National Job Corps Required Basic Reading Core Competencies Correlation

A Line-item Match of National Job Corps’ Required Basic Reading Core Competencies with the HEC Reading Horizons Program for Learners of English and for Adults Who Struggle Learning to Read

The following line-item comparison details how the sequenced language-learning competencies of HEC Reading Horizons match those listed on the National Job Corps reading scope and sequence embedded into the Career Development Phase of student/trainee experience. (There may be sequence variances between the two curricula as to when particular skills are presented.)

 
National Job Corps Basic Reading Competencies HEC Reading Horizons Core Competencies

Alphabetic Recognition

Lessons 1 - 9:
  • Learning Alphabetic Order

Vowel/Consonant Letter-Sound Associations

Integrated throughout text:
  • Integrated Vowel/Consonant Letter-Sound Associations with 42 Alphabetic Sounds

Vocabulary

Lessons 11,14,18,22,30,43,48,53,58:
  • Most Common Words

Vowel Patterns

Lessons 25:
  • Small Words Ending w/Double Consonants
Lesson 31:
  • Long and Short Vowel Sounds

Consonant/Vowel Patterns within words

Lessons 32,33,36,37,39,40:
  • The Five Phonetic Skills:
    1. Words with one vowel followed by one consonant
    2. Words with one vowel followed by two consonants
    3. Words with one stand-alone vowel
    4. Words with silent /e/
    5. Words with adjacent vowels

Adding Suffixes

Lessons 34,46,47,70,73:
  • Word changes adding suffixes beginning with vowels: i.e. -ing, -es, -ed
  • Word changes adding suffixes beginning with consonants: i.e. ly, -s

Syllabication Recognition and Patterns

Lessons 46,47,48,50
  • Applying Special Systematic Marking System for Breaking-down Multi-syllable Words: Decoding Skills One and Two:
    1. Between the first vowel and the first following consonant
    2. Between first vowel and first
    3. Pair of following consonants

Sentence Recognition

Integrated throughout text:
  • Skill-related sentence building integrated into sentence structures

Diagraphs/ Dipthongs/ “R” Controlled Vowels

Lessons 51-54,56-58,61-64,74:
  • Diagraphs with one unique sound
  • Diagraphs with a borrowed sound
  • Murmur Dipthongs with /R/ i.e.,ar,or,ur
  • Other Dipthongs i.e., oy, aw, ow

“Y” words

Lessons 44-46,75:
  • /Y/ as a consonant & vowel, /Y/ as /ī/,/ĭ/ /ē/, /Y/ with /ā /

Prefixes/Suffixes

Lessons 34,39,66,70,79-80:
  • Definitions/examples of and practice with common examples

Other language learning information

Lessons 1-23,68-69,71-72,74,76:
  • English Anomalies: Schwa, Ck/K, S/Ce,/ 3-sounds of /ea/, /ei-ie/, /ew/eu/
 

This skills chart is neither all-inclusive nor comprehensive of the HEC Reading Horizons curriculum but rather a composite comparing how it’s product line conforms to and could enrich the required standards expected by the National Job Corps Office and detailed in the Policy and Requirements Handbook (PRH). It is also not the objective to replace any current reading curriculum, but rather to complement curriculum and to enlarge students’ language-learning opportunities with a multi-sensory, systematic, explicit highly individualized learning plan.

The National Reading Panel Report 2000 unequivocally endorses the use of systematic, explicit, intensive phonics instruction for those who are either learning language for the first time or who struggle with learning to read.

The end goal of all language learning in Job Corps, whether students are placed in LEP/ESL or Leveled Reading Instruction, is for learners to become fluent and competent users of language, capable of contributing to the betterment of society, and interacting in the workforce as competent, productive employees.