A LESSON LEARNED FROM THE FIELD
Place conservatively at the beginning of the year. If you place too low, you can always accelerate the pace of your review. Read Well units will accordion in and out to meet the needs of your students. (See the Read Well 1 Unit Guides for two-day units. Add a review of easy Solo Stories to the beginning of each lesson.)
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STARTING THE YEAR
Kindergarten: Do the First Four or Five Units of Read Well K Whole Class (20–25 Days)
- During this time, teach your kids your classroom expectations and routines.
- Use Read Well K Whole Class Independent Work to begin teaching students how to work independently and do their personal best. A start with whole class instruction provides you with time to teach your expectations and routines while you are free to monitor and give frequent positive descriptive feedback.
- Begin assessing kids for placement and teaching students how to transition from whole class to small group.
- Set up a schedule that limits the amount of time students spend working independently once small group instruction commences (e.g., flood the kindergarten program with all students in small groups at the same time).
First Grade: Do the First Two Units of Read Well 1 Whole Class (8 Days)
- During this time, teach your kids your classroom expectations and routines.
- Teach the Read Well 1 Units 1 and 2 Decoding Practice and stories from the Read Well big books in your kits.
- Assess kids for placement. For new students, use the standard procedures from the Assessment Guide. For returning students, assess the last equivalent kindergarten unit completed in the spring.
(a) If students pass, review one unit and then move forward.
(b) If students do not pass, drop back three to five units and assess again. Continue dropping back until the student gets a Pass or Strong Pass.
IMPORTANT NOTES:
1. For students who need to review units completed in kindergarten, do not despair! The small group units in kinder have given your students the foundation for moving forward at an “average” pace at the beginning of first grade. Your goal for low-performing students is Unit 10 by the end of first quarter. By the end of the year, your goal for low-performing students is Read Well 1 Unit 28, slightly below grade level but reading well. This will set students up for completing at least Unit 15 of Read Well 2 by the end of grade 2. If students progress at this pace, they will be at grade level on most standardized assessments by the end of grade 2.
2. Do not place students in Read Well K small group. The kindergarten units parallel Read Well 1.
Second Grade: Do the Read Well 2 Start-Up Unit Whole Class (6 Days)
- During this time, teach your kids your classroom expectations.
- Assess kids for placement. For new students, use the standard procedures from the Assessment Guide. For returning students, assess the last unit completed in the spring.
(a) If students pass, review one unit and then move forward.
(b) If students do not pass, drop back three to five units and assess again. Continue dropping back until the student gets a Pass or Strong Pass. Review that unit and move forward to develop automaticity.
MATERIALS FOR REVIEW
Read Well 1 Plus can be used to review Read Well 2 units.
IMPORTANT NOTES:
1. If low-performing students completed Read Well 1 Unit 20 or higher but need to drop back to Read Well 1 Unit 16 or higher, use the Read Well 2 Fluency Foundations units to review Read Well 1. See the chart below. Once you complete the review of previous units, go back to Read Well 1. The pace of Fluency Foundations is designed for review, not new learning.
2. If average-performing students completed Read Well 1 Unit 38 but need a review, they will place in Read Well 2 Fluency Foundations. Do not despair! Students typically gain 35 words correct per minute in this 40-day review and go on to reading well at a beginning third-grade level or higher by the end of the year.
| RW2 FF Unit |
RW1 Unit |
| A |
16, 17, 18 |
| B |
19, 20, 21 |
| C |
22, 23, 24, 25 |
| D |
26, 27 |
| E |
28, 29 |
| F |
30, 31, 32, 33 |
| G |
34, 35 |
| H |
35, 36 |
| I |
37 |
| J |
38 |
| RW2 Unit |
RW1 Plus Unit |
| 2 |
39 |
| 3 |
40 |
| 5 |
41 |
| 6 |
42, 50 |
| 7 |
43 |
| 8 |
44 |
| 10 |
45 |
| 11 |
46, 47 |
| 12 |
48 |
| 13 |
49, 50 |
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Third Grade: Completion of Read Well 2 and/or Intervention
Assess kids for placement. For new students, use the standard procedures in Read Well 2. This will place students in Read Well 2 Fluency Foundations or Read Well 2. If students are too low in skills, they may need placement in Read Well 1. For returning students, assess students in the last unit completed in the spring.
(a) If students were in Read Well 2 in second grade but did not complete the program, assess on the last unit completed in the spring.
(b) If students pass, review that unit and then move forward. See the chart above. Read Well 1 Plus can be used to review the first half of Read Well 2.
(c) If students do not pass, drop back three to five units and assess again. Continue dropping back until the student gets a Pass or Strong Pass. Review that unit and move forward to develop automaticity. (Use the chart above to find equivalent Read Well 1 or Read Well 2 units.)
IMPORTANT NOTES:
1. We recommend allowing students to complete, at a minimum, Read Well 1 Plus or Read Well 2 Unit 13 for generalization.
2. If students are allowed to complete Read Well 2 Unit 25, they will be positioned well for reading intermediate-grade text. (Unit 20, Magic School Bus in the Human Body, has a readability of 4.6 and Lexile of 520. Unit 22, TIME for Kids: Edison, has a 5.1 readability and Lexile of 680.) These units are typically completed by high-performing students; however, low-performing students most need the continued explicit instruction that Read Well 2 provides.
3. Following Read Well 2 Plus, if students would benefit from additional fluency work, we recommend going into a basal program with explicit instruction and a Rewards Intermediate intervention (Archer, Gleason, and Vachon).
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REMEMBER: A JOYFUL REVIEW is a time to show off, gain confidence, and start strong!
Keep in touch. We love hearing from you!
HAVE FUN CHEERLEADING!
FLUENCY BOOSTER WINNER
The winner of Ann Watanabe and Marilyn Sprick’s Fluency Boosters (available only through Pacific Northwest Publishing) is Hattie, a literacy coach from Mississippi.
Fluency Boosters is the perfect intervention for students who read accurately but not fluently in Read Well 1, Read Well 2 Fluency Foundations, Read Well 1 Plus, and Read Well 2. Encourage your colleagues to sign up on our website to increase your school’s chances of winning a set.
READ WELL is a federally registered trademark of Voyager Sopris Learning, Inc., and used here under license from Voyager Sopris Learning. The content of Read Well Fluency Boosters, however, is the sole property of Pacific Northwest Publishing, Inc., and Pacific Northwest Publishing, Inc., is solely responsible for such content.
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