Features:
- Provides a solution for older students to learn prereading skills
- Presents ideas to blend software and app instruction with print activities
- Offers seven progressive levels of instruction for students
- Integrates research-proven strategies for systematic and direct instruction
- Includes: software, app, spiral bound Sam Stories, Teacher’s Guide, flash drive with electronic resources, alphabet and sight word cards
Sam is the adolescent character featured in our the Early Literacy Skills Builder for Older Students curriculum. Your older students with significant intellectual disability or autism, who still need to develop the foundations of literacy, will have Sam to help them along the way.
Using the same scope and sequence as ELSB this version is specifically designed to give older students who have not been exposed to foundational reading skills, age-appropriate activities to learn them. Seven levels present skills in 14 objectives including the conventions of print, phonemic awareness, letter-sound correspondence, listening comprehension, vocabulary, and writing. Skills increase in difficulty as students progress from Level 1 to Level 7.
The curriculum is delivered primarily via software or an app. Ideas are provided for blending instruction with print activities. The program incorporates the best practices of systematic and direct instruction. The software directs the student, provides feedback, and gathers data on the student’s performance. Instruction can be conducted with individual students or with groups. Students love creating an avatar to represent them. Avatars also appear on screen to indicate whose turn in the group it is to respond.
Sam Stories, describing the adventures of Sam, her family, and her friends, are read to students in the software. They can follow along using the spiralbound book provided. A writing activity focuses on new vocabulary. End-of-level assessments—scored instantly— help determine when to move students to the next level.