The Science of Reading (Decoding) & Writing (Encoding)

Phonetic Words:  

We use a Orton-Gillingham based multi-sensory program to teach phonics and work with words in a variety of ways:  Visual, Auditory, Kinesthetic.  Spelling patterns are taught using a series of cards with letters and letter combinations on them.  Students see the written symbols (visual), connect it with the speech sound (auditory), look at the teacher's lips as they mimic the sounds (visual), as well doing to the Visual Phonics hand shape to connect it to its speech sound (kinesthetic).  Children are taught to stretch words apart by breaking them into the individual phonemes (cat:  /c/ /a/ /t/).  This process is called phoneme segmentation.  As they begin to write the words they can tap the sounds with their finger, starting with their thumb.  This is called Finger-Spelling (kinesthetic).  Phonics posters are displayed in the first grade classroom for students to refer to.  The spelling patterns included on these posters are covered in the first grade Wonders Reading program.

Assessment:

• Each week we have a phonetic spelling list that we assess children on.  These words are not sent home to memorize.  Instead they are practiced throughout the week at school in a variety of ways.  We want to see if our first grades are applying the phonetic spelling patterns and learning how those spelling patterns are put together to create words.

Non-Phonetic Words:  Words to Learn by HEART

These are words that break the phonics rules (laws).  Children have a hard time decoding and spelling these words because they don't make sense.  Outlaw Words are taught using Outlaw Chants:  getting children up and out of their seats, connecting the spelling of the word with a jingle, chant, and actions.  We refer to not phonetic words as Outlaw Words or Heart Words.

Assessment:

• Each week the students are tested on all the Outlaw Words (rule-breakers) we have taught.  These are the words students should practice at home and memorize.  The rules of our language to not apply to these words.