Reading Program

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"Reading is the most important skill for success in school and

society."
Susan L. Hall and Louisa C. Moats, Straight Talk About Reading
The First Step Toward an Education for a Lifetime
When we first began developing our programs, we knew that early reading
was probably the most important skill we could focus on.
We asked one of the country's top reading researchers, "What program
should we use that best teaches reading?"
Her response was: "None of them."
So, based on careful guidance, we made the decision to build it ourselves.
Why go to such trouble? The primary reason gets to the heart of why we are
different from other curriculum providers:
Learning to read well is incredibly important. Even math performance is
tightly linked to reading performance. Therefore, we needed the best
possible approach to reading to maximize students' abilities to learn in all
other subjects.
That's why we created K12 PhonicsWorks.
The K12 PhonicsWorks program gives you the tools you need to prepare your
child to become an independent readerthe first step towards an education
for a lifetime.
K12 PhonicsWorks is based on the best reading research and years of
firsthand experience. It is designed to help children:

Recognize the relationship between sounds and letters

Blend sounds represented by letters into words

Read and spell longer, unfamiliar words by breaking them into

syllables

Read "sight words"frequently used words such as "said" or "was,"

some of which do not follow the spelling patterns that have been taught.
Click here to learn more and order a Basic PhonicsWorks kit.
Multisensory Instruction
K12 PhonicsWorks lessons incorporate multisensory instruction lesson
activities that allow children to look, listen, touch, move, and speak.
At the core of this multisensory instruction is the K12 PhonicsWorks tile kit,
which contains letters and letter combinations that represent sounds.
Children use the magnetized tiles to manipulate sounds and letters in fun
activities that combine visual, auditory, tactile, and oral learning.
Using the Letter Tile Kit

The Tile Kit helps your child understand how speech is represented in print.
For instance, consider how we use the tiles to build the word chin. When your
child first builds the word chin, he or she will be guided to select three tiles:

The single sound /ch/ is represented by two letters, c and h. Because those
two letters are printed on a single tile, your child gets both visual and tactile
reinforcement of the simple but important concept that two letters can
represent one sound.
Complete K12 PhonicsWorks Kit

PhonicsWorks training video

PhonicsWorks tile kit (Basic or Advanced)letter tiles, color tiles,

magnetic whiteboards

PhonicsWorks Readers"decodable" books of letter-sound patterns and

sight words

Teacher Guidedaily lesson plans and assessment answer keys

Student Pagespractice pages, games, and assessments

The PhonicsWorks program is organized into two partsBasic and Advanced
typically completed over the course of two grades. When combined with
instruction in literature (such as K12's Language Arts program for
Kindergarten and Grade 1), PhonicsWorks offers a comprehensive and
balanced approach to help your child acquire the critical skills and knowledge
required for reading and literacy.
Order a Basic PhonicsWorks kit today!
Naturally, We Don't Stop with PhonicsWorks
Reading is fundamental throughout the K12 curriculum. Other highlights of
our reading programs include:

Vocabulary building with outstanding early learning programs such as

Wordly Wise and Vocabulary Workshop

The excitement of reading real literature: from fairy tales, folk tales,
and great children's books in the early grades, to classic contemporary
and traditional booksfiction, plays, poetry, and non-fictionall carefully
selected for appropriate grade-level interest.

A reading-writing connection: students are encouraged to respond

creatively to their reading, often by writing, and to make connections
between literature and their own lives.

In the middle grade years, the Vocabulary from Classical Roots

program helps students appreciate the linguistic history of words while
allowing them to more easily decode unfamiliar vocabulary and enhance
reading proficiency.

In high school, real-time, online class discussions, as well as message

board exchanges, develop true communities of readers.

K12 also utilizes best-in-class reading test preparation programs so that

students can excel on standardized tests.
Our goal is to create motivated, capable, life-long readers who open their
school books with a sense of happy anticipation, looking forward to the
discoveries and pleasures that reading can bring.
Characteristics of the Reading Program
Developing high level reading skills as well as reading habits
Characteristics of the Reading Program
In the Reading Programme, native speakers acquire advanced reading
comprehension skills and are immersed in reading from a wide range of
texts. Progressing in small steps through each stage, the student starts with
learning the sounds within the words. After moving on to the fundamentals of
sentence structure, grammar and punctuation, students progress to
summarization and critical reading involving more complex passages.
ENABLING YOUNG READERS: A PRIMARY SCHOOL READING PROGRAM IN THE
PHILIPPINESPDF VERSION
Researchers evaluated a 31-day read-a-thon where students were
encouraged to read as many books as possible through daily reading
activities in school, such as storytelling sessions, reading games, and posters
that display each classs progress. Overall, the results suggest that
encouraging an increased use of age appropriate reading materials by
students was a viable strategy for improving students reading skills.
RESEARCHERS: Ama Baafra Abeberese
Todd Kumler
Leigh Linden
PARTNERS: Sa Aklat Sisikat Foundation
LOCATION: Tarlac, Philippines
SAMPLE: 5,150 fourth-grade students from 100 public schools
TIMELINE: 2009
THEMES: Education
POLICY ISSUE: Student Learning
Policy Issue:
Initiatives such as the United Nations Millennium Development Goals, which
call for universal primary education by 2015, have pushed developing
countries to extend primary school access. Yet increases in the quantity of
schools have not always led to corresponding increases in the quality of the
education offered, and in many developing countries, the reading ability of
many students is well below the appropriate level for their grade. The
Millennium Development Goal specifically highlights the need to increase
literacy rates among youth. However, it is important to understand what
types of programs actually have positive and persistent effects on literacy

levels and academic performance. Can a month-long reading marathon have

more substantial effects?
Context of the Evaluation:
Though the Philippine government spends 16 percent of its budget on
education, most of its expenditures are focused on staff salaries, with very
little money left over for training, textbooks or buildings.1 Because of this,
the public primary schools in the Philippines generally lack sufficient reading
resources.
The Sa Aklat Sisikat Foundation (SAS) is a Filipino non-profit that promotes
reading among Filipino children. SAS works with public schools around the
country, providing resources to motivate students to make reading a part of
their daily lives, including reading programs for kids, teacher training and
conferences, and materials on the latest teaching techniques. Since the
inception of the organization in 1999, SAS has implemented its reading
program in over 750 public schools, reaching nearly 150,000 students.
Details of the Intervention:
The SAS Reading Program consists of a two-day training program for fourthgrade teachers on the implementation of a reading marathon, followed by a
31-day reading marathon for fourth-grade students. The program is targeted
at fourth grade students because this is the age at which the Philippine
school system expects students to have developed sufficient reading fluency
to enjoy reading independently.
During the 31-day read-a-thon, students are encouraged to read as many
books as possible through daily reading activities in school, such as
storytelling sessions, reading games, and posters that display each classs
progress. Additionally, SAS provides 60 childrens storybooks in both Filipino
and English, reading diaries, and reading progress charts to each of the
participating schools. Of the one hundred schools that participated in this
evaluation, 50 were randomly selected to receive the materials and
participate in the reading marathon.
A baseline survey was conducted in all 100 schools in July 2009 . Two followup surveys were then conducted - just after the completion of the reading
marathon and then again three months later at the end of the academic year
to measure program impact. The study also measured students reading
skills as well as their knowledge of other subjects to assess the possibility of
spillovers .
Results and Policy Lessons:
Overall, the results suggest that encouraging an increased use of age
appropriate reading materials by students was a viable strategy for
improving students reading skills. Immediately after the treatment, students

reported that the number of books they read at school increased from 1.9 to
4.2 in the last week and from 2.3 to 9.5 in the last month. At the same time,
their reading scores increased by 0.13 standard deviations.
These positive effects persisted after the end of the program. Three months
after the reading marathon, students in the treatment group still read 3.1
more books in the previous month and scored 0.06 standard deviations
higher on reading tests, relative to those in the comparison group.
These results suggest that implementing short-term programs that promote
reading can be an effective way to cultivate good habits in children and
improve their reading ability.