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Beginning Readers Develop Phonics Skills

Ability Level: Grades PK-2 • Interest Level: Grades PK-8

Simon S.I.O. Graphic

Students who fail to attain foundational phonics skills face inevitable academic hardships as they move beyond the early grades. Simon S.I.O., developed in collaboration with Dr. Ted Hasselbring, Vanderbilt University, uses a personal tutor to deliver individualized instruction and corrective feedback to ensure students acquire the critical skills they need to become readers.

Sally Shaywitz (2003) wrote, "The real power of Simon is for students who have the underlying understanding of the alphabetic principle and need a lot of time to rehearse.” Students move through a variety of activities mastering letter-sounds and word families. Students practice their learning and increase fluency by building new words, recalling learned words, guided spelling, discriminating between words and reading controlled texts. Data collection is built-in so that learners can monitor and celebrate the progress they make.

Activities Nurture Beginning Readers and English Language Learners

	Students drag onsets and rimes to the correct position to complete the word		Students practice spelling each learned word

	Simon speaks a word and students select it		Students race the clock as they read a word and select the corresponding graphic

	Students read the word and listen to their recording		Students read and record passages of controlled text

Aligned with Brain-Based Reading Research

“In reading, students first learn the alphabetic principle and use this to decode words, often very laboriously. Through repeated trials, the student will develop a ‘neural model’ of the word and no longer relies on the use of the alphabetic principle. The more times the student reads the word correctly the stronger the neural pathway becomes and fluency increases. Simon uses a very systematic approach to developing these ‘neural models.’ Context is essential to bring meaning to these words, and Simon helps with context in two ways: (1) they get visual support for the words and (2) when they read the words within connected text they get context for the meaning of the word."
Ted Hasselbring, Vanderbilt University

Simon S.I.O. for RtI | Student & Teacher Benefits

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