As a teacher, I used structured literacy to teach my students to read and write. Structured literacy teaching is the most effective approach for students who experience difficulty learning to read and spell. Structured literacy uses a very systematic and explicit approach to teach phoneme awareness, the alphabetic principle (sound-symbol letter awareness), orthography (spelling), morphology (meaning of words), syntax and semantics. These are all necessary for reading comprehension and writing composition.
I used explicit instruction to explain each new concept directly and clearly and provided guided practice. We had quick practice drills to build fluency, used our fingers to spell words by representing each phoneme in a word. Students applied new skills to reading and writing words which helped their reading comprehension and writing composition.
My instruction followed a planned scope and sequence of skills that progressed from easier to more difficult. One concept built on another. The goal of systematic teaching is automatic and fluent application of language knowledge to reading for meaning.
Multisensory methods were used. Students heard the words, spelt the words and saw the words. Student used white boards to spell and read words. We also used letter tiles to spell and read words. We assembled sentence with words on cards and color-coding sentences in paragraphs.
I monitored progress through observation and brief quizzes that measured retention and what had been taught.
Fisher Hill’s Structured Literacy Program has six levels: Each level consists of four workbooks to help Spanish-speaking teens and adults learn to read and write in English. The four workbooks for each level are:
Reading and Spelling
Reading Comprehension
Writing Composition
Vocabulary
The first book to use at each level is the Reading and Spelling workbook. The program uses a very systematic, explicit approach in teaching the 43 speech sounds used in the English language. After completing the Reading and Spelling workbook, students are ready to practice reading by using the Reading Comprehesnion workbook. They can also practice writing by using the Writing Composition workbook. The Vocabulary workbook reviews the vocabulary at each level. In the Reading and Spelling workbooks, there is a short diagnostic test in each lesson to monitor progress. After completing the six levels, students will have an excellent foundation in English literacy.
On our website at www.Fisher-Hill.com under Teacher Resources there are placement tests to determine on which level a student should begin. After clicking on Teacher Resources, click on Reading and Spelling and scroll down until you reach the Placement Tests. There are instructions on how to use the placement tests.
Students like our workbooks because the pace is reasonable, print is large, directions are in Spanish, and there are lots of pictures, but the content is for older students. 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. This structured literacy program can be used with any student who wants to learn how to read and spell in English.
Visit our website at www.Fisher-Hill.com to learn more about our Structured Literacy Program. If you have any questions about our workbooks or how to navigate our website, please email us at [email protected] or call us at 1-888-407-1187.