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July 4, 2003
Phonics test helps kids
VTT is the only private school with the program.
KYLE BERGER REPORTER
Kindergarten students at Vancouver Talmud Torah elementary school
have a unique way to ensure that their basic reading skills are
at the highest level possible by the end of the school year.
Talmud Torah recently finished the second year of a program called
Launch into Reading Success, which was co-authored by the school's
educational psychologist, Pam Ottley.
At the beginning of the school year, all of the students are screened
for phonological awareness to see how well they can differentiate
between letters and their sounds – for example, the difference
between "ship" and "chip."
Those who fall at or below the 50th percentile spend 10 to 20 minutes
a day, four days a week, working with either Talmud Torah's learning
assistance teacher, Florence Lapidus, early childhood co-ordinator
Sandy Baker or several volunteers. The students play various games
and activities that help them develop their phonological awareness.
By the end of the year, the students in the program are at an equal
or much-closer level to the rest of their classmates in their reading
abilities.
"We play a lot of games, like Hangman, where they have to guess
the missing letter of a word," said Baker. "The kids who
have been through the program are able to understand what missing
sounds there are, they're able to do rhyming words and they're starting
to use their phonics skills to print words in their journals. Then
they're able to slowly sound out those words and use the sounds
to understand the linkage between sounds and letters."
In Launch into Reading Success, the students gather in the school
library and split into work groups of four. Some students with only
minor phonological difficulties may stop taking the program before
the year is over if their skills have improved.
This assistance in reading development also provides the students
with the tools and confidence to reach a higher academic level than
they might have had they not participated in the program.
Baker explained that students with a low phonological awareness
could face a variety of challenges as they progress through their
education.
"It could lead to production problems in the future because
it's all linked," she explained. "If a child can't discriminate
between sounds, then they will have trouble reading."
According to the International Dyslexia Association, phonological
awareness testing can identify problems in approximately 90 per
cent of all cases and children who get help in kindergarten improve
much faster than older students. Currently, the North Vancouver
school board offers similar phonological tests. However, Talmud
Torah is the only private school in Vancouver with such a program.
Kyle Berger is an award-winning freelance journalist and
a graphic designer living in Richmond.
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