainings by an anti-rule advocate. Throughout the video series, the presenter used every synonym for “rule” in the thesaurus e.g., “generally,” “usually,” “almost always,” “most often,” “hardly never,” to teach students how to become flexible, problem-solving readers.

Now, we can certainly overly-complicate reading instruction with too many rules. We’ve all seen reading and spelling programs which major in the minors. However, my take is that reading, spelling, and syllable rules (or patterns, which I prefer) do have value. As the presenter repeated several times: “We are pattern-seeking machines.” Of course, Abe Lincoln is not all there in the featured visual; however, it doesn’t take a Gestalt theorist to complete the pattern.

If you’re a baseball fan, you understand the importance of rules. In baseball, the “rule” is that the first pitch to a batter is a fastball. Good major league batters expect the fastball and adjust to the curve, change-up, slider, etc. Poor batters apply no statistical learning and are soon sent down to the minors.

Likewise, identifying and applying reading and writing rules facilitates statistical learning. Sure, the consonant-final e makes the preceding vowel a long sound is not exactly 100%. However, it’s a good starting point to begin set for variability cueing. And we all know, as do our students, that even the best rules have exceptions.

Let’s not ditch all rules. Such a solution is worse than the problem.

Check out the author’s Eight Conventional Spelling Rules, each with a catchy song.

Grammar/Mechanics reading rules, spelling rules, syllable rules

I recently responded to this FB post from a middle school teacher inquiring about reading skills for ELA teachers and their students. I’ve been there and asked the same question! I was teaching high school ELA and students were simply not equipped to read and write at anywhere near grade level.

Help! I have quite a few students in my grade 7 ELA class this year who can barely read and write. Our SPED teacher’s caseload is full. I only had one reading class in my teacher credential program and don’t have the faintest idea about how to teach reading. However, I don’t want to simply band-aid their issues by giving them audio files of our class novels, etc. I want to make a difference in their lives and teach them how to read. 

What reading skills do I need to teach and how to I teach them? How much time will it take? I don’t know what I don’t know. Are their reading resources that don’t require extensive training? I looked into LETRS and OG training, but those are hundreds of hours and expensive, too.

Most of us have similar challenges in our ELA classes; however, you do have some extreme examples of kids who can barely read and write. You can’t send them “out” and, frankly, you shouldn’t. Why not?

The most current reading research shows the importance of language comprehension i.e., literary analysis, syntax and text structure, vocabulary/morphology, and writing. Stuff you do everyday.

But that’s not enough. Some of your kids desperately need the other side of Scarborough’s famous rope: word recognition. Phonemic awareness, phonics, spelling, and fluency practice.

As a former MS reading specialist and ELA teacher, I’ve designed a program for you to focus on that word recognition piece.

Now, it’s going to take 15-20 minutes of explicit instruction every day, so if you can’t figure out meaningful independent activities for the grade-level readers to complete each day, this program is not for you.

Also, your struggling readers and writers are going to need 15-20 minutes of practice per day in class, at home, in study hall, etc.

I designed the program with no prep and no correction. No advanced training–you train as you teach this scripted program. The program is for secondary ELA teachers, not reading specialists, and their students. For example, the decodable booklets feature teenage characters and plots with comic illustrations.

Help for Students

Here’s the resource with both print and Google slide options. If you can’t get your principal to purchase, email me and I’ll get your students this program. You can preview the entire program. https://penningtonpublishing.com/products/the-science-of-reading-intervention-program-1

Not sure if the program will match the specific needs of your struggling students? Administer the free vowel sounds phonics assessment, diagnostic spelling assessment, and the individual reading fluency assessment here: https://blog.penningtonpublishing.com/reading/pennington-publishing-elareading-assessments/

*****

Mark Pennington is a former ELA teacher at the middle school, high school, and community college levels. Mark is also an MA reading specialist and author of many fine Pennington Publishing programs.

Grammar/Mechanics ELA reading intervention resources, reading skills, reading skills instruction

Canadian English Spelling Programs

Differentiated Spelling Instruction (the Canadian English Version) consists of separate grades 3, 4, 5, 6, 7, and 8 full-year spelling patterns programs. Each program in the series features weekly grade level word lists, tests, and spelling sorts plus diagnostically targeted worksheets to help students master previous grade level spelling patterns. In other words, students catch up while they keep up with grade level instruction. 

With this program, Canadian teachers can truly differentiate instruction for all students with maximum instruction and practice, using minimal class time.

The research-based program resources help students orthographically map the sound-spelling patterns and retain what they have learned. Students learn the conventional spelling rules, spelling-vocabulary connections, and foreign language influences they need to write with confidence. No silly themed lists of colors, animals, or words that end with “ly.”

This no-prep program is easy-to-teach. We even provide two quick YouTube training videos to ensure your success!

This program focuses on instructional spelling patterns. Most are consistent between Canadian and American English, but where they differ, students will learn the Canadian spellings with notations that American English differs. Canadians often muse about their spelling inconsistencies; however, the vast majority of Canadian spelling patterns are quite regular and dependable.

Differentiated Spelling Instruction features 30 weekly grade-level spelling word lists and tests. Each spelling pattern has a corresponding spelling sort. Quarterly summative assessments with progress monitoring matrices help teachers monitor individual and class mastery of the grade-level spelling patterns.

To address the needs of diverse learners, the program provides the comprehensive Diagnostic Spelling Assessment with recording matrix to help teachers individualize spelling instruction (includes printables, Google Forms, and Google Sheets). The corresponding 64 remedial spelling pattern worksheets each include a spelling sort, a word jumble, rhyme, and/or book search, and a short formative assessment to determine whether or not the student has mastered the spelling pattern.

The appendix also includes these spelling resources: sound wall printables, supplementary word lists, spelling review games, proofreading activities, spelling rules, and memorable spelling songs.

Now that’s effective differentiated instruction! Your students can catch up, while they keep up with grade level spelling instruction.
*****

Teachers and administrators are invited to preview every page in all six spelling programs (grades 3, 4, 5, 6, 7, 8). Click HERE to view the programs and affordable pricing. Lifetime license per teacher. All digital. Both student workbook and teachers guide included. We also publish American English versions of Differentiated Spelling Instruction.

Grammar/Mechanics Canadian English Spelling, Canadian Grade 3 English Spelling Programs, Canadian spelling programs, Grade 4 Canadian spelling programs, Grade 5 Canadian spelling programs, Grade 6 Canadian spelling programs, Grade 7 Canadian spelling programs, Grade 8 Canadian spelling programs