A Favorite Fridays - www.k12reader.com

For those of you I have yet to meet, let me introduce myself.  I am a Program Coordinator for Literacy Volunteers of Chemung and Schuyler County.  My focus is on Schuyler County, a group of small villages hugging the south end of Seneca Lake.  While our community is famous for Watkins Glen State Park and award winning wineries, we are infamous for keeping our problems like poverty and illiteracy a secret.  This fall I committed myself to growing the Literacy Volunteers program here.

We serve people who need to improve their Basic Literacy Skills or learn English as a Second Language.  We can also offer tutoring support to adults who wish to further their education but need extra help reading and studying material needed to pass a class or obtain a certification.

When I get a new Basic Literacy learner I administer  a TABE test to pinpoint the grade level at which a new learner is skilled.  Today I am using a fantastic website, www.k12reader.com to print lesson materials for 2 learners on completely different levels.  Lessons and material can be found for learners from a kindergarten level all the way through tenth grade.

One of my learners is working on a 1.3 grade level.  Her goal is to be able to use Facebook to communicate with her children and grandchildren but she can not read or write responses to their posts.  For her I will be using their spelling lists which are based on word families at this level such as -un family (bun, gun, fun, run, etc).  I will also use the reading lessons that compliment this word list.  It will use the Dolce sight words and add focus words to provide a story that I will be able to assess for comprehension.

Another learner is working at a 3.9 grade level.  His goal is to get a better job.  He does not currently hold a driver's license which is a requirement listed in many job descriptions.  I will use the third grade spelling lists to start his lessons but this will be a much quicker process because he already has many skills in phonics and word decoding.  I will spend much more time with him in the 'Reading Skills' section.  We are focusing on Reading Comprehension, so he can read and understand study materials such as the Driver's Manual.  We will also use many of the Context Clues lessons so he will learn to find meaning in sentences even when he comes across a word he does not know how to decode.

These are examples for just two of my learners.  I highly recommend this website to find lessons for your learners at any level.  This is one of the best FREE websites I use!