Results

The Sonday System produces amazing results. That's because it was designed by utilizing a highly effective combination of Research Essentials, Effective Intervention, and Best Practices.

You can also learn more about the Sonday System's results by reading the evaluation guide and data report & references (505Kb PDF).

Research Essentials

Research indicates that the following are key components of successful reading programs.

The National Reading Panel Report and The No Child Left Behind Act state the required components for Research Based Curriculum. The following matrix shows how the Sonday System addresses these requirements.

Required Components for Research Based Curriculum

Essential Reading Components	Research to Practice	Implementaiton within the Sonday System
		Let's Play Learn®	Sonday System 1®	Sonday System 2®
Phonological/Phonemic Awareness	Segmenting onset sound	Levels 2-8	PreRead 2 & All Levels	All Levels
	Combining/segmenting compound words	Levels 5-8	PreRead 4 & All Levels	All Levels
	Combining/segmenting short words	Levels 7-8	PreRead 4 & All Levels	All Levels
	Deletion/substitution	Levels 7-8	PreRead 4 & All Levels	All Levels
	Segmenting words into sounds or syllables	Levels 6-8*	PreRead 4 & All Levels	All Levels
	Rhyming	Levels 3-8	PreRead 2 & All Levels
	Developing Listening Skills	All Levels	All Levels	All Levels
Systematic Explicit Phonics	Sound-symbol relationships	Levels 7-8	PreRead 5 & All Levels	All Levels* Syllable: Levels 5-34 Affixes/Roots: Levels 7-34)
	Rules, place value, frequency		All Reading Levels	Syllables: Levels 5-34 Affixes/Roots: Levels 7-34
Spelling	Spelling dictated sounds, words and sentences	Levels 8*	PreRead 5* All Reading Levels	All Levels*
Multisensory Practice	Tracing; finger segmentation of sounds; position of lips, tongue; writing sounds, words, and sentences	Levels 6 - 8	PreRead 3 - 5 All Reading Levels	All Levels
Controlled Reading	Word flashcards, word lists and sentences		All Reading Levels*	All Levels
	Overlearning and repeated practice of sounds, words and sentences	Level 8	All Reading Levels*	All Levels
Fluency	Rapid naming; automaticity drills of sounds, words & text; phrasing, chunking; controlled, monitored, choral, & repeated reading.	Levels 4-8 Rapid Naming: Shapes, Colors, Numbers, Letters	PreRead 5 All Reading Levels*	All Levels
Vocabulary	Expansion for listening, speaking, reading, writing through multi-modality instruction	All Levels Professional Development	All PreRdg Levels All Rdg Levels* Professional Development	All Levels* Professional Development
	Indirect instruction: listening, speaking, independent reading.	All Levels (Listening & Speaking) Professional Development	All PreRdg Levels (Listening & Speaking) ALl Rdg Levels* Professional Development	All Levels Professional Development
	Direct instruction: study of antonyms, synonyms, analogies, affixes, roots & traditional vocabulary instruction & visualizing	All Levels (Vocabulary Instruction; visualizing)	All Rdg Levels (antonyms, synonyms, analogies, vocabulary and visualizing)* Professional Development	All Levels* Professional Development
Comprehension	Critical thinking strategies for understanding, remembering & communicating material	All Levels (Listening & Picture) Professional Development	All Rdg Levels* Professional Development	All Levels* Professional Development
	Active listening, revisualization, prior knowledge, mnemonics, generating questions/answers, sorty structure, summarizing & critical thinking strategies.	All Levels (Listening & Picture) Professional Development	All Rdg Levels* Professional Development	All Levels* Professional Development
Assessment	Pre-test, Post-test		Entry/Exit Tests	Entry/Exit Tests
	Progress testing/monitoring	Every Level	Every 3rd Level	Every 3rd Level
	In-classroom benchmark	Every Level	Every 3rd Level	Every 3rd Level
Professional Development Pre-service and Follow-up Coaching	Research into practice using the Sonday System; delivering a lesson plan; use of the teaching tools, testing; strategies and techniques to assure student success	Trained Orton-Gillingham Professional Educators	Trained Orton-Gillingham Professional Educators	Trained Orton-Gillingham Professional Educators
* Sonday System Supplemental & Comprehension Development Materials are available.

The selection and adoption of an effective, research-based core reading program in the primary grades is a critical step in the development of an effective school-wide reading initiative. The investment in identifying a core program that aligns with research and fits the needs of learners in your school will reap long-term benefits for children's reading acquisition and development.

A critical review of reading programs requires objective and in-depth analysis. For these reasons, we offer the following recommendations and procedures for analyzing critical elements of programs. First, we address questions regarding the importance and process of a core program. Following, we specify the criteria for program evaluation organized by grade level and reading dimensions. Further, we offer guidelines regarding instructional time, differentiated instruction, and assessment. We trust you will find these guidelines useful and usable in this significant professional process.

1. What is a core reading program?

A core reading program is the primary instructional tool that teachers use to teach children to learn to read and ensure they reach reading levels that meet or exceed grade-level standards. A core program should address the instructional needs of the majority of students in a respective school or district.

Historically, core reading programs have been referred to as basal reading programs in that they serve as the "base" for reading instruction. Adoption of a core does not imply that other materials and strategies are not used to provide a rich, comprehensive program of instruction. The core program, however, should serve as the primary reading program for the school and the expectation is that all teachers within and between the primary grades will use the core program as the base of reading instruction.

Effective Intervention

The Tier Intervention Model

Level	Description
Level 1	Primary and Early Intervention Enhanced general education classroom instruction.
Level 2:	Secondary Intervention Intense intervention in general education, presumably in small groups.
Level 3:	Tertiary Intervention Special education placement. Intervention increased in intensity and duration.
Dr. G. Reid Lyon, Chief Child Development and Behavior Branch, National Institute of Child Health and Human Development National Institutes of America

Best Practices

doi:10.1038/nn946
November 2002 Volume 5 Supplement pp 1080 - 1084

Guinevere F. Eden1 & Louisa Moats

1. Center for the Study of Learning, Georgetown University Medical Center, Building D, 4000 Reservoir Road, Washington, DC 20057, USA
2. Department of Pediatrics, Health Science Center, University of Texas, 7000 Tannin UTC 2478, Houston, Texas 77030, USA

Correspondence should be addressed to G F Eden. e-mail: edeng@georgetown.edu

(Excerpt)
Effective classroom-based programs that minimize reading failure in all but 2-5% of children include several components: structured phonemic awareness (orally identifying and manipulating syllables and speech sounds), phonics (making associations between sounds and letters), fluency (developing speed and automaticity in accurate letter, word and text reading), vocabulary expansion and text comprehension. When this is not sufficient, teachers and clinicians have at their disposal many commercial programs for dyslexic students23. Examples of commercial programs include the Orton-Gillingham Approach, Alphabetic Phonics, Slingerland Approach, Project Read, Wilson Language, LANGUAGE!, The Sonday System, and Lindamood-Bell. These are systematic, cumulative, explicit and sequential approaches that allow professionals to teach language structure at many levels (sounds, syllables, meaningful parts of words, sentence structure, paragraph and discourse organization). All emphasize the importance of multi-sensory engagement of the learner and teach the phonological features of spoken language using motor, visual, auditory and kinesthetic feedback combined with extensive, controlled practice in word recognition. One of the Lindamood-Bell techniques addresses concepts of the motor theory of speech perception20 by emphasizing oral-motor feedback and explicit, detailed instruction in labeling speech sounds. Phono-Graphix, on the other hand, minimizes the multisensory mediation techniques of Orton-Gillingham approaches.

Acknowledgements

The authors are supported by the National Institute of Child Health and Human Development (NICHD).

By Dr. Sheldon H. Horowitz
NCLD Director of Professional Services

Back in October 2004 my column introduced "CBM" (Curriculum-Based Measurement) as a way for educators to gather precise information about what their students know; record (chart) these data, and measure their learning progress over time. The good news about CBM is that by targeting and sampling performance in specific skill areas, teachers can choose instructional materials and implement teaching strategies that attack students' areas of need. Less guesswork, more purposeful instruction, better results. Sounds like a plan, right?

So let's take the next step together and ask some guiding questions:

• Once we've identified skills that are lacking, what exactly are we supposed to do?

The answers to this and other questions are your keys to success.…

Here are a few research-based strategies and approaches to teaching reading that have been mentioned in the professional literature. They are offered as possible options as you search for products and programs to assist you in achieving your goals with students in your classrooms…

To learn more, please read the full article.