Wilson: Successfully Teaching Reading and Spelling

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Wilson Successfully Teaching Reading and
Spelling According to the 2002 National
Assessment of Educational Progress report (NAEP),
millions of students in middle and high schools
across the nation struggle to read in school
every day.
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• The number of students scoring below basic level
  in overall reading skill is astounding
• 36 of 4th grade students
• 25 of 8th grade students
• 26 of 12th grade students

Teachers of Gifted students, who teach Wilson
Reading, regard this reading program as the
absolute best theyve ever used for at-risk
readers.
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Key Characteristics of the Wilson Reading System
Students learn by hearing sounds manipulating
color-coded sound, syllable, and word cards
performing finger-tapping exercises writing down
spoken words and sentences reading aloud
repeating what they have read in their own words
and hearing others read as well. Skills and
knowledge are reinforced through visual,
auditory, kinesthetic, and tactile senses and
they are learned to mastery.
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Description of the Approach
look like flashcards representing not the letter
but the sound), the Wilson program uses a "sound
tapping" procedure in these early steps. For
example, in teaching the word map, three cards
with letters are put on the table to represent
the three sounds in the word. The student is
taught to say each sound while tapping a
different finger to his thumb, as follows As he
says the /m/ sound, he taps his index finger to
his thumb.As he says the /a/ sound, he taps his
middle finger to his thumb.As he says the /p/
sound, he taps his ring finger to his thumb.He
then says the sounds as he drags his thumb across
the three fingers starting with his index finger
and ending with his ring finger.
The Wilson program has 12 steps. Steps 1 2
emphasize phonemic segmentation skills (the
ability to pull apart the sounds in a word) and
blending the sounds together again. Initially
using one syllable short vowel words, a student
learns how to segment sounds in words. In
addition to using sound cards (cards which
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The term phoneme means the smallest unit of
sound. A grapheme is the written representation
of a phoneme. Example ck, k and c are
graphemes for the phoneme /k/.
As the student is successful at reading and
spelling both real and nonsense words with three
sounds (with and without tapping) then he moves
on to words with four and eventually five sounds,
and so forth. At the end of Step 2, the student
is able to fluently blend and segment up to six
sounds in a syllable.
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The instruction is designed to move a students
eye quickly across a word. Wilson students scoop
syllables with a pen or pencil point. This serves
the purpose of fluency training. Fluency
development begins immediately with the Wilson
Reading System. Students begin fluency work when
they learn the letter names and sounds to
automaticity (so they can say letters and sounds
in their sleep) This is achieved simply by daily
drills.
Beginning in step 3, syllable division is taught
as rules apply to the structure of the words
being studied. The WRS changes its focus from
individual sounds to syllable patterns. Many
students with reading difficulties view longer
words as one long string of letters. WRS teaches
students to recognize divisions through syllable
division. This is taught with card manipulation
and is limited to one syllable type at a time.
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• Phonemic segmentation
• Alphabetic principle
• sound/symbol relationships
• Decoding (tapping)
• Encoding (spelling)
• Advanced word analysis
• Vocabulary development
• Sight word instruction
• Fluency
• Comprehension 

• Digraph Two letters that form one sound.
• Example ch, th, qu, sh, ck
• Bonus Letters If l, s, or f, follow a vowel
  at the end of a word it gets a bonus letter.
• Example miss, fill, puff
• Welded Sound sounds are welded together
• Example ink, ank, unk, ing, am, an, olt, old,
  ind
• Blend Sounds that are blended.
• Example cl, sr, lk, st

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Wilson includes extensive controlled text
(wordlists, sentences and stories) for
application practice of skills. I supplement
the Wilson word list with the Dolch word list
which includes 220 of the most frequently found
words in elementary reading.
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I asked a few students how they felt about our
Wilson Reading Program. Here are some of their
quotes  
I can read words now that I could never read
before.   " I can read quicker."   " I am
getting better reading with the class."   I can
see the sounds I have to make when I read."   If
Wilson was not here this year we would not know
any of these words."   I can feel the sounds I
need to make."
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Wilson Lesson Plan

• Use 11 or in groups
• Lesson length 50 minutes to 1 hour
• Number of lessons two-three per week

Part One Emphasis Decoding

• Sound Cards
• This includes a quick drill of the phonemes
  with the teacher showing a grapheme and the
  student(s) naming the letter(s) and corresponding
  sound(s). Key words are always used with vowels
  and as needed with other sounds.

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2. Teach/Review Concepts for Reading Blank
cards and letter cards are used to teach phoneme
segmentation and blending (initially). Students
are taught to segment sounds using a finger
tapping procedure. Beyond step 2, syllable and
suffix cards are used to teach total word
structure. Every lesson involves this
manipulation of cards to teach word structure and
practice reading.
3. Word Cards Skills learned in section 2 of
the lesson are applied to reading single words on
flashcards. Review words are included in the
stack of cards presented.
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4. Wordlist Reading Skills are applied to the
reading of single words on a controlled wordlist
containing only those elements of word structure
taught thus far. In 11 lessons, the student is
charted daily for independent success. In group
lessons, students are charted before progressing
to the next sub-step. The list changes with each
lesson so that students never memorize the list.
5. Sentence Reading Word attack skills are
applied to reading within sentences. All
sentences contain only the element of word
structure taught thus far.
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Part Two Emphasis Encoding
6. Preparation for Written Work/Quick Drill
Letter formation is taught as needed. Every
lesson includes a phoneme drill with the teacher
saying a sound and the student identifying the
corresponding letter(s).
7. Teach/Review Concepts for Spelling
Initially, student spells words with phoneme
cards and blank cards. Students apply the finger
tapping procedure to segment sounds for spelling.
Beyond step three, students use syllable and
suffix cards. Students spell words using the
cards to sequence sounds, syllables, and word
parts.
8. Written Work Sounds, single words, and
sentence dictations are included. The teacher
dictates sounds, words, and sentences that are
controlled they only contain the word structure
elements directly taught thus far. The student
repeats the dictation prior to writing. Sounds
and words are spelled orally before they are
written. A formal procedure is followed for
independent sentence proofreading.
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10. Listening Comprehension In this part of
the lesson, the teacher reads non-controlled
text to the student. The student uses
visualization and re-telling to develop
comprehension skills at a higher level than
current decoding.
Part Three Emphasis Reading Comprehension
9. Passage Reading The student silently reads
a short passage with controlled vocabulary
containing only the studied word elements. The
student retells the passage in his/her own words
linked to visualization of the passage. The
student then reads orally.
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Wilson Successfully Teaching Reading and
Spelling
A Study in Massachusetts, Maine and New Jersey
A report from the Wilson Learning Training
Center describes a study involving 220 language
learning-disabled students and teacher pairs from
Massachusetts, Maine and New Jersey, 1995. The
aim of this study was to determine whether
special education pullout programs with teachers
trained in the Wilson Reading System yield
significant growth in students' reading and
spelling skills.

• Data from pretests and post-tests were analyzed
  to determine student gains in
• Word Attack
• Reading Comprehension
• Total Reading
• Spelling

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• Students were pre-tested in September and
  reevaluated in May or June, after an average of
  62 Wilson reading lessons.
• Results from the study include the following
•  
• Word Attack The average gain for all students
  was 4.6 grade levels, from a pretest average
  score of 2.85 to a post-test score of 7.44
• Reading Comprehension The average gain was 1.6
  grade levels, from a pretest average score of
  3.46 to a post-test average of 5.05.
• Total Reading The average reading gain was 1.9
  grade levels, from a pretest average score of
  3.38 to a post-test average of 5.24

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Testimonials Why we need to keep the Wilson
Reading System
My daughter entered sixth grade not even being
able to read words as easy as "cat". No kidding!
Nor could she spell anything other than her
first name. It wasn't for lack of teachers trying
their best to teach her-it was the program. Her
sixth grade special education resource center
teacher joined several others to get trained in
Wilson Instruction, which was paid for by the
school system. My daughter worked with her
teacher as she was being trained.
In less than one school year my daughter started
to read. It was a miracle for her and for me. She
is now a junior in high school in a college prep
English course getting B's. Spelling remains to
be very difficult for her, but, she can read!!
She has continued in her Wilson Instruction,
which she receives two times a week ever since
sixth grade. For us it was a Godsend. We are
looking at colleges, she loves school (for the
most part), and she feels good about herself!
Wilson Instruction may not work for every
child, but for mine it was a miracle. It would
certainly be worth petitioning your Board of
Education to support.
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Comments from a Wilson Reading Chat Room
A.
A.
The Wilson Reading program is terrific! My eleven
year old son has been working with an Educational
Therapist certified in the Wilson Reading
program. It has been 9 months so far, and he is
now on Book 7 of 12 Books (Levels) But before the
Wilson program he would only read with me. I
would read a sentence and then he would read a
sentence, but he would struggle so much that he
never would enjoy it. He is enjoying reading so
much now. he goes to bed an hour early to read,
and he reads independently without the struggle.
I really recommend this program.
Wilson is wonderful! My dyslexic daughter was
tutored by a certified instructor for one year.
She progressed from a Kindergarten 9 month
reading level to a 2nd grade 1 month level in
that one year.
A.
My son has reading decoding difficulties and the
Wilson Program Has really, really helped. It is a
great way to teach reading even for children with
out any difficulties.
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A Great Story About the Wilson Reading System
My daughter couldn't even sound out short vowels
in 2nd grade in public school. She was
"classified" and they had her in a resource room
for reading only. She couldn't read her
dittoes for homework. She didn't know what page
the regular class was reading when she was in
there for social studies. It was awful. I found
out that a woman we knew was a Wilson Reading
tutor. She explained the Wilson Reading Program
to me and tested my daughter. My daughter started
tutoring with her two days a week after school.
It was AMAZINGafter each tutoring session, my
daughter had learned something new and she
remembered what she had learned. The tutor
charted her progress, so we always knew what she
had "internalized" and what she hadn't learned
yet.
As my daughter moved along in the program, she
began to read signs, cereal boxes and everything
around her. Then she started to read her books!
We begged the public school system to use the
Wilson Program, but the child study team said
because "the Wilson Program teaches phonics, it
didn't teach a love of literature!" But if my
daughter hadn't learned the phonics and how to
read, how was she going to get a love of
literature? The Wilson Program opened the door
(to reading) for my daughter. As my daughter's
tutor always said to us "Rome wasn't built in a
day"...even the Wilson Program isn't an overnight
miracle, but at least we could see results and my
daughter started feeling good about herself
because she could learn to read, she just had to
be taught differently!