Fall 2006 Newsletter
Volume 7, Issue 2
Inside This Issue:
- New Assessments Now Online — Take a Free Test Drive!
- What Is the Difference between Phoneme Awareness and Phonics?
- How can Discover Intensive Phonics Be Integrated into a Core Reading Program?
- Discover Intensive Phonics helps students find success
- The Role of Phonics in Teacher Education
- Bourbonnais Elementary School, Bourbonnais, IL
- Discover Intensive Phonics Visionary, Charlotte Lockhart
- School Supplies for Iraqi Children!
New Assessments Now Online — Take a Free Test Drive!
The progress assessments that accompany the Discover Intensive Phonics and Reading Horizons software programs are broader and more powerful than ever before, and now they can be accessed by all of our customers—ONLINE! Register here to receive free access. Read on to learn more about each of these tools and how they can help your students.
Progress assessments are given with the help of an administrator, so their results are dependent on the administrator’s listening skills and judgment. Progress assessments establish the reading level of each student and customize the curriculum to suit the student’s individual needs. The progress assessments are made up of four components: Phonemic Awareness, Reading Grade Level, Most Common Words, and Nonsense Words.
Phonemic Awareness
This first assessment correlates with five of the seven DIBELS phonologic assessments and also aligns with the framework of the Discover Intensive Phonics program. It contains sections which test:
- rhyming.
- identification of syllables.
- recognition of initial, medial, and final phonemes.
- phoneme blending.
- identification of phonemes.
The curriculum is automatically customized based on the results of the assessment. Students who struggle with phonemic awareness will be given extra practice in the phonemic awareness activity.
Reading Grade Level
This assessment provides a fast, accurate calculation of a student’s reading grade level. Ten lists of 20 words each are provided and correlate to grade levels pre-primer through 12th. Words from these lists are shown for students to read aloud and include words a student should be able to recognize. An administrator will judge whether the student pronounced each word correctly.
Based on the student’s performance, an advanced student may be presented with an abbreviated version of the software lessons. The word lists were selected based on similar words used in the San Diego Quick Assessment, Border Test of Reading-Spelling Patterns, Rapid Test, Wide Range Achievement Test (WRAT), and the Slosson Oral Reading Test (SORT).
Most Common Words
In this assessment, 40 high-frequency words are shown for a student to read. If the student performs poorly, he will be shown 40 additional words to allow him to improve his score. If a student scores above 85% on this section, the software will automatically customize the course to bypass Most Common Words instruction.
Nonsense Words
This assessment is divided into two portions of 40 words each. The first 40 words test for recognition of individual phonemes. The second 40 words continue that process and also test for mispronunciation based on the phonetic pattern of a word, including silent e, adjacent vowel patterns, and other patterns. When a word is mispronounced, the test administrator has the ability to identify the individual phonemes missed. Test reports will then contain detailed information on those phonemes as well as the decoding patterns most often misread by the student.
The Online Assessment allows users to assess student knowledge and print a report showing results from all four areas of the test. Curriculum references require that the full Discover Intensive Phonics and Reading Horizons software packages be purchased.
Try these effective assessment tools for yourself!
What Is the Difference between Phoneme Awareness and Phonics?
Phoneme awareness and phonics are not the same. When children demonstrate phoneme awareness, they display their knowledge of the sound structure of words without any letters or written words present. A teacher may ask, “What word would be left if we took the r sound from rat?” or “What is the ending sound in the word 'pig'?” So, basically, phoneme awareness is the ability to detect the sound within a word without a visual aid. In the Discover Intensive Phonics for Yourself approach, students first hear a sound dictated, and they must then write the letter represented by that sound on the board. This multi-sensory, direct instruction teaches and builds phoneme awareness. In our new classroom Teacher’s Kit, the appendix has a games and activities section. Many of the games are devoted to developing phoneme awareness. Additionally, many of the computer activities dictate sounds and require that the student respond by identifying the appropriate letter on the keyboard.
Phonics skills require the ability to link sounds with letters, making a letter/sound association. This means that when a student actually sees a letter, he recognizes it and associates it to its sound. Thus, we can see that the development of phonics skills depends on the development of phoneme awareness.
Discover Intensive Phonics for Yourself couples phoneme awareness and phonics skills in a logical, sequential, multi-sensory presentation that ensures success in every student.
Linda Eversole
Curriculum Developer
How Can Discover Intensive Phonics Be Integrated into a Core Reading Program?
For the past 11 years, I have been teaching Discover Intensive Phonics in my classroom along with the school district’s adopted reading program. As you know, about every five to six years, school districts adopt new reading programs for the elementary schools to use. Since the NCLB Act, the most popular programs are Open Court and Houghton-Mifflin. For the past two years, I had to use the Open Court series and all the materials it incorporates into the reading/language program. When I taught the phonics workbook, I taught the students how to mark the sounds (according to the Discover Intensive Phonics for Yourself method) and prove the words. When there was more than one spelling for a particular phonic sound (e.g., long u = u; ew; oo; ui), I taught one spelling and used the decodable book with it. Then, I spent a bit of extra time reinforcing that skill before introducing another spelling and decodable book. I incorporated the Discover Intensive Phonics for Yourself program into the Open Court, and it worked fine. I have done this over the years with the Scribbner, Lippincott, and Harcourt Brace reading series. If some of your teachers are having problems, I would love to talk with them and try to help them use the Discover Intensive Phonics for Yourself program.
To submit a question, please go to the “Ask the Experts” forum at: www.readinghorizons.com/community.
Joan Parrish
Curriculum Committee Member
Discover Intensive Phonics Helps Students Find Success
Helping a child overcome an academic struggle is one of the most rewarding moments a teacher can experience. Mariann Marchant is a reading specialist at South Summit Elementary in Kamas, Utah, and she had just one of those moments.
She recalls, “A grandmother of one of my 5th grade students stopped me at the store, and she couldn’t believe her granddaughter could now read. Her mother died and her father was raising her and she just lost interest in school. Now she runs around the house finding words to decode. That’s when you know you’ve reached them.”
Marchant works with any student from 1st through 5th grade who needs a little extra help in reading. She really values literacy and wants her students to understand the importance as well. It is difficult to function without literacy, and it is related directly to self-esteem and success in every aspect of life.
Specifically Marchant says, “Literacy is crucial. Kids struggle to stay in school if they don’t value it or see that their parents don’t value it. They get caught in a cycle that can go on for generations.”
South Summit Elementary uses a program called Discover Intensive Phonics in the classroom to help teach students to read. The program takes a very systematic approach to reading and teaches students decoding skills and comprehension strategies.
When asked about her feelings on the Discover Intensive Phonics Program, Marchant said, “It is a key to success and a great addition to our reading program.” She also remembered, “A teacher of some of my reading students came up and said that she had noticed a huge improvement in their reading and spelling. Kids love the phonics program, and can see their hard work paying off right away. The kids get into decoding new words, and can see the purpose in it. They can see how the pieces of reading fit together.”
As Marchant thinks about teaching and all of the challenges that it entails, she admits, “Seeing the 'A-ha!' moment in the kid’s eyes is worth the whole thing, and to know you made a difference in someone’s life for the better is rewarding. It is a fun job, and I love it!”
The minds behind Discover Intensive Phonics hope that it continues to help both teachers and students find those rewarding moments that make all of their efforts worth it.
The Role of Phonics in Teacher Education
Research has now confirmed that there is strong brain imaging evidence showing that scientifically based interventions can rewire a dyslexic child’s brain so that it is virtually indistinguishable from that of a child who has never had a reading problem.
But, as Louisa Moats states, “The findings of reading researchers are likely to have little impact on practice unless practitioners can interpret and apply them. Consequently, the preparedness of teachers who must carry out linguistically informed, code-emphasis reading instruction is an increasingly important issue.”
Students needing reading intervention require highly qualified teachers who can provide high-quality instruction. A firm knowledge of phonetic principles and how to teach them is essential, yet many universities today are not offering teachers classes that give them both the knowledge and the application. Learning a strategy and using a strategy are not necessarily the same. It’s time to put practical application about word recognition into college classrooms and into practice.
Fortunately, several colleges and universities have recently adopted Discover Intensive Phonics for Yourself as part of their curriculum in teaching the role of phonics in reading.
Sandy Hoffman, at Youngstown State University in Ohio, instructs current teachers who are getting a new certification in her TERG 3701 class, “Phonics in Reading Instruction.” The course teaches numerous ways of testing a child’s phonetic abilities, planning for intensive, phonic-based word analysis in the early and middle stages of literacy acquisition, and provides several instructional strategies and applications. One of the strategies presented is Discover Intensive Phonics. Because it lends itself so wonderfully to many of the goals for the course, Discover Intensive Phonics is used to reinforce terms such as Digraphs, diphthongs, r-controlled vowels, etc. and their effect on the pronunciation of words. Teachers love the active, hands-on approach not only for themselves but also for their students. Hoffman hears comments such as, “Wow, I learn so much. This course has turned me into a better speller. I can’t wait to use the things that I’ve learned with my students!”
Educators in the Linguistic and English Language Department at Brigham Young University (BYU) in Provo, UT, are using Discover Intensive Phonics for their Basic Training in TESOL class, a class for non-TESOL minors who are going traveling abroad to assist in the teaching of English for a semester. Interns are presently teaching in Donohue, Chile, and in Tonga. Much of the training and practice the tutors receive before leaving is actually accomplished through use of the computer courseware. Discover Intensive Phonics is also taught to ESOL students in the English Learning Center at BYU and will now be included in a for credit class offered by the Linguistics Department.
When Corey Triassi taught the undergraduate program at Northern Arizona University, she used Discover Intensive Phonics as part of her phonics course because it was so systematic and sequential and made sense to the students. Now that Traiassi no longer teaches for NAU, the current teacher asks her to come in every year and teach a session demonstrating the Discover Intensive Phonics approach because as one student says, “Now we understand how to actually teach phonics. Reading information from the textbook did not help us understand how to teach phonics.”
Thanks to the efforts of Joan Parrish, Northwest Nazarene University (NNU) has been offering one semester credit since 1999 for participation in two-day Discover Intensive Phonics workshops. The NNU student base consists mainly of K-5, special education, and regular classroom teachers. Beginning this fall, Parrish will present Discover Intensive Phonics as part of a phonics/reading intervention course at the College of Southern Idaho. Both schools approve the use of Discover Intensive Phonics because of its explicit instruction of phonics and its ties to reading and grammar. It also meets the state Department of Education requirements for the NCLB Act in phonics.
Michael Kidd uses Discover Intensive Phonics in the phonics course he instructs at Chatfield College in St. Martins, Ohio. The state of Ohio requires all Kindergarten through third grade teachers and all daycare instructors to take a three hour course for credit in phonics.
“I’ve worked with other phonics programs,” says Mr. Kidd, “but I’ve never found one I like better than Discover Intensive Phonics.”
Without doubt, training teachers in phonics is important, but exposing them to an explicit, sequential way to teach what they have learned is priceless! In this role, Discover Intensive Phonics can benefit every college of education!
Cook, Louise (1995). "The Missing Foundation in Teacher Education." In The American Educator.
Bourbonnais Elementary School, Bourbonnais, IL
Educators in the Bourbonnais Elementary School District #53 in Bourbonnais, Illinois, compared the effectiveness of Discover Intensive Phonics and SRA Reading Mastery. During the first year, they implemented SRA; throughout the second year, with a second group of students, they implemented Discover Intensive Phonics. The second group scored better on the DRA assessment. Interestingly, the second group of students began at a lower level, according to the Star EL test, yet surpassed the level achieved by those who studies with SRA.
Discover Intensive Phonics Visionary, Charlotte Lockhart
On a beautiful May morning, a small group of friends and loved ones gathered at the cemetery located on a gentle hill overlooking the fertile farmlands of Niantic, Illinois. This was to become the quiet resting place for Discover Intensive Phonics for Yourself visionary Charlotte Lockhart, who passed away May 6, 2006 at the age of 92. She was buried next to Jim, her third-grade classmate and eventual husband. Surrounding them in the quiet Long Point Cemetery are generations of family members—her parents, Jim’s parents, and all four of their grandparents.
Funeral services were held May 17 at the Niantic Christian Church. Those attending recalled Charlotte’s many years as principal of the local school. One of the teachers who worked under her administration said she would have taught for any wage if Charlotte were the principal!
Charlotte’s niece recalled good times with her "Auntie Char", expressing how she loved to go to her home. She remembered her BIG jewelry, BIG hair and the GREAT times they had together!
A former student honored Charlotte for all of the direction she had given him. As a result of her constant encouragement, he improved his reading skills, finished high school, and went on to experience a life far different from the one he otherwise might have known. Those same sentiments of gratitude could have been voiced by a multitude of other students whose lives she touched.
Len and Linda Eversole worked with both Charlotte and Jim extensively as together they established HEC Reading Horizons and designed software to accompany Charlotte’s program. The Eversoles attended the services especially to pay tribute to Char for her wonderful contributions to education. It is and always has been the goal at HEC Reading Horizons to see that her work is never forgotten.
Following a prayer at the cemetery, the quiet spring morning was broken, as rifles cracked out a 21-gun salute. Military honor guards presented Charlotte’s children with a flag honoring her contributions to her country as a WAVE during World War II.
Charlotte Lockhart has gone from this life, but the legacy she left will continue on. Her influence for good will be felt in the lives of students worldwide. Charlotte dedicated her work to the glory of God, for, she said, “without His help it would not have been possible.” With His help, her contributions will continue to bless the lives of students in the four quarters of the earth. Thank you, Charlotte. We’ll miss you.
School Supplies for Iraqi Children!
HEC is supporting an effort by a group of U.S. servicemen in Iraq to get school supplies sent to iraqi children, and we invite you to participate. We believe the future hope of Iraq is their children. The 3rd Brigade Military Transition Team (MTT), 5th Division is in need of basic school supplies such as pencils, paper, colored paper, glue, etc. Small toys such as deflated soccer balls (which can be re-inflated in Irag) would also be appreciated. The post office has free, flat rate boxes that you can fill and then ship for $8.10, regardless of weight. The dimensions for the two boxes available are 11” x 8.5” x 5.5” and 13.6” x 11.8” x 3.3”. Please send an e-mail to: vicki@readinghorizons.com to get the shipping address or if you have questions. Thank you for your support!
