Phonics Assessment

The Research Base of

Phonics and Friends

Moves Your Students from Phonics to Literacy!

• Systematic and explicit instruction

• Simple, effective, and fun to teach

• Focuses on one phonetic element at a time

• Multiple levels for maximum flexibility

• Easy to connect to your core Reading/Language Arts curriculum

I. Introduction: The Research Base of Phonics and Friends . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . Page 3

II. Overview of Phonics and Friends . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . Page 4

III. Evidence of Effectiveness of Phonics and Friends . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . Page 6

IV. Phonemic Awareness Instruction in Phonics and Friends . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . Page 7

V. Phonics Instruction in Phonics and Friends . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . Page 11

VI. Fluency Instruction in Phonics and Friends . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . Page 16

VII. Vocabulary Instruction in Phonics and Friends . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . Page 18

VIII. Comprehension Instruction in Phonics and Friends . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . Page 21

IX. Support for English Learners in Phonics and Friends . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . Page 24

X. Assessment in Phonics and Friends . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . Page 26

XI. References . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . Page 28

The Research Base of Phonics and Friends

Hampton-Brown 1

The Research Base of Phonics and Friends2

The most recent initiatives within the new

No Child Left Behind federal legislation have

generated a commitment to ensure that all

children learn to read well by the end of third

grade. Along with this commitment, is the

need for schools to use research-based,

research-proven reading curriculum designed to

support all children as they become successful,

proficient readers.

Hampton-Brown used the most current

scientifically based research in the development

of the supplemental reading program Phonics

and Friends. More than 20 years of reading

research, the same research that was endorsed

and found to be most effective by the National

Reading Panel, is the foundation for the

reading instruction in Phonics and Friends. The

research that was used is cited in this report and

comes from the current documents that define

scientifically research-based reading instruction,

including the National Institute of Child Health

and Human Development’s (NICHD) report of

the National Reading Panel, the National

Research Council’s report Preventing Reading

Difficulties in Young Children, and other studies

that focus on scientifically research-based

reading instruction.

Hampton-Brown is dedicated to providing

research-based and research-proven instruction

in early literacy using systematic, explicit

reading instruction for all children, including

English Language Learners, to help develop the

skills needed to become proficient readers.

The Research Base of Phonics and Friends

Hampton-Brown 3

Overview of Phonics and Friends

Phonics and Friends is a supplemental PreK

through Grade 3 reading program designed to

provide direct, systematic, and explicit

instruction in the areas of phonemic awareness

and phonics and strategic application of those

skills in reading and writing. The program is

designed to help children read with

automaticity and accuracy, and write with

conventional spelling, ultimately supporting

them as they become independent readers and

writers.

The instructional design of Phonics and Friends is

based on the most current research providing

systematic, explicit instruction in phonemic

awareness, phonics, vocabulary, comprehension,

and fluency, the same five essential reading

components defined in the report from the

National Reading Panel. Phonics and Friends is

not a revision of an existing program, but an

all-new series, released in 2000, and specifically

designed to take advantage of the considerable

body of recent research.

The instruction in Phonics and Friends begins by

building phonemic awareness and phonics

skills, bridges these skills with word building

and decoding strategies, and finally applies all

of these skills with reading application to build

vocabulary and comprehension skills. Fluency

is also supported as children read interesting

and motivating fiction and nonfiction selections

with natural-sounding language that feature a

high percentage of words with the targeted

phonics element as well as previously taught

high-frequency words. In a well-designed,

research-based reading program, “Good

training in phonological awareness should be

combined with systematic, direct and explicit

instruction in phonics as well as rich

experiences with language and literature to

make a strong early reading curriculum”

(Torgesen and Mathes, 1998).

Essential Components of Readingfrom the National Reading Panel

• Phonemic Awareness• Phonics• Fluency• Vocabulary• Comprehension


The instructional design in all levels of Phonics

and Friends involves explicit, systematic

instruction using a three-step Teaching Plan

designed to build mastery of each phonics skill

and to ensure application in reading and

writing. For Levels A and A+, the three steps in

the Teaching Plan are as follows:

1) Listen and Sing focuses on skill practice

related to phonemic awareness,

2) Learn the Letter is designed for strategy

building related to sound-symbol

correspondence, and

3) Read and Write provides opportunities to

model and apply phonics skills and strategies in

reading and writing.

For Levels B through F, the three steps differ

from those in Levels A and A+ due to the

complexity of skills:

1) Introduce focuses on phonemic awareness,

sound-symbol correspondence, and strategies

for meeting individual needs,

2) Practice is designed for hands-on blending,

spelling practice and explicit instruction of

decoding strategies while providing practice in

decodable text, and

3) Read and Write provides many opportunities

for application to literature and writing.

Three-Step Teaching Plan

SKILLSPhonemic Awareness and Phonics

DECODING STRATEGIESModeling and Practice in Decodable Text

APPLICATIONVocabulary, Comprehension, and Fluency

Hampton-Brown 5

Effective, research-based teaching and learning

practices, as set forth in the reading and

language acquisition research, are those

incorporated in Phonics and Friends. Specifically,

the results of the findings of the National

Reading Panel in 2000 in the areas of phonemic

awareness, phonics, vocabulary, comprehension,

and fluency confirm the effectiveness of the

instructional strategies in Phonics and Friends.

Phonics and Friends has been implemented in

numerous districts across the country since its

release in 2000. Hampton-Brown is in the

process of conducting formal research studies

on the implementation and effectiveness of

Phonics and Friends with data becoming available

in 2003. These studies analyze the successful

implementation of Phonics and Friends in a

variety of PreK through Grade 3 settings

including mainstream literacy programs,

reading intervention, and ESL settings.

Student reading and language acquisition gains

are being measured to demonstrate the

effectiveness of Phonics and Friends as part of an

overall English reading and language arts

curriculum with diverse groups of learners.


Evidence of Effectiveness of Phonics and Friends

Phonemic awareness is the ability to notice,

think about, or manipulate the individual

sounds in words (Torgesen and Mathes, 1998).

Phonemic awareness is a powerful and proven

predictor of learning to read. The findings of

the National Reading Panel concluded that

“teaching children to manipulate phonemes in

words was highly effective under a variety of

teaching conditions, with a variety of learners,

grade and age levels, and that it significantly

improved reading more than instruction that

lacked any attention to phonemic awareness”

(National Reading Panel, 2000). The research

in Preventing Reading Difficulties in Young Children

concluded that when phonemic awareness

instruction is in place, the reading and spelling

growth of children is accelerated and the

incidence of reading failure is diminished

(Snow, Burns, Griffin, 1998).

The research of Keith Stanovich, Hallie K.

Yopp, as well as research found in the report

from the National Reading Panel on the

discrete skills of phonemic awareness was

invaluable in the development of the phonemic

awareness strand and its instructional

approaches in the kindergarten and first grade

levels of Phonics and Friends.

The phonemic awareness instruction in Phonics

and Friends starts at a broader level of

phonological awareness with tasks such as

rhyming and counting syllables and moves to

narrower phonological awareness tasks such as

working with onsets and rimes and individual

phonemes within words (phonemic awareness).

Phonological awareness follows a developmental

sequence with easier tasks developed in

preschool and early kindergarten and more

difficult tasks (awareness of individual

phonemes) developed in kindergarten and first

grade. This instructional approach is supported

by the findings of the National Reading Panel.

Phonemic Awareness Instruction in Phonics and Friends

Hampton-Brown 7

Fun and engaging songs, chants, and rhymes

are used to begin building the necessary

phonemic awareness skills starting in the PreK

levels of Phonics and Friends, moving to more

advanced phonemic awareness tasks in the first

grade levels. Lundberg, Frost and Peterson

(1988) found that phonemic awareness can be

taught in a fun, engaging, and interactive way.

Their research also demonstrated that 15 - 20

minute daily sessions were sufficient to help

develop the phonemic awareness skills children

need to become successful readers. Each lesson

plan within Phonics and Friends supports the

playful nature of phonemic awareness

instruction, using explicit instruction in daily

15 - 20 minute sessions. Children are actively

engaged in the phonemic awareness activities

and tasks as they notice, think about, and

manipulate the individual sounds in words.

The following chart lists the phonemic

awareness tasks that are explicitly taught and

incorporated in all lessons of Phonics and

Friends, PreK through first grade. The skills on

this chart are arranged in order of difficulty,

with the easiest tasks listed first.


Phonemic Awareness Tasks in Phonics and Friends

The most difficult tasks,but also the most directly correlated withreading success.

• Counting Words in a Spoken Sentence

• Counting Syllables in a Spoken Word

• Rhyming

• Matching Words

• Matching Sounds

• Blending Sounds to Form a Spoken Word

• Isolating a Sound in a Word

• Counting Sounds in a Word

• Segmenting Sounds in a Word

• Substituting a Sound in a Word

• Adding a Sound to a Word

• Taking Away a Sound from a Word

Mastery of these 12 phonemic awareness tasks is

monitored in Phonics and Friends using pre-,

progress, and post tests to help identify and

limit the number of phonemic awareness tasks

taught, ultimately informing decisions

regarding instruction.

A variety of instructional approaches within

Phonics and Friends, designed to help children

become phonemically aware, come from many

known and proven researchers. All of the

instructional strategies, focusing on the 12

phonemic awareness tasks and using the songs,

chants, and rhymes in Phonics and Friends, are

the same instructional strategies found to be

effective by the National Reading Panel.

Match Sounds: Say words one at a timechoosing -et words from the song andthe Word Bank. Children can hold theirarms out when they hear a word thatrhymes with jet and put their arms downwhen a word does not rhyme. Repeat for-ed and -en words.

Segment Words: Distribute counters and3-square Grids to children. Using wordsfrom the Word Bank, say words one at atime and have children sound them out.Have children slide a counter into eachsquare for each sound they hear as theysegment the sounds.

Level B Sing-Along Songs Big Book

Example of phonemic awareness instruction in Phonics and Friends using Sing-Along Songs.

Hampton-Brown 9

The National Reading Panel also determined

that phonemic awareness instruction that

involves print was found to be more effective

than phonemic awareness instruction without

print (National Reading Panel, 2000).

Another phonemic awareness strategy, the use

of Elkonin Boxes* or sound boxes to help

segment sounds, is incorporated in many of the

kindergarten and first grade lessons of Phonics

and Friends. Researchers found that many

children had difficulty progressing in learning

to read because they could not hear the sound

sequences in words. A technique based on the

research of Russian psychologist Elkonin uses

sound boxes to help teach children to hear the

sound sequences in words (Beck and Juel,

1992). This technique, used in Phonics and

Friends, uses Elkonin Boxes* to help support

children as they hear and segment sounds and

identify the individual sounds in words.


* Elkonin Boxes

Phonics instruction focuses on teaching

children the correspondence between letters

(graphemes) of written language and the

individual sounds (phonemes) of spoken

language. The goal of phonics instruction is to

help children understand and learn the

alphabetic principle—the understanding that

there are systematic and predictable

relationships between written letters and spoken

sounds, and to ensure that children know how

to apply this knowledge in their reading and

writing (National Reading Panel, 2000).

The research of Marilyn Adams, Linnea Ehri

and others influenced the development of the

program’s scope and sequence in the order and

manner in which new skills are introduced.

A full array of letter-sound correspondences is

explicitly taught in Phonics and Friends focusing

on high-utility letters in the PreK and

kindergarten levels and moving on to more

advanced phonics skills in the upper levels. For

example, in Level A+, instruction begins by first

introducing the high-utility letter-sound

correspondences, e.g. /m/, /s/, /t/, etc., then

moves to the introduction of a vowel so

children can begin to decode words. Mastery of

sounds and letters and beginning decoding

skills, through instruction in Level A+, prepares

students for exploring more complex concepts,

such as CVC word patterns in short vowel words

in Level B; long vowels in Level C; blends and

digraphs in Level D; long vowels, r-controlled

vowels, and inflections in Level E; and variant

sounds, diphthongs, suffixes, and prefixes in

Level F. The chart on the following page

describes the scope and sequence of Phonics

and Friends.

Phonics Instruction in Phonics and Friends

Hampton-Brown 11

Many different instructional approaches,

including onset-rime instruction, phonics

through spelling, and analogy-based phonics

are used in Phonics and Friends to explicitly teach

phonics skills, providing an abundant amount

of practice with these skills to support children

as they read and write. The three instructional

approaches previously mentioned are described

in the National Reading Panel’s report as being

systematic and explicit and more effective than

other approaches that do not use systematic and

explicit instruction, such as embedded phonics.

Research has also shown that systematic and

explicit phonics instruction using these

strategies significantly improves reading,

spelling, and comprehension skills in

kindergarten, first, and second grade children

(National Reading Panel, 2000).

Phonics and Friends Scope and Sequence

Sounds and Letters

Sounds and Letters + Decoding

Short Vowels

Long Vowels and Inflections

Blends and Digraphs

Long Vowels, R-Controlled Vowels, Inflections

Variant Sounds, Diphthongs, Suffixes and Prefixes

Level A

Level A+

Level B

Level C

Level D

Level E

Level F

Children learn to identify the soundof the letter or letters before the first vowel (the onset) in a one-syllable word and the sound of the remaining part of the word(the rime).

Onset-Rime Instruction*

Children learn to segment words intophonemes and to make words bywriting letters for phonemes.

Phonics through Spelling*

Children learn to use parts of wordfamilies they know to identify wordsthey don’t know that have similarparts.

Analogy-Based Phonics*

* National Reading Panel, 2000


After children have finished the phonemic

awareness activities in Phonics and Friends and

matched the sound to the symbol using the

Rhyme Cards, the instruction moves on to

various practice activities where children

physically manipulate letters to focus on the

patterns and structures within words. One of

these instructional strategies, connecting

phonics and spelling, comes from the research

of Patricia Cunningham and is called “Making

Words.” This activity helps children hear and

see the patterns and structures within words

and has been shown to increase the decoding

abilities of children, as compared to children

who have not had explicit phonics instruction

(Cunningham and Cunningham, 1992).

The Making Words activities in Phonics and

Friends bridge the phonemic awareness and

phonics skills that were previously taught with

the decoding strategies that will be introduced

later in the lesson. Children have the

opportunity to focus on encoding as they make

new words focusing on letter-sound

correspondence. Word Pockets and Letter

Cards (pictured below) are used during this

activity so each child has an opportunity to be

actively involved. “Making Words is a powerful

activity because within one instructional format

there are endless possibilities for discovering

how our alphabetic system works. It is a quick,

every-pupil response, manipulative activity with

which children get actively involved.”

(Cunningham and Cunningham, 1992).

Hampton-Brown 13

Level B Rhyme Card(front and back)

Word Pocket and Letter Cards

In addition to teaching the alphabetic system

and patterns and structures in words, children

need practice applying this knowledge while

they read (National Reading Panel, 2000). The

decoding instruction in Phonics and Friends

provides an intermediate step between skills

instruction and the application of these skills in

guided and independent reading and writing.

Explicit instruction of decoding strategies

supports children as they become successful,

proficient readers. The following chart explains

the decoding strategies that are explicitly taught

in all levels of Phonics and Friends using the Big

Phonics Storybooks and the Let’s Read Big

Books. These decoding strategies align with the

strategies that the National Reading Panel

found most effective in the research studies they

reviewed.

Strategy Instruction

Phonics and Friends Level

A+ B C D E F

Sound Out Words

Use Word Patterns(Phonograms, CVC, CVCe, etc.)

Predict from Pictures,Confirm with Print

Use Word Structures(Plurals, Verb Endings, Affixes)

Break Words into Syllables

Use Word Chunks

•

•

•••

••••

•••

••

•••

••

•••

Decoding Strategy in Phonics and Friends


Children have opportunities to apply the

phonics skills and decoding strategies they have

learned using the Phonics Storybooks and

Take-Home Books in Phonics and Friends that

contain a large numbers of words that children

can decode, along with previously taught

high-frequency words. This reading experience

not only supports accuracy and automaticity in

reading, but contributes to comprehension

skills, as research has also demonstrated.

Hampton-Brown 15

Level B Phonics Storybooks Set Phonics and Friends Take-Home Books

Fluency is the ability to read a text accurately,

quickly, and effortlessly, with appropriate

expression and intonation, to help gain

meaning from what is read. Fluency is an

essential component of any reading program

because it provides the bridge between word

recognition and comprehension (National

Reading Panel, 2000).

The National Reading Panel found two

instructional approaches related to fluency to

be the most effective—repeated reading and

modeling fluent reading. Repeated reading

involves reading passages aloud several times

until a certain level of fluency is reached. The

second instructional approach, modeling fluent

reading, involves students listening to good

models of fluent reading to learn how a reader’s

voice can help written text make sense.

(National Reading Panel, 2000).

The goal of Phonics and Friends is to develop

fluent, independent readers and writers. The

research of Keith Stanovich on the importance

of teaching for accuracy and automaticity so

children can spend more mental energy on

comprehension underlies the entire program.

The National Reading Panel’s endorsement of

repeated reading is the focus of every lesson in

Phonics and Friends, occurring in the Read and

Write step of each Teaching Plan. Phonics and

Friends provides practice for fluency using the

Phonics Storybooks, Storybook Tapes, and

Take-Home Books to support repeated readings

while also helping children apply the previously

taught phonics skills and decoding strategies

while they read.

For additional fluency support, Phonics and

Friends has Benchmark Books at the end of each

level to help evaluate reading fluency before

moving on to another level of instruction. The

need for ongoing fluency assessment is

supported in the National Research Council’s

report Preventing Reading Difficulties in Young

Children. The report states, “Because the ability

to obtain meaning from print depends so

strongly on the development of word

recognition, accuracy, and fluency, both the

latter should be regularly assessed in the

classroom.” (Snow, Burns, and Griffin, 1998).

Fluency Instruction in Phonics and Friends


Research reveals that it is important for

children to hear good models of fluent reading

along with providing support for having

children reread that same text. (National

Reading Panel, 2000). Phonics and Friends

provides a model for fluent reading in Levels A

and A+ to help lay the foundation for fluency in

PreK and kindergarten classrooms. Big Books

are used as teachers model how to read a text

fluently, and children have the opportunity to

reread that same text independently. At all

levels of the program, from Level A to Level F,

audio recordings of the Phonics Storybooks also

provide excellent models of fluent reading.

Phonics and Friends is a supplemental reading

program and references other storybooks (in

addition to the Phonics Storybooks and

Take-Home Books) in each Teaching Plan that

contain the phonics target element that

children can read. Teachers and families can

also provide many opportunities for children to

read books to apply decoding strategies and

focus on fluency.

Level B Phonics Storybooks

Hampton-Brown 17

Vocabulary plays a very important role in

learning to read as it is directly linked to

reading comprehension. Children who have

well-developed oral vocabularies have an easier

time when they encounter new words as they

read. As children read more advanced texts,

they must learn the meaning of new words that

are not part of their oral vocabulary (National

Reading Panel, 2000). The National Research

Council’s report Preventing Reading Difficulties in

Young Children confirms the importance of

direct vocabulary instruction by stating that

“learning new concepts and the words that

encode them is essential for comprehension

development” (Snow, Burns, and Griffin, 1998).

The most current research on vocabulary

instruction reveals that most vocabulary is

learned indirectly and that some vocabulary

must be taught directly. Children learn the

meaning of most words indirectly when they

engage in oral language, when adults read to

them, and when they read on their own. Even

though most vocabulary is learned indirectly,

some vocabulary should be taught directly

focusing on individual words and word learning

strategies (National Reading Panel, 2000).

Vocabulary is developed in Phonics and Friends

through the many listening, speaking, reading,

and writing activities. Numerous opportunities

are provided for teachers to read aloud to

children, engage students in discussions about

books, and allow children to read

independently. In addition, direct vocabulary

instruction occurs in all lessons of Phonics and

Friends focusing on concept vocabulary,

descriptive vocabulary, story vocabulary, and

direct study of different types of words, such as

high-frequency words and multiple-meaning

words.

Vocabulary Instruction in Phonics and Friends


High-frequency words are introduced in each

Teaching Plan, with 1 to 6 words presented in

each lesson and the number of words increasing

with each Phonics and Friends level. The

high-frequency words are explicitly taught prior

to reading using various strategies to introduce

the words. These high-frequency words are used

often in the Phonics Storybooks and

Take-Home Books and accumulate throughout

the Phonics and Friends levels. Research shows

that the average child needs between 4 and 14

exposures to a new word before it is committed

to memory (Lyon, 1998). Many opportunities

are provided for children to commit these

words to memory as they read the Phonics and

Friends Storybooks and Take-Home Books.

To support the development of concept, story,

and descriptive vocabulary, graphic organizers

are used in Phonics and Friends. Word webs,

concept maps, flow charts, and other graphics

are excellent tools for vocabulary development

and are used in the vocabulary building

activities.

computer

Communication

radio

talk

telephone

Internet

books

TV

Concept and Vocabulary Webfor use with The History Nook in Level F

Concept and Vocabulary Chartfor use with Blair’s Deer in Level E

Forest Animals

Kinds of Animals Signs of Animals

deerfoxesbirdsrabbitschipmunks

soundstracksnestsbroken branchesholes in ground

Hampton-Brown 19

In addition to teaching high-frequency words

and concept, story, and descriptive vocabulary,

direct instruction for studying different types of

words occurs in many Phonics and Friends

lessons. The following chart lists the skills

taught to develop vocabulary in Phonics and

Friends.

Vocabulary Development in Phonics and Friends

High-Frequency Words

Story Words in Concept Categories

Context Clues

Describing Words

Synonyms

Antonyms

Sound-Alike Words

Multiple-Meaning Words

Compound Words

Prefixes and Suffixes


The ultimate goal of any reading experience is

comprehension. Children who have a solid

foundation in phonemic awareness, phonics,

vocabulary, and fluency can ultimately focus on

the meaning of any text that they read.

Comprehension is a critically important aspect

of reading that can be improved using

instructional strategies that help readers use

specific comprehension strategies. Some

comprehension strategies can be acquired

informally, but explicit instruction in the

application of comprehension strategies has

proven to be effective. Over 30 years of

research has demonstrated that instruction in

comprehension skills can help students

understand what they read and communicate

with others about what they read (National

Reading Panel, 2000). In all levels of Phonics

and Friends, comprehension is developed in

each lesson in response to the Phonics

Storybooks, including both fiction and

nonfiction titles.

In Levels A and A+, listening comprehension is

the focus of each lesson as teachers help

children preview each book to activate prior

knowledge and establish the topic before

reading. This experience invites children to

share what they already know about a topic and

also builds familiarity with the book’s language

to support them as they make predictions and

set the purpose for reading. Research has

clearly demonstrated the importance of the

reader’s background knowledge for

understanding what is read (Snow, Burns, and

Griffin, 1998).

Comprehension Instruction in Phonics and Friends

Hampton-Brown 21

Many opportunities exist in each lesson to

discuss the main idea of a story, retell the

critical details, and summarize what was read.

The Big Books in Levels A and A+ are a critical

tool to model these comprehension strategies

with children. Interactive writing, in response to

the Phonics Storybooks, is also used as a

strategy in Levels A and A+ to help model

comprehension skills.

Literal and inferential comprehension continue

to be the focus in every lesson in Levels B, C,

and D as children read in guided reading

groups as well as independently. Just like Levels

A and A+, a preview is conducted prior to

reading in Levels B-D to establish the book’s

topic, to activate prior knowledge, and build

familiarity with the content and language of

each book. The three cueing systems are

modeled and employed in guided reading

groups as children use semantic cues, grammar

and structural cues, and print cues to support

comprehension. In Levels E and F of Phonics

and Friends, after children have mastered the

phonemic awareness tasks and many of the

phonics skills, comprehension becomes more of

a focus in each lesson and centers on

comprehension strategies that are taught

explicitly using graphic organizers. Children

have the opportunity to apply both phonics

skills and comprehension strategies as they read

the fiction and nonfiction Phonics Storybooks.

Research has revealed that text comprehension

can be improved using explicit instruction for

specific comprehension strategies and that

graphic and semantic organizers help readers

develop concepts in fiction and nonfiction text

and help them focus on the text structure as

they read (National Reading Panel, 2000). The

Phonics Storybooks in Levels E and F include

comprehension questions on the final page that

focus on both literal and inferential

comprehension. These questions are a useful

tool to help children engage in discussion after

they read. This experience also prompts

students to generate their own questions to

improve their active processing of text and

comprehension. Levels E and F also include

“Key Story Concepts Sentence Strips” that

support concept development and sequence of

events in each story. The following chart lists

the comprehension strategies that are explicitly

taught in Phonics and Friends.


Comprehension Skills and Strategies Taught in Phonics and Friends

Sample of a Graphic Organizer Used to Develop Comprehension

Activate Prior Knowledge

Make Predictions

Set Purposes for Reading

Relate Words

Use Context Clues

Character Traits

Character’s Feelings

Sequence of Events

Steps in a Process

Cause and Effect

Comparison and Contrast

Main Idea

Main Idea/Supporting Details

Make Inferences

Form Generalizations

Make Judgements and Decisions

Author’s Purpose

Author’s Point of View

Story Elements: Plot

Story Elements: Goal and Outcome

Story Elements: Problem and Solution

Story Elements: Setting

Story Elements: Theme

Story Elements: Mood

Summarize

Fact and Opinion

Relate to Personal Experience

Draw Conclusions

K-W-L Chart from Level E

Bugs

What We Know What We Want to Know What We Learned

Ants have 6 legs.Butterflies drink from flowers.Fireflies light up atnight.Walking sticks havelong, thin bodies.

How can ants carry bigpieces of food?How do butterflies eat?Why do fireflies lightup?Why do walking stickslook like twigs?

Hampton-Brown 23

Today’s classrooms are linguistically and

culturally diverse. They include native speakers

of English (at a variety of ability levels) and

English learners representing a variety of home

languages and different stages of language

proficiency. Native speakers of English and

English learners have different needs and

benefit from different instructional strategies

when learning to read.

As a leader in the field of both English

Language Arts and ESL instruction, Hampton-

Brown has brought research-based teaching

methodologies together with specialized

strategies for English learners, so that all

children may become successful, proficient

readers.

The National Reading Panel has yet to

evaluate research studies focusing on the

literacy needs of English learners, but a wide

body of research does exist which provides

research-based strategies that support the

literacy development of English learners. A new

commission is currently being established by the

U.S. Department of Education to analyze and

synthesize the wide body of research that

addresses the literacy needs of English learners.

English learners move through a series of

predictable stages as they progress in their

language development toward native-like

fluency in English. The chart on the following

page lists the Stages of Language Acquisition

and defines a few characteristics of English

learners at each of these stages focusing on

literacy needs.

Each lesson in Phonics and Friends provides

activities that will help adapt instruction to

ensure success for English learners. These

activities employ various strategies and

reinforcement activities to help English learners

understand the concepts and make the new

vocabulary their own. The following strategies

are incorporated into all lessons of Phonics and

Friends:

Make It Real: Realia, manipulatives, and

illustrations are used in each lesson to give

hands-on experiences with new vocabulary.

Act It Out: Gestures, facial expressions, and

body movements are incorporated into each

lesson to help make concepts, vocabulary, and

story text comprehensible.

Support for English Learners in Phonics and Friends


Try Out Language: Children have numerous

opportunities to hear new vocabulary and recite

simple text patterns, especially in songs, rhymes,

and patterned books where language is

especially memorable.

Shelter the Content: Strategies are

incorporated into the lessons to help familiarize

children with each story, one chunk at a time.

Summarization of each chunk is supported

using the Phonics and Friends Sentence Strips.

Children have opportunities to reread the strips

to ensure understanding of the key story

concepts and the new vocabulary.

Stages of Language Acquisition

Stage 1: Pre-Production• Shows limited comprehension of “chunks” or gist of language• Gains familiarity with the sounds, rhythms, and patterns of English• Attends to shared readings, but relies on picture clues for understanding

Stage 2: Early Production• Listens with greater understanding• Repeats and recites memorable language• Can identify people, places, and objects

Stage 3: Speech Emergence• Participates more in discussions, including those relating to academic content• Engages in independent reading based on oral fluency• Explains, describes, compares, retells in response to literature

Stage 4: Intermediate Fluency• Uses more extensive vocabulary• Reads a wider range of texts with increasing comprehension• Demonstrates use of higher order language, explores concepts at greater depth

Stage 5: Advanced Fluency• Produces language with varied grammatical structures and vocabulary,

comparable to native English speakers

Hampton-Brown 25

The goal of Phonics and Friends is the strategic

application of phonics in reading and writing.

The chart on the following page describes the

variety of assessment tools included in the

program, which inform placement, instruction,

and grading.

Mastery of the 12 phonemic awareness tasks

taught in Phonics and Friends is monitored using

the Phonemic Awareness Test in Levels A+

through D to help identify and limit the

number of phonemic awareness tasks taught,

ultimately informing decisions regarding

instruction.

To help measure and assess a child’s ability to

decode words with the targeted phonics

elements, Phonics and Friends has pre-, progress,

and posttests for phonics skills in all levels.

These assessment tools assist with placement

into the program and help monitor and inform

instruction.

Phonics and Friends also includes Book Scripts

for the Phonics and Friends Storybooks, to assist

teachers with Running Records. This assessment

allows the teacher to conduct a miscue analysis

to help evaluate knowledge of sound-letter

correspondence, high-frequency words, and

reading fluency.

Children vary greatly with regard to the skills

they bring to school. Some children know their

sounds and letters before they enter

kindergarten and may even be able to decode

words, while other children arrive with little or

no knowledge in either of these areas. Phonics

and Friends is designed with the flexibility to

individualize and differentiate instruction for

all children.


Assessment in Phonics and Friends

Hampton-Brown 27

Assessment in Phonics and Friends

Phonemic Awareness TestMeasures the child’s ability to isolate sounds,

to rhyme, to blend sounds and segment words, and to

manipulate sounds.

Levels A,A+, B, C, D

Levels A,A+, B, C, D

Levels A,A+, B

Levels B, C,D, E, F

Levels A+,B, C, D, E, F

Levels A,A+, B, C, D,E, F

Levels A,A+, B, C, D,E, F

Phonics andFriends

Assessment Tool PretestingProgressTesting

Posttesting

Concepts of Print TestMeasures the child’s knowledge of how books work,

parts of a book, directionality, letters, word, and sentence

boundaries, and punctuation clues.

Sound-Letter AssessmentMeasures accuracy and fluency with which the child gives

the sound for a letter; evaluates knowledge of letter

names and key words for each sound.

Phonics PretestMeasures the child’s ability to decode words with the

targeted phonics skills and assists in placement and

instructional grouping.

Progress TestMeasures the child’s phonemic awareness, knowledge of

sound-letter correspondences, and targeted phonics

elements for each Teaching Plan.

Running RecordsFor conducting a miscue analysis that evaluates the

child’s knowledge of sound-letter association,

high-frequency words, and reading fluency.

PosttestThis multiple-choice, group-administered test assesses the

phonics skills, decoding skills, and high-frequency words

taught in each level, and provides a Benchmark Book

(Levels B-F) for measuring reading accuracy and fluency.

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Adams, Marilyn J. (1990). Beginning to read: Thinking and learning about print. Cambridge, MA: MIT Press.

Beck, I.L. & Juel, C. (1992). The role of decoding in learning to read. In S. Jay Samuels and Allan E. Farstrip (Eds), What Research Has to Say About Reading Instruction. Newark, DE: International Reading Association.

Chard, D. J., D. C. Simmons, & E. J. Kameenui. (1998). Word recognition: Instructional and curricularbasics and implications. In D. C. Simmons and E. J. Kameenui (eds.), What reading research tells us about children with diverse learning needs: Bases and basics. Mahwah, NJ: Erlbaum.

Cunningham, Patricia M. & Allington, Richard I. (1994). Classrooms that work: They can all read and write.NY: HarperCollins.

Cunningham, Patricia M. (1995). Phonics they use: Words for reading and writing. NY: HarperCollins.

Cunningham, P. M., & Cunningham J.W. (1992). Making Words: Enhancing the invented spelling-decoding connection. The Reading Teacher, Vol 46, No. 2. pp. 106-115.

Ehri, Linnea C. (1994). Development of the ability to read words: Update. In R. Ruddell, M. Ruddell, & H. Singer (Eds.), Theoretical models and processes of reading (4th ed., pp. 323-359). Newark, DE: International Reading Association.

Lundberg, I., Frost, J., & Peterson, O. (1988) Effects of an extensive program for stimulating phonological awareness in preschool children. Reading Research Quarterly, 23, 263-284.

Lyon, G.R. (1998) Statement of Dr. G. Reid Lyon—Before the Committee on Labor and Human Resources (April 28, 1998). Bethesda, MD: National Institute of Child Health and Human Development.

National Reading Panel. (2000). Teaching children to read: An evidence-based assessment of the scientific research literature on reading and its implications for reading instruction. Bethesda, MD: National Institute of Child Health and Human Development.

National Research Council. (1998). Preventing reading difficulties in young children. Washington, DC: National Academy Press.

References

Spector, J.E. (1992). Predicting progress in beginning reading: Dynamic assessment of phonemic awareness. Journal of Educational Psychology, 84, 353-363.

Stanovich, Keith E., Cunningham, A.E. & Cramer, B. (1984). Assessing phonological awareness in kindergarten children: Issues of task comparability. Journal of Experimental Child Psychology, 38, 175-190.

Stanovich, K.E. (1991). Word Recognition: Changing Perspectives. In R. Barr, M. Kamil, P. Mosenthal, & P.D. Pearson (Eds.), Handbook of Reading Research (Vol. II, pp. 418-452). NY: Longman.

Torgesen, J.K. & Mathes, P. G. (1998) “What Every Teacher Should Know About Phonological Awareness.” Florida State University, Florida Department of Education.

Yopp, Hallie K. (1992). Developing phonemic awareness in young children. The Reading Teacher, 45, 696-703.

Yopp, Hallie K. & Ruth H. (2000). Supporting phonemic awareness development in the classroom. The Reading Teacher, 54, 2, 130-143.

To learn more about Phonics and Friends,contact Hampton-Brown oryour local representative.

P.O. Box 369

Marina, CA 93933

Phone: 800-333-3510

Fax: 831-384-8940

Web: www.hampton-brown.com

SLL05-0505A

Documents

Phonics Assessment