This document begins by providing four tips parents and care takers can use to supporting childrens' reading skills at home: (1) Have conversations before, during, and after reading together; (2) Help children learn how to break sentences into words and words into syllables; (3) Help children sound out words smoothly; and (4) Model reading…

"Words Their Way"[TM] is an approach to phonics, vocabulary, and spelling instruction for students in kindergarten through high school. The program can be implemented as a core or supplemental curriculum and aims to provide a practical way to study words with students. The purpose of word study (which involves examining, manipulating,…

"Open Court Reading"[c] is a core reading program for grades K-6 developed by SRA/McGraw-Hill that is designed to teach decoding, comprehension, inquiry, and writing in a logical progression. Part 1 of each unit, Preparing to Read, focuses on phonemic awareness, sounds and letters, phonics, fluency, and word knowledge. Part 2, Reading…

"Peer-Assisted Learning Strategies" and a similar program known as "Peer-Assisted Literacy Strategies" are peer-tutoring programs that supplement the primary reading curriculum (Fuchs, Fuchs, Kazdan, & Allen, 1999; Mathes & Babyak, 2001). This review uses the acronym "PALS" to encompass both programs and their…

"Sound Partners" (Vadasy et al., 2004) is a phonics-based tutoring program that provides supplemental reading instruction to elementary school students grades K-3 with below average reading skills. The program is designed specifically for use by tutors with minimal training and experience. Instruction emphasizes letter-sound…

"Success for All" ("SFA")[R] is a comprehensive school reform model that includes a reading, writing, and oral language development program for students in pre-kindergarten through grade eight. Its underlying premise is that all children can and should be reading at grade level by the end of third grade and then remain at grade…

"Earobics"[R] is interactive software that provides students in pre-K through third grade with individual, systematic instruction in early literacy skills as students interact with animated characters. "Earobics[R] Foundations" is a version for pre-Kindergarten, Kindergarten, and first graders. "Earobics[R]…

Get your reading program on the right track using research-based teaching strategies from this helpful guide. Learn what you need to know about five essential elements of reading, why you should teach them, and how. A treasure chest of research-based instructional activities helps you: (1) Build students phonemic awareness; (2) Teach phonics and…