Reading Difficulties in Teens and Adults

Older struggling readers need instruction in skills they missed in the primary grades. They need effective instruction geared toward older students. The consequences for low literacy skills are well known: dropping out of school, poor quality of job choices, chronic social dependency, poor health, and incarceration.

Effective reading instruction can enable older students to acquire the skills they need to become literate. Structured teaching of language that includes: phonology (the study of speech sounds: b say /b/ as in boy, h say /h/ as in ham and so forth), orthography (the print system), speech to print correspondences (phonics), word meanings (semantics), sentence structure (syntax), and text organization (discourse) is what is needed. Students need to work both on word study and text comprehension for effective reading instruction. The instruction must match the student’s level of reading development. For example, poor readers often are unable to identify single speech sounds in words, so they need instruction in phonology. When their phonological skills improve, they will be better equipped to spell and expand their vocabulary. Students who can read with sufficient accuracy and speed need instruction in vocabulary and other comprehension skills. It is not the student’s age that determines the design of remedial instruction. It is the student’s level of reading skill and his/her strengths and weaknesses across the language spectrum that determines the necessary instruction.

Fisher Hill workbooks were written for older Spanish-speaking students who struggle with reading and writing in English. Our workbooks teach the fundamental skills and provide the practice needed to apply these skills in reading meaningful text for older students. Older struggling readers can be taught with well-designed language-based instruction.

Fisher Hill has an excellent literacy series for Spanish-speaking teens and adults who want to learn how to read and write in English. The literacy series begins with English Reading and Spelling for the Spanish Speaker Book 1. When completed, students are ready to practice their beginning reading skills with English Reading Comprehension for the Spanish Speaker Book 1 and writing skills with English Writing Composition for the Spanish Speaker Book 1. The vocabulary presented in the first books is reviewed in English Vocabulary for the Spanish Speaker Book 1. The four series, each with six workbooks, were written to be used together to give students a good foundation in English literacy.

Visit our website at www.Fisher-Hill.com to learn more about our literacy series for Spanish-speaking teens and adults who want to learn how to read and write in English.

 Writing Skills

 Being able to communicate well is important in the workplace. Supervisors in the workplace believe the writing skills of many people in the United States are far below acceptable standards. The Common Core State Standards (CCSS) is a set of national benchmarks for college and career readiness. The CCSS address the need for increased rigor in writing.

The Writing Standards of the CCSS outline three major text types for writing: opinion, informational and narrative. One of the fundamental skills of a good writer is the ability to develop a good sentence. Before students can write paragraphs and multi-paragraph compositions, they need to be able to produce a well-written sentence.

Students need to master writing a simple sentence and then expand that sentence into a more complex one. A simple sentence includes a subject and verb. An expanded sentence contains more information. An expanded sentence can contain when, why and how information.

Conjunctions such as because, but and so can be used as sentence starters or sentence completers to increase the complexity of a sentence. These types of conjunctions provided critical thinking and analytical information to the content of the sentence.

Fisher Hill has an excellent workbook series for Spanish-speaking teens and adults who want to improve their English writing skills. The series uses a structured and systematic approach to teach the different writing skills. The first book in English Writing Composition for the Spanish Speaker begins by teaching basic sentence structure, progresses to longer, more detailed sentences, and ends with students writing informative paragraphs. Book 6, the last book in the series, provides instruction and practice for writing compound and complex sentences. By the time students finish the six-book writing series, they will be able to compose informative, opinion and narrative writing compositions.

Visit our website at www.Fisher-Hill.com to learn more about our series English Writing Compostion for the Spnish Speaker and our other easy to use workbooks that help Spanish-speaking teens and adults learn to read and write in English.

Reading and Writing Difficulties

Do you know someone who has difficulty reading and writing? There is an excellent organization that helps people with these challenges. The organization is the International Dyslexia Association (IDA). There are forty-one branches of the IDA in the USA. There are also branches in Canada and around the world. IDA is the oldest organization dedicated to the study and treatment of dyslexia.  Dyslexia is a neurological learning disability. If someone has dyslexia, his or her brain is wired to handle information differently. IDA is committed to providing complete information and services to address the full scope of dyslexia and related reading and writing challenges.  If you are dyslexic or know someone who is having difficulty learning to read or write, contact the IDA branch nearest you. They offer wonderful conferences, websites and support groups to help people meet the challenges of dyslexia.

People with dyslexia can take longer to process information and figure out how to use new data. It can make reading and writing more difficult. Having dyslexia doesn’t make a person dumb or lazy. Often spatial reasoning and creative thought are easier for people with dyslexia. There are many famous people with dyslexia. Some dyslexics say having dyslexia is a gift because it helps them to think outside of the box. The following people have/had the gift of dyslexia: Thomas Edison, Albert Einstein, George Patton, John Lennon, Woodrow Wilson, Richard Branson, Henry Ford, Charles Schwab, Agatha Christie, Muhammad Ali, Pablo Picasso, Whoopi Goldberg, and Jay Leno to name a few.

Students with dyslexia need a longer time to learn to read and write. With the gift of time, they can learn these skills. Accelerating the pace for acquiring language skills will not be beneficial for students with dyslexia. In primary grades, teachers need to present a structured, systematic, explicit approach to the foundational skills of reading. Children with dyslexia need extra time to acquire these skills. For older students, using taped recorders instead of pen and paper, listening to audio books and using computers can be helpful in doing their schoolwork.

Fisher Hill has an excellent literacy series for Spanish-speaking teens and adults who want to learn how to read and write in English. The literacy series begins with English Reading and Spelling for the Spanish Speaker Book 1. This book offers a structured, systematic, explicit approach in teaching the foundational skills of reading and spelling. When completed, students are ready to practice their beginning reading skills with English Reading Comprehension for the Spanish Speaker Book 1 and writing skills with English Writing Composition for the Spanish Speaker Book 1. The vocabulary presented in the first book is reviewed in English Vocabulary for the Spanish Speaker Book 1. The four series, each with six workbooks, were written to be used together to give students a good foundation in English literacy.

Visit our website at www.Fisher-Hill.com to learn more about our easy to use workbooks that help Spanish-speaking teens and adults learn to read and write in English.

Back to School

Latino Parents get their Children Ready for Back to School

It’s August and parents and children are getting ready for Back to School. They’re off to the shops to buy new clothes and supplies for school. Most everyone enjoys wearing a new outfit on the first day of school. There are also backpacks, lunchboxes, crayons, paper and pencils to purchase.

For Spanish-speaking parents, learning English is important to help their children do well in school. Our workbooks are excellent for busy parents. Spanish-speaking parents can use our workbooks to learn and practice their English. After working all day, making dinner, going to their children’s games, helping with homework, there isn’t much time or energy left.   Fisher Hill workbooks are easy to use. Adults like our workbooks because the pace is reasonable, the print is large, directions are in Spanish, there are lots of pictures but the content is for adults. There is an answer key in every book.

We have an excellent literacy series for adults who want to learn how to read and write in English. The literacy series begins with English Reading and Spelling for the Spanish Speaker Book 1. When completed, students are ready to practice their beginning reading skills with English Reading Comprehension for the Spanish Speaker Book 1 and writing skills with English Writing Composition for the Spanish Speaker Book 1. The vocabulary presented in the first books is reviewed in English Vocabulary for the Spanish Speaker Book 1. The four series, each with six workbooks, were written to be used together to give students a good foundation in English literacy.

We have another series with four workbooks called English for the Spanish Speaker. This is a good series for Spanish-speakers who want a whole language approach to learning English. Each workbook includes stories, conversations, vocabulary lists, activities, games, dictionaries, and answer keys.

Visit our website at www.Fisher-Hill.com to learn more about our easy to use workbooks that help Spanish-speaking teens and adults learn English.

New Edition – English Reading and Spelling for the Spanish Speaker Book 1

 We just printed a new edition of English Reading and Spelling for the Spanish Speaker Book 1.

One of our customers suggested we change the directions for the Fill in the Blank pages because the pictures at the end of the sentences were confusing. We have changed the directions to let people know that the pictures represent the words from the Word List. The Word List is the first page of every lesson.

There are English translations of the Spanish directions at the end of all of our wordbooks.

We very much appreciate the feedback from our customers. Please continue to give us suggestions. We want our workbooks to be as useful as possible to everyone who uses our materials.

I will be in Europe for the next two months. I will be blogging again in September. Have a wonderful summer and as Ellen Degeneres says, “Be kind to one another.”

I will be in Europe for the next two months. I will be blogging again in September. Have a wonderful summer and as Ellen Degeneres says, “Be kind to one another.”

If you know someone who has limited English skills, visit our website at www.Fisher-Hill.com to learn about our easy to use workbooks that help Spanish-speaking teens and adults learn English.

Latino Population in the USA

According to U.S. Census Bureau, there are roughly 54 million Hispanics living in the United States, representing approximately 17% of the U.S. total population, making people of Hispanic origin the nation’s largest ethnic or race minority.

In 2012, 23.3% of elementary and high school students were Hispanic, but only 6.8% of college students were Hispanic.

As of July 1, 2013, the state with the largest Hispanic population was California (14.7 million), and the state with the highest percentage of Hispanic population was New Mexico (47.3%).

The U.S. Hispanic population for 2060 is estimated to reach 128.8 million, constituting approximately 31% of the U.S. population by that date.

Fisher Hill workbooks are excellent resources for Spanish-speaking teens and adults who want to learn English. We have an English literacy program that provides instruction to Spanish-speaking students who want to learn how to read and write in English. This literacy program consists of four workbooks series. Each series is made up of six workbooks. The names of these series are English Reading and Spelling for the Spanish Speaker, English Reading Comprehension for the Spanish Speaker, English Writing Composition for the Spanish Speaker, and English Vocabulary for the Spanish Speaker. These four series can be used in conjunction with each other. When using this literacy program begin with English Reading and Spelling for the Spanish Speaker Book 1. Upon completion of Book 1, a student can continue with the series or begin Book 1 from one of the other series.   Adults like our workbooks because the pace is reasonable, print is large, directions are in Spanish, there are lots of pictures but the content is for adults. Teachers like our books because everything is ready to go! There’s an answer key at the end of each lesson and an English translation of the Spanish directions at the end of each book.

Another series that is popular with adults is English for the Spanish Speaker. This series contains four workbooks. There are CDs available for this series.

If you know someone who has limited English skills, visit our website at www.Fisher-Hill.com to learn about our easy to use workbooks that help Spanish-speaking teens and adults learn English.

Yay School’s Out!!

Almost everyone loves when you can say Yay school’s out!! I’ve been teaching 26 years and I love when school’s out. I enjoy teaching but it’s always nice to get a long break.

Enjoy the summer with your children but don’t let them loose or forget the skills they have learned in school. Much of the day, in school, is spent on reading, writing and listening. Work on these skills during the summer.

Take your children to the library so they can check out plenty of books.

If you have young children, read books to them. Ask them how, when, what, who and where questions about the stories.

If your children are older, have them practice their writing skills. Ask them to write about different topics. For example, ask them to write about their dog. If they don’t have a dog, they can pretend they do. They can write about what the dog looks like, what it likes to eat, what it likes to do. Children can write about their favorite place or they can write about their pet elephant. There are all kinds of things that they can write about. If you run out of topics, go online and Google “list of writing topics for young writers.”

Take walks with your children and talk about different topics.

If you’re a parent with limited English skills, you can listen to your children read and then ask them to tell you about what they read. Read stories to your children in your native and then ask them how, when, what, who and where questions. Developing your children’s native language will help them with the English they learn in school.

If you’re a parent with limited English skills, visit our website at www.Fisher-Hill.com to learn about our easy to use workbooks that help Spanish-speaking teens and adults learn English.

Father’s Day

 In the United States, Father’s Day is the third Sunday in June. It celebrates the contribution that fathers and father figures have made to their children’s lives.

 Father’s Day is not a federal holiday. Organizations, businesses and stores are open or closed, just as they are on any other Sunday. Restaurants may be busier than usual because many families take their fathers out for a special meal.

There are a couple of events, which may have inspired the idea of Father’s Day. One was the start of the Mother’s Day in first decade of the 20th century. Another was a memorial service held in 1908 for a large group of men, many of them fathers, who were killed in a mining accident in Monongah, West Virginia in December 1907.

A woman called Sonora Smart Dodd was an influential figure in the establishment of Father’s Day. Her father raised six children by himself after the death of their mother. Sonora was inspired by the work of Anna Jarvis, who had pushed for Mother’s Day celebrations. Sonora felt that her father deserved recognition for what he had done. The first Father’s Day was held in June 1910. Father’s Day was officially recognized as a holiday in 1972 by President Nixon.

Families have different traditions for Father’s Day. These can range from a simple phone call or greetings card to large parties honoring all of the father figures in an extended family. Father figures can include fathers, step-fathers, fathers-in-law, great-grandfathers and even other male relatives. In the days and weeks before Father’s Day, many schools and Sunday schools help their students prepare a handmade card or small gift for their fathers.  Many people send or give cards or gifts to their fathers. Common Father’s Day gifts include sports items or clothing, electronic gadgets, outdoor cooking supplies and tools for household maintenance.

If you know a Spanish-speaking father who would like to improve his English, he may enjoy one of our workbooks as a gift.

Visit our website at www.Fisher-Hill.com to learn about our easy to use workbooks that help Spanish-speaking teens and adults learn English.

Yay! It’s Almost Summer

Memorial Day marks the start of the summer vacation season while Labor Day marks its end. Sunday, June 21 is the first day of the 2015 Summer Solstice. What is Summer Solstice? In the United States and the rest of the northern hemisphere, the first day of the summer season is the day of the year when the sun is the farthest north (on June 20^th or 21^st). This day is known as the Summer Solstice. When the North Pole points toward the sun, the sun’s rays hit the northern half of the world more directly. That means it is warmer and we have summer.

The day of the summer solstice is the longest day of the year. The length of time elapsed between sunrise and sunset on this day is a maximum for the year. In the United States, there are about 14½ hours of daylight on this day. So bring out your swimsuits, fire up the barbecue, and put on the sunglasses, because summer is almost here.

If you know someone who would like to improve their English skills this summer, please direct them to our website. Our books are great for Spanish-speaking teens and adults who want to learn or improve their English.

We have four workbook series to help Spanish-speaking teens and adults with English literacy. Each series has six workbooks. Each series can be used in conjunction with the other three series. For example, the Book Ones in each series can be used together. We recommend using Book 1 from the English Reading and Spelling for the Spanish Speaker series first. Then you can use the Book Ones from the other series. The Book Ones from each series support one another. The four series in this English literacy program for Spanish-speaking teens and adults are:

English Reading and Spelling for the Spanish Speaker

English Reading Comprehension for the Spanish Speaker

English Writing Composition for the Spanish Speaker

English Vocabulary for the Spanish Speaker

We also have a four book series called English for the Spanish Speaker. This is a whole language approach to learning English. There are four CDs or cassettes that go along with this series.

Our workbooks are excellent for individuals who want to learn on their own, for ELD classes, or for adult basic education classes.

Whatever you do this summer, I hope you have a safe and fun time.

Visit our website at www.Fisher-Hill.com to find out more about our workbooks that help Spanish-speaking teens and adults learn how to read, write and speak English.

Memorial Day

 Memorial Day is a federal holiday in the United States for remembering the people who died while serving in the country’s armed forces. The holiday, is observed every year on the last Monday of May. It originated as Decoration Day after the American Civil War in 1868, when an organization of Union veterans established it as a time for the nation to decorate the graves of the war dead with flowers. By the 20th century, competing Union and Confederate holiday traditions, celebrated on different days merged and Memorial Day was established to honor all Americans who died while in the military service.

Memorial Day marks the start of the summer vacation season while Labor Day marks its end. Many people visit cemeteries and memorials to honor those who have died in military service. Many volunteers place an American flag on each grave in national cemeteries.

On Memorial Day, the flag of the United States is raised briskly to the top of the staff and then solemnly lowered to the half-staff position, where it remains only until noon. It is then raised to full-staff for the remainder of the day. The half-staff position remembers the more than one million men and women who gave their lives in service for their country. At noon, their memory is raised by the living, who resolve not to let their sacrifice be in vain, but to rise up in their place and continue the fight for liberty and justice for all.

The National Memorial Day Concert takes place on the west lawn of the United States Capitol. The concert is broadcast on PBS and NPR. Music is performed, and respect is paid to the men and women who gave their lives for their country.

For many Americans, the central event is attending one of the thousands of parades held on Memorial Day in large and small cities all over the country. Most of these feature marching bands and an overall military theme with the National Guard and other servicemen participating along with veterans and military vehicles from various wars.

One of the longest-standing traditions is the running of the Indianapolis 500, an auto race which has been held in conjunction with Memorial Day since 1911.

Many Latinos are honored on Memorial Day. Visit our website at www.Fisher-Hill.com to learn about our easy to use workbooks that help Spanish-speaking teens and adults learn English.