This is a hands-on, active class intended for students who are ready to learn how to read! We will meet live twice a week and parents will be given resources and activities to do with their learner between meetings to help reinforce the skills being taught. 

About the teacher:
I am a dual-licensed teacher (K-12+ Special Education and K-8 General Education) with ten years of experience helping students of all ages and abilities. I hold a Bachelor's Degree in Special Education and a Master's Degree in Curriculum and Instruction. I have also earned a Certificate of Advanced Study in Educational Technology and am trained in the Science of Reading through completion of the LETRS program. My career as a public school teacher helped shape me as an educator and allowed me to identify student needs that are not always met by schools. My favorite moments as a teacher often involved working alongside parents to create outside-of-the-box plans to support their student. I have been amazed by what children can accomplish when their unique needs are identified and met.

Scope and Sequence:
We will set the stage for this class by introducing routines and concepts such as ear training (phonemic awareness), mouth training (articulation), and using a sound wall. These routines, along with other essential elements of successful reading instruction, will be used in conjunction with the tentative outline below. After the first few lessons, students will be given beginning decodable texts to read independently. These texts will build confidence by allowing learners to read a passage that uses only the patterns and sight words that they have already learned. 

The schedule below gives a simplified overview of the phonemes and high frequency words we will target each week. (Note: The words listed are NOT the only words students will learn and the week they are listed may not be the first time we use them. These are just the grade-level high frequency or sight words that we will be targeting that week.) 

Week of January 8: Setting the Stage 
Week of January 15: short /a/, /t/; the
Week of January 17: /s/, /m/; I
Week January 22: VC and CVC words, /p/; and, map, pat, sap, tap
Week 5: /n/, CVC words; in, is
Week 6: nasalized /a/, am, an, as, man
Week 7: short /o/; not, on
Week 8: /d/, c as /k/; did, said, can
Week 9: short /u/, /g/; cut, do, to up, us, got
Week 10: /b/, short /e/; get, ten, men, set, big, of, but
Week 11: VC and CVC practice, /s/; see
Week 12: s as /z/, /k/; ask, best, end, fast, must, stop
Week 13: /h/, /r/; be, had, has, he, him, his, hot, me, hand, ran, red, run
Week 14: /r/, /l/; from, look, book, land, last, left, let, list
Week 15: /l/, /w/; are, help, plant, went
Week 16: /j/, /y/; jump, just, was, yes
Week 17: x as /ks/, qu as /kw/; six, you, quit
Week 18: /v/, /z/; have, what
Week 19: Mixed Review (Part 1)
Week 20: Mixed Review (Part 2)
Week 21: FLSZ Spelling Rule (ff, ll, ss, zz); off, tell, want, well, will, your, odd, spell, still
Week 22: -all, -oll, -ull; all, call, full, fall, go, no, pull, small, so
Week 23: ck as /k/, /sh/; goes, pick, back, black, she, we, wish
Week 24: voiced and unvoiced /th/; that, their, them, then, they, this, were, with
Week 25: /ch/, mixed review; much, walk, such, talk
Week 26: wh as /w/, ph as /f/; could, when, which, would
Week 27: /ng/; bring, for, long, or, sing, drink, thank, there, think, where
Week 28: Digraphs Review, CCCVC Words
Week 29: "Magic E" -VCe words
Week 30: Mixed Review and Party!

Students who participate through the end of the summer will be ready to begin my first grade class in September 2024!

*Note for learners joining after the first class: Welcome! I am happy to have you and want to make sure you are comfortable with what we are learning. If needed, I am happy to provide your family with the resources we have used so far so that you can practice what we have covered so far. We also use a LOT of interleaved practice in this class. This means that the topics we have already learned will be practiced continuously throughout the course, making it easier for learners to join at any point in time.