NEWS
The Florida Center for Reading Research (FCRR) recently reviewed Sopris WestTM Educational Services' Sound Partners: A Tutoring Program in Phonics-Based Early Reading. FCRR reviews are widely followed in the industry because of the high standards the center sets for educational products.
Sound Partners was praised for having a detailed scope and sequence to outline its sequential, systematic instruction. "Program materials are clearly written, well-organized, and easy to use," FCRR reported.
The research-based supplement was designed for students in grades 1-3 who are at risk for or experiencing difficulties with phonemic awareness and phonics. Through one-on-one, 30-minute sessions, trained tutors and paraprofessionals—as well as reading specialists, classroom teachers, and special education instructors—help students develop fundamental reading skills, apply decoding techniques, and build fluency using scaffolded Decodable Reader storybooks.
"Instruction is explicit and systematic with consistent instructional routines that include teacher modeling and multiple opportunities for practice," FCRR reported. "To address student mastery, cycles of review are built into lessons; additionally, the tutor is trained to give specific corrective feedback and to scaffold difficult tasks."
Summing up a number of studies involving the program as a "strong research base" and noting no weaknesses, FCRR commended Sound Partners' ability to help struggling students develop the skills they need to read grade-level text so that they may participate fully in classroom reading instruction. Click here to read the full review.
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