How to adapt Reading Reflex to a small group or one on one

I was helping someone with this and I though I might as well post this thinking it might help someone out there as well. Hope you find this helpful. I read Reading Reflex but didn’t really understand how to use until after my traiining. If I only had the book, this is how I would go about orgainizing it. Training is very helpful by the way.

How to adapt Reading Reflex to a small group remedial:

1. Read the entire book.
2. If possible read the book Why Our Children Can’t Read and What We Can Do About it by Diane McGuiness.
3. Get some tabs and make tabs to say Fat Cat Sat, Bug on Jug, Ben Bun, Adjacent Consonants, Advanced Code, and Multi-syllable Words
4. Get a box of sheet protectors.
5. Get a big 5 inch notebook
6. Auditory Processing (Phoneme Manipulation) is best done one on one. Word building can be done in a small group but it is tricky. I have the kids build and pass it on. Build and pass it on. Each needs a dry erase. They build and map the sounds out loud.
7. Once you get to mostly code, it is much easier. It will get much easier at this point. And the kids will feel successful.

BASIC CODE

How to set of the basic code of Fat Cat Sat, Bug on Jug, and Ben Bun. You need 18 sheet protectors or so.
First:

FAT CAT SAT
1. WORD BUILDING also called Word Construction page 71 and 72.. Copy all pages. Now, take the letters plus the picture of cat and write cat on the back of each and color all 4 pieces of paper one same color. Do the same for the rest of the words and any words in Word Building. Place these in an envelope in a plastic sheet protector.
2. AUDITORY PROCESSING also called Phoneme Manipulation. Same thing. Take page 87. . Write the word cot on the back of each piece of paper. Next, color the backs of all letters lightly with crayon. I do this in case I drop it I can find where is goes. Put all these in an envelope inside a plastic sheet protector.
3. BINGO page 9-105. Play BINGO. Only say letter sounds. You might consider honey nut Cheerios for the cover piece.
4. FAT CAT SAT WORD LIST, page 133. Cut these out and put in envelope and put in plastic sheet protector right in order.
5. Fat Cat Sat STORY of sentences, page 143. Put in sheet protector. Make about 10 copies and put them in for a small group. I have them take this home to practice.
6. Mad Cat STORY, page 146. Again, make multiple copies.

BUG ON JUG

7. Word Building page 75 and 76.. Copy all pages. Now, take the letters plus the picture of cat and write cat on the back of each and color all 4 pieces of paper one same color. Do the same for the rest of the words and any words in Word Building. Place these in an envelope in a plastic sheet protector.
8. Auditory Processing of Phoneme Manipulation. Same thing. Take page 89. . Write the word cot on the back of each piece of paper. Next, color the backs of all letters lightly with crayon. I do this in case I drop it I can find where is goes. Put all these in an envelope inside a plastic sheet protector.
9. BINGO page 107-117. Play BINGO. Only say letter sounds. You might consider honey nut Cheerios for the cover piece.
10. BUG ON JUG Word List, page 135. Cut these out and put in envelope and put in plastic sheet protector right in order.
11. BUG ON JUG of sentences, page 144. Put in sheet protector. Make about 10 copies and put them in for a small group. I have them take this home to practice.
12. The Missing Cat, page 148-149. Again, make multiple copies.

BEN BUN
13. Word Building page 77 and 79. Copy all pages. Now, take the letters plus the picture of cat and write cat on the back of each and color all 4 pieces of paper one same color. Do the same for the rest of the words and any words in Word Building. Place these in an envelope in a plastic sheet protector.
14. Auditory Processing of Phoneme Manipulation. Same thing. Take page 91. . Write the word cot on the back of each piece of paper. Next, color the backs of all letters lightly with crayon. I do this in case I drop it I can find where is goes. Put all these in an envelope inside a plastic sheet protector.
15. BINGO page 119-129. Play BINGO. Only say letter sounds. You might consider honey nut Cheerios for the cover piece.
16. Ben BUN Word List, page 137. Cut these out and put in envelope and put in plastic sheet protector right in order.
17. Ben Bun of sentences, page 145. Put in sheet protector. Make about 10 copies and put them in for a small group. I have them take this home to practice.
18. Fun in the Sun, page 150-151. Again, make multiple copies.

I used little 3/5 cards to cue myself on what to say for each section. I have this on power point if you email me. The trick is to go very fast. We don’t want to use too many words or help too much. We want to give the child as little information as possible in order to break the code. There is usually just one part that trips up a kid. In the BASIC CODE you will usually find it is the vowel. So, keep in mind, help by giving only the vowel sound if this is the case.

ADJACENT CONSONANT SOUNDS

Auditory Processing also called Phoneme Manipulation:
Take page 163. Color all pieces same color after writing the word rap on the back. Put them in an envelope and into a sheet protector.

Here’s a lesson in one block of time:
Auditory Processing (color backs of all same color, place in envelope, sheet protector)
Word Building (cut up, write name of word on backs of picture/letters, color and put in envelope and in sheet protector)
Directed Word Reading on Flash Card (put these all in envelope, in sheet protector) I send these home on a full sheet for practice in isolation.
Story (make multiple copies to pass out for kids to consume)

Take Auditory Processing (phoneme manipulation) Envelope page 163
VCC Word Building page 173,175
Directed Reading page 187
Story page 198-199” Stan’s Plant”

Next Lesson
Auditory Processing(phoneme manipulation) page 165
CVCC Word Building page 177,179
Directed Reading page 189
Story page 200-201”Skip’s Gift”

Next Lesson
Auditory Processing (phoneme manipulation) 167
CCVC Word Building page 181-183
Directed
Reading Flash Cards page 191
Story page 200-201 “The Trip”

ADVANCED CODE

WORD BUILDING page 217-223

Take all these words; write the word ship on the backs of the picture of ship and the 3 slips of paper and color. Do this for the rest.

By now, most of the kids can do all the skills of segmenting, blending, or auditory processing ic phoneme manipulation. Even if they are not solid move on to the code. It is ok for them to be in various levels at once. Then, whenever you can keep going back and do phoneme manipulation and word building until they can segment, blend, and phoneme manipulation perfectly .We need to get all the pictures of sound in the brain and there’s no time to waste. They get this by sorting the sound, reading the lists of words, and then putting them into the stories. Error correction is critical. Please study this section carefully. This will make or break your program and can not be stressed enough. Also, note that segmenting must be perfect. Students should be able to take a word and break it into the sound “black” /b/ /l/ /a/ /ck/ You will hear things like /bl/ /a/ /ck/. Close is NOT good enough here. Perfect segmenting please.

In a small group by now, four or five weeks into school all my kids who started on the first day of school are doing this. For those who still don’t get it (my new kid and one tough severe kid) I keep going with all the phoneme manipulation or auditory processing daily until they get it. You can do a retest every so often. Once they have it, you don’t need to do it individually. Whole group review everyone now and again won’t hurt. Keep moving.

WORD SORTS BY SOUNDS (this is where the teacher kit WORD WORK comes in handy as it is on 8/11 paper and better suited for students)

Teacher Introduces a Sound and tells student this is one of the 44 sounds that you knew when you came to school. You will learn/discover how these sounds are represented on paper. We have 44 sounds and only 26 letters so this makes it tricky at times.

Give the student the group of words with one sound such as /o-e/ what you learned as long o. PG doesn’t call it long o though. The child is going to write all these words on a page in different groups. The child tries to find the “sound picture” of the sound, write it in the top and every word encountered on the page will go in this column. The child says the sounds as he/she writes.

Word List sound /oe/ Map the sounds as you write.page 231

Now Do the VOWEL PLUS E page 145. This is a biggie Then do page 246.

Now, read the story “The Coach” page 262-262 (put multiple copies of all stories and Sorting by Sounds in sheet protectors) No need to talk about silent letters here. Just plain it is a sound picture that is split and the sound is “right here” and point the first vowel.

Word List sound /ow/ Sort the sounds as spelled out on page 247-249, then go to 251 Word Analysis, then read “The Cloud” page 266

Word List sound /er/ page 232, then read “The Hurt Girl” on page 267

Word List sound /r/ page 232 (please note that this is a short /r/ NOT /er/ clip it short Word Analysis on 251 using “r’ and “er”

Word List /ee/ Sort the sounds page 249 page 233 then read “The Jeep”

Word List /a-e/ page 234 Word Analysis page 151 then read “Jane and Blain”

Word Listt /oo/ page 235 as in spoon , 247, Now read “The New Blue Boot”

Word List /oo/ page 235 as in look , Sound Sort on page 247, Word Analysis page 151 read “The Crook”

Word List /u/ page 236, do Sound Sorting page 247 with ‘ou’ , Word Analysis page 151, read “The Crook” on page 271

Word List /e/ page 237 and follow the print below on the rest.

Word List /i-e/ page 238

Word List /s/ page 239

Word List /z/ page 239

Word List /l/ page 239

Sort the rest, you get it by now.

In the Classroom version, there are Sound Sorts with Stories for each sound. Once the kid can blend, segment, and manipulate phonemes, you just plug away through the code. As each kid can segment, blend, and manipulate phonemes, you drop the kid from individual Skill WORK such as segmenting, blending, and phoneme manipulation work and move to small group code work. You hit the code hard and fast.

You introduce a sound for the day. Pull each kid individually having the kid read the flash cards to the teacher while the rest are SOUND SORTING. The flash cards all contain the sound of the day all represented with different letters. (boat, grow, vote might all be in the flash card pile but the child knows every word in the flash cards will have the sound long o) The kids come up one by one and read the flash cards and the story. They go back to finish their sound sort. They take their sound sort page home to practice along with the story of the day. They bring the sort and story back and I stick them back into the plastic sheet protectors for the next kid to save paper. I throw away the sound sort that the kid sorted as it has been consumed. I throw in some review as needed. Meanwhile, I find real books that correlate with easy code that has been introduced. Bob books, stories from Project Read, those magnetic books, I can Read Books etc..

The pace may need to be altered. This is only a guide to make sense of Reading Reflex. The teacher version can be purchased for $175 from www.readamerica.net. Manipulatives are something like $19.00.

I recommend trying this out on one kid until you’ve done it. Then try small group. This is very hard whole group but can be done after you get in “into your head”.

This is a lot of information. If you have not read Reading Reflex, this won’t make sense.

Just a note, I have a kid who had to go to an alternative school. He was so frustrated that he could not read, he would throw chairs etc.. He was reading at a primer level when I met him the 3rd week of school this year as he just started phasing to our school slowly for a few hours a day. He already is at the 3rd grade level after only a few weeks. He is on fire and is now reading for pleasure. He is a 5th grader. You should have heard him encouraging my new kid. I wish I could have video taped it for future use. The ED teacher who is the homeroom teacher is just amazed and now has been in my room to see what on earth I’m doing. Seeing is believing. This Phono-graphix is really extremely powerful if implemented correctly. You will just die when you see how stupid the stories are but, hang tight. It is be only for a while. You can always make up your own decodable if you hate them. My ED phasing from the alternative school is already reading chapter books, real books, great books. This program is awesome once you get good at it. Bare with it. Give it a fair shot. Try it on your hardest kiddo. If successful, try a small group. If you experience success, weave in into whole class, not as a program but as a way to decode multi-syllable words whenever needed.

Good luck and email me anytime.

http://www.devon.gov.uk/dcs/speceduc/phono/phono.pdf

Michelle AZ