"Proud Professionals Educating Schools"
PPES Inc.
PPES COMPREHENSIVE READING PROGRAM
The actual program that a reader will be on is individualized for that reader. The reading difficulty is not usually isolated to one of the skill/strategy areas, and the older the readers are, the less likely they are to read voluntarily and the more likely they are to have developed alternative strategies that interfere with effective reading. The focus in beginning sessions is on determining which areas require intervention and moving quickly into a plan that is effective for that student. Below is a list of elements that are often present in our lessons.
1. Sight words - PPES has developed a list of 1000 words that make up approximately 75% of the words in any written material in order of their frequency of appearance. Various strategies are used to assist readers toward automatic recognition of these words.
2. Instructional Reading Level - Reading instruction is given in complete texts at the reader's instructional reading level (90 - 95%-word accuracy). Research indicates that reading ability will increase with regular instruction at this level. This instruction also allows for transferring newly acquired sight word knowledge to a real reading task.
3. Phonemic Awareness and Phonics Instruction - For those students with difficulties in this area, instruction can occur during the writing, during reading in the application of phonics to decoding a word, through an activity such as Making Words in which readers are given letters and asked to construct specific words, by developing the reader's knowledge of common phonograms (at, cat, bat: might, right, sight; etc.). The level of phonics instruction is tailored to the student needs but the ability to apply phonetic knowledge effectively is considered a crucial element in reading competence.
4. Motivation - Reading efficiency is directly related to the quantity of reading done. To achieve the optimal personal level of reading competence, a reader has to read independently and frequently. To promote an interest in and love of reading, reading instruction from the beginning is in real books, the Instructor matches the reader's reading level with books that are interesting to the reader, the reader is encouraged to read daily at their independent reading level at home, the amount of reading is logged, and as certain mileposts are reached, the reader's achievements are recognized.
5. Fluency - Slow reading speeds interfere with comprehension and effective completion of work during school. If reading speed is not within the average range for the reader's age level, some strategies that may be used are repeated readings, increasing sight word knowledge, improving decoding skills, increasing the volume of reading at easier levels, and encouraging regular reading at home.
6. Meaning-Making - Oral reading is continually monitored by the Instructor to ensure that the reader is attending to the meaning in their reading material, as other aspects of reading receives attention. For those readers for whom understanding what they read is the main area of difficulty, there is work on visualization of what has been read, retellings, mind-mapping of reading material, and organization and categorization of information.
7. Writing - Improving writing skills has cross-over value into developing effective readers. Therefore, even if reading is considered the main area of difficulty, some writing is also done, with emphasis on independent composition, editing, spelling, punctuation, and legibility. Some of the benefits to reading are in the development of phonemic knowledge, word structure knowledge and understanding of story schema.