One of the fundamental teaching techniques that I use to combine phonemic and phonological awareness is a technique called Read and Spell.  Read and Spell works perfectly with vowel clustering.  Remember, I use workstations with individualized rotation (see my blog posts from 1-16-2018 and 1-19-2018).  That is why I incorporate Read and Spell into my group-centered (learning and counseling) workstation format (See Chapter 4 in my After-School Prevention Programs for At-Risk Students, Clanton Harpine, 2013).
 
At the workstations, children take turns reading and spelling vowel clustered words.  Words are taught in clusters—similar vowel sounds. Workstations provide vowel clustered reading lists and vowel clustered stories for students to read.  The workstation reading lists and stories are graded by difficulty.  Beginning children can read from the list as well as providing challenge for more advanced students.  By using step-by-step progression, all children can read from the same list.  For example, the first five words use the vowel sound being taught at the workstation but are very simple:  at, cat, bat, hat….  Then, there are middle-level words:  sandy, panda, have, asked….The Read and Spell word lists at the workstation goes on to include more challenging words but words that include the vowel sound being taught:  cattle, cracker, astronaut.  Each multisyllable word includes the short vowel sound for A. 
 
This step-by-step progression allows all students to work together at their own ability level.  The workstation helper never attempts to have beginning readers read the more difficult words.  Children read up to their ability and then stop.  The workstation instructions clearly say:  Read and Spell until you capture 5 words.  Each child ONLY reads until they capture 5 words for reading and/or spelling.  The key to using the Read and Spell technique is to remember that you never have students try to read harder words than they are ready to read.  This is why you stop once a student has captured 5 words.  This is true for reading and spelling.  I’ll talk more about the concept of capturing vs. missing words in a later blog discussion.  For now, see my description on using the concept of capturing words instead of missing words in Chapter 4 of Group-Centered Prevention in Mental Health:  Theory, Training, and Practice (Clanton Harpine, 2015).  Capture means that the child cannot read or spell the word.  The children capture new words that they do not know, and then use the 4-steps to learn the new words. (For how to use this concept, see Chapter 4 in After-School Prevention Programs for At-Risk Students.). 

Example from the Reading Orienteering Club:

Read and Spell until you capture 5 words:  add, bad, cab, dad, back, act, actor, acting, bash, cattle, bashful, cabinet, damage, afternoon, adversity, basket, caterpillar, dancing.  Write any words that you captured on manuscript paper.  If you have trouble shaping your letters correctly, practice on the writing guide first.  If you have trouble spelling a word, use the 4-steps: (Step 1) always say the letter sounds and spell the word, (Step 2) give a definition, (Step 3) use the word in a sentence, and (Step 4) write the word correctly.  (Clanton Harpine, 2016).
 
Manuscript writing paper and the correct manuscript writing style are emphasized (see my earlier blog posts from 11-8-16 and 10-2-16).  Research states that if the brain cannot recognize the letter written, it will not record and remember that letter or word (Shaywitz et al., 2004; Yoncheva et al. 2015).  Therefore, with all the teaching techniques, emphasis on the lowercase alphabet is stressed (see my blog post from 10-21-17).  Read and Spell interventions combine perfectly with our hands-on learning workstation approach because the read and spell instructions and word lists can be written directly onto the page of directions for each workstation.  Vowel clustering, the 4 steps, and Read and Spell are used at six of the eight workstations for the Reading Orienteering Club after school program to create a strong, easy-to-use instructional technique.  You can apply these same principles to your group-centered workstations.
 
The other big question that arises with the Read and Spell concept is:  How do I handle individualized rotation when I have children already working on reading and spelling?  Simple, you pull the new child in and have them sit down and start spelling with the others who are already working at the workstation.  Adding an extra speller is easy; it doesn’t require that you change what you are doing.  NEVER have a child sit aside or wait until you finish with another group. 

Remember, you only want 3 children at a workstation, but you can easily add a third child into a workstation group of 2 that is already working on Read and Spell.  Just say, “Come and join us.  We’re spelling words.  Sit down and give it a try.”  Then, go right back to where you were with your group.  If you have more than 3 students arrive at your workstation, encourage the extra students to look around the room and find an empty workstation.  The children need to work at every single workstation at each session, and workstations change each day. Never leave a child sitting and waiting for a turn.   The group-centered prevention format makes certain that every student is fully engaged in learning from the minute they walk into the room, until they leave to go home. 

​Click on images below; chapter downloads and complete books are available. Complete books are also available from Amazon and Barnes & Noble. 

From a nationwide study  of over 100,000 approaches to teaching reading (National Reading Panel, 2000), we learned that phonemic awareness was the key to teaching children to read (see my 6-23-2017 blog post for more details).  Phonemic awareness simply means teaching letter sounds not memorization of whole words.  Phonemic awareness stresses the encoding and decoding of letter sounds in words.

The next question is:  What is the best way for teaching phonemic awareness.  Some people are claiming phonics, but we needed to be very careful about using the word phonics.  The word phonics is being used in so many different ways (my 7-9-2017 blog post describes phonics techniques) and to describe so many different teaching approaches that I, personally, never use the word.  The word phonics is just too confusing; furthermore, even though, some phonics approaches use letter sounds, most do not actually focus on phonemic awareness.  So, I stay clear of phonics.  Remember, the goal is to teach phonemic awareness—not memorization of phonics rules.  The same children who cannot memorize a list of sight words, cannot memorize a list of phonics rules.  I use vowel clustering—no memorization needed (see my 6-5-2017 blog post, where I give a more detailed description of vowel clustering). 

All of my programs teach phonemic awareness (learning letter sounds) and phonological awareness (learning to work with letter sounds).  Phonemic awareness teaches children to recognize that letters of the alphabet represent sounds.  Phonological awareness teaches children to work with letter sounds.  The children must learn to decode (break down) words into letter sounds and then encode (reassemble) those sounds back into pronounceable words (Shaywitz, 2003).  Vowel clustering is a method that teaches both phonemic and phonological awareness by teaching children to decode and encode letter sounds in order to read words (Clanton Harpine, 2010).  Children are taught to sound words out letter by letter instead of guessing.

Vowel clustering emphasizes the lowercase alphabet, sounding out letter sounds and combinations of letter sounds.  Students are never asked to memorize word lists or to memorize phonics rules.  One of the unique features of vowel clustering is that it teaches all of the sounds for a specific vowel in a cluster.  With the letter A, the children learn all seven sounds used by letter A and the 22 different letter combinations that can be used to make those seven sounds.  The traditional phonics approach was to teach the “short vowel sounds” and then the “long vowel sounds using silent E.”  The other sounds were called “irregular vowel sounds,” but it is these irregular vowel sounds where most children get confused.  Teaching vowels in clusters teaches children to think and learn all of the sounds for each vowel in an organized pattern.  It’s actually easier and less confusing than old-style phonics, and vowel clustering works directly with how the brain assimilates and organizes letter sounds—connecting synapses and building pathways (Shaywitz, 2003).  Vowel clustering is my primary approach for teaching phonemic awareness.

Using a group-centered prevention structure is your first step toward building a successful after-school program.  It’s like building a house.  You cannot start building your house by putting on the roof.  Without the foundation and walls, you do not have anything to attach a roof to.  The same is true of group after-school programs.  You must start with a solid group foundation.  You cannot simply put students into a group and expect the group to be successful.  Group-centered prevention provides the solid foundation upon which to build your after-school program. 

Group-centered prevention uses workstations, not one-on-one tutoring or classroom instruction.  Workstations allow you to teach in small groups (no more than 3 students at a workstation) and to insert individualized one-on-one instruction when a a particular student needs it.  The child then goes back to the group structure at the next workstation.  The child does not stay in a one-on-one tutoring format. 

Workstations also maintain the therapeutic nature of group process—working together in a supportive, accepting group.  If a group is structured correctly, it can be a very powerful teaching and counseling tool.

In a group-centered program, students move independently, instead of moving as a group from station to station.  Often, when teachers use learning centers or small groups, they have students move as a group.  They will ring a bell or announce that it is time to switch group stations.  This does not work.  Some students are sitting around waiting for others to finish—bored and probably getting into mischief.  In the meantime, other students are frustrated and feeling insecure because they cannot work as quickly as the faster students.  Group rotation does not work for advanced students or struggling students, and does not even work for the students caught in the middle. 

Group rotation simply does not work because it does not individualize instruction.  Yet, movement is very beneficial to the learning process.  Research stresses that movement and being involved in the learning process enhance learning (Chandler & Tricot, 2015; Moreau, 2015).  Being allowed to move around within a group structure can help a student increase attention, the ability to focus on a task, or even improve cognitive functions (Hillman et al., 2014), but the movement must be structured, purposeful, and built into the learning process.  You cannot simply have students wandering around and call that group-centered with individualized rotation.  There must be an educational reason that the child is moving around the room, and movement must be controlled.  Individualized rotation helps to generate purpose.  The children work in small groups at each workstation, work at their own individual pace, and move independently to the next workstation as they complete their work. 
At my Reading Orienteering Club after-school program, students work at eight different workstations during every session (each workstation is different), but independent rotation allows students who need more time to not feel pressured or embarrassed.  Likewise, students who work at a faster pace go on to the next workstation instead of feeling frustrated waiting for others in their group to finish.  Challenge steps and hands-on projects are also incorporated into each workstation for students who are ready for more advanced work.  Workstations allow for this diversification. The idea is to have all students working at their own individual ability level.  Workstations allow a variety of age groups to work together as well as children working at different ability levels.  This is important for a third grader who may enter the program reading below the kindergarten level.  Yes, we have encountered many children with multiple years of failure in the communities where I have worked. We do not want children to be stigmatized or embarrassed because of reading failure.  Workstations allow each child to work at their own individual ability level and at their own pace. 

After preliminary testing, I decided to use eight workstations in my Reading Orienteering Club after-school program.  Eight workstations seemed to work best.  Since we have a two-hour after-school program, eight workstations provide a challenge but are not overwhelming or impossible for the children to finish.  Workstations with individualized rotation also increase intrinsic motivation and individualize instruction.  Therefore, I strongly suggest that you use workstations instead of the typical “direct instruction” classroom style teaching approach or one-on-one tutoring.  I also encourage you build individualized rotation into your workstations and definitely use a group-centered prevention format.  If you need more help in writing workstation material, see my step-by-step directions in my book, After-School Prevention Programs for At-Risk Students (2013).  

If you are following the group-centered format, you are building an effective program one step at a time.  First, choose a group-centered prevention format that emphasizes teaching and counseling in the same program.  I’ll talk about how to combine these two features later.  Second, use workstations with individualized rotation to motivate all students to work at their best ability and to individualize instruction.  Our third teaching technique will emphasize how to control and structure learning at the workstations and how to handle students as they rotate in and out of workstations.        

In my previous blog post, I promised to start discussing the 12 teaching techniques that I use in my after-school reading program.  Let’s start at the beginning.
 
A group-centered prevention program combines learning and counseling in the same after-school program.  (For a more detailed explanation, see my 2013 book).  Since many classroom teachers list behavior as one of the contributors to classroom failure, it is very helpful for after-school programs to combine learning and counseling. 
 
Jones, Greenberg, and Crowley (2015) explain that students must have both cognitive and non-cognitive skills training if they are to succeed in the classroom.  Cognitive skills could be identified as the skills needed to learn to read (phonemic awareness and phonological decoding). Non-cognitive skills are identified as behavioral in nature, such as not being impulsive, controlling emotional outbursts, non-bullying, non-aggressive behavior, or being attentive.  Their 20-year longitudinal study shows that cognitive and non-cognitive skills must be taught at the same time.  You cannot simply teach reading in the morning and social skills in the afternoon. 
 
Using a group-centered prevention format enables you to “intertwine these cognitive and non-cognitive skills and allow the skills to be taught together at the same time.  The cohesive atmosphere of a group supports learning and therapy, and the group structure makes both more effective (Baskin et al., 2010).  Research further shows that reading instruction is more effective when it is combined with counseling interventions (Brigman & Webb, 2007; Huang et. al, 2005).  That is why I recommend using a group-centered prevention approach together with a combined group counseling and reading instruction focus for your after-school program. 
 
My own research has shown that (1) group-centered prevention programs are more effective than one-on-one tutoring reading sessions (Clanton Harpine & Reid, 2009), (2) group-centered prevention programs help children learn to read, even children who were failing before they entered my group-centered program (see my earlier blog for 1-5-18), and (3) group-centered prevention is a much more effective method than classroom reading groups. (I talk about my research comparing group-centered prevention techniques to traditional classroom instruction in my 2011 book). 
 
Establishing an effective teaching method is essential to a successful after-school program.  So, the first step is to select an effective group method for your after-school program.  I only use group-centered prevention.

A parent asked me yesterday, “Do you think there’s anything wrong with my son?  He doesn’t seem to have any interest in learning to read, and he starts kindergarten next year.  His brother was reading by this age.”
 
My response, as always, is that every child is an individual.  Even identical twins learn differently.  No two children learn the same way or on the same timetable.  That is why we use 12 different teaching techniques in my Reading Orienteering Club after-school program. (I’m working on a new book that will explain these 12 techniques and show how they work with intrinsic motivation and group-centered prevention. For now, keep reading my blog.  I’ll briefly preview these techniques in the months ahead.)

I also reminded the parent that, just a few short years ago, she was cheering as her child learned to walk, run, and ride a bike.  Now, kindergarten and preschools want children to sit for long periods of time and work on memorizing words.  Some children are simply not ready to do that.  Normal development for this age group is action, not sitting.  Therefore, there is nothing wrong with a child who is still exhibiting normal development and wanting to be active.  It is education that needs to adapt, not the child.  I use workstations so that the period of sitting is shortened as children move from workstation to workstation.  I also use hands-on learning interventions (see After-School Prevention Programs for At-Risk Students) so that children are learning by doing things. 

There is nothing wrong if a child wants to learn to read before kindergarten, but we shouldn’t push a child to learn to read that early.  As long as you are not teaching memorized word lists or pre-read words from the front or back of a book, reading is wonderful.  Instead, teach the child to decode (break words down into letter sounds) and encode (reassemble those sounds and pronounce the word) (See my blog post of December 31, 2016).
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For now, I explained, just work on learning the letters.  Preschool and kindergarten should actually be working on (1) identifying both capital and lower-case letters, (2) writing on manuscript paper capital and lower-case letters separately (remember, we mostly read with lower case letters), and (3) learning the sounds for all of the consonant letters.  I do not teach vowel sounds until first grade.  If you like, you can teach the short vowel sound for the letter A:  at, bat, cat, ….  (See my June 5, 2017 blog post to read a more detailed explanation of vowel clustering). 

The important thing is not to teach children to memorize the words.  As neuroimaging research shows, it is much better to teach a child to sound out the word c  a  t  than to teach a child to memorize the word cat (see my blog post of February 5, 2017). 

It is time for a change.  We need to learn to work with the brain instead of against the brain’s natural learning tendencies.  The brain is “wired” for learning letter sounds (See my September 30, 2017 blog post).  If we teach letter sounds instead of memorization, then almost every child across the nation could learn to read (Shaywitz, 2003). And, yes, it’s good for children to be active while they are learning.

When some people look at the 2015 report from the Nation’s Report Card, they immediately assume that it is the poor states where reading failure is prominent.  That is not always true.  Let’s look at the charts again.

California is one of the more prosperous states, but it is near the bottom of the chart for reading scores, even below some states without prosperous incomes.  Therefore, money does not necessarily translate into higher reading scores. 

You may also notice that some states teach the same students more effectively in math than reading.  Look at the math scores and compare the math scores to the reading scores, especially states like Texas.  Texas scores higher than the national average in math but low in reading.  

The United States also does not compare well with other countries in reading.

Why are our scores so low?  Our scores are low because we use ineffective teaching methods:  methods that have been proven not to work.  Whole language has, since a 2000 nationwide study, been proven not to work.  Eighteen years of using a method that has been proven over and over not to work results in low reading scores.  Yet, we continue using teaching methods in reading that simply do not work.  Today, most public schools are still using whole language methods.  Some schools are adding phonics rules back into their curriculum, but as the 2017 scores show, it’s not working.

In my own reading clinic, we have had great success with students who are failing in reading or have been told that they’ll never learn to read.  Some of our success stories have been:

·         A student who failed for nine straight years in public school is now reading.
·         A student diagnosed with ADHD and failing in reading moved up two grade levels in one year.
·         A student diagnosed with dyslexia and whose parents tried everything, including expensive private one-on-one tutoring, learned to read, and moved up to beginning chapter books in one year.
·         Six children who entered the program reading at the pre-K level ended the year reading at the 2nd grade reading level.  Only one child in the group was a first grader.
·         One student started at the pre-primer level (pre-K) and ended the year at the third-grade reading level while a second grader started the year reading below first grade and ended at the fourth-grade level.
·         In 2016, we had one student move up four grade levels in reading, four students moved up three grade levels in reading, and eight students moved up two grade levels in reading. 
·         In 2017, we scored high again with 2 students moving up four grade levels in reading, 3 students moving up three grade levels in reading, and 6 students moving up two grade levels in reading. 
 
Yes, we can teach these children to read.  We just need to change the methods that we are using to teach children to read.  Whole language, memorizing word lists, and the common core curriculum are not working 

We need to change—NOW.  Phonemic awareness is the answer for teaching children that letters represent sounds (see my blog post from 7/9/2017).  It is teaching children how to use the letter sounds to pronounce and read words that makes my program so successful.  In my program, I use a method called vowel clustering (see my 6/5/2017  blog post).  It works.  We have 9 years of research to prove that it works.  Other researchers are also having success using phonemic awareness. 

The new reading scores from the Nation’s Report Card have been published and the results are not good.  At best, some claim that scores are stagnated—unchanged, while others point to the two-point drop in scores from 2015. The 2017 scores are 37% proficient at 4th grade, 36% at 8th grade, and 37% at 12th. 
 
Michael J. Petrilli, the President of the Thomas B. Fordham Institute, said, “It’s obviously bad news….”
 
As we start a new year, this is truly bad news for our children:  63% of 4th graders could not read at or above the 4th grade level when they were tested during their 4th grade year.  We must change the METHOD that we use to teach children to read.  We must stop claiming that Common Core and whole language work.  They do not.  It has been proven over and over that whole language and common core are failures (see my previous blog posts). 
 
It’s time for a change.  We need to help our children instead of hurting them.  We must change how we teach children to read.
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