Another one of our observations of some of our students was that, once they finish in the primary, and continue to struggle with their reading, we need to be providing direct instruction to ensure that students have a good foundation in phonological awareness, especially phonemic awareness as they continue with their literacy development.  What is phonological awareness?  Phonological awareness is the ability to recognize and manipulate the spoken parts of sentences and words. When you think of phonological awareness, think about a set of stairs, with each step increasing in complexity, as children grow in their literacy development.  Examples of phonological awareness include:  word awareness/tracking of words, rhyme and alliteration, syllable awareness, onset and rime manipulation, and phoneme awareness.  When looking at assessments for some of our struggling readers at the beginning of this school year, we noticed that, many of our early primary students had a good grasp of early phonological awareness skills, i.e. rhyme, syllables, etc.  But as some of our older students who continued to struggle with reading, we noticed that they needed more targeted support in developing a stronger understanding of phonemic awareness.  As such, in consultation with our school psychologist and doing some additional research, we invested in the Heggerty program/resources to be better able to deliver targeted instruction in phonemic awareness to our students.

Additional information can be found on Heggery's website, on their blog, "The Reading Rope".

https://heggerty.org/blog/the-reading-rope/