Carpenter Literacy News!
Carpenter Literacy has been in circulation for about 7yrs. Since its completion, it has gained the respect of many administrators, parents and teachers; including preschool, special education and ESL. Sales have hit $30,000.00. It is not uncommon to hear excellent feedback with a sigh of relief when someone has used it. The program and method has caught the attention of The Ohio State University’s head of the research department and also the head of special education. For the past five years, I have met annually with the university to discuss the direction for my curriculum and worked under the guidance of Ohio State to collect formal data making this program more available to public schools. I’ve been asked to speak to one of the classes of future teachers at Ohio State about effective reading instruction.
Four years ago, a formal pilot study was done at a local childcare center in Ohio with two teachers and children ages 3-6. In 10 weeks, 82% of those children knew at least 23 letters and sounds of the alphabet in those two classrooms by using the CD and Bingo Boards. Many of the children in the 5 year old pre–k class were able to score at a 1st grade level on a Dibels oral reading fluency test.
The past three years were involved in a formal pilot study with a Columbus, Ohio, inner city, ESL catholic school collecting Dibels and Woodcock Passage scores. In Sept 2012, 86% of the 3rd graders passed the Woodcock Passage test and were at grade level at the beginning of the school year! By May 2013, 95% were at or above grade level. These children had Carpenter Literacy from 1st grade on.
In May 2012, 100% of the 1st graders who had Carpenter Literacy in kindergarten and were finishing the program passed the Dibels target score of 40 words a minute!
We are finding that for readers at-risk, failing or beginning readers, the systematic, repetitive, simple approach of Carpenter Literacy is working and helping all become successful at their own pace. With the third grade guarantee, the school districts are beginning to take a serious look at Carpenter Literacy.
The true strength of Carpenter Literacy is its ability to simply assess and reveal why a child can’t read and where to place them for success.
A new grammar book, Hammer & Nails, that focuses on writing good sentences, paragraphs and reports is being completed. It is a useful and desirable tool because it isvery hands-on with the students writing and developing their own sentences and reports under the guidance ofHammer and Nails format.
Announcements!
A new comprehension book has been written. Many materials are available for comprehension, but this book is ideal for a few reasons:
• It focuses on learning what the terms of comprehension mean by focusing on a term a week and allowing much simple practice and flashcards to reinforce those terms to get them memorized
• The format is systematic and repetitive with two parts
• One comprehension term is taught and practiced for a full week for memorization
• Each part includes three pages focusing on one comprehension term (plot e.g.) with simple, child-friendly examples to read and practice. The first part may be used after book B and the second part with harder words is used after Book C
• The end of the book has delightful fiction and nonfiction stories with assessment type questions to help students improve their comprehension skills in a child-friendly, systematic method
Intervention material has been written for anyone needing extra help or finishing the program and still needing extra practice. These materials include word family practice sheets, riddles and sentences focusing on answers from the same word family. The students really enjoy doing the riddles and saying the word families over and over.
An addition, Syllabication has a new section with columns of prefixes and suffixes, etc. for children to hear and practice in multisyllable words. This simple practice is extremely important in helping children attack and readmultisyllable words for better fluency and comprehension.
