Pennington Publishing Blog

The Science of Reading Intervention Program for Ages 8-Adults

If you were tasked with developing a secondary reading intervention program from “the ground up,” where would you start and what resources would you consider using? I’ve been there and done that a few times with plenty of mis-steps and quite a few success stories.

Disclaimer: I’m the author/publisher of a reading intervention program for ages 8-adult. The following link will allow you to access the entire print portion of the program (not the corresponding Google slides): https://penningtonpublishing.com/collections/reading/products/the-science-of-reading-intervention-program-bundle

Now to the heart of my question: “If you were developing a secondary reading RTI program from the ground up, what materials/programs would you include?”

That is precisely the question that 23 reading specialist colleagues faced 20 years ago in a large and diverse California school district. Our reading test percentiles were in the 40s and we were locked into what became balanced literacy instruction. Enter one of the first SOR programs: Open Court. With a generous grant, our district was able to hire and train another 24 literacy coaches in Open Court for beginning readers.

Our reading scores increased dramatically into the 70 and later the 80 percentiles. However, our ages 8-high school scores remained stagnant. Our reading specialists were tasked with creating both upper elementary and secondary reading curricula for grade-level and intervention to pick up where Open Court and our fantastic teachers left off. Our progressive district incentivized those of us who took the lead in writing program resources by freeing us up from teaching duties and allowing us to retain ownership of what we created. All of this to say that I’ve had the challenge and pleasure of creating a secondary reading intervention from “the ground up.”

A few suggestions:

For trained reading intervention teachers, a “add this, use that” piecemeal approach is fine; however, not so for most secondary teachers who are content experts, but not reading experts. Although the suggested resources in this post’s comments are terrific, inexperienced secondary teachers will feel more comfortable using one comprehensive program. Less training, less juggling and coordinating programs, less time management issues.

My next suggestion will definitely get some pushback. Beware of “one size fits all” claims regarding program materials. Yes, a high school student who does not understand the alphabetic principle has the same needs as a beginning reader, but the quickest way to shut down a secondary student or teacher is to squeeze a primary “square peg” into a secondary “round hole.” For example, using childish decodables are not acceptable; my 54 decodables feature teenage illustrations, themes, and plots.

Additionally, be careful to construct or use a program which has realistic time parameters. You’re not going to be able to cram 90 minutes of instruction into a 50 minute period. Select instructional resources which will allow you to prioritize, cut, and/or expand to your instructional minutes. In other words, flexibility is key.

One last consideration: I’m sure you are familiar with Scarborough’s Rope. Make sure that you incorporate both word recognition and language comprehension instruction in your intervention. Both are essential, but the latter is critically important for secondary students.

Grammar/Mechanics fluency, language comprehension, phonics, reading comprehension, secondary reading intervention programs, word recognition

Create Decodable Text

Reading specialists, language coaches, SLPs, EL/EB, SPED, and reading teachers will appreciate a new free tool to create decodable text with artificial intelligence (AI). The recently released open artificial intelligence site, ChatGPT (link will follow), is free and easy to use. It follows your directions to compose text with your own parameters. No more brainstorming sentences featuring r-controlled vowels; no more searching in vain for decodable narrative and expository text with the sound-spellings you have introduced; Wow! This is a game-changer.

Now of course the AI has its potential drawbacks. For example, students can enter their teacher’s writing prompt and ChatGPT will churn out a well-crafted, albeit a bit formulaic, essay with MLA citations. And each ChatGPT-generated writing text is unique; the AI learns from its experience and multiple submissions produce better and more detailed information. Secondary teachers are beginning to brainstorm ChatGPT detection ideas. At least I hope this free platform sounds the death knell sounding for all those essay-writing services stalking our students.

However, beyond the real concerns of plagiarism and questions about how to adapt to this new tool, I’m sure you will find plenty of useful applications to teaching reading. I’ll share a few helpful suggestions to create those in-demand reading sources that reading teachers are always asking about–decodable texts.

To direct ChatGPT (link will follow, I promise!), simply type (or copy and paste) what you want it to produce in its textbook. So easy to use, but the more specific parameters you assign, the better the results will be. It takes a bit of trial and error to get precisely what you want for your students.

One important caveat… True decodable text depends upon what has been explicitly taught and provides practice on those targeted sound-spellings. The AI produced examples I’ll share are not completely decodable texts by any means. BTW, I’ve written my own set of fully decodable Sam and Friends Phonics Books to align with my own reading intervention program and it’s tough work if one’s goal is fidelity to lessons explicitly and previously taught. However, I will say that my work would have been significantly easier had I been able to use this amazing AI tool. See what you think!

EXAMPLES

I typed…

Write decodable text focusing on words with the long a sound.

ChatGPT produced…

1. “The snake lay in the grass and basked in the sun’s rays.”
2. “Kate made a cake for Jake’s birthday and it was a huge hit.”
3. “The rain came down in sheets as the thunder crashed.”
4. “The waves of the ocean were calm and the boats swayed gently.”
5. “The game was tied and the players battled for the ball.”

Not bad at all! It actually churned out quite a few more with other long /a/ sound-spellings.

Next, I decided to challenge the AI a bit more. I like how Marni Ginsberg uses these types of memory hook sentences in her Reading Simplified program (hers are better). Great practice orthographic mapping, connecting the sound-spellings to words to meaning to syntax. I typed…

Write a sentence including these long o words: go, boat, though, toe, show, poke.

ChatGPT (the link’s coming) came up with this long /o/ memory hook sentence…

I was going to take the boat out on the lake, though I knew I might poke my toe on the way there because I always seem to trip and show off my clumsiness.

With a bit of revision, that might do rather nicely.

Write a story for second graders, using these words: rain, made, laid, rays, play, game, waves, wait, weigh, eight, Jay, Kate, great.

ChatGPT produced this cute short story… Notice that my parameters directed the level of controlled text (second grade) and a set of randomly chosen long /a/ nouns and verbs. I add the bolded long /a/ words and threw in a few revisions in (parentheses).

Once upon a time, in a small town called Sunnyville (Maytown), Jay and Kate were best friends. They loved to play outside and explore the world around them.

One day, it started to rain outside, so Jay and Kate decided to stay inside and play a game. They looked for a fun game to play, and finally decided on a card game called “Go Fish.” (“Pay Day.”)

As they played, they could hear the rain hitting the roof and the waves crashing against the shore. They loved the sound of the rain and the waves, and they enjoyed the cozy feeling of being inside while it was raining outside.

After a while, they started to get a little hungry. Kate said, “I wish we had something to eat. I’m starving!” Jay thought for a moment and then said, “I know! Let’s make some cookies!” (bake a cake!)

So they gathered all the ingredients they needed (So they opened the cake mix) and started to mix and stir. They carefully measured out the flour (cake mix, eggs,) and sugar, and then added some chocolate chips for extra yumminess.

As the cookies (cake) baked in the oven, the rain outside began to ease up. The sun started to peek out from behind the clouds, and the rays of sunshine streamed through the windows.

Finally, the cookies were (cake was) ready! Jay and Kate took them (it) out of the oven and let them (it) cool for a few minutes. Then they laid them out on a plate and waited patiently for them to cool down completely.

When the cookies were (cake was) finally cool enough to eat, Jay and Kate each took a bite. (slice.) They were delicious! (It was so tasty!) They ate as many cookies as they could, (the whole cake,) and then weighed themselves on the scale to see how much they had gained.

“I think we gained about eight pounds each!” Kate laughed.

Jay and Kate had a great time that day, even though it had rained outside. They learned that sometimes the best days are the ones that are a little bit unexpected, and that it’s always fun to have a good friend by your side.

Next, I went all reading specialist nerdy and entered all the long /i/ words from the Fry’s 300 list and wrote an expository prompt. Let’s see if I can get a controlled vocabulary and syntax text with plenty of decodable long /i/ words. Will ChatGPT produce some decent background knowledge text along with the word recognition practice? I typed…

Write an essay at third grade reading level about George Washington’s achievements as President, using all of these words as possible: I, time, like, write, my, find, right, why, try, kind, high, eyes, light, while, might, life, side, mile, night, white, idea, sometimes

ChatGPT typed out the following. Not as good as the story, but useful for its purposes of building vocabulary, background knowledge, and practicing those long /i/ sound-spellings (I boldfaced). Of course, it would be far better if I had added other high utility long /i/ words, but I limited it to the Fry list to put it through its paces.

Hi there! I’m here to write an essay about George Washington’s achievements as President. George Washington was the first President of the United States, and he did a lot of important things during his time in office.

One of the things that I like about George Washington is that he was very fair and honest. He always tried to do the right thing, even when it was hard. He was kind to everyone, and he always treated people with respect.

Another thing that I find interesting about George Washington is that he was very strong and brave. He was a leader who was not afraid to make difficult decisions. He was also a great military leader and helped lead the Continental Army to victory during the American Revolution.

I think that it is important to learn about George Washington because he played a huge role in the history of our country. He helped to create the United States and set the standards for future presidents to follow. He is a role model for all of us, and his achievements should be celebrated.

Sometimes, it can be hard to understand why certain things happen in life. But I think that it is important to try to learn as much as we can about the people and events that have shaped our world. By learning about George Washington and his accomplishments, we can gain a better understanding of our own history and the world around us.

So, I encourage you to learn more about George Washington and the important role that he played in our country’s history. You might be surprised by how much you find out and how much you can learn from this amazing leader.

Think you’ll agree that the ChatGPT tool will be useful for us reading teachers. Finally, Mark, give us the link so that we can play with this amazing tool! To produce an AI essay in ChatGPT, simply copy and paste a writing prompt into the textbox on this site: https://openai.com/. Cheers!

Sam and Friends Phonics Books

*****

Mark Pennington is the author of The Science of Reading Intervention Program–a full year word recognition and language comprehension program for grades 4-adult. His 54 Sam and Friends Phonics books feature teenage characters and plots with comic illustrations by the amazing David Rickert. Full decodable with two Heart Words per book, your students will love these stories. Formatted for booklet printing, tablet, and phone.

Grammar/Mechanics artificial intelligence, CHATGPT, create decodable text, phonics, word recognition

FREE Google Slide Reading Games

Grades 4-adult reading intervention teachers need efficient, evidence-based instructional resources, such as these free sounds to print phonics games, to accelerate reading and spelling acquisition. Students play the games on interactive Google slides as review activities after systematic phonics and spelling instruction. The 54 slides, each with 4 games and a spelling dictation, have been designed to combine phonemic segmentation, blending, and manipulation, letter sounds knowledge, decoding, spelling, vocabulary, and sentence construction. Now that’s efficient practice!

The no prep games begin with the basic code: CVC, CVCC, CCVC, CCVCC, CVCe, CVVC for activities 1–24. Slides 25–55 cover advanced phonics with multi-syllabic words: vowel digraphs, consonant-final e, diphthongs, r-controlled vowels, schwa, and Greek and Latin influences. Whereas other switch it, word ladder, word chain activities only change one letter, the advanced phonics, multi-syllabic slides require not one, but two or more switches. More challenging for older reading intervention students! Since these games are whole class review activities, start on the slides which match your instruction and play some or all of the games as time permits. Plus, the Google slides are shared as editable files. Add, delete, or substitute to customize as you wish!

The CHANGE IT! SOUNDS CHALLENGE! SOUND JUMBLES! and WHAT’S MISSING? phonics games are ready to play. Simply display the focus Google slide and share the same slide with your students. Easy-to-follow scripted teaching directions accompany the slides. The directions follow the sounds to print Hear it! Say it! Spell it! and Read It! approach. Not sure which sounds-spellings practice and game slides your students need? Check out my free vowel and consonant sounds phonics assessment and the comprehensive diagnostic spelling assessment (available in both American and Canadian English versions). Click Diagnostic Literacy Assessments.

Sounds to Print Phonics Games

Teaching Script for Sounds to Print Phonics Games

CHANGE IT! WORDS

1. The word is _____. Word?
2. Say the sounds as you drag the cards down (first word).
3. Say the sounds as you change ‘em around (rest of the words)
4. Check the display and make yours like mine.
5. Let’s say the sounds (point to each sound).
6. Let’s blend the sounds. Word?
7. Who can use this word in a sentence?

SOUNDS CHALLENGE! Drag the cards down as you hear these sounds.

SOUND JUMBLES! Drag the cards down as you hear the sounds; then change ‘em around.

WHAT’S MISSING? Drag the cards down as you hear the sounds, and add what’s missing.

SPELL IT ! Let’s spell the words.

Check out the YouTube Video Overview to see the four games in action, then grab these free resources for your students.

FREE Sounds to Print Phonics Games (Directions and Google Slides)

Get the Sounds to Print Phonics Games FREE Resource:

Mark Pennington is the author of The Science of Reading Intervention Program for grades 4-adult reading intervention. The comprehensive year-long program consists of three components (offered separately or as a BUNDLE): Word Recognition (Word Recognition Preview) with the Sam and Friends decodables (first 18 weeks); and Language Comprehension and Assessment-Based Instruction (last 18 weeks). Accelerated and efficient sounds to print (synthetic/linguistic) instruction, coupled with all the “other side of the rope” instruction. Written by a teacher (MA reading specialist) for teachers and their students, this no advance training, no prep, minimal correction, scripted program is ideal for new and/or veteran teachers. Check out the teacher testimonials and program samples.

Reading, Spelling/Vocabulary ELL activities, ESL activities, Google slide phonics, Mark Pennington, phonics, phonics games, reading intervention, reading strategies, response to intervention, Sounds to Print Phonics Games, spelling games, The Science of Reading

There’s never enough instructional time to teach students who struggle with reading.

However…

The Science of Reading Intervention Program: Assessment-based Instruction provides diagnostically-based instructional resources to individualize instruction for students grades 4–adult in 25 minutes per day for 18 weeks. Perfect for early-late schedules or Tier 3 pull-out instruction. Ideal for EL and ESL learners or students in Resource programs with IEPs. A great option for students in continuation school settings or community college and adult literacy programs with self-paced instructional modules.

Although it certainly makes sense to teach a comprehensive word recognition program to all struggling readers to ensure a solid foundation, some students and new transfer students will need second-chance instruction with more intense tutoring and practice in easily-managed small groups and independent practice. Only assessment-based instruction affords teachers the opportunity to address the diverse reading deficits of their students with targeted lessons. Make your instructional minutes count!

If time is limited, why waste instructional time with lengthy assessments?

The diagnostic assessments in this program are different. First, they are quick and easy to administer and grade (formatted in print, audio, and Google forms). Second, each assessment couples with short lessons to target each and every assessment item. And each lesson provides a short formative assessment to determine mastery. You choose which assessments need to be given and to which students.

Diagnostic Assessments with Mastery Matrices                                 

• Vowel Sound Phonics Assessment (10:42 audio file)
• Consonant Sounds Phonics Assessments (12:07 audio file)
• Syllable Awareness Assessment (5:48 audio file)
• Syllable Rhyming Assessment (5:38 audio file)
• Phonemic Isolation Assessments (5:54 audio file)
• Phonemic Blending Assessment (5:53 audio file)
• Phonemic Segmenting Assessment (5:21 audio file)
• Alphabetic Awareness Assessments (10 minutes)
• “Pets” Fluency Assessment (2 minutes per student)
• Heart Words Assessment (5:48 audio file)
• Spelling Assessment (22.38 audio file)
• Grammar and Usage Assessment (15–20 minutes)
• Mechanics Assessment (10–15 minutes)

Corresponding Lessons (all individualized practice except as noted)

• Phonemic Awareness and Alphabetic Awareness Lessons (Small Groups)
• Phonics Lessons (Small Groups)
• Expository Reading Fluency Lessons (YouTube Modeled Readings at 3 Different Speeds)
• Spelling Pattern Worksheets
• Grammar, Usage, and Mechanics Worksheets
• Heart Words and Phonics Games
• Syllabication and Morphology Lessons
• Executive Function Skill Lessons

The Science of Reading Intervention Program

The Science of Reading Intervention Program: Word Recognition includes explicit, scripted instruction and practice with the 5 Daily Google Slide Activities every reading intervention student needs: 1. Phonemic Awareness and Morphology 2. Blending, Segmenting, and Spelling 3. Sounds and Spellings (including handwriting) 4. Heart Words Practice 5. Sam and Friends Phonics Books (decodables). Plus, digital and printable sound wall cards and speech articulation songs. Print versions are available for all activities. First Half of the Year Program (55 minutes-per-day, 18 weeks)

The Science of Reading Intervention Program: Language Comprehension resources are designed for students who have completed the word recognition program or have demonstrated basic mastery of the alphabetic code and can read with some degree of fluency. The program features the 5 Weekly Language Comprehension Activities: 1. Background Knowledge Mentor Texts 2. Academic Language, Greek and Latin Morphology, Figures of Speech, Connotations, Multiple Meaning Words 3. Syntax in Reading 4. Reading Comprehension Strategies 5. Literacy Knowledge (Narrative and Expository). Second Half of the Year Program (30 minutes-per-day, 18 weeks)

The Science of Reading Intervention Program: Assessment-based Instruction provides diagnostically-based “second chance” instructional resources. The program includes 13 comprehensive assessments and matching instructional resources to fill in the yet-to-be-mastered gaps in phonemic awareness, alphabetic awareness, phonics, fluency (with YouTube modeled readings), Heart Words and Phonics Games, spelling patterns, grammar, usage, and mechanics, syllabication and morphology, executive function shills. Second Half of the Year Program (25 minutes-per-day, 18 weeks)

The Science of Reading Intervention Program BUNDLE  includes all 3 program components for the comprehensive, state-of-the-art (and science) grades 4-adult full-year program. Scripted, easy-to-teach, no prep, no need for time-consuming (albeit valuable) LETRS training or O-G certification… Learn as you teach and get results NOW for your students. Print to speech with plenty of speech to print instructional components.

Grammar/Mechanics language comprehension, phonemic awareness, phonics, reading intervention programs, reading programs, remedial reading, science of reading, science of reading assessments, Tier 3, word recognition

FREE Sound Wall Resources provide teachers and students much more than colorful bulletin boards or replacements for Word Walls. For students who struggle with making the phoneme (speech sound) to grapheme (print) connection, Sound Walls can be essential tools.

What’s preventing students from learning the phonemes (speech sounds) making the phoneme to grapheme (spelling) connection? Often, it’s inaccurate or inconsistent recognition and production of the speech sounds. After all, if you can’t say ’em, you can’t read ’em and you certainly can’t spell ’em.

Many teachers who have recognized this problem assume that another dose of Heggerty, Barton, or others with phonemic awareness programs (I also have PA drills in my reading intervention programs) will do the trick, but this is not always the solution for all your students. Practicing  phonemic isolation, segmenting, substitution, manipulation, reversals, etc., may not solve the problem if students do not know proper mouth formation and speech articulation. In the past, reading specialists and intervention teachers would refer students who lack these reading prerequisites to speech therapists, and this may indeed be necessary. But, with proper coaching and these FREE Sound Wall Resources, reading teachers can certainly assist most of their students who can’t recognize and produce speech sounds properly.

One  important tool that teachers are using to help students learn or re-learn the speech sounds is the instructional Sound Wall. These FREE Sound Wall Resources consist of the 43-45 phoneme-grapheme cards posted on the classroom wall and organized into two sections: vowels and consonants. Here are the digital sound walls I use in my reading intervention programs (Yes, I’m providing them to you free at the end of this article. And, yes, you can print out the components and create your own Sound Wall in dazzling colors):

Vowel Valley and Consonant Sounds Sound Walls

Vowel Valley

Consonant Sounds

The different phonemes associated with vowels are arranged in a “valley” formation on the wall that looks like the opening of the mouth that happens when the vowel sounds are spoken. Vowel sounds produce unobstructed air flow through the mouth, unlike consonants.

The consonants, organized by “manners of articulation” proposed by Dr. Louisa Moats (2020) are posted as follows:

● Stops – airflow is completely obstructed by the lips
● Nasals – airflow is obstructed in the mouth, but released through the nose
● Affricates – begins as a stop, but ends as a fricative
● Fricatives – air flows, but friction is created by small separations between articulators
● Glides – no friction in the airflow, but changes in sound are produced by the placement of the tongue and lips
● Liquids – the tongue creates a partial closure in the mouth that redirects airflow

Animal Cards

Phoneme-Grapheme (Sound-Spelling) Card Components

Sounds: Sound-spelling cards include sound symbols, indicated by slanted lines. For example, /k/ and /r/. Note that the sounds are not the same as the alphabetic letters. The “c” as in card has the /k/ sound, not a /c/ sound. In my reading intervention programs, I include audio files on each digital card.

Pictures: The phoneme-grapheme cards usually feature a picture which has a name that emphasizes the focus sound. The picture acts as a mnemonic to cement the phoneme-grapheme relationship for students.

Many teachers help students memorize the name of the card i.e., the picture, when introducing the sound indicated on the card. In my reading intervention programs, I teach animal chants, because all of my cards all feature non-juvenile animal photograph. A typical chant would be as follows:

Name?

newt

Sound?

/n/

Spellings: The common sound-spellings are also featured on the cards.  The spellings include blanks to indicate their location within words and to help students select appropriate spellings. For example, if a student is spelling the word, betray, the “ai_” spelling choice would be eliminated from consideration, because the blank indicates that “ai” cannot end a syllable. The “_ay” would be a more informed selection.

FREE Sound Wall Animal Cards

Get the colorful phoneme-grapheme Animal Cards to help students connect phonemes to graphemes and learn proper mouth formation and speech articulation. And, yes, these cards are featured on the FREE Sound Wall Resources and Personal Sound Walls. Plus, I’ve added the 108 most common Heart Word Cards to practice and add to your Sound Wall. Heart words include an irregular sound-spelling i.e. “the part you have to learn by heart.” Note the audio function only works in the reading intervention programs detailed below.

FREE Sound Wall Songs to Teach Proper Mouth Formation and Speech Articulation

To help students remember how to position and move the mouth, I’ve created songs which explain the mouth formations and sound production. The Vowel Valley Chant includes this music, the Animal Chants, and the Vowel Valley graphic representations for each of type of  vowel. The Consonant Sounds Chant also includes this music, the Animal Chants, and the consonant “manners of articulation” graphic representations for each of type of  consonant. 23 minutes of 12 silly, but memorable songs, along with 45 Animal Cards to practice the sounds and spellings for each card. Did I say they are FREE for classroom use. Please don’t post ’em online.

FREE Personal Sound Wall Printables

To add to the traditional vowel valley and consonant sounds wall cards, I would suggest adding separate graphic representations of the sound-print subsections for individual students. I provide 13 Sound Wall Printables in my reading intervention programs, such as in the Fricatives graphic below.

Fricatives: Personal Sound Wall

These “personal sound walls” consist of separate short vowels, long vowels, digraphs, diphthongs, r-controlled vowels, organized in the classic Vowel Valley configuration.  Additionally, I suggest separate graphic representations of the consonant “manners of articulation” (see Dr. Moats’ organization above). My reading intervention programs detailed below include two versions of the Personal Sound Walls: Google slides (with fill-in text boxes and audio files) and printable PDFs to print and laminate. With the laminated copies, students can use dry erase markers to write word examples, erase, and practice again. Download the FREE Personal Sound Wall Printables, print on 11 x 17 paper, laminate, and practice!

Mouth Formation and Movement: A unique feature of the posted sound wall cards and “personal sound walls” is that they also include images (photographs or graphics) of mouths articulating the different phonemes, so that students can make the connection between what a phoneme sounds like and how their mouths are formed and move when they are saying that phoneme.

Teachers may choose to have a mirror nearby so that students may see their own mouths while using the sound wall.

*****

Thank you for reading my article and, perhaps, using my resources. I’m Mark Pennington, MA reading specialist and author of the following intervention programs for grades 4-adult students.

The Science of Reading Intervention Program

The Science of Reading Intervention Program: Word Recognition includes explicit, scripted instruction and practice with the 6 Daily Google Slide Activities every reading intervention student needs: 1. Phonemic Awareness  2. Blending, Segmenting, and Spelling 3. Sounds and Spellings Phonics and Heart Words Practice 4. Word Chains 5. Sam and Friends Phonics Books (decodables). 6. Elkonin Sound Boxes, Personal Sound Walls, Multi-Syllabic Word Work. Print versions are available for all activities. First Half of the Year Program (55 minutes-per-day, 18 weeks)

The Science of Reading Intervention Program: Language Comprehension resources are designed for students who have completed the word recognition program or have demonstrated basic mastery of the alphabetic code and can read with some degree of fluency. The program features the 5 Weekly Language Comprehension Activities: 1. Background Knowledge Mentor Texts 2. Academic Language, Greek and Latin Morphology, Figures of Speech, Connotations, Multiple Meaning Words 3. Syntax in Reading 4. Reading Comprehension Strategies 5. Literacy Knowledge (Narrative and Expository). Second Half of the Year Program (30 minutes-per-day, 18 weeks)

The Science of Reading Intervention Program: Assessment-based Instruction provides diagnostically-based “second chance” instructional resources. The program includes 13 comprehensive assessments and matching instructional resources to fill in the yet-to-be-mastered gaps in phonemic awareness, alphabetic awareness, phonics, fluency (with YouTube modeled readings), Heart Words and Phonics Games, spelling patterns, grammar, usage, and mechanics, syllabication and morphology, executive function shills. Second Half of the Year Program (25 minutes-per-day, 18 weeks)

The Science of Reading Intervention Program BUNDLE  includes all 3 program components for the comprehensive, state-of-the-art (and science) grades 4-adult full-year program. Scripted, easy-to-teach, no prep, no need for time-consuming (albeit valuable) LETRS training or O-G certification… Learn as you teach and get results NOW for your students. Print to speech with plenty of speech to print instructional components.

Grammar/Mechanics affricate, animal cards, digital sound walls, fricative, glides, mouth formation, mouth pictures, nasals, phonics, Sound Wall Songs, sound walls, speech articulation, stop sounds

How to Teach Heart Words

Want to watch how I teach two Heart Words to older reading intervention students and lead them in guided practice? Check out my “real-time” (7:52) lesson on YouTube! https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=ssa5S7Qq6sA

English often is referred to as a difficult language to learn to speak, read, and spell because of its irregular sound-spellings. However, contrary to this assumption, the English orthographic system is actually quite regular and reliable. Of course, there are exceptions, but not as many as teachers generally think.

One helpful development from the Science of Reading movement has been the refinement of some reading instructional terminology. One such term that has come to some degree of consensus is Heart Words. A Heart Word is usually defined as a word with one or more irregular sound-spellings. One important point should be emphasized: In Heart Words, the whole word is not phonetically irregular; only a part or parts is irregular. In other words, “the parts to learn by heart.”

On the Reading Rockets website, Linda Farrell and Michael Hunter summarize their helpful study on the Dolch 220 list of high frequency words. Of the 220 words, 82 were identified as Heart Words (37%).  https://www.readingrockets.org/article/new-model-teaching-high-frequency-words

How to Teach Heart Words: Say It! Spell It! Read It! Instructional Sequence

1. Segmenting

2. Spelling

3. Blending

4. Heart Words Guided Practice

5. Decodable practice

6. Assess and target instruction! Download the FREE 108 High Frequency Heart Words Assessment at the end of this article to help you effectively differentiate instruction.

7. Game cards (not flash cards)

1. Segmenting: Say It! We start with the sounds. I use my first Google slide to display the focus Heart Word. I say the word, using continuous blending. In other words, I read through the word, adjusting pronunciation according to stop and continuous sounds. I direct students to look at the word and repeat it as I blend it.

Next, we segment each of the sounds out loud. I target the Heart Word sound-spelling by saying, “Study the part to learn by heart.” Afterword, I direct students: “Show with your fingers the number of sounds.” I prompt students to tap their knees to count the number of phonemes. I display my second slide with the answer and the Heart Word (without the heart(s)) in a variety of fonts.

2. Spelling: Spell It! Have students spell the word before they read it. I display my third slide and direct students to say each sound as they spell them, using the squiggle tool with Google slides (or pencil if using print copies). I use proper letter formation models for both the slides and print copies. Handwriting is important!

3. Blending: Read It! Say ’em as I blend ’em! Say ’em as you blend ’em! Word? For each lesson, I’ve chosen two of my list of 108 high frequency Heart Words. I use my fourth slide to show one of the two focus Heart Words, which is printed three times. I slide my hand under the first on the display or screen and blend with students. For the second, students blend out loud on their own, sliding their hand on their Google slide tablet screens or in the air. For the third (without the heart(s), I point to and ask, “Word?”

Next, I display my fifth slide, which shows three Heart Words with the same part(s) to learn by heart as our focus Heart Word. We blend each word and I ask students to explain how these words are similar to lesson’s Heart Word. Even though Heart Words have an irregular sound-spelling (or a few), most have similar patterns as other Heart Words. Extend the learning! English has patterns even with irregular sound-spellings.

4. Heart Words Guided Practice: After the explicit Segmenting-Spelling-Blending instruction, students complete guided practice. Students sort similar or comparable irregular sound-spellings to match the two focus Heart Words and open up doors on the Google slide to check their answers. Next, students identify the “parts to learn by heart” with similar or comparable Heart Words by dragging and dropping the hearts above the phonetically irregular sound-spellings (or they draw the hearts if using print copies).

Sam and Friends Phonics Books

5. Decodable Practice: In my 54 decodables, the Sam and Friends Phonics Books, each story includes plenty of practice in the lesson’s focus regular sound-spelling patterns and the two Heart Words. Plus, the back page includes a 30-second Word Fluency with built-in timer to practice these words and record the number of words read per timing.

6. Heart Words Assessment: In the second half of my full-year reading intervention program, I provide mid-year diagnostic assessments. One of the assessments tests mastery of the 108 high frequency Heart Words. This assessment will pinpoint the Heart Words that students cannot yet read and spell accurately. “If they know it, this (assessment) will show it; if they don’t, it won’t.” The assessment provides the data for teachers to differentiate instruction.

Want to watch how I teach two Heart Words to older reading intervention students and lead them in guided practice? Check out my “real-time” (7:52) lesson on YouTube! https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=ssa5S7Qq6sA

The Science of Reading Intervention Program

The Science of Reading Intervention Program: Word Recognition includes explicit, scripted instruction and practice with the 6 Daily Google Slide Activities every reading intervention student needs: 1. Phonemic Awareness 2. Segmenting, Spelling, and Blending 3. Sounds and Spellings Guided Practice (including handwriting) 4. Word Chains 5. Sam and Friends Phonics Books (decodables). 6 . Elkonin Sound Boxes and digital and printable sound wall cards and speech articulation songs. Print versions are available for all activities. First Half of the Year Program (55 minutes-per-day, 18 weeks)

The Science of Reading Intervention Program: Language Comprehension resources are designed for students who have completed the word recognition program or have demonstrated basic mastery of the alphabetic code and can read with some degree of fluency. The program features the 5Weekly Language Comprehension Activities: 1. Background Knowledge Mentor Texts 2. Academic Language, Greek and Latin Morphology, Figures of Speech, Connotations, Multiple Meaning Words 3. Syntax in Reading 4. Reading Comprehension Strategies 5. Literacy Knowledge (Narrative and Expository). Second Half of the Year Program (30 minutes-per-day, 18 weeks)

The Science of Reading Intervention Program: Assessment-based Instruction provides diagnostically-based “second chance” instructional resources. The program includes 13 comprehensive assessments and matching instructional resources to fill in the yet-to-be-mastered gaps in phonemic awareness, alphabetic awareness, phonics, fluency (with YouTube modeled readings), Heart Words and Phonics Games, spelling patterns, grammar, usage, and mechanics, syllabication and morphology, executive function shills. Second Half of the Year Program (25 minutes-per-day, 18 weeks)

The Science of Reading Intervention Program BUNDLE includes all 3 program components for the comprehensive, state-of-the-art (and science) grades 4-adult full-year program. Scripted, easy-to-teach, no prep, no need for time-consuming (albeit valuable) LETRS training or O-G certification… Learn as you teach and get results NOW for your students. Print to speech with plenty of speech to print instructional components.

Reading, Spelling/Vocabulary Dolch words, Fry Words, heart words assessment, how to teach heart words, list of heart words, outlaw words, phonics, rule-breakers, sight words, Slosson Oral Reading Test, syntax, trick words

I’ve got to be careful on this topic. I’ve got family members who teach using guided reading, as well as plenty of colleagues, and their students are learning to read. Within the past 35 years, guided reading has become an educational given, accepted common sense, and an all-or-nothing teaching reading strategy. For Fountas & Pinnell and Teachers College, the guided reading method of teaching students with leveled books is a cash-cow. However, all-too-often educators assume and practice what has not yet been proven. Such is the case with guided reading.

How to Tweak Guided Reading

Guided reading is based upon two theoretical premises: Vygotsky’s (1978) Zone of Proximal Development theory and Bruner’s (1986) application of that research to learning theory in what he termed as scaffolding.  From these premises, Marie Clay, New Zealand’s godmother of guided reading, believed that students learn best in instructional level texts (Vygotsky’s Zone), guided by a teacher to independence (Bruner’s scaffolding), and then on to more and more challenging instructional texts in what she coined as the “ladder of progress.” Clay’s methods of determining independence (91–94%) is running records assessment.

Clay’s guided reading method sounds reasonable and practical. Simply put, it’s the Goldilocks principle: Don’t have students practice in books that are too hard (frustration level); don’t have students practice in books that are too easy (independent level). Instead, have students practice in books that are just right (instructional level) with teacher assistance.

Within the last 35 years, we have made enormous strides in determining readers’ levels of comprehension and matching them to levels of text complexity through Lexile testing or informed teacher judgment using running records. However, we have not yet proven that practicing at optimally determined reading levels produces more learning than reading text that is “too easy” or “too hard.” And we just don’t know if learning is best facilitated with Clay’s ladder of progress model. Is there such a thing as an optimal instructional reading level?

Dr. Timothy Shanahan argues, “Basically we have put way too much confidence in an unproven theory”(https://fordhaminstitute.org/national/commentary/leveled-reading-making-literacy-myth). He elaborates on the guided reading practice of using leveled texts to match optimal reading levels of instruction:

Of the studies that have directly tested the effects of teaching students to read with books at their “instructional level,” not one has found any benefit to the practice. There are several studies that have found no benefit to doing this and there are some that have found it to be harmful (that is, it reduces the students’ opportunity to learn). There is no set level at which texts need to be for students to learn from them, but if the texts are too easy (and traditional instructional level criteria are apparently too easy) learning is going to be limited. This has been found across a variety of grades from Grade 2 through high school and both with regular classroom students and learning-disabled students (https://www.shanahanonliteracy.com/blog/a-gallimaufry-of-literacy-questions-and-answers).

In fact, the authors of the Common Core State Standards would argue that students (with teacher assistance) learn more from complex i.e. frustration level text than instructional or independent text. My son read the entire Harry Potter series as a fourth-grader. While the first few books were add an accessible reading level, the last few certainly were not. My son gained two reading grade levels in a matter of months by reading text at his frustration level.

At this point, I know I’ve lost half of my readers. Teachers believe in the value of research only to a certain extent. When challenged by new or different research that is contradictory to accepted notions, teachers tend to retreat to their own experience. Generally, teachers believe in what they’ve been taught, how they were taught, and what they are now doing. Guided reading teachers see success in their students and the kids are learning to read. If it ain’t broke, don’t fix it.

Guided Reading

However, for the remaining half of my readers: When they understand that the research does not prove what the majority of teachers are doing, they work through their cognitive dissonance and become more critical consumers of ideas and practice. They’re not afraid to distance themselves from the herd and try something new. A chance to add more tools to their tool belts.

My take is that we don’t have to throw the baby out with the bathwater. Some of guided reading makes complete sense: the structural and instructional components of flexible ability grouping, meaningful busy work for rest of kids, reading with the teacher on a daily basis, and authentic assessment are proven and effective instructional strategies; however a few tweaks are in order. We don’t and shouldn’t abandon guided reading entirely as some Science of Reading colleagues advocate. However, I would ask teachers to try a few adaptations.

My suggestions to make sense of guided reading:

1. Rather than trying to fine tune your guided reading groups by adding more discrete reading level groups, think of combining groups to maximize instructional minutes, minimize independent work, and improve behavior management. Especially consider doubling the size of the teacher-led guided reading group and reducing the number of total groups. Check out these 10 group rotation schedules.
2. Look to other means of assessment to determine reading needs and group placements, in addition to running records. Teachers don’t like to hear this, but we are not completely objective evaluators. According to Dr. Louisa Moats, “The reliability of oral reading tests and running records is lower than the reliability of more structured, specific measures of component reading skills. Teacher judgment of the cause of specific oral reading errors (e.g., miscue analysis) tends to be much less reliable” (https://www.aft.org/sites/default/files/reading_rocketscience_2004.pdf). (Download my FREE diagnostic assessments.)
3. In addition to leveled reading groups, use this alternative assessment data  to drive instruction within your guided reading group stations. Flexible groupings can help you teach r-controlled vowels to a group, or the soft /c/ spellings, or non-decodable sight words, etc. to needs-based groups, formed according to diagnostic assessments.

The benefits…

1. Fewer groups means less prep for guided reading groups and other independent learning stations.
2. Less wasted instruction. When teachers notice reading errors during guided reading or running records which they wish to address via mini-lessons, some, but not all students will benefit.
3. Targeted needs-based instruction is more efficient than mini-lessons.
4. Students will progress quicker with the addition of assessment-based instruction.
5. Less $. Those Fountas & Pinnell A to Z leveled books are expensive. Why not purchase fewer levels?
6. Less tracking. Traditional guided reading groups stay quite similar from the start to end of the school year, with notable exceptions.
7. Better behavior management. With fewer groups, fewer transitions are necessary. With more students in the teacher’s group, less idle hands are making mischief.
8. More teacher-student time.

The Science of Reading Intervention Program

The Science of Reading Intervention Program: Word Recognition includes explicit, scripted instruction and practice with the 5 Daily Google Slide Activities every reading intervention student needs: 1. Phonemic Awareness and Morphology 2. Blending, Segmenting, and Spelling 3. Sounds and Spellings (including handwriting) 4. Heart Words Practice 5. Sam and Friends Phonics Books (decodables). Plus, digital and printable sound wall cards and speech articulation songs. Print versions are available for all activities. First Half of the Year Program (55 minutes-per-day, 18 weeks)

The Science of Reading Intervention Program: Language Comprehension resources are designed for students who have completed the word recognition program or have demonstrated basic mastery of the alphabetic code and can read with some degree of fluency. The program features the 5 Weekly Language Comprehension Activities: 1. Background Knowledge Mentor Texts 2. Academic Language, Greek and Latin Morphology, Figures of Speech, Connotations, Multiple Meaning Words 3. Syntax in Reading 4. Reading Comprehension Strategies 5. Literacy Knowledge (Narrative and Expository). Second Half of the Year Program (30 minutes-per-day, 18 weeks)

The Science of Reading Intervention Program: Assessment-based Instruction provides diagnostically-based “second chance” instructional resources. The program includes 13 comprehensive assessments and matching instructional resources to fill in the yet-to-be-mastered gaps in phonemic awareness, alphabetic awareness, phonics, fluency (with YouTube modeled readings), Heart Words and Phonics Games, spelling patterns, grammar, usage, and mechanics, syllabication and morphology, executive function shills. Second Half of the Year Program (25 minutes-per-day, 18 weeks)

The Science of Reading Intervention Program BUNDLE  includes all 3 program components for the comprehensive, state-of-the-art (and science) grades 4-adult full-year program. Scripted, easy-to-teach, no prep, no need for time-consuming (albeit valuable) LETRS training or O-G certification… Learn as you teach and get results NOW for your students. Print to speech with plenty of speech to print instructional components.

Grammar/Mechanics guided reading, guided reading alternatives, guided reading research base, guided reading theory, literacy groups, Mark Pennington, phonics, reading workshop, science of reading

High Frequency Words?

As a reading specialist, I am also asked if we should teach high frequency words. I do agree with Dr. Tim Shanahan that learning a small bank of these words in kinder makes sense; however, beyond that, my take is that teaching older students (or more likely practicing and testing) long lists of high frequency reading words or using them in spelling instruction is counterproductive.

Memorizing lists of 200, 300, 400, 500 high frequency words treats language acquisition as a process of rote learning and viewing each and every word in isolation. This approach falsely teaches students that every reading and spelling word is an exception. The old Dick and Jane look-say method of reading and spelling instruction has been properly relegated to the instructional dumpster; however, high frequency instruction remains a hold-out to some degree. Why is this so? My take is because “Let’s teach the words students will read and write most often” seems intuitively correct. However, intuition is not science and should not guide our instructional decisions.

But What about High Frequency Words with Non-Phonetic Sound-Spellings?

Included within the lists of high frequency words are a subset of words with non-phonetic parts. I call the 108 (plus or minus depending on list and how one counts inflections) words with non-phonetic spellings, Heart Words; others refer to them as “rule-breakers,” irregular words,” “outlaw words,” “tricky words,” “memory words,” and others. Of the 100 highest frequency English words, many are non-phonetic because they derive from Old English.

Most reading specialists would agree that the Heart Words should be introduced concurrently with explicit, systematic phonics instruction. For example, I introduce the 108 highest frequency Heart Words two at a time in my 54 decodable Sam & Friends Guided Reading Phonics Books.

Many of these Heart Words may have unusual spelling patterns, but as students acquire more reading and spelling knowledge, they find that some words initially learned as Heart Words have the same unusual spelling pattern as others. When we teach these “rule breakers,” we need to show students how many of them belong to the same patterns. For example, the Heart Word, one, has similar patterns as the Dolch words: some (30), come (64), and done (180). The more we show the patterns of the English orthographic system, the easier it is for beginning readers to map these words to their orthographic memories. These words can become immediately recognizable in reading and far easier to spell once they reach the level of sight word automaticity.

Researchers Linda Farrell and Michael Hunter completed a study on the Dolch 220 list of high frequency words. Of the 220 words, 82 were identified as Heart Words (37%), and 45 of the words can be studied in similar pattern words.  https://www.readingrockets.org/article/new-model-teaching-high-frequency-words

Reading specialists do disagree about which words would be classified as Heart Words. Although the reading research is clear that memorizing whole words, such as in the outdated “Look and Say” approach, is inefficient, some reading teachers stress that teaching students to remember whole words is important as a part of orthographic mapping. In orthographic mapping, students are wiring the brain to remember all of the sound-spellings of a word in order as a unified whole. These become true “sight words,” because they are recognized automatically by sight, and not any longer by sounding each phoneme (speech sound) out. For example, students might be taught that the Heart Word the is “not all irregular.” In other words, the “th” /th/ follows the rules; it’s only the “e” that does not. It is “the part to learn by heart.” Plus, when used before words beginning with vowels, the the is perfectly regular because the “e” makes the long /e/ sound for example, thē army and thē elephants in most regional dialects.

Check out my article on How to Teach Heart Words for seven activities to do so.

A sound box is often used to help students map heart Words, because they require more instruction than phonetically regular words.

Sound Boxes

*Sight words assessments (also referred to as word recognition, e.g. The Slosson Oral Reading Test) shouldn’t be confused with instruction.

*****

The Science of Reading Intervention Program

The Science of Reading Intervention Program: Word Recognition includes explicit, scripted instruction and practice with the 5 Daily Google Slide Activities every reading intervention student needs: 1. Phonemic Awareness and Morphology 2. Blending, Segmenting, and Spelling 3. Sounds and Spellings (including handwriting) 4. Heart Words Practice 5. Sam and Friends Phonics Books (decodables). Plus, digital and printable sound wall cards and speech articulation songs. Print versions are available for all activities. First Half of the Year Program (55 minutes-per-day, 18 weeks)

The Science of Reading Intervention Program: Language Comprehension resources are designed for students who have completed the word recognition program or have demonstrated basic mastery of the alphabetic code and can read with some degree of fluency. The program features the 5 Weekly Language Comprehension Activities: 1. Background Knowledge Mentor Texts 2. Academic Language, Greek and Latin Morphology, Figures of Speech, Connotations, Multiple Meaning Words 3. Syntax in Reading 4. Reading Comprehension Strategies 5. Literacy Knowledge (Narrative and Expository). Second Half of the Year Program (30 minutes-per-day, 18 weeks)

The Science of Reading Intervention Program: Assessment-based Instruction provides diagnostically-based “second chance” instructional resources. The program includes 13 comprehensive assessments and matching instructional resources to fill in the yet-to-be-mastered gaps in phonemic awareness, alphabetic awareness, phonics, fluency (with YouTube modeled readings), Heart Words and Phonics Games, spelling patterns, grammar, usage, and mechanics, syllabication and morphology, executive function shills. Second Half of the Year Program (25 minutes-per-day, 18 weeks)

The Science of Reading Intervention Program BUNDLE  includes all 3 program components for the comprehensive, state-of-the-art (and science) grades 4-adult full-year program. Scripted, easy-to-teach, no prep, no need for time-consuming (albeit valuable) LETRS training or O-G certification… Learn as you teach and get results NOW for your students. Print to speech with plenty of speech to print instructional components.

Reading, Spelling/Vocabulary blending, Dolch list, Fry list, heart words, high frequency spelling words, high frequency words, Mark Pennington, order of reading instruction, orthographic mapping, outlaw words, phonics, phonics order, phonics sequence, reading instruction order, reading instructional order, sight words, sound-by-sound blending, sound-spellings sequence, spelling blending, Teaching Reading Strategies, what to teach in reading, word identification, word recognition