We are frequently asked how well the Discover Intensive Phonics for Yourself program works with ESL students. Our answer: just as well as it does with any other beginning or low level reader!!! Hundreds of sites and thousands of students who are learning English as a second language are seeing tremendous gains while using the Discover Intensive Phonics approach. Anyone who has ever been placed in the unenviable position of having to learn a second language knows of the inherent difficulties. It is especially difficult when the individual is forced to learn the language because the environment in which he or she lives or works demands it.
Discover Intensive Phonics / Reading Horizons is effective in teaching those students to read and spell for the exact reasons that it is effective in teaching all other students, it is multisensory, sequential, and most of all BARE BONES!! By presenting the 42 sounds of the alphabet, 5 phonetic skills and 2 decoding skills in a logical and sequential manner Discover Intensive Phonics enables students of all ages and ability levels to bite off only as much as they can chew. Introducing 4 consonants and a vowel at a time, with their formation and sounds, helps students learn without being overwhelmed. Immediate application of those letters and sounds in word formation is a key element in helping them recognize how the components fit together.
Students gain confidence as they move through the program. The skills that are taught allow students to recognize patterns in words rather than using rote memorization to read. Once ESL students begin to recognize the patterns associated with the English language they get excited about the learning process.
Six years ago Reading Horizons was chosen from more than 20 different software packages for use in the California State correctional system. The results from the 24 sites were channeled to California State University in Sacramento. The data showed tremendous gains for the majority of the users of the program. Interestingly enough, the Hispanic students showed the greatest gains, an average of 2.4 reading levels! (Contact Dorothy Place at 916-278-6633 for details relating to the study).
Please take the time to read the enclosed article written by a Reading Horizons user who has primarily ESL students. Also, feel free to call us with any questions or comments.
The Discover Intensive Phonics for Yourself method can easily be taught to administrators, teachers, tutors, literacy volunteers, and parents in a six to seven hour (one day) workshop.
The Discover Intensive Phonics for Yourself method is a multisensory approach; therefore, the training involves active participation on the part of the attendees.
Discover Intensive Phonics can be taught at the chalkboard with large groups of students, small groups, or one-on-one. The computer courseware has been used in many locations to reinforce the concepts taught in the classroom. In locations where the courseware is being used independent of classroom work, it is still desirable for staff to know the material being taught in order to render assistance where necessary.
Workshops are limited to 25 individuals and are conducted by trained, certified teachers of the Discover Intensive Phonics method. Those who complete the training sessions are then qualified to teach the Discover Intensive Phonics for Yourself method to students.
Two-day certifications are held to prepare teachers who are already experienced in the Discover Intensive Phonics approach with the additional skills necessary to train other teachers.
The certification takes two full days. The first day is devoted to examination of the method in detail. The second day candidates are asked to instruct two or three previously assigned portions of the course to demonstrate their ability to present the concepts with understanding and clarity.
Our next Certification Training will be held on March 2-3, 2001 in Salt Lake City, Utah. Sessions are limited to six applicants.
Discover Intensive Phonics for Yourself Workshop II reviews the 5 Phonetic skills, the 2 Decoding skills, and some of the 42 sounds. It teaches the schwa, prefixes and suffixes, when blends split, and more great spelling tips. Teachers learn the rules on reverse vowels and practice exceptions. Workshop II gives teachers a chance to ask questions and work out any issues they have encountered while teaching the method. It takes the teaching of phonics to an even higher level of implementing thinking skills, vocabulary development and language arts.
We have been using the Reading Horizons - Discover Intensive Phonics computer program for approximately two years in our Adult Basic Literacy program, the Louisiana Correctional Institute for Women. We were fortunate enough to purchase the software with funds we received from a federal literacy/life skills grant. We refer to this grant as Project Metamorphosis, because our goal is to affect change in the participants.
The students in the literacy program are all below the 6th grade level, based on standardized test scores. They attend class for 2 1/2 hours per day Monday-Thursday. Each of those days, they work on the Reading Horizons - Discover Intensive Phonics computer program for 50 minutes. Lower level students also receive extra work from the Char-L Intensive Phonics Manual guided by trained inmate-tutors. All students also receive basic reading, language arts, and mathematics tutoring each day.
During this term, sixteen literacy class students have completed the entire Reading Horizons - Discover Intensive Phonics program. The average pre-test score for these students was 7.1. Their average post-test score at completion was 8.5, resulting in an average grade-level increase of 1.5 grades.
Of particular note are two students. One had a pre-test score of 1.2 and a post-test score of 3.1. An increase of nearly two grade levels is impressive enough; however, to begin at such a low level and achieve such a gain is even more impressive to me. Our greatest gain was 3.2 grade levels. This was done by a student who began with a 7.8 pre-test score and completed with a post-test score of 11.0. I feel that these two examples highlight the versatility of the program. The program can be used to teach new skills to beginning learners or to strengthen the skills of those on a higher level.
My name is Haydee Alvarez. I have been an ESL teacher for seven years at the GROWS Literacy Council in Apopka, Florida.
As a teacher and the Administrator of Education responsible for teachers and volunteer tutors, I am aware of the great need of phonics programs to help our adult students to improve their reading, writing, and pronunciation of the English language. In 1997, I heard about Discover Intensive Phonics for Yourself and contacted HEC Software, Inc. asking for some training to use this method. Beth Quary trained 20 of our teachers and tutors. Since then we have been using this method in conjunction with Laubach Way of Reading and the Lindamood Phoneme Sequencing Program obtaining great results.
In June 2000, some of my ESL students and I had the opportunity of working with the Reading Horizons program at the Laubach Biennial Conference in Orlando, FL. The students were so excited with the program because they were able to use a computer and practice all the things that they had learned. GROWS Literacy Council decided to obtain the software. Besides the wonderful way of learning for the students, this program offers assessment tests, and serves as an excellent way to keep students’ progress records, which are so important to report to the funders that provide support to our non-profit organization.
We are diligently working on the updates for our Elementary and Accelerated software. Most of the improvements won’t change the appearance but will increase the speed and stability of the program. We are, however, adding more than 1,000 words to the mastery drill and practice for the Accelerated version. Anyone interested in the new courseware should call our office for information about upgrade discounts.
We have five daughters and have home-schooled for about 17 years. During those years we have tried over eight phonics programs. I was trying to find one that was easy to teach, thorough, useable with all ages, and non-consumable. I tried many of the highly advertised ones, but for one reason or another they didn’t meet all my criteria.
One of our girls has trouble with spelling, so I kept up the search. Two years ago, I went to a conference and wandered over to the Intensive Phonics booth. Since we’d used a curriculum with markings before, I really wanted that in my “ideal phonics program”! I liked what I saw in Discover Intensive Phonics better than what we’d been using. I was immediately impressed with the simplicity of the system. We wanted four of our girls to go through it (at that time ages 6-15. We wanted the older girls to breeze through it as a review).
We bought the software because I knew I wouldn’t use the chalkboard approach with all of them. I made sure I sat with our youngest and that she understood everything before she moved on. Our 8-year-old commented one day, “I really understand this. I never understood what you were trying to teach me before.”
All the girls really like this program, and we’ve seen great improvements in their reading and spelling abilities. We personally are using Spelling Power after they go through the computer course, and this system works perfectly with it, but understand that many people need no other spelling program when doing the lessons from the book at the chalkboard. We are deeply grateful to the Discover Intensive Phonics system as it has ended my search for the “ideal phonics program.” I was becoming weary with all the effort!