All About Reading & Spelling
Why do I recommend this program more than others because they both have Orton-Gillingham approach which is evidence based that are proven to work with children with learning difficulties, dyslexia, ADHD or any child whom you want to have great literacy skills. Each program takes on 20 mins a day, fully scripted so it’s a pickup and go program for busy homeschooling parents.
Reading
Is a proven mastery program that uses Orton-Gillingham approach that teaches phonics, decoding, vocabulary, fluency and comprehension. Children will stay actively involved with learning with this multisensory approach through sight, sound and touch. The program has 4 levels plus a pre-reading program for teachings solid foundation for a child to start reading.
The Pre-Reading Program is designed for preschoolers and focus is on the five fundamental pre-reading skills:
· Letter knowledge
· Phonological awareness
· Print awareness
· Listening comprehension
· Motivation to read
With these specific set of skills it will help a child to understand the basics of language and prepare them to learn to read. Children will play games, enjoy craft projects and engage in story-time activities, all the while absorbing important information for them to start reading in Level 1.
Levels 1-4 comes with a teacher manual that is an easy to follow format so your child will never be missing a step in their learnimg (not gaps). Student packs included Phonogram and work cards, activity book that allows extensions in games, fluency practice sheets, activity sheet, progress chart, certificate of completion. Decodable readers are included in each level with charming stories with beautiful, full-colour illustrations.
Spelling
Again, this program uses the Orton-Gillingham approach with a multisensory method. This program has seven fully scripted levels that provides comprehensive instruction. Created for busy parents, educators and tutors in mind that teaches spelling in sequential methodology, each level builds upon the previous one. This will produce stronger foundations when most children start at level 1 as this will fill gaps in their learning.
Levels 1 & 2 are currently the only ones in colour – levels 3-4 are due out end of the year and levels 5-7 due early next year.
Level 1-2 are now in colour and comes with a teacher manual that is step by step instructions with advanced application for older students who need more of a challenge that gives them higher-level multisyllable words. Now included in these two levels is the new colour activity book that allows for extension work for children reinforcement activities, ensures that children retain what they learn and understand how to apply it in practical situations.
This spelling program is not the classical ‘list on Monday, test on Friday’ approach. It is about teaching the proven techniques, the whole language so they have the full knowledge of the English language to be able to master spelling. They will learn the sounds of the 26 letters, 45 common letter combinations and all the rules and the ones that break the rules. Once children have completed level 7, they will have all the strategies to master spelling at high school level.
Why is Reading & Spelling taught separately?
There are two reasons why!
1. Reading is easier to learn than spelling.
Reading a child needs to decode the written work. So, once they have learnt the phonogram AY always says long A, then reading words like pay, hay, stay or display then it’s easy to transfer this information. Whereas in spelling children need to encode words and as the English language is quite complicated, there are many ways to write each sound. Some words children have various choices one sound to pick the correct spelling. In fact, there are around 250 ways to spell the 45 speech sounds.
2. All-In-one Programs Forces You to Choose Between Two Scenarios
When you try to teach your child to read and spell the same words at the same time, you guarantee only one thing: one of these critically important subjects will fall by the wayside. That’s because there are two possible scenarios with programs that combine reading and spelling:
Scenario #1. Your child learns to read the words in the lesson, but they can’t move on to the next lesson because they are still learning to spell those words. Without knowing it, you have chosen to focus on spelling at the expense of reading.
Scenario #2. Your child learns to read the words in the lesson, but although they are still learning to spell the words, you decide to allow your child to move on to the next lesson. You’ve chosen to focus on reading, so your child’s spelling suffers.
As you can see, it’s a no-win situation. All-in-one programs force you to choose one subject to the detriment of the other. But I don’t believe you should have to sacrifice your child’s learning in any subject.
