OnTrack Reading

The OnTrack Reading Curriculum is composed of three parts, Basic Code instruction, Advanced Code instruction and Multisyllable instruction.

Basic Code Instruction

The first part of the curriculum, covering basic code, or one letter matched to one sound, is just an incorporation of the basic code curriculum set forth in the book Reading Reflex, written by Geoffrey and Carmen McGuinness.

I still use their approach almost exactly as set out in chapters three and four of their book. The structure of the basic code lessons is based on research findings, and I can confirm from working with my clients in my reading tutoring business that the choices they made do work well.

What I mean by choices is that they chose to first cover three-sound CVC (Consonant-Vowel-Consonant) words, then VCC words, and then CVCC words and finally CCVC words. I have observed time and again that my younger clients have an easier time blending CVCC words like hand, fast and lift than they do blending CCVC words like trip, flat and brim.

The sounds represented by the letters “l” and “r” are some of the harder basic code sounds to learn to pronounce correctly, plus they are found in many of the words that start with two blended consonant sounds (bl, br, cl, cr, dr, fl, fr, gl, gr, pl, pr, sl, tr, shr and thr plus three-sound blends like scr, spl, spr and str.) In fact, the letters “l” or “r” are found in well over half of the permitted initial blends in English words. It makes sense then that children just learning to read would have an easier time working on VCC words like ask and then CVCC words like task before being exposed to words of the CCVC and CCVCC construction.

I strongly advocate purchasing Reading Reflex even if you never use the curriculum because the authors do an excellent job of laying out exactly what needs to be accomplished when teaching your child phonics. The book is an exceptionally clear parent guide to using the Phono-Graphix curriculum that they developed.

So the first part of the curriculum that I use at OnTrack Reading is straight from Reading Reflex.

Advanced Code Instruction

The second part of the OnTrack Reading Curriculum is a heavily modified version of the advanced code presentation in Reading Reflex. It’s quite possible that you will be able to take Reading Reflex and, after going through the basic code section covered in chapters three and four, just forge on ahead through the advanced code work beginning in chapter 5.

However, by this point many parents prefer to have a workbook to help guide them through the details of the curriculum. The authors of Reading Reflex sell one, and I’ve used dozens of them with my clients in the past, but as is usually the case in reading instruction, I ended up wanting to make changes in the prescribed routine. Eventually I made so many changes that I decided to take the time to write a completely new workbook complete with new stories, word lists, exercises, etc., and that is all I’ve used for several years now. Over that time, I managed to fine tune it whenever I noticed that certain points were confusing my clients, and even made changes to make it easier to use in Canada, England, Australia and New Zealand.

When I was using the old workbook, I would follow the curriculum through and then test my client’s code knowledge to see how much they’d retained of what we’d covered. Scores of 50% at intake and 70-80% at the end of the curriculum were common. With my new workbook I now routinely get scores of 90% and higher at the end of the curriculum and I use a more complex code knowledge test than I did originally. There are a lot of possible reasons for these results, but I’m reasonably certain that the design of the OnTrack Reading Advanced Code Workbook for teaching the advanced code is an important factor.

View the OnTrack Reading Advanced Code Workbook on lulu.com

Multisyllable Instruction

The third part of the OnTrack Reading Curriculum deviates significantly from that found in Reading Reflex, although what they advocate will work well for most children, assuming you’ve taken care of vision issues first and that your child has proven capable of absorbing the advanced code work. This third part is the multisyllable portion of the curriculum and here I would have to say that there’s probably no other curriculum like the one you’ll find here at OnTrack Reading for teaching multisyllable word attack skills.

To learn to use the OnTrack Reading Multisyllable Curriculum, all you need to do is go to Multisyllable Decoding-1 and follow the guidance that starts there. You will find all the multisyllable word lists you will need and several worksheets that cover prerequisites that should be covered before the multisyllable work begins. Note: All of the multisyllable curriculum and the associated worksheets are included in the OnTrack Reading Advanced Code Workbook.

And finally, I want to mention another phonics curriculum that works exceptionally well, the Spalding Method which is described in another parent manual, The Writing Road to Reading, by Romalda Spalding. The Spalding Method was developed nearly sixty years ago and has stood the test of time. It just might be the best reading curriculum ever published, especially for classroom use. However, it could be even better if certain modifications were made based on techniques used in Reading Reflex’s Phono-Graphix curriculum and in the OnTrack Reading multisyllable curriculum. If you are interested, I list those modifications here.

Regardless of what direction you intend to take next, I recommend that if you are attempting to teach any child to read you first take some time to check out the four Phonics Assessment Tests described in this section of the Guide. First, take a minute or two to become clear on the Notation I use when discussing various sounds and then move on to the discussion on Testing Blending Skill.

Next: Notation for the 43 Sounds, or return to the OnTrack Reading Home Page