Intervention Programs

​WORD-LIST EXERCISES

If a student selects any exercise other than the story exercise, the student will see the following steps:

Look, Listen, and Respond

The student clicks a picture to hear a lesson about a featured sound, syllable, or affix. The student responds to the instruction by segmenting the featured word before reading it aloud. Then, the student clicks each of the five words to segment and reads each word with the narrator. This step helps the student learn the featured sounds or phonics patterns and provides teacher modeling.

Decode & Read Along

The Decode & Read Along step helps a student learn to decode an exercise's word list by reading the list twice. When the student chooses Start Read Along on this page, the application:

• first reads down the columns in the word list, playing a decoding animation with audio for each word; and
• then reads across the rows of the word list, pronouncing each word.

Word List

Before a timing, a student can click any word to see it divided into word parts and hear each word part, as well as the whole word. Then, the student reads the words in the exercise word list, down the columns and across the rows, clicking any word he or she doesn’t know to hear the word read. The student clicks finished and sees the number of words read per minute.

The student practices reading the word lists independently until he or she can read all of the words correctly. As the student practices many words with the featured pattern, he or she learns to decode the pattern more easily and to read the words with automaticity.

This step is the repeated reading component of the Read Naturally Strategy, which helps the student apply the featured sounds, phonics patterns, or language structure to master the words. This step also allows a student to monitor progress, the component of the Read Naturally Strategy that motivates the student to improve. The student can see the number of words read per minute (wpm) and can compare the number of words read to a rank that runs from Warming-up to Shooting Star.

Spelling

The student spells five words from the word list. The student listens to a word and sentence about the word and attempts to spell the word. Then, the student clicks Show Me to see if her spelling of the word is correct or if any changes are needed to make the spelling correct. The student gets full credit if she can spell the word correctly on the first try.

Phontastic

While the student waits for the teacher to do the pass timing on the word list and spelling words, the student reviews skills in a game format. All items in the game are clickable to support students’ varying needs and support growth in phonemic awareness, phonics, and word analysis. Requiring that the student attain a certain number of points while waiting (e.g., 10) is a good idea.

Pass Timing

The teacher listens to the student read the word list. To pass, the student must read all the words down the columns, then across the rows, at or above the student's wcpm goal rate with three or fewer errors.

Graph of Pass Score

A graph of the hot-timing score shows the student’s score in red along with the rank the student attained.

Pass/Review Work

The teacher reviews the student’s work in this exercise with the student and assigns any remedial options.

​STORY EXERCISE

If a student selects the story exercise, the student will see the following steps:

Read Along

The read along gives students a chance to read words with the featured phonics patterns in connected text. Ideally, students work through the story exercise after completing the word list exercises.

The student reads along quietly with a recording of a passage that contains words with the featured sounds taught in the section. The read along provides the teacher modeling component of the Read Naturally Strategy, which models correct pronunciation and helps the student learn new words and master others.

Practice

The student practices reading all or part of the story independently a set number of times chosen by the teacher. In Word Warm-ups Live, this reading isn’t timed, and there’s no fluency score. In Word Warm-ups, the purpose of the story is to have students read words with the featured phonics patterns in connected text.

Quick Quiz

The student completes a modified cloze question about the story. Each answer choice uses a featured sound from the section and provides another opportunity for the student to use the featured patterns in connected text. Responding to the text also holds the student accountable for meaning.

Phontastic

While the student waits for the teacher to do the pass timing on the Story and Quick Quiz, the student reviews phonics skills in a game format. All items in the game are clickable to support students’ varying needs and support growth in phonemic awareness, phonics, and word analysis.

Pass/Story Review

This activity provides an opportunity for the student to apply the featured phonics elements in the context of a story. You may have the student read all or part of the story; modify your expectations based on what you know about the student.

Pass/Review Quick Quiz

The teacher can review the student’s responses to the quiz and offer guidance in how to correct errors. This page has a dropdown to show either the student’s responses or the correct answers. The student has the opportunity to correct the answers if the teacher assigns this option on the Remedial page.