Building Reading Proficiency at the Secondary Level: A Guide to Resources

What is it? How does it work?

Background:
Originally designed as a dyslexic training program for adults by Barbara Wilson, an Orton-Gillingham teacher, WRS follows the Orton multisensory approach.

Overview:
WRS targets secondary students with severe decoding and spelling difficulties. Originally designed as a dyslexic training program for adults by Barbara Wilson, an Orton-Gillingham teacher, WRS follows the Orton multisensory approach. The program focuses on teaching the concepts of the structure of words. Instruction takes place at least twice a week, usually one-to-one or in small groups.

The individually administered Wilson Assessment of Decoding and Encoding (WADE) places students into the program along a scale of twelve sequential steps. These steps, based on six common syllable types, begin with sound segmentation, syllabication, and suffixes and proceed through more complex language concepts and spelling rules. The multisensory instruction involves students in finger-tapping to segment sounds and manipulating cards to internalize sounds, syllables, and suffixes.

A ten-part lesson plan drives the instruction. Parts 1-5 focus on decoding, parts 6-8 on encoding (spelling). In part 9, students silently read short passages with controlled vocabularies, visualize the passage, retell, then read orally. In part 10, students listen as the teacher models by reading aloud a more difficult non-controlled passage, after which students visualize and then retell.

In program steps 1-6, students read highly controlled text passages. At about step 7 most are expected to successfully read non-controlled text from outside readings. The 1-to-1 approach can be expanded to small groups of students with similar levels of decoding ability.

The WRS is not a complete literacy program. The teacher is expected to support for comprehension and writing.