REWARDS (Reading Excellence: Word Attack & Rate Development Strategies)
This section provides an overview of the REWARDS program details and benefits. It includes links to educational content, case studies, industry news, and opinion pieces.
The Reading Excellence: Word Attack & Rate Development Strategies (REWARDS) program is a reading intervention program designed to help struggling readers improve their literacy skills. It is specifically designed to enhance reading fluency, comprehension, and writing skills for adolescent learners, including middle and high school students. It is particularly effective for students who have difficulty reading multisyllabic words.
At the intermediate level, this program helps with multisyllabic word reading by focusing on breaking down long words into manageable chunks. It introduces students to a unique multisyllabic word reading strategy developed by Dr. Anita Archer. This technique divides long, complex words into smaller, more easily recognizable parts. For example, the word "unbelievable" can be broken down into un- (prefix), believe (root word), and -able (suffix). By breaking words into smaller chunks, students can decode and understand them more quickly, making reading less daunting and more manageable. It also improves decoding skills by applying knowledge of letter-sound relationships, including letter patterns, to correctly pronounce written words. It involves:
Phonemic Awareness: Recognizing and manipulating the sounds in spoken words.
Phonics: Understanding the relationship between letters and sounds.
Blending: Combining individual sounds to form words.
Segmenting: Breaking words down into individual sounds or syllables.
Improving decoding skills helps students read more fluently and accurately, boosting their confidence and comprehension.
At the secondary level, the program builds on the intermediate level, with more complex texts and a focus on academic and domain-specific vocabulary. Domain-specific vocabulary refers to words and phrases unique to a particular field or subject area. These terms often have specialized meanings that may not be easily understood outside of that context. For example:
In chemistry, terms like “molar ratios,” “element,” and “compound” are domain-specific.
In mathematics, words such as “logarithm,” “denominator,” and “trapezoid” are used.
In medicine, terms like “intravenous,” “malignant,” and “benign” are standard.
This type of vocabulary is essential for effective communication within specific disciplines, as it allows individuals to convey complex ideas accurately and efficiently. Understanding domain-specific vocabulary enhances comprehension and retention of subject matter, enabling more detailed and nuanced discussions within the field.
The program includes lessons that aim to increase both oral and silent reading rates, which in turn helps improve overall comprehension. Fluency refers to the ability to read text smoothly and accurately, whether aloud (oral reading) or silently. Oral reading fluency involves reading aloud with speed, accuracy, and proper expression. Students can improve their pronunciation, pacing, and intonation by practicing oral reading. This practice helps them recognize words more quickly and accurately, which reduces the cognitive load and allows them to focus more on understanding the text. Silent reading fluency is the ability to read quickly and accurately without vocalizing the words. Improving silent reading rates helps students process information faster, which is crucial for efficient learning and comprehension. This leads to better retention of information and a deeper understanding of the material. The REWARDS program aims to improve both types of reading fluency through targeted lessons.
How Fluency Improves Comprehension
Increased Reading Rates: As students become more fluent, they can read more words per minute. This efficiency allows them to grasp the text's overall meaning more quickly.
Reduced Cognitive Load: Students who don’t focus as much on decoding individual words can devote more mental resources to understanding the content and making connections within the text.
Better Expression and Pacing: Improved fluency in oral reading means better expression and pacing, which can enhance comprehension by making the text more engaging and easier to follow.
Improved Information Retention: Fluency supports better retention and recall, as readers can efficiently process and organize the information they read.
The program focuses on oral and silent reading rates, helping students become more proficient readers and boosting their comprehension skills.
Research and Effectiveness
Studies have shown that students, including English language learners, make significant gains in fluency and decoding skills when using the REWARDS program. The program has been successfully implemented in various educational settings, including Appletree’s centres where our Ontario Certified Teachers (OCTs) provide academic remediation support to a diverse range of learners with learning exceptionalities who have experienced grade-level academic success with this program.
Appletree has helped many students with learning exceptionalities using this program, specifically those students who struggle with:
Dyslexia: by helping students decode and read mulitsyllabic words.
Reading fluency: focusing on word attack strategies and rate development to improve reading speed and accuracy.
Comprehension difficulties: by assisting students to become more fluent readers their comprehension of content-area texts improves.
Vocabulary deficits: by enhancing vocabulary through explicit instruction and practice with complex words.
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