The Superkids Reading Program
The Superkids Reading Program is built on five principles for teaching reading.
1. Motivation is the key factor in children’s success in learning to read. Children come to school excited to learn. Above all, they come expecting to learn to read and write. But primary-grade students can be easily discouraged. To keep children engaged as they tackle the hard work of learning to read, the Superkids Reading Program features a cast of lively characters called Superkids, whose adventures and activities delight children of all skill levels and backgrounds. The Superkids mirror the developmental stages and interests of the students themselves, so they can easily relate to them.
2. Reading is most effectively taught when integrated with the other language arts. Children come to school with a sizable speaking vocabulary. Their academic task is to learn to read and write the words and ideas they can speak. Research shows the best way to teach any one of the language arts is by integrating it with the others. This program combines reading, spelling, writing, grammar, listening and speaking. In phonics, children learn to decode (read) and encode (spell) words.
3. Explicit phonics instruction gives children a reliable way to unlock the written word. Mastering the sound-symbol code is the foremost step in learning to read…the only truly reliable process that opens written language to beginning readers. This program is designed so that children learn to decode words with continuous practice until they reach automaticity and fluency. Only when they decode automatically are their minds free to comprehend fully what they have read.
4. Phonetically controlled vocabulary ensures success, enabling children to really read, not guess. Children learn to read most efficiently when they can apply letter-sounds they’ve been taught to phonetically controlled decodable text.
5. An integrated, multimodal approach gives all children practice in key reading skills in the modality that suits them. Children, like all of us, learn through their senses, through visual, auditory, and kinesthetic modalities. Usually, each of us has one or two preferred modalities. Throughout the program, when the children learn a new letter-sound correspondence or spelling pattern, they see it (visual modality), say it (auditory) and write it (kinesthetic), thereby guaranteeing that all the modalities are engaged.
The Superkids Reading Program is built on five principles for teaching reading.
1. Motivation is the key factor in children’s success in learning to read. Children come to school excited to learn. Above all, they come expecting to learn to read and write. But primary-grade students can be easily discouraged. To keep children engaged as they tackle the hard work of learning to read, the Superkids Reading Program features a cast of lively characters called Superkids, whose adventures and activities delight children of all skill levels and backgrounds. The Superkids mirror the developmental stages and interests of the students themselves, so they can easily relate to them.
2. Reading is most effectively taught when integrated with the other language arts. Children come to school with a sizable speaking vocabulary. Their academic task is to learn to read and write the words and ideas they can speak. Research shows the best way to teach any one of the language arts is by integrating it with the others. This program combines reading, spelling, writing, grammar, listening and speaking. In phonics, children learn to decode (read) and encode (spell) words.
3. Explicit phonics instruction gives children a reliable way to unlock the written word. Mastering the sound-symbol code is the foremost step in learning to read…the only truly reliable process that opens written language to beginning readers. This program is designed so that children learn to decode words with continuous practice until they reach automaticity and fluency. Only when they decode automatically are their minds free to comprehend fully what they have read.
4. Phonetically controlled vocabulary ensures success, enabling children to really read, not guess. Children learn to read most efficiently when they can apply letter-sounds they’ve been taught to phonetically controlled decodable text.
5. An integrated, multimodal approach gives all children practice in key reading skills in the modality that suits them. Children, like all of us, learn through their senses, through visual, auditory, and kinesthetic modalities. Usually, each of us has one or two preferred modalities. Throughout the program, when the children learn a new letter-sound correspondence or spelling pattern, they see it (visual modality), say it (auditory) and write it (kinesthetic), thereby guaranteeing that all the modalities are engaged.