Specialized Reading Programs (K-8)
Saint Francis School has chosen to utilize the Wilson Reading System® in working with students who have difficulty with phonemic awareness, decoding, and encoding. Wilson is a highly-structured curriculum based on Orton-Gillingham principles. The school uses three separate Wilson Reading System® components:
Fundations® in grades K – 3 gives all students a thorough foundation in basic phonics acquisition. It thoroughly teaches the foundational skills of the Common Core State Standards and supports the reading standards, writing standards, and standards for language. Fundations® is a supplemental prevention or early intervention program designed to be used in conjunction with our existing literature-based reading instruction.
The Wilson Reading Program at Saint Francis is a two-year and two summer intensive program for third fourth, fifth, and sixth graders that is a direct, systematic, cumulative, multisensory presentation of the structure of our language, emphasizing phonics rules, and applications. It follows a ten-part lesson plan addressing decoding, encoding, leveled vocabulary instruction, fluency, and reading comprehension.
Just Words®: A one-year program specifically designed for sixth and seventh graders who are still experiencing mild or moderate gaps in phonemic awareness and have not had the opportunity to participate in the Wilson Reading System® two-year program. Just Words® is a highly explicit, multisensory decoding and spelling program for students who have gaps in their decoding and spelling proficiency. The program’s curriculum provides a sophisticated study of word structure through direct teaching of “how English works” for both decoding and spelling automaticity.
We chose the Wilson Reading System® because it is a finite program based on students completing the entire Wilson curriculum, consisting of a set number of books with each book containing lessons on the application of phonemic rules when reading and spelling. We feel that this is a much more concrete presentation for students who are having difficulty with phonics. The students have 2 periods/day of Wilson with a trained teacher and associate teacher.
Trained Faculty- Our faculty participates in specialized training prior to teaching any of the Wilson programs and has earned Wilson Dyslexia Practitioner and/or Wilson Dyslexia Therapist certifications.
