Reading Placement Tests

Fisher Hill has free Reading Placement Tests for their English literacy program.  Find these placement tests on our website at www.Fisher-Hill.com. Click on Teacher Resources from the top tool bar. Then click on Reading and Spelling.  Next scroll down to the Sound Spelling Placement Tests.  Students need to score 80% on a placement test to go to the next level.  Each level begins with the English Reading and Spelling workbook.

Fisher Hill’s Literacy Program has six levels.  Each level has four workbooks:  Reading and Spelling, Reading Comprehension, Writing Composition and Vocabulary.  The placement tests for the Literacy Program are called Sound Spelling Placement Tests.  Sound Spelling Placement Test Book 1 is for Level 1, Sound Spelling Placement Test Book 2 is for Level 2 and so forth.

Fisher Hill’s English Literacy Program is geared toward Spanish-speaking students but it’s an excellent program for any student who needs to learn to read and spell in English. The program uses the Orton-Gillingham approach to teach literacy. Orton-Gillingham uses a systematic, structured, explicit and multisensory approach to teach the forty-four English speech sounds to read and spell.

Visit our website at www.Fisher-Hill.com to learn more about our English literacy program.

Happy New Year from Fisher Hill Publishers

Do you know someone whose New Year’s Resolution is to learn English or become a U.S. citizen? If so, Fisher Hill has two good series to help people accomplish these goals.

English for the Spanish Speaker is a series of four workbooks. Each book in the series has eight lessons.  In Books 1 and 2, the lessons are about every day activities.  In Books 3 and 4, four lessons are about every day activities and the other four are about United States history or government.  The print in the workbooks is large.  The reading level in Book 1 is at the first and second grade level.  The books get progressively more difficult.  The reading level for Book 4 is at the fourth grade reading level. Each lesson begins with a vocabulary list, then a conversation, story, activity pages, and finally an answer key. The lessons are bilingual with the word lists, conversations, and stories presented in Spanish and English.  The directions for the activity pages are in Spanish but the activities are in English. There are two dictionaries at the back of each workbook: a Spanish dictionary and an English dictionary. There is a CD available for each workbook so the student can listen to the vocabulary lists, conversations and stories in English.

U.S. Citizenship for the Spanish Speaker is a series of two workbooks. The two workbooks help Spanish speakers pass the U.S. citizenship test. Book 1 provides information about American Government. Book 1 also provides practice to help pass the reading and writing portions of the test. U.S. Citizenship for the Spanish Speaker Book 2provides information about American History and Integrated Civics. Book 2 also provides practice to help pass the reading and writing tests.

Adults like our workbooks because the pace is reasonable, print is large, and the directions are in Spanish. Teachers like our books because everything is ready to go!  There’s an answer key included in each workbook.

Visit our website at www.Fisher-Hill.com to learn more about these two series.

Free Online Literacy Materials

Click on Teacher Resources from the top tool bar on our Home Page at www.Fisher-Hill.com.

Next click on Reading and Spelling.

Scroll Down and click on the difference resources.

The Sound Spelling Placement Tests will help you determine on which level a student should begin the English Literacy Program. This Program has six levels.  Each level has four workbooks:

Reading and Spelling

Reading Comprehension

Writing Composition

Vocabulary

Our English Literacy Program is geared toward Spanish-speaking students but it’s an excellent program for any student who needs to learn to read and spell in English. The program uses the Orton-Gillingham approach to teach literacy. Orton-Gillingham uses a systematic, structured, explicit and multisensory approach to teach the forty-four English speech sounds to read and spell.

If you have any questions about your new workbooks or how to use the online resources, please email us at [email protected]or call us at 1-888-407-1187.

Diga Feliz Navidad con un Cuaderno Electrónico

 La serie Inglés para el hispanohablante ha ayudado a aprender inglés a miles de adolescentes y adultos de habla hispana. Hay cuatro cuadernos de ejercicios y cada uno de ellos contiene historias, actividades, conversaciones, listas de vocabularios, juegos, diccionarios y claves de respuestas.

Cada cuaderno de ejercicios tiene un CD que también se puede descargar. Cada CD incluye listas de vocabulario, conversaciones e historias de los cuadernos. Los estudiantes pueden escuchar la pronunciación de las palabras en cada lección.Each workbook has eight lessons.

Cada cuaderno de ejercicios tiene ocho lecciones. Las lecciones de los cuadernos 1 y 2 se tratan de temas cotidianos. Los cuadernos 3 y 4 contienen lecciones de temas cotidianos y lecciones sobre la historia y el gobierno de EE. UU. Estos cuadernos de ejercicios se pueden usar para ayudar a las personas a pasar la prueba de ciudadanía de EE. UU.

A los adultos les gustan nuestros cuadernos de ejercicios porque tienen un ritmo razonable, letra grande, instrucciones en español y contenido para adultos. A los maestros les gustan nuestros cuadernos porque ¡ya tienen todo listo!

Durante más de 20 años las personas han usado la serie English for the Spanish Speaker para aprender inglés y adquirir conocimientos sobre la historia y el gobierno de EE. UU.

Si tiene un padre, un amigo o un familiar que necesita aprender inglés, estos libros hacen grandes regalos de Navidad.  Ir en línea para ver los libros.  Cuando inicie sesión en www.Fisher-Hill.com, verá dos amarillos Inglés para el hispanohablantelibros.  Haga clic en el primero si desea información en español o haga clic en el segundo libro si desea información en inglés.

¡Tenga una feliz Navidad con amigos y familia!

New Ebooks from Fisher Hill

 You can now download Fisher Hill’s English Reading and Spelling for the Spanish Speaker series.  This series contains six workbooks.

English Reading and Spelling for the Spanish Speaker was written to help students learn how to read and spell in English.  It uses a systematic approach to teach the English speech sounds and provides practice with phonemic awareness, which is the ability to identify individual sounds and their order within words.  Learning the different speech sounds will help students read and write fluently in English.  Eighty-five percent (85%) of words in English are phonetic.  This series also presents many of the small, commonly used words, called sight words, that are not phonetic.

The series is bilingual because the word list for each lesson is presented in English and Spanish.  There are pictures to go with many of the words in the lists.  Each lesson emphasizes one or two new speech sounds.  Vowel sounds in English are different from those in Spanish, but many of the English consonant sounds are similar to the ones in Spanish.

Each lesson’s word list begins with words that contain the speech sound that is being emphasized in that lesson.  The last word or words in the list are sight words.

Practicing English speech sounds, sight words, and their spellings will help students learn to read and spell fluently in English.

Fisher Hill’s workbooks provide lessons that are not overwhelming to students.  The workbooks are explicit, systematic and very structured. Students like the workbooks because the pace is reasonable, print is large, directions are in Spanish, there are many pictures, but the content is for older students and adults. Teachers like our books because everything is ready to go! There’s an answer key at the end of each lesson. The workbooks are geared toward Spanish-speaking teens and adults but students who speak another language can benefit from using these books because the series is to teach students reading and spelling in English. There is an English translation of the Spanish directions at the end of each book.

Visit our website at www.Fisher-Hill.com to learn more about the series English Reading and Spelling for the Spanish Speaker. Sample pages from each workbook can be viewed from our website.

Fisher Hill’s English Literacy Program

Fisher Hill’s English Literacy Program uses a structured literacy approach to teach reading and spelling. It was designed for Spanish speakers but can be used by anyone who wants to learn to read and spell in English.

 Structured literacy uses systematic and explicit methods to teach decoding and word identification. Structured literacy is beneficial to all students but especially to students who have had difficulty learning to read and spell.

Structured literacy teaches phonology, sound-symbol, syllables, morphology, syntax and semantics. Phonology is the study of the sound structure in spoken words. This includes phonemic awarenes which is the ability to distinguish, segment, blend and manipulate sounds in words.

Structured literacy teaches sound-symbol association which is the alphabetic principle: to associate sounds with letters.

Structured literacy teaches syllables. Knowing the six syllable types helps students associate vowel spellings with vowel sounds.  Syllable division rules help students to divide and decode unfamiliar words, especially longer words.

Structured literacy teaches morphology which is the study of  the meanings of the smallest units of language.  Studying base words and affixes help students decode and understand the meanings of complex words.

Structured literacy teaches syntax which is the principles that dictate the sequence and function of words in sentences. This includes grammar, sentence structure and the mechanics of language (spelling, captalization, punctuation).

Structure literacy teaches semantics which is concerned with meaning.  This includes comprehension of written language.

Structured literacy uses systematic, cumulative, explicit and diagnostic priniciples to teach reading and spelling. This approach is very effective to all students, especially those who have difficulty learning to read and spell.

Students like our workbooks because the pace is reasonable, print is large, there’s lots of pictures but the content is for older students and adults.  Teachers like our books because everything is ready to go! There’s an answer key at the the end of each lesson and an English translation of the Spanish directions at the end of each book.

Fisher Hill’s English Literacy Program has six levels.  Each level has a:

Reading and Spelling workbook

Reading Comprehension workbook

Writing Composition workbook

Vocabulary workbook.

Visit our website at www.Fisher-Hill.com to learn more about our English Literacy Program.

Vocabulary Development

Vocabulary is key for reading comprehension.  Multiple encounters of a new word is required before a word is really known.  Repeated exposure to a word in a variety of contexts can add dimension to what is known about the word.  “The more opportunities students have to think about and use the words they are learning, the more elaborate their mental repesentations of the words will be.” (Bringing Words to Life by Isabel Beck.)  Fisher Hill’s English literacy program includes six vocabulary workbooks that provide the necessary practice for learning new words.  In each workbook, there are many pictures and graphic organizers to help students remember and understand the new  words.

Graphic organizers are visual representations or frames used to organize information. Graphic organizers are tools that can be used to visualize and organize information. They can help students see the relationships between ideas; and more easily understand, remember and apply information.

Fisher Hill’s literacy program has six levels.  Each level has a:

Reading and Spelling workbook

Reading Comprehension workbook

Writing Composition workbook

Vocabulary workbook.

The vocabulary workbooks review the vocabulary for each level.  Fisher Hill’s literacy program uses Orton-Gillingham principles. The Orton-Gillingham approach uses structured, explicit, systematic and multi-sensory procedures to teach the skills in their literacy program.

As with all Fisher Hill workbooks, the activities and lessons are not overwhelming.  The workbooks are explicit, systematic and very structured.  Students like our workbooks because the pace is reasonable, print is large, directions are in Spanish, there are many pictures but the content is for older students and adults. Teachers like our books because everything is ready to go! There’s an answer key at the end of each lesson. The workbooks are geared toward Spanish-speaking teens and adults but students who speak another language can benefit from using these books because the program is to teach English literacy. There is an English translation of the Spanish directions at the end of each book.

Visit us on the web at www.Fisher-Hill.com to learn more about our Vocabulary workbooks and our English literacy program.

Reading Comprehension

 Reading comprehension is the goal of reading. Reading comprehension is the ability to extract meaning from written words.  Fluency and vocabulary play an important role in reading comprehension.

Many people enjoy reading non-fiction books. Developing comprehension skills can help with acquiring meaning from informational texts. Summarizing, inferencing, sequencing, comparing and contrasting, drawing conclusions, distinguishing between fact and opionion, relating background knowledge, and identifying the main idea, supporting details, and important facts are all important skills for comprehension.

Other people enjoy reading fiction.  When reading  a narrative text (a story), identifying the setting, the main characters, the problem in the story, how the problem is solved is necessary for understanding and enjoying the book.

Fisher Hill’s literacy program has six levels.  Each level has a:

Reading and Spelling workbook

Reading Comprehension workbook

Writing Composition workbook

Vocabulary workbook.

The English Reading Comprehension workbooks are made up of twenty lessons.  Lessons include practice with fluency, vocabulary, visualization, comprehension, phonology and phonics.  There is an answer key at the end of each lesson.

Reading smoothly (fluency) is an important skill.  Fluency allows readers to think about what they are reading instead of having to think about sounding out words. Decoding skills need to be learned and practiced so these skills become automatic when reading words. Visualizing (making pictures in your head) helps readers remember what they have read. Good vocabulary skills help readers visualize.  Readers cannot visualize a word if they do not know its meaning. All of these skills: fluency, visualizing, vocabulary, and decoding are necessary for reading comprehension.

Reading is an essential skill for jobs and daily life.  Many people enjoy reading and say it is one of their favorite pastimes.  Others read only when it is necessary. Whichever the case may be, everyone needs to know how to read.  Learning to read comes more easily to some people than others.  Most people need to be taught how to read.  It is different from learning to talk.  Learning to read can be very difficult for some people but with practice, most everyone can learn to read.

Students like our workbooks because the pace is reasonable, print is large, directions are in Spanish, there’s lots of pictures but the content is for older students and adults. Teachers like our books because everything is ready to go!  There’s an answer key at the the end of each lesson and an English translation of the Spanish directions at the end of each book. 

Visit our website at www.Fisher-Hill.com to learn more about our Reading Comprehension workbooks and our English Literacy Program.

Spanish Homework

If you need extra practice with Spanish, then Fisher Hill has an excellent series that is made up of two workbooks. Each workbook has twelve lessons and each lesson is about an everyday theme.

Each lesson is divided into eight parts.  First, there is a vocabulary list.  Beginning Spanish is included as well as the vocabulary of the particular theme.  The definite article is placed in front of each Spanish noun on the list, letting the student know whether it is a feminine or masculine noun.  Then there is a conversation in order to use the vocabulary in a common situation.  Next is a story related to the theme which reinforces the vocabulary and the conversation. The fourth page of each lesson is an exercise that requires choosing a word from the vocabulary list and then writing it in a sentence that is missing that word.  The next three pages are a variety of activity pages.  At the end of each lesson are the answers to the exercises.

These workbooks provide fun practice.  They make excellent homework activities for students.

If you have any questions about our Spanish Made Fun and Easy series, please email us at therst.com or call us at 1-888-407-1187.  Go online at www.Fisher-Hill to see all of our workbooks.