1. Reading Horizons Discovery: Changes to the Curriculum
Heidi Hyte
September 11, 2012
Welcome! Thank you for your time today as we are excited to share information about the newly-released Reading Horizons Discovery program! My colleague Stacy Hurst and myself, who authored the program, will be providing a series of webinars to discuss some of the noteworthy changes and improvements upon the former version of the program. Today I will be discussing changes to the curriculum specifically related to the content and sequence. You will hear from Stacy next week about how Reading Horizons Discovery provides differentiated instruction to complement RTI and Special Education settings.

2. Reading Horizons Discovery Curriculum
What’s changed?
By way of introduction, the new Reading Horizons Discovery program teaches a variety of strategies to teach young readers effective decoding and spelling skills. While the former version of the elementary program, Discover Intensive Phonics, taught extremely effective principles, changes were necessary to better accommodate teacher and student needs. These changes were made based on teacher feedback while maintaining high fidelity to the method. 
So what’s changed in the Reading Horizons Discovery methodology?

3. Modifications to the Curriculum:
Specific changes to the content and sequence to better accommodate needs.
Differentiation between the Kindergarten sequence and the Grades 1-3 sequence.
Changes to the Most Common Words lists and language and grammar lessons (Reference Lessons).
This webinar will discuss modifications to the Reading Horizons Discovery curriculum.
First, I will discuss specific changes to the content and sequence that were made to better accommodate needs.
Second, I will point out the differences between the Kindergarten sequence and the Grades 1-3 sequence.
Third, I will discuss changes to the Most Common Words lists and the language and grammar lessons, which we refer to in the curriculum as “Reference Lessons.”

4. Modifications to the Curriculum:
Specific changes to the content and sequence to better accommodate needs.
Differentiation between the Kindergarten and the Grades 1-3 sequence.
Changes to the Most Common Words lists and language and grammar lessons (Reference Lessons).

5. Discover Intensive Phonics Reading Horizons Discovery™
Sequence
Alphabet
Blends
Double S, F, and Z
Special Vowel Combinations
Long and Short Vowels
Phonetic Skills
Adding Suffixes
Murmur Diphthongs
Digraphs
Special Vowel Sounds
Decoding Skills
Decoding Exceptions
Extra Skills
First, let’s look at the Discover Intensive Phonics sequence.

6. Discover Intensive Phonics Reading Horizons Discovery™
Sequence
Alphabet
Blends
Double S, F, and Z
Special Vowel Combinations
Long and Short Vowels
Phonetic Skills
Adding Suffixes
Murmur Diphthongs
Digraphs
Special Vowel Sounds
Decoding Skills
Decoding Exceptions
Extra Skills
Note that in the former sequence, Phonetic Skills were taught, followed by the remaining 42 Sounds, and continuing to the Two Decoding Skills.

7. Discover Intensive Phonics Reading Horizons Discovery™
Sequence
Alphabet
Blends
Double S, F, and Z
Special Vowel Combinations
Long and Short Vowels
Phonetic Skills
Adding Suffixes
Murmur Diphthongs
Digraphs
Special Vowel Sounds
Decoding Skills
Decoding Exceptions
Extra Skills
I’m highlighting where Digraphs were instructed in the sequence, as well, because Digraphs will be highlighted again in a moment.

8. Discover Intensive Phonics Reading Horizons Discovery™
Sequence
Alphabet
Blends
Double S, F, and Z
Special Vowel Combinations
Long and Short Vowels
Phonetic Skills
Adding Suffixes
Murmur Diphthongs
Digraphs
Special Vowel Sounds
Decoding Skills
Decoding Exceptions
Extra Skills
Alphabet
Blends
Double S, F, and Z
Special Vowel Combinations
Voiced/Voiceless and Digraphs (TH, TH)
Digraphs (CH, SH, WH, PH)
Long and Short Vowels
Phonetic Skills
Adding Suffixes
Decoding Skills
Murmur Diphthongs
Special Vowel Sounds
Extra Skills
Now looking at the Reading Horizons Discovery sequence…

9. Discover Intensive Phonics Reading Horizons Discovery™
Sequence
Alphabet
Blends
Double S, F, and Z
Special Vowel Combinations
Long and Short Vowels
Phonetic Skills
Adding Suffixes
Murmur Diphthongs
Digraphs
Special Vowel Sounds
Decoding Skills
Decoding Exceptions
Extra Skills
Alphabet
Blends
Double S, F, and Z
Special Vowel Combinations
Voiced/Voiceless and Digraphs (TH, TH)
Digraphs (CH, SH, WH, PH)
Long and Short Vowels
Phonetic Skills
Adding Suffixes
Decoding Skills
Murmur Diphthongs
Special Vowel Sounds
Extra Skills
…notice where the Phonetic Skills and the Decoding Skills are taught. Specifically, notice that the Decoding Skills were moved up in the sequence so that students have access to the skills required to decode multi-syllabic words earlier on in the sequence.

10. Discover Intensive Phonics Reading Horizons Discovery™
Sequence
Alphabet
Blends
Double S, F, and Z
Special Vowel Combinations
Long and Short Vowels
Phonetic Skills
Adding Suffixes
Murmur Diphthongs
Digraphs
Special Vowel Sounds
Decoding Skills
Decoding Exceptions
Extra Skills
Alphabet
Blends
Double S, F, and Z
Special Vowel Combinations
Voiced/Voiceless and Digraphs (TH, TH)
Digraphs (CH, SH, WH, PH)
Long and Short Vowels
Phonetic Skills
Adding Suffixes
Decoding Skills
Murmur Diphthongs
Special Vowel Sounds
Extra Skills
Notice also that Digraphs were moved up in the sequence so that students could read and spell words with Digraphs earlier in the sequence. Notice that we spread the Digraphs across two lessons, as well.
The impetus for these changes was teacher feedback. Teachers felt it was important that students had access to Digraphs and the Two Decoding Skills earlier in the sequence. We felt that this was a valid request for a change that could be made without compromising the integrity of the method, so the change was made.

11. Sequence Summary 100 lessons
Digraphs have been moved up in the sequence
Decoding Skills are taught earlier
Additional skills are more similarly align with Reading Horizons
Reference Lessons align with Common Core State Standards
In summary, changes to the content and sequence include…

12. Modifications to the Curriculum:
Specific changes to the content and sequence to better accommodate needs.
Differentiation between the Kindergarten and the Grades 1-3 tracks.
Changes to the Most Common Words lists and language and grammar lessons (Reference Lessons).
Now let’s discuss the differences between the Kindergarten and the Grades 1-3 content and sequence.

13. Instructional Tracks Two (2) Chapters 57 Lessons
Kindergarte n Track
Grades 1-3 Track
Two (2) Chapters
57 Lessons
42 Skill Lessons (39 standard lessons, plus three optional lessons)
Seven (7) Reference Lessons
Eight (8) MCW Lists
10 Stories (Little Books)
Six (6) Chapters
100 Lessons
63 Skill Lessons
15 Reference Lessons
22 MCW Lists
64 Stories (Little Books)
These are the main differences between the Kindergarten Track and the Grades 1-3 Track…

14. Assets for Each Track Lesson Type Kindergarten Track First Grade Track
Second Grade Track
Third Grade Track
Standard Lessons 39 43 58 63
MCW Lessons 8 18 21 22
Reference Lessons 7 14 15
Stories (Little Books) 10 44 59 64
Now that we’ve established differences between the Kindergarten Track and the Grades 1-3 Track, I will mention that there are some differences within the Grades 1-3 sequence with regards to how far in the program students go depending on their track. First grade students, for example, go to Lesson 82 in the program, which gives them 43 Skill Lessons, 18 Most Common Words Lessons, and 14 Reference Lessons. Second-grade tracks receive a few more lessons than the first-grade track, and the third-grade track receives exposure to all of the lessons, as you can see displayed on this table. The number of Little Books accessible by each track is shown on this table, as well. In summary, the amount of content that students are taught is prescriptive based on the appropriate student track.

15. Assessments for Each Track
Lesson Type
Kindergarten Track
First Grade Track
Second Grade Track
Third Grade Track
Tests 7 4 5 6
Phonemic Awareness Assessments
MCW Assessments 3
Spelling Assessments 1
Now, this table is provided simply to whet your appetite a bit. A future webinar will address software assessments at a later time, but you can glean from this table that the computer-administered assessments are customized to each track, as well.

16. Modifications to the Curriculum:
Specific changes to the content and sequence to better accommodate needs.
Differentiation between the Kindergarten and the Grades 1-3 sequence.
Changes to the Most Common Words lists and language and grammar lessons (Reference Lessons).
Now let’s discuss changes to the Most Common Words lists and the language and grammar lessons, which we refer to in the curriculum as “Reference Lessons.”

17. Discover Intensive Phonics Reading Horizons Discovery™
Most Common Words
Discover Intensive Phonics
Reading Horizons Discovery™
Nine (9) Most Common Words Lists
147 Most Common Words
22 Most Common Words Lists
300 Most Common Words
First, let’s look at the changes to the Most Common Words lists in Reading Horizons Discovery.
Discover Intensive Phonics had nine Most Common Words lists comprised of 147 Most Common Words, some high frequency, and some words that are not necessarily high frequency but are not decodable.
Reading Horizons Discovery contains 22 Most Common Words Lists comprised of 300 Most Common Words.

18. Most Common Words Derived from Fry’s Frequently Used Word List
Kindergarten: First 30 words
First Grade: First 100 words
Second Grade: First 200 words
Third Grade: First 300 words
The Most Commons Words taught in Reading Horizons Discovery include 300 of the most frequent words in the English language (for Kindergarten, there are 30 words). The words are derived from Fry’s Frequently Used Word List, words in order of frequency.

19. Discover Intensive Phonics Reading Horizons Discovery™
Reference Lessons
Discover Intensive Phonics
Reading Horizons Discovery™
No Reference Lessons
Embedded language and grammar instruction
15 Reference Lessons (7 for Kindergarten)
Aligned with the Common Core State Standards
Now let’s briefly discuss the Reference Lessons in Reading Horizons Discovery.
Discover Intensive Phonics taught basic grammar and language lessons that were embedded into the skill lessons. With the development of the Common Core State Standards, however, a change in these grammar and language lessons was needed to fulfill these newly-prescribed requirements.
For this purpose, Reading Horizons Discovery now contains 15 Reference Lessons that fulfill many of the Language Standards of the Common Core State Standards. Kindergarten has seven (7). I will insert here that, of course, the objective of Reading Horizons Discovery is not to teach all of the grammar skills necessary for learning English; however, the teaching of basic grammar skills can be successfully integrated in to Reading Horizons Discovery instruction to help students develop a basic understanding of the structure of English and enhance your students’ capacity to use English vocabulary beyond the word level.

20. Reference Lessons Capitalization Adverbs Punctuation
Sentence Structure
Alphabetical Order
Determiners
Commas
Conjunctions
Compound Words
Antonyms, Synonyms, and More
Contractions
Root Words, Prefixes, and Suffixes
Nouns
Verbs
Adjectives
Let’s take a quick look at the Reference Lessons that are addressed in the content and sequence. You can see the wide variety of content that is taught. Note that the Reference Lesson content is customized to each grade level: Kindergarten, first-, second-, and third-grade tracks.
It is important to note that the content of these Reference Lessons is derived from the Language Standards prescribed by the Common Core State Standards.
Since the skill lessons taught in Reading Horizons Discovery are tightly aligned with the Foundational Skills in the Common Core State Standards, as well, Reading Horizons Discovery fulfills the requirements for K-3 in both the Foundational Skills and the Language Standards sections of the Common Core.
A forthcoming webinar will present more detailed information about Reading Horizons Discovery and the Common Core.

21. Modifications to the Curriculum:
Specific changes to the content and sequence to better accommodate needs.
Differentiation between the Kindergarten and the Grades 1-3 sequence.
Changes to the Most Common Words lists and language and grammar lessons (Reference Lessons).
In this webinar, we’ve discussed…
I hope you have found this webinar to be informative and hope that you will join us for subsequent webinars to learn more about the new Reading Horizons Discovery program. If you have specific questions about the program you would like addressed, feel free to contact us at We welcome your feedback.
Thank you for your time, and happy teaching!

22. Questions?