Fisher Hill’s literacy workbooks use a structured literacy approach. All the books are based on Orton-Gillingham practices. Most of Fisher Hill’s workbooks are for Spanish-speaking teens and adults to learn to read and write in English.
Kathy Fisher is the owner of Fisher Hill and the author of the workbooks. She taught reading for 17 years. She is a member of the International Dyslexia Association and has two boys who had difficulty learning to read. One son graduated with a Ph.D. in Chemistry and the other son dropped out of high school, passed the high school proficiency test, and worked at Twitter before he was twenty years old making more money than his mother who had a master’s degree in Education. Needless to say, the boys school experiences at times were not a joyful affair especially with the younger one who finally dropped out of school when he was sixteen.
School can be extremely difficult for children who have a hard time learning to read. As a teacher, I loved teaching reading because I knew what to do. I joined IDA when my boys had difficulty learning to read. This reading difficulty came as a shock to me because I had read to them since they were babies. They had gone to Mommy and Me classes, story time at the library, and they had plenty of books at home. IDA taught me how to teach reading. They taught me about Orton-Gillingham. I knew what to do. I did not depend on the school’s textbooks to teach reading.
The workbooks I’ve written use a very structured, systematic, explicit approach to teach the English speech sounds to read and spell. The series called English Reading Comprehension for the Spanish Speaker helps Spanish speakers improve their English reading comprehension skills. Each workbook has twenty lessons and there are six workbooks in the series.
For the first three workbooks:
Each lesson begins with a vocabulary page.
The next page in the lesson is a practice page for the new vocabulary words.
The third page in the lesson is a visualization page.
The fourth page in the lesson is a story to practice fluency.
The fifth page in the lesson is a comprehension page for the story.
The sixth page in the lesson is a reading practice page.
The last page in the lesson is the Answer Key.
For the last three workbooks:
Each lesson begins with a vocabulary page.
The next page in the lesson is a practice page for the new vocabulary words.
The third page in the lesson is a story.
The fourth page in the lesson is a comprehension page for the story.
The fifth and sixth pages in the lesson are reading practice pages.
The last page in the lesson is the Answer Key.
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 comprehension is the goal of reading. 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 how to talk. Learning to read can be a very difficult for some people, but with practice, most everyone can learn how to read.
Students like our workbooks because the pace is reasonable, print is large, directions are in Spanish, plenty of pictures but the content is for older students. Teachers like our books because everything is ready to go!
The workbooks are appropriate for using with an entire class or with individual students. The directions are in Spanish with English translations at the end of the workbook.
Visit us online at www.Fisher-Hill.com to view all of our workbooks. If you have any questions about our workbooks or how to navigate our website you can email us at [email protected] or call us at 1-888-407-1187.
