Fundations Program

Early Language Development

Throughout my teaching career, I worked with students in developing language fluency which begins at a very early age. Children develop their ability to speak and pronounce correctly at different times. A more structured language program will help them develop further from their Sesame Street watching days. This show has always been a springboard for language learning.

In education today, many programs exist to help student’s development phonemic awareness, ease of speech and ease into becoming early readers. Children develop at different points and most students will begin to master phonemic awareness by end of kindergarten and beginning of first grade.

Through the years I have used many programs but have found that Fundations was the most beneficial, especially with my ENL (English as a New Language) students.

Fundations® is a multisensory and systematic phonics, spelling, and handwriting program that benefits all K-3 students designed by Wilson Learning. It also includes a supplementary activity set for Pre-K students. Fundations is designed as a whole-class, general education program used for prevention (Tier 1) purposes. It also can be taught in a small group or 1:1 setting for intervention (Tier 2). Students will become so familiar with this year to year, and look forward to their lessons and learning language.

The key features of this program teaches the foundational skills, and significantly supports the reading, writing, and language standards.

Fundations presents the following concepts and skills in a cumulative manner from Unit to Unit and year to year:

. Letter formation

. Phonological and phonemic awareness

. Sound mastery

. Phonics, word study and advanced word study

. Irregular (trick) word instruction

. Vocabulary

. Fluency

. Comprehension strategies

. Written composition (spelling and handwriting)

The Fundations program integrates skill instruction so that each daily lesson teaches and then reinforces corresponding skills. The lessons scaffold learning while teaching all skills explicitly, sequentially, and systematically. The phonics program actively engages students in learning through the use of multi-sensory techniques, such as when teaching students sounds, their representative letters, and words with spelling options. It provides multiple opportunities for skills practice and application to build mastery. Also, it monitors student learning through formative assessment tools built into the program.

Fundations is a general phonemic awareness program geared to lower grades. Since a strong phonemic awareness is the strongest predictor of reading success it makes sense for many schools to use such a program. I don't think it will hurt the kids who don't really need it but rather enhance their literacy skills in the long run.

This program Includes comprehensive and teacher-friendly materials to facilitate teachers’ use of the program and promote student motivation. It guides teachers on how to meet individual student needs by differentiating instruction. Teachers are supported through the online Wilson Learning Community, offering clear demonstrations of each teaching activity type used in the program.

This program encourages parental involvement throughout the use of the Fundations Home Support Packet. Many parents use this in conjunction with other online programs to help their child achieve success. Parents have also used spellquiz.com to help their children practice groups of words in their grade level sets that will correspond to the specific syllable type or word family. Children can practice their syllable type or word family of the week, while reinforcing ones that they have already mastered. Using this program encourages students to practice and the online element of scoring and “cheering them on” adds to their enjoyment. Children learn when they are involved completely and when they are exposed to knowledge repeatedly over a number of days and weeks. This is how learning stays with them and is not forgotten “after the test”.

It is important for parents to praise their child throughout their education years. When this begins at the preK-K level, children continue to flourish and enjoy learning throughout their school years and into college.

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