Lively Letters A Reading Approach Review

By Terry Moore

WHO CREATED LIVELY LETTERS?

Lively letters is part of the Reading with TLC program created by Nancy Alemian Telian, a speech and language pathologist, and Penny Alemian Castagnozzi, an elementary educator.

Why was Lively Letters created?

Lively Letters was created in 1990 for students in an urban setting who were at risk for developing reading difficulties. It is research based structured program that helps students develop skills in phonemic awareness and phonics.

++++++++++++++++++++++++

Description of program

Develops skills in phonemic awareness and phonics

A multisensory, language based program that uses mnemonics and imagery

Designed to be used as part of or as a supplement to the core reading curriculum for grades Pre-K-2. It also may be used as an intervention program for students of all ages.

Instructional Design Designed to be used in a whole class

setting, in flexible grouping, or with individual students.

The 44 sounds of the English language are taught with colorful letter pictures of which demonstrate oral letter formation.

Mnemonics and hand cues are used to link the mouth movements (oral kinesthetics) with the letter sounds and shapes.

Instructional Design (continued)

A multi-tiered program used daily or several times a week depending on the needs of the students. Lessons last from 15 to 60 minutes.

Designed to be paced according to the needs of the student or students. Can take two to nine months to cover grade appropriate material.

Instructional Design (continued)

Skills taught are letter/sound association, rapid, automatic naming of sounds, and phonetic decoding and encoding. This program connects letter shapes, letter sounds, and mouth movements that are needed to make the sounds.

Letters grouped according to their oral kinesthetic features.

Program begins by focusing on lower case letters and letter sounds. Letter names are introduced later.

Scope and Sequence

Suggested order for letter presentation:Quiet/ Noisy Consonant Pairs- p/b, t/d, f/v, k/g, Misfit qu, Quiet/ Noisy th/th, Vowels a, o, Groups Sharing Common Feature- m, n, ng, l, r, Vowel u, Quiet/Noisy s/z, sh/zh, ch/j, Groups Sharing Common Feature- w, wh, h, Misfits x, y, Vowel e, King Ed- final e rule, Special Vowel Combinations- oo/oo, ou/ow, au/aw, oy/oi, er/ir/ur, or, ar, Misfit c, Soft g, and Other Vowel Pairs

Scope and Sequence Continued

After one or two vowels are introduced, students begin blending and manipulating vowels with learned consonant sounds- cvc words and nonsense words, deletions, substitutions, rhyming, and onset-rime.

Research and Evaluation

Reading with TLC clinical studies: Pilot Study Boston Public Schools 1990-1996:170

students with reading difficulties made 2.1 grade level gains in phonemic awareness, 2.0 grade level gains in nonsense word decoding, and 1.5 grade level gain in oral reading.

Oral reading

Nonsense word decoding

phonemic awareness

Research and Evaluation Continued

Study in York County, ME 2006-2008- Dibels testing showed that after using this program overall number of students scoring in the at-risk and deficient ranges was markedly decreased.

Research and Evaluation Continued

Study in Las Vegas, NV 2008-2009- 75% of students in this study were English Language Learners. Significant gains were reported in letter name and letter sound ID.

Research and Evaluation Continued

Berninger and Wolf in Teaching Students with Dyslexia and Dysgraphia: Lessons from Teaching and Science refer to the benefits of using multisensory instruction for sustained attention and commitment to the learning process especially for those experiencing learning difficulties.

Strengths and Weakness Three Reading with TLC studies

show that students with reading difficulties had made significant gains in phonemic awareness and phonics.

My current kindergarten class , the first class who received Lively Letters instruction in Pre-k, is more phonemically aware. Also more students seemed to be able to name the lower case letters of the alphabet.

Focus on lower case letters means easier transition to reading words

Appeals to young children’s learning styles

This program should be paired with a good handwriting program that emphasizes the formation of the upper case letters. The students that I have this year who had Lively Letters last year could recognize the upper and lower case letters but had little experience with writing them.

All of the studies were retrieved from the Reading with TLC website: http://www.readingwithtlc.com/

Berninger, V. W, & Wolf B. J. (2009).

Teaching students with dyslexia and dysgraphia: Lessons from teaching and science. Baltimore: Paul H. Brooks Publishing.

References

Examples

The Letter “F”

King Ed