SpellRead classes tend to be offered daily for 60–90 minutes in a small group setting with one instructor and five students. In a 60-minute class, the first 35 minutes focuses on intensive phonemic and phonetic skill development and the last 25 minutes on share reading and free writing.
The SpellRead program consists of the following components:
1) SpellRead Program Materials: SpellRead is based on specific skill mastery and consists of 130 sequential lessons presented in three phases that combines intensive and highly specific instruction in phonemic and phonetic skills with language-based reading and writing activities.
2) Carefully Selected Language-Rich Reading Books: SpellRead has carefully selected, leveled and sequenced high-interest, age-appropriate trade books.
3) Instructor Training and Ongoing Support: Instructors are provided with all the training and ongoing support needed to successfully deliver SpellRead.
4) Student Identification, Grouping, Monitoring and Reporting: Standardized tests are used to organize students into homogeneous groups according to ability and expected duration of instruction. Key student activities and indicators are tracked online to ensure that instructors have the information and support needed to enable essential skill development with every student.
The SpellRead program materials introduce sounds, skills and instructional approaches in a highly specific and carefully sequenced manner. This method ensures that every student can achieve phonological automaticity—the ability to effortlessly recognize and process the 44 sounds of the English language in combination with oral language. The 130 sequential lessons that make up the SpellRead program are presented in the following three phases:
Phase A introduces the 44 sounds of English and trains students to manipulate them automatically.
Phase B teaches the secondary spellings, the consonant blends, syllabication and auditory-visual automaticity for twosyllable words.
Phase C continues training at the multi-syllabic level and introduces the most common clusters as well as pronunciation and spelling of verb forms.
The materials used in each program phase are listed below.
Phase A:
Teacher’s Manual
Teacher’s Kit (cards)
Student Activity Book
Student Answer Key
Spelling Book
Vowel (V) Pack
Consonant (C) Pack
CV/VC Study Packs
CVC Study Packs
Phase B):
Teacher’s Manual
Teacher’s Kit (cards)
Student Activity Book
Student Answer Key
Spelling Book
Secondary Vowel Pack
Consonant Blend Pack
Vocabulary & Pronunciation Book
Phase C:
Teacher’s Manual
Teacher’s Kit (cards)
Student Activity Book
Student Answer Key
Spelling Book
Student Vocabulary & Pronunciation Book
Teacher Vocabulary & Pronunciation Book
Cluster Pack
Share-reading and Free-writing Manuals
Share-reading and free-writing are integral components of each class in each phase of the SpellRead program. We provide schools with a list of age-appropriate reading material that is carefully selected and sequenced in a manner that seamlessly increases the difficulty of vocabulary and language. Each class includes reading comprehension development activities as well as a writing activity that is used to monitor reading comprehension and foster the development of writing skills.
Sample comprehension activities to be followed by the teachers while share-reading each book are included with the share-reading and free-writing manuals.
