Literacy Boost®
We know that STRUCTURED LITERACY is the most effective way to teach ALL children to read and spell.
We believe that ALL children in New Zealand have the right to evidence-based literacy education. The most effective way for children to learn to read and spell is with a systematic and evidence-based structured teaching approach. We choose the Sounds~Write™ programme. Sounds~Write™ is a gold standard, evidence based programme supporting children with reading, writing and spelling difficulties.
About Sounds-Write™
Sounds~Write™ is a gold standard structured literacy programme to support reading and spelling development. It is a highly effective intervention programme for children and adults of any age that are having difficulty with their literacy development. Sounds~Write™ is supported by the Dyslexia SPELD Foundation as an effective multi-sensory, and code-oriented, instructional approach to teaching children to read and spell. It teaches all key elements of conceptual understanding, factual knowledge, and the three essential skills of blending, segmenting and phoneme manipulation necessary for literacy success. Sounds~Write™ encompasses the following essential ingredients of a successful structured literacy programme....
Structured...
Literacy Boost® uses a clearly defined scope and sequence. The programme is systematic and follows a carefully planned structure which introduces the 44 sounds of English and their corresponding letters in a clear logical sequence.
Diagnostic...
Progress is constantly monitored and assessed to adjust pacing, presentation, and amount of practice given before introducing new information.
Explicit Teaching...
Students are directly taught the information and skills to be learned, using clear language. The teaching scripts minimise the cognitive load for students, helping them to focus more attention on the new knowledge they are being taught
Cumulative...
Literacy Boost® Structured Literacy intervention builds on students’ previous learning to ensure progress. The programme intentionally moves from teaching simple to more complex content. Phonological awareness is built into every session.
Sound to Print...
Literacy Boost® is well founded on the principle that we teach reading by starting with what all children learn naturally—the sounds of their own language. We are establishing the link between the sounds (phonemes) the child has learned already, and the visual signs (graphemes) that represent them.
Multisensory...
Literacy Boost® is well founded on the ideology that children learn best when exposure to new material is multisensory Learners are highly engaged in hearing the sounds, seeing the symbols, saying the sounds, and writing the symbols in every lesson. This is a core component of the multimodal approach to optimise learning.
"If a child memorizes ten words, the child can read only ten words, but if a child learns the sounds of ten letters, the child will be able to read 350 three sound words, 4320 four sound words and 21,650 five sound words" (Dr Martin Kozloff, 2002)
Reading is all about learning codes and it’s not easy! Did you know that there are 44 sounds in the spoken English language from only 26 letters? Some sounds are represented by one letter, two letters or even three letters. These codes are not easy to learn but once a child knows all the sounds, they are ready to ‘decode.’ To decode is to read. Sounds~Write™ structured literacy demonstrates conclusively that with high quality training, from a trained teaching practitioners, virtually all children can learn to read and spell.
Further evidence-based reading.
Delivering on the promise of education starts with the mastery of the most fundamental foundational skill—the ability to read. Not only is reading critical to the success of further education but it is an expected accomplishment in order to thrive in contemporary society. Of equal importance, leading a literate life can bring immense joy and beauty to a human being’s life. Yet many children today are not learning to read.
Students who struggle to decode the words quickly enough begin to avoid reading, and the lack of practice contributes to a lack of vocabulary, academic language, and content knowledge. This all results in lower comprehension and a lack of motivation to continue to expend the effort necessary for learning to read.
The foundational reading skills are those that enable students to read words, relate those words to their oral language, and read connected text with sufficient accuracy and fluency to understand what they read.
Research based reading programs that emphasise phonological awareness, phonics, the rules of spelling and writing, as well as comprehension have not only been shown to be critical for all early readers, but have even been found to “normalise” brain function for struggling readers.
. Download
