The ABeCeDarian Reading Program offers exceptional
efficiency in helping students develop into fluent and
accomplished readers with a set of materials that is both easy to use
and quite affordable.
ABeCeDarian achieves efficiency in the following ways:
ABeCeDarian is divided into 4 levels:
Highlighted links allow you to download sample material.
Please note: We have now prepared a versions of the Level A
and B materials that are designed specifically for use by homeschoolers
and tutors. The original ABeCeDarian materials remain available
for classroom teachers. When you order from the ABeCeDarian
webstore, you will be able to choose specifically to see the materials
for homeschoolers and tutors or the materials for classroom teachers.
Level A is for non-readers or very beginning readers. Each lesson combines:
Beginning instruction presents words such as sat, mop, and rug
that are constructed out of a
consonant, vowel, and consonant using only single-letter consonants and
the so-called "short" vowels. The term "short" vowel is never
used
with the students. Each letter is referred to only by its
sound.)
Unlike many programs which require students to learn many letter/sounds in isolation before reading words, in ABeCeDarian students will read words from the very first lesson and begin reading short sentences in Unit 3. (
After students master all the sounds for the
single-letter consonants and vowels, they learn the two-letter
combinations sh,
ch, th, and
ck.
The high-frequency words the, a,
is, of, to,
and I, are also presented in Level A. These words
have sounds or spellings not otherwise presented at this level and are
the only words learned as wholes, rather than being analyzed into their
individual sounds. The remaining high-frequency words are taught in
Level B, when students have a more complete understanding of the
spelling system.
In addtion to reading words and sentences in their workbooks, students at this level read a set of ten delightful, illustrated storybooks beginning once they have completed Unit 4. Each storybook is fully decodable, that is, it presents only the letter/sound code that the student has been explicitly taught, so there is no need to guess and the words.
When a student completes Level A, he will be able to read automatically
over 100 words. Most kindergarten students who use the program will be
able to read text in the curriculum at rates of 40 or more words
correct in a minute by the end of the school year.
The classroom version of the materials have spelling and reading
material divided between a workbook and a reading book. The
homeschooling and tutoring version of the materials have all the
student material, have all the material the student reads and writes
contained within the student workbook.
Materials needed for Level A
| For
Homeschoolers and Tutors |
For
Classroom Teachers |
| Student Workbook A1
for Homeschoolers and Tutors |
Student
Workbook
A1
|
| Student Workbook A2 for
Homeschoolers and Tutors |
Student Workbook A2 |
| Storybooks for Level A (Set of
10) |
Storybooks for Level A (Set of
10) |
| Teacher Manual A1 for
Homeschoolers and Tutors |
Student Reading Book A1 |
| Teacher Manual A2 for Homeschoolers and Tutors | Student Reading Book A2 |
| Teacher Manual A1 |
|
| Teacher Manual A2 |
Materials needed for Level A (Short Version)
| For All Teachers
|
| Student Workbook A - Short
Version |
| Teacher Manual A - Short Version |
Please note: A version
specifically for homeschoolers and tutors will be available June, 2013
Level A Blending/Segmenting Practice is a freely downloadable set of exercises specifically designed for students who can read at a 3rd grade level but who read very slowly and have few skills at reading unfamiliar words.
Level B covers material at the 1st and 2nd grade level. At this level students learn that many sounds are spelled multiple ways and that many spellings represent more than one sound. This information is presented in the context of engaging sorting exercises contained in Student Workbooks B1 and B2. Specifically, students are given a sound and shown the various ways that the sound can be spelled. The so-called long-o sound can be spelled, for instance, oa, o-e, o, ow, oe, and ough. Students are presented a list of words which they read and sort according to how the target sound is spelled. The words for the sorting exercise are coded to make it clear which letters are representing which sounds. Specifically, there is a space between each grapheme (i.e., the letter or letter combination used to spell a sound) and multiple letter graphemes are underlined. Thus the word "boat" is presented as b oa t.
Following the sorting exercise, students are presented with a
list of 8 high frequency
words which, for the most part, contain the target sound for the unit.
Students read these words, copy them, and then say each
individual sound of the word as they underline how that sound
is spelled.
Students continue to practice reading these words on the following
page which contains these target words displayed in 4 rows, each row
presenting the words in a different order.
Further practice reading these
words is provided in each unit by having students read a series of
sentences containing many of the words analyzed in the unit.
Students practice reading these sentences until they
achieve designated fluency targets. To ensure that students
are paying attention to the meaning of the sentences as well as trying
to read them quickly and accurately, each sentences is presented in
cloze format, with a single word missing. Students supply the
missing word from two choices presented at the end of the sentence.
These sentences are "decodable." That is, they have only the
code that
the students have been explicitly presented. The sentences in each unit
focus on using high frequency words that have the sounds and spellings
the students sorted at the beginning of the unit.
In the course of all this work, students learn the
multiple-letter vowel spellings (oa, ee,
eigh, etc.), the past tense ending -ed,
and simple yet effective techniques to read two-, three-, and
four-syllable words.
Students in Level B also continue and extend exercises begun in
Level A
that help them sound out unfamiliar words accurately and quickly.
At the end of each unit students further extend their practice by
reading a fable from Aesop. Like the storybooks for Level A, the
fables are all "decodable," presenting only letter/sounds that the
student has already learned.
Materials needed for Level B
| For Homeschoolers and Tutors |
For Classroom Teachers |
| Student Workbook B1 for
Homeschoolers and Tutors |
Student Workbook B1 |
| Teacher Manual B1 for
Homeschoolers and Tutors |
Teacher Manual B1 |
| ABeCeDarian Aesop |
ABeCeDarian Aesop |
| Student Workbook B2 for
Homeschoolers and Tutors |
Student Workbook B2 |
| Teacher Manual B2 for
Homeschoolers and Tutors |
Teacher Manual B2 |
This level is designed for students who read at the third
grade level or higher but who read very slowly or can't
sound out unfamiliar words reliably. It contains essentially the same
content as in the B1/B2 materials but presented in an accelerated
format. Moreover, unlike the regular Level B, there is
much work with nonsense words, so that students must use their blending
and segmenting skills and phonics knowledge to read and spell the words
and not merely recite words they have already memorized as visual
wholes.
Materials needed for Level B - Short Version
| For All Teachers |
| Student Workbook B - Short Version |
| Teacher Manual B - Short Version |
Level C provides outstanding word study for students at a 3rd or 4th reading level. It presents English and Latin prefixes, suffixes, and root words with accompanying exercises to help students read and spell these words easily as well as to learn what they mean.
A companion workbook called Spelling Patterns helps students
learn
the three major suffix-adding spelling patterns as well as when to use ck, tch, dge, and a
doubled consonant before final le.
There is no separate manual for the Spelling Patterns workbook.
All the material the teacher needs is contained within the student
workbook.
Materials needed for Level C
| For All Teachers |
| Student Workbook C |
| Teacher Manual C |
| Spelling Patterns |
Level D provides outstanding word study
for students at a 5th or 6th grade reading level.
It presents words with Greek roots, such as photosynthesis
and democracy, with accompanying exercises to help students read and
spell these words easily and to learn what they mean. There is no
separate manual for Student Workbook D. All the material the
teacher needs is contained within the student workbook.
Materials needed for Level D
| For All Teachers |
| Student Workbook D |
| Age and reading level of student | Appropriate ABCD Level |
| Kindergarten
and beginning 1st grade students |
A1/A2 |
| Students who
are mid-first grade age and older who are non-readers or very beginning readers |
A Short Version |
| Students
of any age reading at 1st/2nd grade level |
B1/B2 |
| Students age 10
and up who can read at a 3rd grade level or higher but who have poor word reading accuracy or fluency |
B Short Version |
| Students
of any age reading at 3rd/4th grade level or students reading at a higher level who don't know much about prefixes, suffixes, and root words |
C Spelling Patterns |
| Students of
any age reading at 5th/6th grade level or
students reading at a higher level who don't know much about Greek root
words |
D |