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Celebrating 20 Years of Evidence-Based Education and SpellRead

5 Summer Reading Recommendations for the Young Poet in Your Life

By Megan Brooks on Mon, Jun 11, 2018 @ 06:57 PM

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Using poetry to encourage young readers to practice and build confidence has been tested by parents and teachers since the cow jumped over the moon. 

Anna, Halifax Learning's poet laureate, is a six-year-old SpellRead student at our Halifax location. Anna's vibrant wardrobe matches her sparkling disposition and her playful prose.  Anna is inspired by poetry of all kinds and she's excited to share her work and recommendations with you. 

Anna began SpellRead last year and has truly flourished as a confident young reader. She has a particular fondness for anything with rhythm and rhyme and we're confident she'll someday share in Annette Bening's passion for Shakespeare ... and sounds and symbols of course!

We couldn't agree with this video more and Anna's  enthusiasm and determination to conquer phonological skills, understand the phonetic code and  comprehending new vocabulary to compose not only summaries, but cheeky rhymes about her beloved pets, is proof SpellRead works!


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This summer Anna recommends adding these tuneful titles to your reading list and playlist!

  1. Coat of Many Colors - Dolly Parton
  2. Blowin' in the Wind - Bob Dylan
  3. Happy - Pharrell Williams
  4. What a Wonderful World - Louis Armstrong
  5. One Love - Bob Marley

Share your favorite poems in the comments!

AllChildrenReadingWell (1)Are you concerned that your child is missing out on the joy and creativity that poetry brings? The source of interruptions in developing reading skills range from chronic ear infections, family illness to reading based learning disabilities and beyond. At Halifax Learning we're proud to offer an evidence-driven program that is proven effective to meet the most struggling readers needs. Regardless of your circumstances, SpellRead will fill the instructional deficits and provide the foundational skills needed for efficient reading. Download our free guide, "All Children Reading Well" to learn more about effective reading instruction. 

 

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What is phonics?

By Halifax Learning on Wed, May 30, 2018 @ 12:20 PM

a_eAlthough reading research has remained consistent for decades, phonics is the source of heated debate in the education world. The phrase "drill and kill" might come to mind. We want to change the conversation.

Does your child play a sport? Do they have a coach? Does your child's coach practice the fundamental skills required to play said sport. Do they break down each skill to its most basic part in order for your child to properly and efficiently perform said skill? Or do they simply hand over the equipment, show them the field of play, watch a few games and expect results?

Reading is a fundamental skill. It allows all other learning to take place and should be taught in a systematic, explicit way. 

This blog post is the second in a series of blogs about the five core components for effective reading instruction. Revisit the blog or Download our free guide, "All Children Reading Well", to learn more.

Phonics is the second essential skill in developing effective, efficient reading skills and is an extension of solid phonological awareness. In our previous blog we discuss the two terms and how they can often be used interchangeably. Read more of that post here.

What is phonics and why is it important to be taught?

Phonics is a method of teaching developing readers the correlation between phonemes and graphemes. Developing readers learn to match a unit of sound (phoneme) to a letter or letters that make the sound (grapheme). Readers use phonics to decode unfamiliar language, thus, a solid foundation in phonics allows developing readers to acquire new vocabulary independently. Without a solid foundations in phonics, many children are left to rely on compensatory strategies such as memorization, guessing, and inference. 

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The word “cool” contains three phonemes and graphemes - /c/ /oo/ /l/.

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"Writing systems require treating spoken words as consisting of parts, which can then be represented by a limited set of graphical elements. We take it as obvious that speech consists of units such as words, syllables, and phonemes, but these units are phonological abstractions that had to be discovered. Writing and the phonological way of thinking co-evolved over a long period of time."

- From Language at the Speed of Sight by Mark Seidenberg

We recommend evaluating your child's skills at home by having them spell a list of pseudo (or nonsense) words. This strategy is effective because it eliminates the possibility of success as a result of memorization. The ability to spell pseudo words indicates that your child can recall the symbols for the sounds they hear. Below is a recommended list of pseudo words.

  1. shoom (shewm)
  2. heesh (heash, heshe)
  3. moyf (moif)
  4. skade (skaid)
  5. fash
  6. bof (bawf, bawff, bauf)
  7. tobe (toab)
  8. chub
  9. crite
  10. marth
  11. dib
  12. sep (cep)
  13. chesp
  14. thook
  15. smerd (smurd, smird)

If this is a daunting task, perhaps some intervention is required. Luckily there is a proven, gold-standard reading remediation program available! We're here to fill the instructional deficit for your family and make reading easy.

halifax learning spellread phonics

SpellRead, the gold standard in evidence-based reading remediation programs, puts phonics instruction at the core of its outcomes.

SpellRead is divided into three Phases. In Phase A, students are introduced to the most simple phonemes and graphemes in the English language and practice those skills at the single syllable level. SpellRead assesses progress through our evidence-driven speed reading tool that ensures automaticity. In Phases B and C, the skills become more complex and expand from one syllable to multisyllabic, real-word vocabulary. The 10 core activities introduced in Phase A are consistent through the entire program, ensuring that students continue to practice their auditory, visual and practical application of these skills.    

In addition to phonics, developing readers also need effective instruction in phonological awareness, vocabulary development, reading fluency and comprehension.

Download our SpellRead Program Walkthrough to learn more about how SpellRead uses effective teaching methods to develop all 5 of the essential reading skills for new, developing and struggling readers.

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What is Phonological Awareness?

By Megan Brooks on Fri, May 25, 2018 @ 06:41 PM

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Learning to read is a complex and sometimes difficult process. Although, we don't think it has to be. For some children, it seems to happen naturally but for others, reading development can be a frustrating and restrictive experience. Parents often feel they have failed their child and children often accept that reading is "too hard" or they "hate reading".

At Halifax Learning we know neither of these statements is true.

The good news is, research has identified five core components to inform effective reading instruction and we're proud to say SpellRead was designed with them in mind. This blog post is the first of a series of blogs about the five core components. Revisit the blog or Download our free guide, "All Children Reading Well" to learn more.

What are the 5 core components in developing reading?

  1. Phonological Awareness
  2. Phonics
  3. Vocabulary Development
  4. Reading Fluency
  5. Reading Comprehension

Let's start at #1. So, what is phonological awareness?

This is the most important skill in learning to read and should be starting to develop prior to the age of 4. Phonological awareness provides the foundation for all other skill development and includes three subset skills:

Awareness, manipulation, and detection of: 

  1. Syllables
  2. Onsets and Rimes
  3. Phonemes

Children with strong phonological awareness can easily manipulate the smallest units of the English language and this skill is a strong indication of later reading ability.  The terms phonological awareness, phonemic awareness and phonics are often used interchangeably. Although they are intimately related, having strong phonemic awareness is only a part of the overarching skill of phonological awareness. Phonemic awareness requires the ability to identify, blend, break apart, and substitute all 44 phonemes in the English language. 

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Some examples of tasks to develop phonological awareness include manipulating words and syllables by identifying onsets, rimes, and rhymes.

For example:
Ask a student to synthesize the initial consonant, consonant-blend or digraph of a word (onset) with the remaining vowel and phonemes in the syllable. 

/b/ /at/ = "bath"
/sm/ /art/ = "smart"

Watch this short video from the Institute of Education Sciences for a demonstration. 


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In addition to developing phonological awareness, developing readers also need explicit, systematic instruction in phonics, vocabulary development, reading fluency and comprehension. Download our free guide to effective reading instruction and start the path to skilled, confident, reading.

Free Guide

 

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