Frequently Asked Questions
1. How are students identified for Phonics Blitz?
Students who will benefit from Phonics Blitz lessons are identified by giving a one-minute oral reading passage and Relly Great Reading's short informal Decoding Surveys. The oral reading and decoding surveys are administered individually, and take only two to seven minutes per student to administer and score. Students who meet a benchmark score on the oral reading and have an accuracy rate of 97% or higher demonstrate grade level reading skills and do not need the Decoding Surveys. The school enters the oral reading and decoding survey scores into Really Great Reading’s Grouping Matix and the school receives recommended groups.
2. How is student progress measured?
During Phonics Blitz lessons, progress is monitored as students chart their accuracy percentage and reading rate for a one minute oral reading at the beginning of each lesson. The oral reading passages are not decodable. Student’s scores on the passages show how what they are learning transfers to “real” reading.
After students complete all 40 Phonics Blitz lessons, they read a grade level passage for one minute. The accuracy and rate on the post-test oral reading are compared to the pre-test oral reading scores used to group the students.
3. Does Phonics Blitz address the needs of all struggling readers?
Phonics Blitz is designed for students in 4th – 12th grades, college students, and adults who have gaps in their decoding skills. These gaps may have occurred because they never had phonics instruction or because they did not complete their phonics instruction with complete understanding.
Phonics Blitz is not intended for students who have severe difficulties or for students who read on (or above) grade level.
4. What qualifications do teachers need to have to teach Phonics Blitz?
Not all teachers received phonics instruction in school. However, we find that teachers who have a love of words, are interested in the English language, and want to help students succeed at reading generally make good Phonics Blitz teachers. To be an effective teacher, we strongly recommend participation in the Phonics Blitz professional development workshops that proceed the lessons, and the Phonics Blitz professional development day that occurs approximately two weeks after the lessons begin.
5. Are the Five Essential Components of reading instruction addressed in Phonics Blitz lessons?
Phonics Blitz addresses the 5 essential components of reading instruction, as identified by the National Reading Panel (2000).
- Phonemic Awareness – 20 lessons provide explicit, systematic and multi-sensory phonemic instruction.
- Phonics – All 40 lessons teach phonics principles.
- Fluency – Every lesson begins with each student reading a passage orally for one-minute and charting words correct per minute and accuracy rate.
- Vocabulary – Vocabulary is explicitly taught prior to the oral reading in each lesson and implicitly taught as students read sophisticated and often unfamiliar words in isolation and in sentences.
- Comprehension – Comprehension questions are included after oral reading so that students learn to read for information, as well as for accuracy and fluency.
6. Do lessons have to be given five days a week one hour a day?
Every school implements Phonics Blitz according to their own school’s schedule. The optimal schedule for instruction would be 5 days a week, 1 – 1½ hours/day. However, progress can be made even in 20-30 minutes a day, three days a week.
7. What kind of training do Phonics Blitz teachers need to be able to effectively teach the lessons?
Since many of the concepts taught in Phonics Blitz are unfamiliar to those who teach older grades, two days of professional training is recommended. Teachers will learn about the structure of English language, the proper articulation of phonemes, common strategies for reading unfamiliar words, and many more subjects central to effectively implementing Phonics Blitz. One-half day follow up during third week of implementation is also recommended. Phonics Blitz teachers will have access to an online forum that allows them to pose questions to lead implementers and to view answers to frequently asked questions.
8. What kind of training do we need to offer in order to be able to administer the 1-minute Oral Reading Fluency and Decoding Surveys?
To effectively group students for Phonics Blitz, teachers need to be trained to accurately give the Really Great Reading’s Decoding Surveys. A one-day survey workshop is recommended. The workshop is broken down into two sections; learning to administer and score the oral reading fluency passage and the surveys and then, administering the surveys to student under the guidance of the workshop leader. See more details about the Decoding Surveys Workshop.
9. Who is qualified to give the pre- and post-test surveys?
Teachers, interventionists, psychologists, counselors, reading coaches, and administrators who attend the Really Great Reading’s Decoding Surveys Workshop will be able to administer and score the assessments.
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