Introduction
Tailored Reading contains three "Modules of
Instruction," and the goals of each complement the others. The Rainbow Module
introduces the pupil to the system by providing a motivational "jump start"
towards reading improvement that relates to many of the most basic aspects of written
language. The Sound Module involves a structured approach that enables pupils to
learn and practice phonics and word attack skills. The Sight Module concerns
learning progressively higher levels of frequently used, graded words (which may or may
not be phonically regular) in both speech and writing, forming the basis of a sight
vocabulary. All of the modules necessitate finding and filling gaps that prevent at-risk
readers from progressing appropriately in their quests towards literacy. The following
step-by-step outline embodies the core of the Tailored Reading process.During
tutoring sessions the tutor would use only the appropriate aspects of each module,
tailored to the individual learner's needs.
Important note:
Although the three modules are discussed in the Outline, only a portion of the
Rainbow Module is currently available and on which potential tutors can actually be
trained; the active links connect only to that component of the program. It is suggested
that when reading this Outline for the first time, rather than clicking on all the
links immediately (which might provide too much detailed information too soon), it is
advisable to get a general idea of the system first by reading the Outline in its
entirety. With this "organizer," it will be easier to hook into the specifics,
as needed. Also, as soon as the material becomes too technical it is a good idea to go on
to the next topic rather than becoming bogged down by details, which will be much easier
to pick up after becoming familiar with the general concepts. A great deal can be done by
having an understanding of the basics with a concern for what is appropriate for the
pupil.
1. Administer the Tailored Reading Inventory
(TRI)
The complete Tailored Reading Inventory quickly
helps the tutor find a sampling of the child’s known words, letter names and sounds,
information concerning the ability to blend letters into words: decoding (reading) and
encoding (spelling), as well as providing insight into reading comprehension. The portion
of the Inventory available on the current web site furnishes enough diagnostic
information to enable a tutor to use the discussed techniques very productively with a low
level reader as well as for concerned and curious individuals to gain insight into the
system. The following will show how the results of the TRI enables the tutor to
immediately structure successful reading experiences:
2. The Rainbow
Module
2.1. Start with known words.
Let us say, for example, that of the first twenty-five preprimer and primer Rainbow Words that appear on the
TRI, the pupil knows only "A," "a,"
"is," "in," "dog," and
"car." (This is only an example; each pupil will begin according to her
own TRI results.)
(If nearly all of the Rainbow Words are known and the pupil has a
basic understanding of letter sounds, the Rainbow Module need
not be used at all, except for motivational reasons, and the Sound and Sight
modules would begin immediately.)
2.2. Re-introduce the known words to the pupil, each color-coded to
its part of speech, on its Rainbow Rummy card. (Instructions
for making the cards are presented in the Rainbow Module.) Nouns are blue, verbs are
red, prepositions are green, and determiners (mostly articles and personal pronouns) are yellow.
2.3. Guide the learner to place each word card onto the
similarly colored section of the color-coded sentence pattern mat (which can be made with
colored 3x5 cards), creating the sentence,
     
The meaning of the sentence can then be discussed, illustrated, or acted
out, and compared to the more imaginative possibility, "A car is in a dog."
2.4. Introduce new words
with the help of their rebuses, associative picture clues that enable the pupil to learn
words more quickly. An example is the rebus, " ," for the word, "boy." (It may be best for
some children for whom this is their introduction to reading [who really know
nothing about words] to be first shown the rebuses without the words, following slightly
different procedures. Also, there are a number of related activities that can be done with
preschoolers as a group that makes their introductions to reading highly motivational.)
2.4.1. Using
rebuses in various activities facilitates initial success and reinforcement. Since
words of the same color can replace one another, the new blue word can replace one of the
original ones, changing the sentence to, for example, "A boy is in a
car." Notice in the following case, the rebus pasted on
"boy" to enable the pupil to use the word card in the sentence before actually
having mastered it.
2.5. The Rainbow Word/Rebus Association
Sheet (more simply called the Rebus Sheet) can also be used to introduce
the pupil to additional Rainbow Words.
Pointing to its rebus on the sheet, the tutor discusses each word (see rebus explanations). As soon as each rebus is
mastered the pupil can use this knowledge to reinforce the associated spelled word by
holding the card up to its rebus on the sheet, as is being done below with
"boy."
The word-rebus association is a powerful basis for whatever amount of
reinforcement becomes necessary for the child to learn each word. Matching activities and
games such as "Memory" can be utilized
for this purpose. If the rebuses have been pasted on the cards, once they are somewhat
familiar to the learner, the next level is to separate them from the words (by removing or
covering them or by making another card). Until the words become internalized the Rebus
Sheet should be available for use whenever needed to remind the learner of a word.
2.6. Rainbow Writing involves
constructing sentences with Rainbow Word cards following the color-coded sentence
pattern. It is ideal for beginning readers, who are usually excited to find it well within
their abilities to actually "read" and "write" meaningful as well as
silly thoughts, which they can illustrate and act out. Activities similar to
"charades" (e.g. acting out a sentence as the audience tries to guess the words)
can enable many pupils to be simultaneously involved as well. Since each word has its sign language equivalent, these can be used as well. See the
section on Sentence Types for a
discussion on the hierarchy of sentence meanings. Incidentally, pupils who don't like to
draw or feel inadequate despite being told that the illustration is only to show that they
understand the meaning of the sentence and need not be a masterpiece, might be shown how
simple shapes such as circles and rectangles and lines are all that is required. A car can
be represented by a rectangle with circles for wheels and a dog can be an oval and lines
for the extremities. The important thing is how the blue words are related. Is the dog
in or on the car? How does one word change the meaning of the sentence? To have
the pupil tell a story of what is going on in her illustration is usually a good idea if
there is any doubt as to whether the concept has been understood. Silliness, by the way,
can be encouraged. It is, of course, important to know when a sentence is silly!
As an alternative to using the cards to form the sentences, the learner
can select known words directly from the Rebus Sheet, picking one in
any row from each column, left to right, choosing only from words with which he is
familiar. Also, a younger child whose lack of writing skills might cause frustration, can
cut (or have cut for him) individual word-rebus squares from the main sheet, which he can
organize by hand to make the sentences. The learner can then paste each word/rebus on
paper to form "permanent" sentences. See The Rebus Sheet in Rainbow Writing
for additional information.
After the pupil feels secure using many of the Rainbow
Words, some of those from the word bank (obtained from the Pupil
Information Questionnaire or other sources) can supplement the others to personalize
the thoughts of the sentences. For example, by similarly color-coding word bank words
according to their part of speech, they can be included in activities and replace words in
Rainbow sentences. Also, the pupil's name, as well as other proper nouns (which don't
require preceding articles), can replace article/noun (e.g. a dog) combinations. Therefore,
Rainbow Sentences can easily include the name, which is printed with an approximately
equal distribution of yellow (if yellow is too light to show clearly, use some black for
emphasis) and blue markers on a 3x5 card held horizontally, covering the yellow and blue
boxes on the mat. For example,
"A
dog is in the car."
can be changed to
"Daniel is in
the car."
The same holds true for the end of the sentence, such as,
"A dog is with Daniel."
2.7. Rainbow Rummy. As soon as
nearly all of the twenty-five different words that compose sentences 1-5 have been learned to
some degree (with the rebus of each word being consulted as much as necessary), it becomes
possible for the pupil to be involved with the Rainbow
Rummy game itself. Similar to regular rummy card games, players draw and discard to
obtain a winning hand, in this case, when a sentence is formed by following the
color-coding. Aside from its motivational value, the game can be used creatively to
acquaint learners with many components of reading and language arts in an integrated
manner. If the pupil already knows how to read (but perhaps not spell) the words, spelling
can be stressed. If he still requires the rebuses to recall some, then this mastery is an
important goal. Some of the other areas covered are sentence comprehension (which can
involve the pupil illustrating or acting out the concept of the sentence), phonics
(isolating letter sounds by splitting them from words and blending sounds to form other
words), capitalization, punctuation, alphabetization, synonyms, antonyms, rhymes, as well
another creative possibilities. While advanced learners can become immersed in many of
these aspects of written language, tutors can concentrate their efforts with beginning
readers on more basic activities such as reading rebuses and words, making sentences,
various aspects of phonemic awareness activities involving letters, matching and
sequencing colors, working with numbers, etc. Once the pupil orders
the words of a sentence, points can be earned by correctly answering (or approaching the
answer to) questions involving almost anything related to the letters or words of the
sentence, tailored to the learner's strengths as well as problem areas. What an
opportunity to be creative! A simple way of keeping score is by totaling the points found
below the word on each card (which is also its readability
level).The Rainbow Rummy Scoresheet will soon be available, which consists of a
highly structured approach to scoring the game.
2.8. Phonemic awareness and phonics can be
directly associated to Rainbow Words. The tutor can do a great deal using Rainbow
Rummy word-cards and rebuses, with or without the game itself to teach and reinforce phonemic
awareness (an appreciation of sounds relating to letters as
parts of spoken words) and beginning phonics (the specific knowledge of phoneme
[sound] - grapheme [letter] relationships to facilitate pronunciation of unknown words) in
preparation to use the Sound Module. See Pre
Reading Abilities for more information.
3. The Sound
Module (not yet available)
This mechanism empowers the pupil to internalize word attack skills by
means of an immersive, yet nurturing process. Groups of related, phonically regular
words (beginning with the "at family"), which ascend to continuously higher
levels, are utilized towards this end by means of several associated mastery level
activities. Rapid Reading, the primary exercise, is structured to enable the pupil
to continually progress in the ability to sound out and blend letters, decoding words
never seen before. This is followed by Sound Spelling, in which the pupil is called
upon to sound out (rather than spell through memorization) words phonically similar to
those just practiced during Rapid Reading. The tutor coaches the pupil towards the
correct spelling if necessary, but guides him to use his own resources as much as
possible. After that, a motivational vocabulary game, Word Clue is played, also
based on Rapid Reading words. Sound Writing, in which the pupil uses some of
these words in sentences, completes the basic Sound Module. Many spin-offs are
possible for more reinforcement, including the use of materials from other programs that
involve the same concepts and levels. Reading comprehension activities based upon the
pupil's level of phonics mastery can be used as well. For example, a pupil who has
mastered Rapid Reading sheet #31 consisting of consonant-vowel-consonant words
having any vowel as the medial letter (e.g. "pat," him," "vex,"
"cob," and "jug") should be able to read stories composed of only
those words as well as words of lower levels and others known by "sight". The
very specific and easily noted record keeping system enables trained individuals to
instantly know the pupil's level of functioning at any given time.
4. The Sight
Module (not yet available)
The "jump start" which the Rainbow Module provides,
quickly enables the pupil to master new words, as well as to motivate further learning.
However, since this represents only a small sampling of words, a more in-depth inventory
is needed to reveal additional gaps involving high frequency words. As these gaps are
filled, a significant elevation of reading comprehension inevitably takes place. To
continue with the example suggested at the beginning of the Outline of Procedures, only five preprimer words, "a," "in," "is," "dog," and "car," out of the twelve on the Tailored
Reading Inventory were originally known by the pupil. Since there are many more
preprimer words that may or may not be known, greater insight into the learner's knowledge
of the rest of these words is in order. After testing, these "new" words are
then written on individual cards, and practiced during various activities, including
(sight) Word Clue, a game similar to (sound) Word Clue, which can also be
played using words already mastered. After mastery occurs (as determined the following
session), new gap words are found, and the cycle continues. A pupil who obviously knows
many more words on the Tailored Reading Inventory would be administered an
inventory at a higher level. In Sight Writing the pupil writes sentences and
perhaps little stories based on learned sightwords, and writing poetry takes the
process a step further. Similar to the Sound Module, reading stories for
comprehension can take place using materials that include (as much as possible) only
sightwords the pupil knows, for example, those mastered from the preprimer wordlist. The
idea is for the pupil to read for enjoyment (at his free reading level) rather than for
other purposes (such as to learn new words, at his instructional level). The structuring
of successful reading experiences empowers the pupil to feel the same joy as non at-risk
readers, whose lack of many gaps enable them to, without undue effort, read material at
their grade level.
Keep
instruction in phonics and sightwords separate except when they overlap naturally.
Such separation enables the learner to improve in each modality at her own pace,
regardless in which she is more proficient. When practicing Rapid Reading, the
child might already know a word such as "cat" by sight, and thus read it without
actually sounding it out, whereas "vat" might be new in terms of spelling as
well as meaning. Inversely, a "new" word met while being tested on a sightword
list might be able to be sounded out even though it was never seen before. Where such
overlapping occurs, enabling the pupil's knowledge of one modality to assist her learning
of the other, is fine. However, it is best not to assume that this will occur or chastise
the pupil for not making this kind of connection. As her skills are elevated, such
occurrences will happen increasingly.
Selection of
comprehension materials. To ensure success as much as possible, stories and other
materials that involve reading comprehension should be selected according to the
pupil’s abilities in the sight and sound modules. If the learner happens to be
reading a passage that contains an unrecognized word (sight or sound), the tutor should
immediately verbalize it rather than having the pupil sound it out (unless the tutor knows
this should be an easy task for the pupil). Maintaining the flow of the story is of much
more importance at that moment than providing a quick (and possibly irrelevant) lesson,
unless there is a substantial reason for this. Well directed, spontaneous questions
involving the word and its context can be valuable if this doesn't interfere with the flow
of the story, otherwise they can be asked later. Similarly, if the tutor knows that the
phonic structure of the word should be familiar to the child, this might be discussed
after the story has been completed as well.
Rather than to jump ahead to "advanced" phonics ideas brought on
by a story, it is best to save phonics lessons for Rapid Reading and the related
sequential activities of the Sound Module at the child's appropriate level. Since
at-risk readers require a good deal of practice, a brief lesson unrelated to what
the pupil has been working on will probably have little long term effect.
Comprehension
should be as enjoyable as possible for at-risk readers. When pupils can read and
understand practically all the words in a selection, and are immediately helped with
"new" words when needed, this usually enables them to enjoy the story. Such
positive experiences offer one of the best reasons for the continued desire to read more.
Parents and others with the best of intentions often violate the principle of not
interrupting the story by having their children attempt to sound out problem words,
causing what starts out as a positive experience to become an adversarial situation that
lessens the probability of future sessions.
5. Partner Plays
The three modules converge as the pupil reads Partner Plays, short dialogues composed of words
learned from one or more of the modules, with perhaps a few additional words, as needed,
to read each play, which the tutor discusses prior to the reading. Consistent with
facilitating enjoyment as much as possible, the tutor immediately says aloud any word
during the reading as soon as it is obvious that this help is needed.
Additional
Information
The objective is not to accomplish all of the above during each session,
but for the tutor to be able to have an arsenal of possibilities for use as needed, based
upon the learner's continually assessed deficits as well as her growing knowledge and
skills. Since the emphasis of instruction is to meet the learner's needs (affective as
well as cognitive), rather than to cover a certain amount of material, it is the quality
of how these needs are met that insures progress. Because the "curriculum" is so
personalized and interrelated, as long as there is some rationale behind what is done,
strides are made almost regardless of the order in which various activities are used
during tutoring sessions.
The very specific record keeping system is easily maintained and greatly
facilitates communication between those sharing the information, as well as in report
writing. Tutors are able to demonstrate a great deal of accountability in regard to pupil
progress to the degree that enables a substitute tutor to take over with precision at a
moment's notice.
A beginning reader should work with the Rainbow Module for as many
sessions as it takes to learn about twenty-five of the Rainbow Words (sentences 1 - 5)
without the need to use
rebuses, achieve some understanding of phonemic awareness (to at least be able
to isolate the first sound of a word) and phonics (to at least understand the
concept of blending sounds). This can be done by using the Rainbow Rummy cards and
rebuses in a variety of ways, as discussed in those web pages, as well as related
offshoots, such as Partner Plays.
If a pupil has made more progress in sight (Rainbow Words) than
sound (phonics), he can begin to work in the Sight Module while still involved with
the Rainbow Module for work in phonemic awareness and phonics. If the
opposite is true, he can begin Rapid Reading while still learning sightwords in the
Rainbow Module.
Once the pupil is working with the Sound and/or Sight Modules,
the two most important activities to be included in each session are Rapid Reading and/or
Sight Reading. Other activities might involve some of those mentioned above, at the
learner's appropriate level. Rapid Reading should be performed at least once,
preferably at least twice each session, with reinforcement involving Sound Spelling
and Word Clue. These can be done for varying lengths of time, depending upon what
other activities are planned, etc. Concerning Sight Reading, the learner needs to
be tested on the sightwords of the previous session as well as to resume being
inventoried, beginning with the next word on the wordlist. The tutor quickly becomes able
to make appropriate decisions concerning the various activities which might be involved.
Footnotes
If rubber cement is used the rebus
will be able to peel off more easily (especially if only one of the surfaces is swabbed
and then the rebus is attached to the card before it dries) and allow for activities that
are done with the separated words and rebuses when the pupil feels more comfortable at
this next level.
The number on the upper right
of each card, which represents the card's position in the deck, has many uses, not the
least of which is to determine which cards are missing. Also, children usually enjoy
placing cards in the order of the numbers, and this can be used in following directions
activities. For example,
1. Shuffle the deck
2. find numbers 1 - 20 and place them in number order.
3. Using only those cards, place them in alphabetical order.
4. Make a sentence using the lowest number word of each color.
They're great for helping determine the playing order in activities: after
spreading the cards face down on the table, the one who picks the highest (or lowest)
numbered card goes first.
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