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If middle school students are non-readers or struggle with simple text, should we teach middle school reading intervention like we teach beginning readers?

Can’t I just use a beginning reading program like UFLI and adapt it to my MS students? They need to learn the same foundational skills?

Such questions are posted in Facebook group posts every day. Almost universally, comments are the same:

I used UFLI last year with my sixth-graders and saw tremendous growth.

If a MS student needs basic skills, you need to teach those basic skills.

2 + 2 =4. If a teenager doesn’t know this, there really isn’t any other way to teach it than you would to a first-grader.

Two schoolgirls and schoolboy (6-12) singing in row, close-up

The last 20 years of my career I served as an MS reading specialist. I certainly agree that MS students need to learn the same “skills” that beginning readers require e.g., segmenting, spelling, blending /c//a//t/, and connecting the word to background (prior and extended) background knowledge. If MSers don’t know it, they need to learn it. BUT…

MSers who struggle with reading and spelling are different than, say, first graders. And this fact should impact both WHAT we teach, and HOW we teach.

Quick examples: MSers have much greater oral language lexicons than primary students, much more advanced knowledge of syntax, more life experience, and different interests. These facts should impact WHAT we teach. So, perhaps /k//ou//g//ar/ instead of /c//a//t/ with passive voice sentence examples, comparisons to panthers, catamounts, mountain lions (synonyms) and related species.e.g., cheetahs, lions, tigers. You get the idea. WHAT we teach should be qualitatively different for struggling MSers than for beginning readers.

In terms of the HOW, MSers should benefit from accelerated instruction. Generally speaking, a MS intervention class ain’t a MSer’s first rodeo. Student may not have mastered the /ou/ in cougar, but they probably have been taught it several times before. Thus, generally speaking, less practice is required than for a 1st grader. This is also true for ML and EL learners. With their language experience, hurried instruction is possible. If the instructional pace is too slow, MSers quickly use interest and attention.

Additionally, we can’t forget to account for the trauma that struggling MS readers face to varying degrees. That PTSD-like trauma should influence our choice of instructional reading resources, our motivational strategies, and our approach to behavior management.

Older Age Decodables

I’ll never forget the teenager at the rear of a reading intervention class, chanting under his breath, /c//a//t/,  c-a-t, I am stu-pid. Or seventh graders looking through big-headed childish characters in decodables or practicing sound-spelling cards with cartoonist illustrations of “Tony the Tiger.”

So to end my preaching, before selecting an excellent K-2 word recognition program with hopes of adapting it to the WHAT and HOW needs of upper elementary, middle school, high school, or adult learners… consider another age-appropriate program.
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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 for Ages 8-Adults

/the-science-of-reading-intervention-program-bundle

Grammar/Mechanics middle school, phonics programs, reading intervention, science of reading

Research consistently validates the systematic, explicit phonics instruction for older students featured in The Science of Reading Intervention Program. Of course, the trick is that in your reading intervention, ELL, ML, SPED, or adult literacy class, you (no doubt) have four types of struggling readers:

1. Some struggling readers have mastered some, but not all sound-spelling patterns.
2. Some struggling readers have a shaky mastery of phonics and need a thorough refresher to improve their decoding accuracy.
3. Some struggling readers have primary language influences other than English and need to apply these connections and adjust to their differences.
4. Some non-readers need comprehensive, A to Z instruction in cracking the alphabetic code and may require some second-chance instruction and practice, as well. These may include SPED students or cognitively impaired students.

The rest of this article will briefly explain how The Science of Reading Intervention Program addresses the needs of these students, and the following 12-minute YouTube sample lesson will show you a complete lesson in real time… well your students, classroom interruptions, computer issues are always the time-variables 🙂

First, let’s examine my approach to phonics instruction for older students to see if you want to keep reading. I began using systematic, synthetic phonics instruction as a district reading specialist back in the 1990s with the Open Court program. Worked wonders! My students and teachers also experienced success with the related Breaking the Code program for reading intervention, ELL, and SPED students. However, it took two (or even three) years of two-hour literacy block instruction for older students to get close to reading at grade level. I began experimenting and researching a similar, but different, approach for older, struggling students.

Open Court and Breaking the Code (and the vast majority of Orton Gillingham-style) programs use the print to speech instructional method. Nothing wrong with this approach! However, I’ve found that a speech to print instructional method has more advantages for older, struggling readers.

1. It accelerates learning. The Science of Reading Intervention Program covers and helps students master the entire scope and sequence of the aforementioned programs in 18 weeks, 55 minutes per day.
2. The speech to print approach builds on older students oral language lexicons/language structures and those of non or limited English-speaking students.
3. It focuses more on problem-solving strategies than rules application. Now don’t get me wrong; I value reading, spelling, syllable, and syntax rules. (I am more aligned with print to speech colleagues in this respect.) However, too much focus on rules bogs down instruction. I want my students to progress as quickly as possible (and they do, too).

Dr. Louisa Moats neatly summarizes the instructional priorities I have incorporated in my program:

“One of the most important jobs for… the teacher of students with reading problems is to foster awareness of phonemes (speech sounds) in words and to help children acquire the ability to articulate, compare, segment, and blend those phonemes” (Moats 2004).

So, back to the four types of struggling readers… How does the speech to print approach in my program address each set of needs?

For 1. Some struggling readers have mastered some, but not all sound-spelling patterns.

Rather than beginning the year with a slew of diagnostic assessments and launching into small group differentiated phonics and spelling instruction, my program provides a phonics, spelling, and fluency screener for program placement, but utilizes whole-class, explicit instruction and guided practice for each of the 54 segmenting-spelling-blending Say it! Spell it! Read it! lessons. True that these types of students will be learning and practicing some of what they already know, but gap-filling the rest.

For 2. Some struggling readers have a shaky mastery of phonics and need a thorough refresher to improve their decoding accuracy.

Often, these students are forced to practice, practice, practice in depth that which really only requires a refresher in context. The accelerated pace of the instruction and practice meets the needs of these types of students.

For 3. Some struggling readers have primary language influences other than English and need to apply these connections and adjust to their differences.

So many variables here, but the program makes use of students’ phonics and spelling knowledge in their primary language to transition to English reading and writing. Plus, the sounds to print approach pinpoints the differences that students learning English need to know.

For 4. Some non-readers need comprehensive, A to Z instruction in cracking the alphabetic code and may require some second-chance instruction and practice, as well. These may include SPED students or cognitively impaired students.

For these students, often the recursive nature of language acquisition means more practice. Yet, pinpoint, targeted practice. In my program, 13 assessments are administered at the mid-year point after all 54 phonics and spelling lessons have been completed. Corresponding activities and worksheets, designed for individual and/or small group work are assigned as needed.

Check out a sample phonemic awareness opener from my program for older students and see how easy it is to teach to all three types of your students!

Grammar/Mechanics MTSS, phonics, reading intervention, RTI, sample phonics lesson, set for variability, speech to print, spelling

Phonemic awareness openers are key instructional components for older students in The Science of Reading Intervention Program. Of course, the trick is that in your reading intervention, ELL, ML, SPED, or adult literacy class, you (no doubt) have three types of struggling readers:

1. Some struggling readers have already mastered phonemic awareness.
2. Some need minimal instruction and practice to solidify the sound-speech (phoneme) connection.
3. Some will need intensive work (perhaps connecting to the phonological stage) to achieve this reading requisite.

The rest of this article will briefly explain how The Science of Reading Intervention Program addresses the needs of these students. However, first we had better quickly dispel the myth that phonemic awareness is only for pre-K and kindergarten. Some older students, even adults, do need training.

 “There is no age where a student is ‘too old’ for phonemic awareness training‒if the skills have not been mastered, the student should get training” (Kilpatrick, David A., 2016, Equipped for Reading Success).

Additionally, the latest research indicates that phonemic awareness is best taught and caught in the context of connections to letters (or sound-spelling graphemes to get technical) and not solely with auditory instruction. “They Say You Can Do Phonemic Awareness Instruction ‘In the Dark’, But Should You?” (2021). Additional meta-analyses have confirmed the importance of this connection and demonstrated that the two components of phonemic awareness that best transfer to reading are blending and segmenting.

For 1. Some struggling readers have already mastered phonemic awareness:

I designed the phonemic awareness lessons as quick, one-minute openers… language play on Google slides. Simply follow the directions on the slides. Students respond to your prompts in unison. All speech sounds have letter connections.

Now, much criticism has been directed at Dr. Kilpatrick for his advocacy of advanced phonemic awareness skills i.e., phonemic isolation, deletion, manipulation. True that research does not establish a link between these advanced skills  and reading acquisition. However, the good doctor’s response to critics does ring true to me that good readers do have these skills. Thus, my one-minute phonemic awareness lessons lessons feature phoneme isolation, addition, deletions, substitution, manipulation, and segmentation. Can’t hurt. And for those who have mastered the requisite reading skills of phonemic blending and segmenting, the latter three skills may be beneficial.

For 2. Some need minimal instruction and practice to solidify the sound-speech (phoneme) connection.

All too often, we teachers tend to spend too much time teaching what can be learned quickly and too little time teaching what requires more guided practice. For some (I would say many) older students, phonemic awareness can be mastered quickly. Older students have the advantage of more language than beginning readers in their oral language lexicons. The one-minute drills in my program will turn on the light bulbs in short order.

For 3. Some will need intensive work (perhaps connecting to the phonological stage) to achieve this reading requisite.

The program deals with the needs of these students in two ways. First, the explicit phonemic awareness lessons are combined with the explicit Say It! Spell It! Read It! sounds to print phonics lessons. Beginning with the sound i.e., Say It! reinforces phonemic awareness, and each of the 54 lessons provides a review of the phonemes introduced in the previous phonics lesson. Thus, the phonemic awareness drills assist phonics and spelling acquisition, and phonics and spelling practice improves phonemic awareness. Second, unlike other programs, The Science of Reading Intervention Program provides second-chance instruction. Midway through the full-year program, students take a battery of diagnostic assessments to determine mastery. For students still needing more intensive phonemic awareness practice (and for newly transferred students), 5 quick, whole-class phonemic awareness assessments with audio files determine which skills students need for group work. Corresponding activities include formative assessments.

Check out a sample phonemic awareness opener from my program for older students and see how easy it is to teach to all three types of your students!

Grammar/Mechanics MTSS, phonemic awareness, reading intervention, RTI

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

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. In other words, the games provide your students all the phonics and spelling practice they need for comprehensive reading intervention. 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 advocated in LETRS and other Science of Reading trainings and in programs such as Reading Simplified, EBLI, Sounds-Write, and Phono-Graphix. Simply put, it’s more efficient for students to master the 44 or 45 phonemes and apply them to the 100+ spellings than the print to speech approach.

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.

Grammar/Mechanics 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

Heart Wordles Slide Games

Do you love Wordle? For those of you teaching reading intervention, SPED, or ELL classes, here’s a set of 43 FREE Google slide games to help your ages 8-adult students practice Heart Words. Heart Wordles is pretty darn fun!

A Heart Word is a word which includes one or more irregular sound-spellings. Generally, older students have a larger lexical bank than beginning readers, so some of the words used in the game will be new to younger students, but the game may be helpful for them, as well.

Each of the 43 slide games focuses on a particular Heart Word sound-spelling pattern and provides the letters to form 5 words. Teachers should introduce the slide game pattern (the most common ones first) and help students blend example words before assigning students the slide game. Blend the phonetically regular parts and add the parts to learn by heart. New to teaching Heart Words? Check out my article, How to Teach Heart Words.

Not all agree on which sound-spellings are irregular. My selection of the 216 Heart Words in this game is based on sound-spelling patterns, syllables and phonics rules, and the Dolch 220 high frequency word list. I included 59 of the Dolch Heart Words (frequency numbers on the next two slides). Full disclosure: I also included words from lessons and decodables from my own reading intervention programs.

The directions are simple: Drag and drop the letters into the light shaded boxes to spell as many Heart Wordles as you can. I like playing the game whole class with a bit of competition (the first student to create all five words shouts out Heart Wordles! I’ve included a blank text box at the bottom of each slide for a few instructional options: 1. Type (and spell check) each word. 2. Explain the pattern or rule. 3. Write sentences including each Heart Word. 4. ?????0

Heart Wordles Slide Games

https://docs.google.com/presentation/d/1GL-EFFuEhQCoPLFAJYhXP7vn-qeeEZNFY4HAaWMEZMQ/copy

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If you like the Heart Wordles Slide Games, you’ll love my reading intervention programs for grades 8-adult:

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 Dolch words, Fry Words, Heart Wordles, heart words, Mark Pennington, no excuse words, reading intervention, San Diego Quick, sight words, Sitton words, Slosson, Teaching Reading Strategies, The Science of Reading Intervention Program, Wordle

Introducing the Eight Great Spelling Song audio files and YouTube video links to 8 memorable songs. Help your students (and you) remember and apply the spelling rules in their writing. Turn ’em up! Your kids of all ages will love these. By the way, your upper elementary and middle school students still need spelling instruction. Don’t believe me? Administer my Diagnostic Spelling Assessment and you’ll change your mind. The assessment pinpoints each spelling pattern deficiency.

Break down the components of each spelling rule and elicit other spelling word examples from your students. Look for exceptions to the rules. Even though there are exceptions, it’s much better to start with the rule and works most of the time and adjust to the rule-breakers. If you’re a baseball fan, you know that hitters “look for the fastball and adjust for the curve.”

Yes, these are available in my spelling programs. See promos below. Thanks!

1. The i before e Rule

Usually spell i before e (believe), but spell e before i after a c (receive) and when the letters are pronounced as a long /a/ sound (neighbor).

The i-before-e Spelling Rule

YouTube Video

2. The Final y Rule

Keep the y when adding an ending if the word ends in a vowel, then a y (delay-delayed), or if the ending begins with an i (copy-copying). Change the y to i when adding an ending if the word ends in a consonant, then a y (pretty-prettiest).

 The Final y Spelling Rule

YouTube Video

3. The Silent e Rule

Drop the e (have-having) at the end of a syllable if the ending begins with a vowel. Keep the e (close-closely) when the ending begins with a consonant, has a soft /c/ or /g/ sound, then an “ous” or “able” (peaceable, gorgeous), or if it ends in “ee”, “oe”, or “ye” (freedom, shoeing, eyeing).

 The Final Consonant-e Spelling Rule

YouTube Video

4. The Double the Consonant Rule

Double the last consonant, when adding on an ending (permitted), if all three of these conditions are met: 1. the last syllable has the accent (per / mit)  2. the last syllable ends in a vowel, then a consonant (permit). 3. the ending you add begins with a vowel (ed).

The Double the Consonant Rule

YouTube Video

5. The Ending “an” or “en” Rule

End a word with “ance”, “ancy”, or “ant”  if the root before has a hard /c/ or /g/ sound (vacancy, arrogance) or if the root ends with “ear” or “ure” (clearance, insurance). End a word with “ence”, “ency”, or “ent” if the root before has a soft /c/ or /g/ sound (magnificent, emergency), after “id” (residence), or if the root ends with “ere” (reverence).

 The Ending “an” or “en” Rule

YouTube Video

6. The “able” or “ible” Rule

End a word with “able” if the root before has a hard /c/ or /g/ sound (despicable, navigable), after a complete root word (teachable), or after a silent e (likeable). End a word with “ible” if the root has a soft /c/ or /g/ sound (reducible, legible), after an “ss” (admissible), or after an incomplete root word (audible).

The “able” or “ible” Rule

YouTube Video

7. The Ending “ion” Rule

Spell “sion” for the final zyun sound (illusion) or the final shun sound (expulsion, compassion) if after an l or s. Spell “cian” (musician) for a person and “tion” (condition) in most all other cases.

 The Ending “ion” Rule

YouTube Video

8. The Plurals Rule

Spell plural nouns with an s (dog-dogs), even those that end in y (day-days) or those that end in a vowel, then an o (stereo-stereos). Spell “es” after the sounds of /s/, /x/, /z/, /ch/, or /sh/ (box-boxes) or after a consonant, then an o (potato-potatoes). Change the y to i and add “es” when the word ends in a consonant, then a y (ferry-ferries). Change the “fe” or “lf” ending to “ves” (knife-knives, shelf-shelves).

 The Plurals Rule

YouTube Video

from The Science of Reading Intervention Program, Teaching Reading Strategies (Reading Intervention), and Differentiated Spelling Instruction (American English and Canadian Versions)

Spelling Programs for Canadians

Differentiated Spelling Instruction

Spelling/Vocabulary 8 Great Spelling Rules, conventional spelling rules, differentiated spelling instruction, phonics programs, reading intervention, reading programs, science of reading, spelling patterns, spelling rule songs, spelling rule videos, spelling rules, spelling workbooks, spelling worksheets

Reading specialists and reading intervention teachers have long advocated the use of decodable text for struggling, vulnerable readers… especially those in upper elementary, middle or high school, ESL/ELL, special education, and adult literacy classes. Teachers of beginning reading have either favored decodables, leveled readers, or predictable text.

I’m going to present the argument and criteria for decodables. (Full disclosure, I’m the author of a set of decodable readers for older students which I will use to apply the criteria for effective decodables and will promo at the end of the article.) My take is that it seems like common sense that if we are going to teach decoding (phonics) and encoding (spelling), our students should practice these skills in the context of authentic text. However, many have argued that decodable are anything but authentic, in that they are written for a contrived purpose. Additionally, we all know that common sense is often a poor substitute for evidence-based practices. Unfortunately, the reading research on decodables is quite minimal, according to noted reading researcher, Dr. Tim Shanahan. Shanahan comments:

There have been only a handful of studies into the effectiveness of decodable texts since the term was first used back in the 1980s. And, truth be told, they are kind of mess; with little evident agreement about what decodable text is, what it should be compared with, and what outcomes we should expect to derive from it (https://shanahanonliteracy.com/blog/should-we-teach-with-decodable-text

So, in the “handful of studies” mentioned above, are decodables effective or ineffective? How so relative to other forms of text, such as leveled readers with controlled vocabulary, predictable texts etc.?

Shanahan again:

Mesmer (2005) found that kids were more likely to try to decode decodable text (duh), but leveled texts (less decodable) led to greater fluency (Mesmer, 2010). Some studies (Cheatham & Allor, 2012; Compton, 2005) concur with the first Mesmer study, but that’s okay because others support the second (Priec-Mohr & Price, 2017). And, then there are those with mixed results (Chu & Chen, 2014).

Regarding the effectiveness of decodables versus other text constructions, the Ohio Department of Education produced a helpful list and example slides of pros and cons for decodables, leveled readers, and predictable text readers. Note that the advantage of decodables seems clear to me (and them) in their presentation:

http://education.ohio.gov/getattachment/Topics/Learning-in-Ohio/Literacy/Striving-Readers-Comprehensive-Literacy-Grant/Literacy-Academy/1-05-Matching-Text-Types-to-Students-Part-2.pdf.aspx?lang=en-US

Design and Instructional Component Criteria

As mentioned above, I’ll use my own decodable series to exemplify what I consider to be appropriate criteria for decodables for older readers.

Sam and Friends Phonics Books

• The Sam and Friends Phonics Books consist of highly decodable and systematic text to help readers learn, practice, and develop reliance upon the alphabetic code. Decodable means that a high percentage of words will be phonetically regular. Systematic means that each reader includes and reinforces only previously introduced sound-spellings to scaffold instruction.
• Each of the 54 books introduces the focus sound-spellings and 2 Heart Words of the daily Blending, Segmenting, and Spelling activity in the author’s two reading intervention programs:
• The books use the most widely-accepted, research-based instructional phonics sequence.
• Each book introduces two high-utility Heart Words (high frequency words with one or more phonetically irregular sound-spellings).
• The language de-emphasizes idiomatic expressions (ideal for English-language learners).
• The stories use non-predictable, non-repetitious, and non-patterned language to minimize over-reliance upon context clues and knowledge of text structure.
• The SCRIP comprehension strategies (Summary, Connect, Re-think, Interpret, Predict) are embedded within the text pages, not at the end of the book, to promote reader-author conversations and internal monitoring of text. Many require higher order thinking skills. The books include five higher level comprehension questions for each story.
• The back page includes 30 second word fluency practice on the focus sound-spellings and sight words with a systematic review of previously introduced sound-spellings and
• Heart Words
• Each book consists of eight pages in 5.5 x 8.5-inch booklet form. Books are formatted to be copied back to back on two separate 8.5 x 11 pages for easy copying and collation. Just one fold creates the take-home books. Staple if desired.
• The books are also formatted for tablet, Chromebook, and phone display.
• The books are also available as Google slides with comment or question text boxes for interactive monitoring of the text.
• Collections A, B, C, D, and E focus on remedial sound-spellings and sight words; whereas, Collection F: Syllable Juncture and Derivational Influences Books 45-54 is appropriate for all students reading below grade level.
• The books have been designed with older students (grades 4 to adult) in mind. Students will enjoy reading about the adventures of Sam and his friends: Tom, Kit, and Deb. Oh, and also Sam’s dog, Pug.
• The plots for each self-contained story reinforce positive values and character development and feature multi-ethnic teenage characters.
• Each book is cleverly illustrated by master cartoonist, David Rickert. The illustrations do not explain the text. They entertain.

Your students will love these decodables for older readers: the Sam and Friends  Phonics Books, and more importantly, by using these readers, students and parents will see measurable progress in their reading skills. If interested in the characters, settings, and themes of the books, check out this sister article: Decodables for Big Kids.

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.

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