Beginning Readers

Word Detectives Plus, Beginning Level

Word Detectives Plus, Beginning Level, is a systematic, research-based program that teaches beginning readers to decode and spell words using multiple strategies. These strategies are those known to support readers and spellers in effectively processing and responding to texts typical of primary-level reading materials. The hallmark of Word Detectives Plus is the recognition that students need to approach the reading and writing of words flexibly, being armed with a variety of strategies, each of which may best suit individual words or students. This principle is applied through instruction that also appreciates that it is most efficient to use the largest known unit of a word to facilitate decoding and spelling. This revised Word Detectives program has been newly developed and refined as the result of a five-year collaborative effort between program authors, external researchers, and classroom teachers. It is both classroom based and teacher tested.

What concepts are taught?

Phase I – Phonemic awareness and concept of word
(first 35 lessons)

• Phoneme isolation and identification
• Phoneme segmentation and blending
• Onset and rime manipulation
• Concept of word (finger pointing to word being read)

Phase II – Strategies for reading and spelling words
(remaining 95 lessons)

• Letter-sound matching
• Fully analyzing Key Words
• Pattern recognition (spelling pattern or vowel pattern)
• Key Word use
• Context use
• Strategic application of a combination of word-solving methods

For whom is it designed?

• First, second, and third graders
• Students whose reading levels are non-reader through end of first grade
• Struggling readers
• Students in general or special education
• Students receiving whole-class or small-group instruction

How is it used?                                                    

• The program begins in September and continues daily throughout the school year (a 10-month program).
• Each lesson is designed to be taught during a 45-60 minute period (or one lesson can be taught for 25-30 minutes per day over a two-year period).

What is different in this revision of the program?

• More detailed descriptions, explanations, and sample teacher talk are outlined in order to provide better guidance from which teachers can plan and carry out instruction for their students.
• A carefully organized teacher’s manual that provides access to all the materials necessary for instruction with each lesson plan.
• The newly written teacher’s manual has been infused with frequent recommendations regarding approaches to differentiating instruction for students in different developmental phases of literacy learning.
• Additional program components now include a separate teacher assessment manual with formal and informal assessment tools and the option to purchase sets of student practice books with materials needed for both daily instruction and take-home practice.
• Instructional routines that have been re-designed to maximize active participation in learning including daily opportunities for every-pupil-response and peer-to-peer talk about language.

What are the benefits of Word Detectives Plus?

• Students learn to use multiple high-utility approaches to strategically problem-solving unfamiliar words in reading and spelling.
• Students are provided the opportunity to read high-interest texts that respect their interest and intelligence while gaining experience with applying their strategic word-solving repertoire in context.
• Teachers have the opportunity to develop and use funds of knowledge about: strategic processes for decoding and spelling, individual student development, and the nature of language. This instructional expertise allows teachers to attend to the features and consistencies in words necessary for a range of student learners to manage decoding and spelling during primary-level reading and writing.
• Teachers have access to reader-friendly materials that have been organized for ease of use for instruction.
• Classrooms have the opportunity to develop a degree of comfort with a set of structures and routines that are utilized regularly within a spiral curriculum, allowing for sophisticated conversations about words and language.
• Classrooms experience engaging, high-success word-level instruction.
  

For more information about the Word Detectives Plus program or to place an order, please call 610.565.3741 or email: Benchmarkinfo@BenchmarkSchool.org.

 

Selected References (2000-2011)
Research, Development, and Implementation of
the Benchmark Word Detectives Series

Gaskins, I.W. (2000). What will classrooms and schools look like in the
new millennium. Reading Research Quarterly, 35, 132-134.

*Lovett, M.W., Lacerenza, L., & Borden, S.L. (2000). Putting struggling readers on the PHAST track: A  program to integrate phonological and strategy-based remedial reading instruction and maximize outcomes. Journal of Learning Disabilities, 33, 458-476.

Gaskins, I.W. (2004). Word Detectives. Educational Leadership, 61, 70-72.

Gaskins, I.W. (2005). Success with struggling readers: The Benchmark School approach. NY: The Guilford Press.

Pressley, M., Gaskins, I.W., Solic, K., & Collins, S. (2006). A portrait of Benchmark School: How a school produces high achievement in students who previously failed. Journal of Educational Psychology,  98, 282-306.

Gaskins, I.W., & Labov, L.D. (2007). Diverse perspectives on helping young children build important foundational language and print skills: A review of Handbook of Early Literacy Research, Vol. 2, Reading Research Quarterly, 42, 438-451.

Gaskins, I.W. (2008). Developing cognitive flexibility in word reading among beginning and struggling readers. In K. Cartwright (Ed.), Literacy processes: Cognitive flexibility in learning and teaching (90-113). New York: The Guildford Press.

Ehri, L.C., Satlow, E., & Gaskins, I.W. (2009). Grapho-phonemic enrichment strengthens keyword analogy instruction for struggling young readers, Reading & Writing Quarterly, 25, 162-191.

Gaskins, I.W. (2011). Interventions to develop decoding proficiencies. In A. McGill-Franzen & R. Allington (Eds.), Handbook of reading disabilities (pp. 289-306). New York: Routledge.

 

*See also additional 2000-current publications and lectures by Maureen W. Lovett and colleagues.