Pilot Program

Reading ProgramsTeacher Concerns Letter People Zoo Phonics No More Letter of the Week  Lack of materials  No continuity across district  Teachers supplement programs to meet needs of students

Letter People Puppets or Inflatable's Letter names are taught before letter sounds Letters are taught in isolation Letters are taught out of order Takes 26 weeks to teach letters and sounds No More Letter of the Week 35 Letter sounds (2 for each vowel, 21 consonant sounds, 4 digraphs) Introduce all sounds within first 8 weeks of school alphabet taught out of order (high utility letters first) Letters are taught in isolation Letter expert/each child took ownership of 1 letter Each letter was tied to a book/sentence out of the book Zoo Phonics The Animal Alphabet helps children remember the shapes and sounds of the letters. Letter sounds are taught before letter names. Lowercase letters are taught before capital letters. The Body Movement for each Animal Letter helps “cement” the phonemic information into memory. The alphabet is taught sequentially, and as a whole entity, “a - z.” The alphabet is not fragmented. Short vowels are taught before long vowels. Phonemic patterns (at, bat, fat, sat, etc.) are taught first, rather than random word lists (of, it, then, was, etc.)

 Sounds/Signals Assessment  DIBELS-September, February, May  Take Home Reading Program  Parent Surveys

 26 Students  24 Students since September, 1addition in February, 1 addition in April  73 % Free/Reduced Lunch (At-Risk)  5 Speech Therapy  1 Autistic  1 Emotionally Impaired  2 w/o preschool experience

% Sounds Known 9/16/11 # Students % % % %5 70% or less8 % Sounds Know 9/29/11 # Students % % % %1 70% or less1

December 2011May 2012 Student Reading Level # Students and Above0 Student Reading Level # Students (end of KG) (beg. Of 1 st ) (mid 1 st ) (end of 1 st ) 3 18 and Above (2 nd or above) 3

 17/19-Yes  0/19-No  1/10-I don’t understand the signals  1/19-No response  Relates a sound and an action to help remember the letter  Helps retain knowledge  Helps student until they become readers  Makes learning the alphabet fun

 8/19-Yes  9/19-Some  2/19-No  Our goal is to have our student teach us and our preschool age child over the summer

 11/19-Yes  1/19-Sometimes  0/19-No  7/19-When first learning the program but not anymore

 17/19-Yes  1/19-No  1/19-No response  We sing the song everyday  I asked my child to teach me signals

 Helps reinforce the sounds-words and reading  Important to practice sounds/signals at home  Great practice and enhances reading abilities  Independent work for student with no fuss  Age and developmentally appropriate  Productive and moves along at a good pace  Wonderful way to learn  Great to train students for future teachers  Helpful  Sometimes too much

 Enjoys reading  Excited and proud  Confident  Fun  Loves it  Amazed  Somewhat good  Eager

 Amazed with the program-older children did not have ZP and didn’t read until 1 st grade  Strenghthens students ability to read and builds their confidence  Amazed at how quickly my child learned letters and sounds-he knew none when he started school  Started ZP at a private school-pleased when we moved to TR and he continued ZP  I hope ZP is adopted by all KG and 1 st grade teachers

 My child was introduced to ZP in preschool...I feel continuation in KG is why he’s such a great reader now  I wish all Ionia elementary schools would use ZP…I chose TR because they teach the ZP program  Genuine method for teaching kids how to read  Enthusiasm for learning and reading-just wonderful

 Skeptical at first, far exceeded what I thought was possible. My child’s reading level is almost a year ahead of my last child when she was in KG. I highly recommend ZP program to every child!

 23/24 Yes  1/24 No

 Handwriting pages-2  The animals-2  Singing the songs-8  Matching games w/ word families-3  Drawing pages-2  Spelling tests-1  A-B-C order-5  Sounds/signals-1

 18/24- I like everything about ZP.  1/24-I don’t like Inny Inchworm because he eats leaves.  1/24-coloring pages  1/24-Beat the Timer  1/24-spelling tests  1/24-handwriting pages  1/24-Sitting on the carpet for the lesson because I get all sweaty

 19/24-Yes (like signals)  2/24-No (do not like signals)  21/24-taught signals to someone at home  3/24-did not teach signals to someone at home

 7/24-Allie Alligator she’s first she has a bow on her head it’s the first letter of my name  4/24-Catina Cat she lays on a rug she can jump she cleans her face she looks like my cat

 1/24-Deedee Deer she’s pretty and skinny  1/24-Inny Inchworm my names starts w/ I  3/24-Sammy Snake he sips lemonade and I love lemonade he sips he starts my first name

 1/24-Timothy Tiger I love tigers  3/24-Vincent Vampire Bat he can hang upside down he is a viking in the zoo phonics reader he can fly  1/24-Xavier Fox he’s in my name

 3/24-Zeke Zebra he falls asleep he naps a lot he sleeps a lot

 Clear continuum from KG to 1 st grade program  Students come into 1 st grade feeling confident w/ familiar curriculum  Students love music involved in the program  Program encompasses grammar lessons, phonetic concepts, spelling, read aloud, oral retelling of stories and a connected lit. piece  No word is taught as a “red” word or non- phonetic word, sounds and exceptions are taught at all times

 Students are able to decode just about any word given to them  Once students become readers, they generally drop signaling on their own  Lowest readers are higher and can decode larger words than in previous years  More students reading more fluently  Lots of new words…  Phonetic concepts are taught more quickly, some concepts are covered that have never been taught before

 Both teachers in KG and 1 st grade are teaching the same thing at the same time  Enough material to do 60+ minutes of whole group instruction daily

Cost $ /KG teacher $ /Pre-School Teacher Total $12,670 Puppets $70.00 Literature Books $ Trainings $75.00/session $150.00/teacher Zoo Phonics $ Zooper