Closing the Achievement Gap in Colorado:
SFAF approved as CO Closing the Achievement Gap Provider and CO SFAF Partner School Pueblo School for Arts & Sciences recognized as 1 of 8 schools Closing the Achievement Gap in CO.
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For details on the achievements of SFAF partner school Pueblo School for Arts and Sciences and their success in closing the income achievement gap, click here.
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In their own words…
Learn how SFA has impacted a New Orleans school before and after Katrina from Hynes Charter School principal Michelle Douglas.
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SFAF’s Curiosity Corner is now a FL Department of Education approved VPK curriculum.
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Upcoming SFAF Conference Dates and Locations
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Randomized Research Proves Success for All Raises Reading Achievement
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Success for All awarded the highest rating of any comprehensive school reform program in a recent review by the American Institutes for Research
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Middle School Reading Scores Skyrocket Using New Adolescent Literacy Program


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Reading Roots is a 90-minute comprehensive program that targets the needs of beginning readers. Reading Roots is a research-based beginning reading program that has proven its effectiveness in randomized experimental research. It provides a strong base for successful reading by providing systematic phonics instruction supported by decodable stories, as well as instruction in fluency and comprehension. Reading Roots also fosters students’ love of reading by providing rich literature experiences, extensive oral language development, and thematically-focused writing instruction. These objectives are embedded in a fast-paced, engaging, and highly effective instructional process. Students are assessed and regrouped according to their reading level every quarter to ensure they are receiving the most focused instruction.

Second and third grade non-readers can be regrouped into Reading Roots classes. This solution includes all of the elements needed for ensuring success: teacher manuals, student materials, initial training for teachers, intensive onsite and telephone coaching, and tools for monitoring students’ progress.

Curriculum
Reading Roots lessons feature the following parts:

FastTrack Phonics
Colorful mnemonic pictures are integrated with alliterative phrases, sounds, and letter cues to provide phonemic awareness and phonics instruction in six skills: letter-sound correspondence, auditory sound blending, word-level blending, writing sounds, auditory segmentation of sounds, and sound spelling. Entertaining puppets, chants, and games add fun to the fast-paced systematic instruction that is designed to review and introduce sounds and their written representations. Teachers decide to review or accelerate lessons based on informal monitoring and diagnostic assessments.

Shared Stories
Colorful Shared Story books invite students to use their developing decoding, fluency, and comprehension skills. The teacher presents new vocabulary words, and then guides students to read the story with their partners. Students then discuss their comprehension as they become confident, enthusiastic readers.

Story Telling and Retelling (STaR)
A collection of forty-eight books, both fictional and expository text, are read interactively with students as part of the Reading Roots lessons. Prediction, clarification, questioning, summarization, and visualization strategies are modeled and practiced as they relate to the comprehension of the text structure, meaning, or story elements of the STaR books.

Language Links
Structured Language Links activities, which are based upon the corresponding Shared Story and STaR story in the lesson, stimulate children’s oral language and cognitive development as they learn effective ways to communicate ideas, feelings, and experiences. Students use higher-level thinking skills as they engage in dissusion of authentic literature.

Adventures in Writing
On the third day of every Reading Roots lesson, students are guided through a writing activity that is related to the theme of both the Shared Story and STaR books. Students use the writing process as they think, speak, and work collaboratively with others.

Instructional Materials
Reading Roots materials include puppets, colorful picture cards, helpful strategy cue cards, engaging videos, and more, making this program not only research-based and proven, but fun!

  • A complete and easy to use 4-volume set of teacher’s manuals provides detailed daily lesson guides for phonics, student story reading, teacher read-alouds, oral language, and writing lesson activities. Materials such as letter cards, picture cards, word cards, puppets, and read-aloud books are all provided. Award-winning video segments designed for teachers to show during the lesson are available as an option.
  • Student materials include phonics practice and consumable reading books, colorful sound cue strips, strategy cue cards, celebration flyers, homework, assessments, and parent notes. These provide many opportunities to help develop students’ confidence as readers.

Sample Lessons
Use the following link(s) to browse sample lessons from Reading Roots.

Reading Roots - sample lesson
Reading Roots - sample shared story

Professional Development

Reading Roots Mascot
Alphie

Your SFAF Coach builds a partnership with your school through training sessions, onsite coaching, scheduled telephone meetings, quarterly progress reports, and informal telephone support. The professional development provided by SFAF staff is designed to support school leaders and teachers as they make substantial changes in their approach to classroom instruction.

Initial Training
The two-day initial training prepares teachers to implement Reading Roots. The training focuses on:

  • Phonemic awareness, phonics, decoding, word recognition strategies, fluency, and comprehension.
  • Elements of the lessons that provide engaging images, routines, and the practice needed to ensure success for each student.
  • Tools for assessing students’ progress and adapting lessons based on assessments to meet individual and group needs.
  • Cooperative learning strategies that provide the practice and repetition beginning readers need.
  • Support for administrators to monitor and improve program administration.
  • A one-day training for school leaders in assessment tools and regrouping strategies. In addition, there is training in program monitoring and coaching.

Goal-Focused Achievement Planning
Goal-focused achievement planning sets the stage for success. School leaders and your SFAF Coach develop specific goals and monitor student progress.

  • Every quarter, Reading Roots teachers, schools leaders, and your SFAF Coach review student progress data.
  • Goals and interventions for the following quarter are planned based on the data.

Ongoing Coaching and Support
As the year progresses, you will have a variety of ways to work with your SFAF Coach to review your progress and refine your goals. Your school receives:

  • An initial telephone meeting two to three weeks after training to answer questions and troubleshoot.
  • Three onsite support visits over the year at each school to observe students’ reading in classrooms, meet with teachers and administrators, review data on student progress, and set new goals.
  • Follow-up video training and telephone meeting training on the advanced level of the Reading Roots program in the Fall.
  • Three follow-up telephone meetings with each school. Telephone meetings are designed to provide teachers with further training and support for their implementation of the program. The consultations will be conducted quarterly to answer teachers’ questions and help program facilitators and principals with troubleshooting, goal setting, and assessment issues.
  • Unlimited, informal telephone support for all staff members.

Next Steps
Do you want to learn more about Reading Roots? Please call and talk to one of our staff members at 1-800-548-4998, ext.2372, or fill out the information request form online.
We can provide documentation to demonstrate how Success for All programs are aligned with your state's educational objectives.

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