MORE ABOUT COMPANION READING AND PROGRAM DEVELOPER DR. GRANT VON HARRISON

When Dr. Grant Von Harrison, a College of Education professor at a Brigham   Young University, began working with elementary teachers he found that many students enter the Second Grade not reading at grade level, and with few exceptions, the same students were struggling with reading at the end of the Third Grade.

He says, "Today, longitudinal studies show that over 70% of the primary grade children who are diagnosed as reading disabled in the primary grades are still disabled  years later (Grossen, 1997)."  These findings completely refute the prevalent opinion that children will learn to read when they are "ready". This is why reading failure in the First Grade must be viewed as a very serious problem. There is only one solution, and that is to use effective instructional strategies with First Graders."

The intent of Dr. Von Harrison, in developing Companion Reading, was to design a First Grade reading program that would eliminate reading failure. He began by systematically validating strategies for teaching letter sounds, sight words, blending and decoding. Based upon this research and experience, the program that was developed is radically different from most conventional First Grade reading programs.

There are seven key principles of effective reading instruction that were researched by the National Institute of Child Health and Human Development that Dr. Von Harrison endorses emphatically, and which can be found incorporated into his programming.

2.  Tell children explicitly what single sound a given letter or letter combination makes.

3.  Teach frequent, highly regular sound-spelling relationships systematically.

5.   Use connected decodable text for children to practice the sound-spelling relationships they learn, along with a limited number of sight words that have been systematically taught.

6.     Interesting stories, which are used to develop language comprehension, should be balanced with decoding instruction.

7.     The comprehension instruction, and the decoding instruction should be separated from each other while children learn to decode, but both types of instruction should occur.

                                           While there are still some who advocate that teachers should never deal  with reading sub-skills such as letter sounds, blending and decoding (Goodman and Goodman 1981) , and contend that it is wrong to expose children to elements of reading other than whole text, research does not support these claims. To say that phonetic skills and reading know-how is developed naturally from "just reading" is simply not true.

          Evidence from research overwhelmingly indicates that reading skills are enhanced by phonetic skill training; that it is needed, and contributes to better word recognition and comprehension.

                                                               COMPANION READING

STRATEGIES AND OUTCOMES of FIRST GRADE

When Companion Reading is implemented as outlined by the author, the following learning outcomes for your First Graders will occur.

• In Companion Reading, the children are not grouped by ability. While all children are positively affected by this program, the reading ability of gifted children will be significantly accelerated.

• The children spend no time completing readiness worksheets. Phonetic skills are taught early and explicitly. The children will be capable of reading encountered words that are both regular and rule governed, because of  their mastery of letter sounds, letter sound discrimination, and the rules governing reading. They  will have the ability to use contextual clues to read sight words. This will result in the children having an extensive sight  word vocabulary , and a major increase in their oral vocabulary. In the First Grade, the students learn to read over two thousand words instead of a few hundred. These outcomes will result regardless of the socio-economic differences between children, or schools.

• Companion Reading children are expected to read at least 100 selections (e.g. books, stories, etc,) during the year, and a wide variety of trade books even if a reading series or basal is being used. They will read for meaning and information, and will have the ability to read fluently. At the end of the First Grade, most children will read written materials written at a Second Grade level  with ease. The average oral reading rate for the class, at the end of the first year, will be between 60 and 70 words per minute.

• The children learn to express themselves in writing. They will learn to write sentences, punctuate sentences, write notes, letters, and simple stories.

• They will learn to spell specified sight words, and learn to use letter sound discrimination to spell phonetic words.

They will be taught from a program that uses a systematic format; is a teacher directed, direct instruction program; embodies strategies to maximize student involvement. Comprehension and Vocabulary Development is stressed in every segment.

CAN YOUR 1ST GRADERS READ THIS? 

IF THEY HAD BEEN TAUGHT WITH METRA'S COMPANION READING THEY COULD!

The Knight and the Princess*

     Lancelot was a gallant old knight. he ha dark, black hair and blue eyes. there was not a more handsome knight in the entire kingdom. Late one night, the king sent for Lancelot. When Lancelot saw the king, he could tell that thee was something wrong. 

   "What can I do for my king?" asked Lancelot.

   "The old witch of the forest has kidnapped my daughter, Princess Anne, and taken all my gold," wept the king.

   "I know where the witch has taken the princess," said Lancelot. "I will rescue Princess Anne and return your gold by tomorrow."

   The king took hold of Lancelot's hand and said, "If you can save the princess, you can have the gold and all my kingdom."

   Lancelot jumped upon his horse and galloped out of sight.

   Before the clock struck midnight, Lancelot entered the woods and crept quietly to the cave where the old witch lived. The cave was cold and dark except for a faint light. When Lancelot came close to the light, he saw Princess Anne locked in chains and the old witch sitting by a fire counting the king's gold...

* The complete story, The Knight and the Princess, is found in Companion Reading - Grade One, 6th edition, Unit 26, Lesson 3, Worksheet #81. All first grade Companion Reading students read this story in April.