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STEP 1
- TEACH THE VOWEL SOUND
The first step in the ReadingKey Student Vocabulary Wall technique is to
teach your student the sound made by the colored letter in each word
below. If you need to review the sounds yourself – click the “Long
Vowels” link at top right. If you'd like to see a
video clip of the 1 Consonant Rule (a vowel is often long if followed
by 1 consonant), click this link as well. As you point to the
blue letter in each word
below,
your student is to say the long vowel sound. When this is done without
errors from top to bottom – proceed to Step 2.
STEP 2
- STOP AT THE VOWEL SOUND
The student is to then say the sounds made by the letters only up to the
color-coded vowel sound. While in the first word below, the
student says the sound only of long u (in
union), in the next word "bonus," the student says the sound of "bo"
- for focus, "fo." This special
blending technique teaches proper blending skills and gives the
child an effective and simple strategy that can be used consistently
when attempting to read new words. When the child can say all “STOP AT
THE VOWEL SOUNDS” with no errors – proceed to Step 3. |
STEP 3
- READ EACH WORD SLOWLY
Tell the child we are now going to do the same “STOP AT THE VOWEL SOUND”
trick as before, however, this time you want them to also add the
sounds after the blue vowel sound - in other words – to read the
entire word. When words are all said from top to bottom with no errors
– proceed to Step 4.
STEP 4
- TIMED READING
Get out
the stopwatch - To provide the practice necessary for permanent learning
– we are going to time the student on how long it takes to say all words
in the list. Record the student’s time in the vertical bar graph below
(5 bar graphs are for 5 different students if needed). When 4-5 seconds is
reached (most students can do this in 5-7 attempts), have the student read the list in reverse order from the
bottom to the top slowly. When the student can do this, they are said
to have “PASSED” and are all set to move onto the next list of words.
PROOF OF PERMANENT MEMORIZATION
Once
your student has passed this list, we want you to come back in 24 hours
and test your student again (record their time in the second bar graph
column). Their first attempt on the second day is often
at or near their fastest time from the previous day. Their second or
third attempt is typically faster than their best time ever !!
This interesting observation is known as "delayed-learning" and can only
take place if learning concentrates on limited information
repetitively. |