Wilson Reading Program

What is the Wilson Reading System? As a certified Wilson Dyslexia Practitioner (W.D.P.), I work in small groups with students who find challenges in decoding words when they read. This deficiency can be caused by visual or auditory processing concerns, dyslexia, or other learning challenges. Below are some frequently asked questions about Wilson. Please contact me if you need further information! Mrs. Turker

FAQ

What is Wilson?

"The Wilson Reading System® (WRS) is the flagship program of Wilson Language Training® and the foundation of all other Wilson programs. WRS is an intensive Tier 3 program for students in grades 2-12 and adults with word-level deficits who are not making sufficient progress through their current intervention; have been unable to learn with other teaching strategies and require multisensory language instruction; or who require more intensive structured literacy instruction due to a language-based learning disability, such as dyslexia." Copied from http://www.wilsonlanguage.com/programs/wilson-reading-system/

Were you trained in this procedure?

Yes. With the encouragement and support of the Lopatcong School District, a few Special Education Teachers were trained in the Wilson Specialized Reading Program in 2011. This training consisted of 11 credit hours of graduate work, including student tutoring 3 times per week, and supervisory observations by a Wilson delegate, for one school year.

What happens during a Wilson lesson?

As noted in the Wilson Language website:

Teachers follow a 10-part lesson plan during each Wilson Reading System® (WRS) session. A full lesson requires 90 minutes. The lesson plan moves at a quick pace with constant interaction between teacher and student. It is divided into 3 Blocks.

Block 1: Lesson Plan Parts 1-5

30 minutes: word study: phonemic awareness, decoding, vocabulary, single word accuracy/automaticity, phrasing/prosody, fluency and comprehension at the sentence level

Block 2: Lesson Plan Parts 6-8

30 minutes: spelling, sight word instruction, vocabulary, proofreading

Block 3: Lesson Plan Parts 9-10

30 minutes: reading fluency and comprehension, visualization at the text-level (both literary and informational), oral language skills

When does my child meet for Wilson lessons?

This supplemental reading program meets every day at Paws time, currently 2:00-2:30.

If my child needs Wilson, does that mean he or she is not smart?

Absolutely not. I am a big believer in the fact that just because a person can read fluently, does not mean he or she can comprehend what is read. Comprehension is the only way to successfully synthesize information. You can be 5 years old and be a fluent reader, but have no idea of the story elements. My Wilson students have excellent comprehension when I read to them. It is their struggles with processing information or decoding words that gets in the way of their comprehension when reading to themselves. My daughter, Maria, is dyslexic. She would struggle with decoding words which made her read-aloud performance slower than others her age. However, her ability to take that information, synthesize it as her own, and describe and teach it accurately to someone else, even continuing the story in her comic book series (she does this for fun!), is nothing less than outstanding. I worked very hard with Maria, reading to her every night, and encouraging her to read to herself, stopping to question her at every page. She is now an honor roll student with a goal to study psychology and help others like her.