Word Detectives
Word Detectives is the decoding and spelling program developed here at Benchmark. This research-based approach has formed the foundation of our language arts program since the formal launch of Word Detectives in 1983.
We do things differently at Benchmark School. Doing things differently–finding unique ways to reach students who struggle to learn–is exactly why Benchmark was founded.
This difference is perhaps most visible in our Word Detectives program, which has unlocked literacy for decades of students.
unlocking literacy
Word Detectives is a powerful approach to word identification, vocabulary development, and spelling that is:
- grounded in research
- endorsed nationally and internationally by leaders in education
- supported by studies published in professional journals
- and validated through consistently impressive student results across the program’s long history.
The Word Detectives program systematically presents instruction that guides students to make discoveries about how the English language works. Once students identify a pattern in our language, the pattern and corresponding strategies are reinforced systematically, explicitly, and intensively, with an emphasis on applying students’ evolving understandings while reading and writing connected texts.
Making Word Detectives
Benchmark’s founder and first Head of School Dr. Irene Gaskins developed Word Detectives working in close collaboration over years with literacy experts Dr. Richard Anderson, the Director of the Center for the Study of Reading at the University of Illinois at Urbana-Champaign and Dr. Linnea Ehri, now a Distinguished Professor of the Graduate Center, CUNY and former member of the Congressional National Reading Panel.
Since those early days of development, the Word Detectives program continues to undergo refinement as our Benchmark teachers work with the program and as research in the field of literacy grows.
personalized support
Word Detectives is taught with increasing tiers of sophistication throughout Lower School, and has extensions in the Middle School as well.
With the foundational decoding skills Word Detectives provides, in combination with the personalized support of Benchmark teachers in comprehension instruction and vocabulary development, hundreds of students have unlocked the power to decode and spell words.
Word Detectives Teacher Certification Program
Our teachers are ground zero for Word Detectives excellence. Naturally, this makes sense, given that this is the only place in the world where teachers are teaching and refining Word Detectives daily.
There are formal tiers of mastery that demonstrate and honor where each Benchmark teacher is in their journey to become certified as a Master Teacher in Word Detectives.
The Word Detectives Teacher Certification Program guides and recognizes those teachers who have mastered teaching the Word Detectives program at a range of levels. Each level of certification requires attendance at professional development sessions, seminar participation, readings, instruction experience, and demonstration of background knowledge and key instructional techniques.
Above are the first 15 Benchmark teachers certified as Master Teachers in Word Detectives.
Learn more about the entirety of Benchmark School's literacy program.