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.

Reading Fluency

Fisher Hill’s English Literacy Program helps students developing reading and writing fluency.  The program is geared toward Spanish speaking students but all students who need to learn to read and write can benefit from this program.

The program uses  Orton-Gillingham principles to teach reading and spelling.  The Orton-Gillingham approach uses structured, explicit, systematic and multisensory procedures in teaching the forty-four speech sounds.  These speech sounds are used to read, spell and help with fluency.

Fluency comes with having good decoding skills in reading. Practicing decoding skills can help a person become a fluent reader.  Once a person is fluent then the reader begins to read with automaticity. With automaticity, readers can then think about what they’re reading instead of using their brains to figure out unknown words.  Once readers can think about what they’re reading they can then comprehend, summarize, infer and analyze what they’re reading.  This all comes with practice whether you’re practicing decoding skills or fuency skills.

Fisher Hill has a program that helps students become fluent readers who can then begin to read with automaticity.  The program starts with teaching decoding skills. The first book to use would be English Reading and Spelling for the Spanish Speaker Book 1. This series uses a very systematic, explicit approach to teaching the forty-four speech sounds used in the English language.  After completing English Reading and Spelling for the Spanish SpeakerBook 1, students are ready to practice their decoding skills by using English Reading Comprehension for the Spanish Speaker Book 1.  This comprehension workbook provides students with fluency practice which will help them to acquire automoticity in reading.

Students can begin writing by using English Writing Composition for the Spanish Speaker Book 1. They can improve their vocabulary by using English Vocabulary for the Spanish Speaker Book 1 which reviews the vocabulary presented in English Reading and Spelling for the Spanish SpeakerBook 1. After completing the Book Ones in the program,  students can begin the Book Twos.  The four series, each series contains six workbooks, were written to be used together.  By using the four series together, students get a good foundation in English literacy.

Students like our workbooks because the pace is reasonable, print is large, directions are in Spanish but the activies are in English plus there’s lots of pictures.  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.

Level 1 in the program.  There are six levels.

Visit our website at www.Fisher-Hill.com to learn more about our English literacy program. If you have any questions about our workbooks, email us at [email protected] or call us at 1-888-407-1187.

Ebooks by Fisher Hill

Fisher Hill is now has ebooks on their website.

Fisher Hill’s popular ESL series English for the Spanish Speaker can now be downloaded as  Ebooks.  The CDs for this series can also be downloaded from our website. English for the Spanish Speaker is made up of four workbooks.  Each workbook has eight lessons.  The lessons in workbooks 1 and 2 are about everyday themes.  Workbooks 3 and 4 have lessons about everyday themes and also lessons about U.S. history and government. These workbooks can be used to help people pass the U.S. Citizenship Test. Each workbook has a CD. Each CD includes the vocabulary lists, conversations, and stories from the books.

Fisher Hill also has English only Ebooks Reading and Spelling Books 1 and 2 to help students learn to read and spell. These two workbooks are for students who are just learning to read or who have had difficulty learning to read. The workbook uses the Orton-Gillingham approach to teach reading and spelling. The Orton Gillingham approach uses a very systematic, structured, explicit, and multisensory approach to teach the forty-four speech sounds to read and spell.

Fisher Hill’s English Reading and Spelling for the Spanish Speaker Book 1 can now be purchased as an Ebook.  Reading and Spelling for the Spanish Speaker Book 1 covers the five short vowel sounds, two long vowel sounds and beginning blends.  There are twenty lessons in Book 1.  Each lesson has five to six pages.

 For questions about our ebooks, please email us at [email protected] or call us at 1-888-407-1187 or visit us online at www.Fisher-Hill.com.

ESL Classes for Adults

Part 2

As I said in my last week’s blog, many adult ESL classes use our English for the Spanish Speaker series. For over twenty years, English for the Spanish Speaker has helped thousands of Spanish-speaking teens and adults learn English.

In last week’s blog, I showed a video of an excellent ESL program in Wichita, Kansas using our series English for the Spanish Speaker.

Here is a link to another video about this wonderful ESL program in Wichita, Kansas. Just copy the link below to your browser to watch the video.

https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=0EzGvsLsTYI&feature=youtu.be

English for the Spanish Speaker is a four workbook series. 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. These workbooks can be used to help students pass the U.S. Citizenship Test.   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.

Adults like our workbooks because the pace is reasonable, print is large, directions are in Spanish, and the content is for adults.  Teachers like our books because everything is ready to go!

For over 20 years, people have used English for the Spanish Speaker series to  learn English and also U.S. history and government.

For questions about our workbooks, please email us at [email protected] or call us at 1-888-407-1187.

Visit us online at www.Fisher-Hill.com to see all of our products.

ESL Classes for Adults

Many ESL classes for adults use our English for the Spanish Speaker series. For over twenty years, English for the Spanish Speaker has helped thousands of Spanish-speaking teens and adults learn English.

Recently, I saw a video of our series English for the Spanish Speaker being used in an excellent ESL program in Wichita, Kansas.

Here is the link to the video to view this wonderful ESL program in Wichita, Kansas. Just click on the link below to view this exciting, positive program for so many people!

https://youtu.be/LS1eMOBgO4M?t=2m2s

English for the Spanish Speaker is a four workbook series. 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. These workbooks can be used to help students pass the U.S. Citizenship Test.   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.

Adults like our workbooks because the pace is reasonable, print is large, directions are in Spanish, and the content is for adults.  Teachers like our books because everything is ready to go!

For over 20 years, people have used the English for the Spanish Speaker series to  learn English and also U.S. history and government.

For questions about our workbooks, please email us at [email protected] or call us at 1-888-407-1187.

Visit us online at www.Fisher-Hill.com to see all of our products.

Fisher Hill’s Free Teacher Resources

Fisher Hill has several Teacher Resources that are free!

Go to our webpage at www.Fisher-Hill.com and on the top tool bar click Teacher Resources.

Then you will see Speaking and Listening.  Click on that and then you can click on the different sample lessons from the four workbooks for English for the Spanish Speaker.

Next, you can click on Reading and Spelling.  Here, there are a lot of resources.  First, there is a sample lesson for English Reading and Spelling for the Spanish Speaker Book 1.  Then there are 10 activities that go with Book 1. After that there are sample lessons for Books 2-6. Then there is a Scope and Sequence for the English Reading and Spelling for the Spanish Speaker series.  Finally, there are 6 placement tests for the English Reading and Spelling for the Spanish Speaker series and a student test form for each test.  The placement tests determine on which level a student should begin.  If a student can pass the placement test for Book 1 then he/she is ready for Book 2.

If you keep on scrolling down on the Teacher Resources page you will see other series that you can click on to see sample lesson from those workbooks.

Anytime you have questions about our workbooks or our webpage, please email us at [email protected] or call us at 1-888-407-1187.

Go online at www.Fisher-Hillto see all of our products.

Fisher Hill’s New Audio Downloads

Fisher Hill has new audio downloads to go with their popular ESL series English for the Spanish Speaker. There are four workbooks in the series and each workbook has an audio you can download from our website.

Each workbook has eight lessons. The first page of each lesson is a vocabulary list.  The second page is a conversation. The third page is a story. The next four pages have activities. The final page is an answer key for the activity pages.

Each audio includes the first three pages of each lesson: the vocabulary, conversation and story pages.  Students can listen to the pronunciation and practice speaking the words.

The lessons in workbooks 1 and 2 are about everyday themes. Workbooks 3 and 4 have four lessons about everyday themes and four lessons about U.S. history and government. These workbooks can be used to help students pass the U.S. Citizenship Test.

Anytime you have questions about our books or downloads, you can call or email us.  Our telephone number is 1-888-407-1187 and our email address is [email protected].

Students and adults like our workbooks because the pace is reasonable, print is large, directions are in Spanish and the content is for older students. Teachers like our books because everything is ready to go!

For over 20 years, people have used English for the Spanish Speaker to learn English and also U.S. history and government.

Go online at www.Fisher-Hill.com to see all of our products.

Fisher Hill’s New Ebook

Fisher Hill has a new ebook available on its webpage.  It’s English Reading and Spelling for the Spanish Speaker Book 1. The workbook is also available in hardcopy but now you can download it and have it the same day.  No hassle with shipping and waiting for the book to arrive.

This workbook was written to help Spanish-speaking students to read and spell.  The workbook uses Orton-Gillingham principles to teach reading and spelling.  The Orton-Gillingham approach uses structured, explicit, systematic and multisensory procedures in teaching the forty-four speech sounds.

Reading and Spelling Book 1covers the five short vowel sounds, two long vowel sounds and beginning blends.  There are twenty lessons in Book 1.  Each lesson has five to six pages.

Each lesson beginswith a word list that includes words with the targeted sound for that lesson. Many of these words can also be used as vocabulary words.

The next pagein the lesson works with developing comprehension skills.

The third pagein the lesson is a fill in the blank page so students can practice using the words from the word list from the first page of the lesson and the high frequency words from the second page of the lesson.  There are pictures from the first page of the lesson at the end of some of the fill in the blank sentences since many sentences could have more than one answer.  Students use the pictures at the end of the sentence to know which word from the word list to use.

The fourth pageof the lesson practices spelling, grammar, vocabulary or a writing activity.

The last pageof the lesson ends with a Word Search of the targeted and high frequency words from the lesson.

Students including adults like our workbooks because the pace is reasonable, print is large, directions are in Spanish, and the content is for adults.  Teachers like our books because everything is ready to go!

If you have any questions about our workbooks, please email us at therst.com.  Go online at www.Fisher-Hill to see all of our products.

Back to School:  Workbooks for Spanish Speaking Students

Part 2

Fisher Hill has many workbooks for Spanish Speaking students.  These workbooks are appropriate for an entire class or for one or two individual students.  Often a teacher will have only one or two non-English speaking latino students who need to learn English.  These workbooks are excellent for them or an entire class.

In this blog, I will talk about our English for the Spanish Speaker series.  It consists of 4 workbooks to teach English to Spanish speakers. These four workbooks have been best sellers for over 20 years.  English for the Spanish Speaker series has helped thousands of Spanish-speaking teens and adults learn English. There are four workbooks and each one has stories, activities, conversations, vocabulary lists, games, dictionaries and answer keys. The directions for the activity pages are in Spanish but the activities are in English.   Each workbook has a CD. Each CD includes the vocabulary lists, conversations, and stories from the books. Students can listen to the pronunciation of the words for each lesson.

Each workbook has eight lessons.  The lessons in workbooks 1 and 2 are about everyday themes.  Workbooks 3 and 4 have lessons about everyday themes and also lessons about U.S. history and government. These workbooks can be used to help students pass the U.S. Citizenship Test.

Adults like our workbooks because the pace is reasonable, print is large, directions are in Spanish, and the content is for adults.  Teachers like our books because everything is ready to go!

For over 20 years, people have used English for the Spanish Speaker series to  learn English and also U.S. history and government.

If you have any questions about our English for the Spanish Speaker series, please email us at therst.com.  Go online at www.Fisher-Hill to see all of our workbooks.