THE BLUE BOOK PROGRAM OVERVIEW

Structure
In The Blue Book portion of The Common Sense Reading Program, the teaching process has been arranged in four parts:

Part I - Readiness (2 lessons)
Part II - Short Vowels (17 lessons)
Part III - Consonant Blends and Short  vowels (5 lessons)
Part IV - Long Vowels (12 lessons)

As you can see, these four parts combined contain 36 lessons.  It is expected that each lesson will take one week, thus providing 36 weeks of instruction, which is equivalent to the common 180 day school year.

Each of the 36 weekly lessons is divided into five days.  Though this may seem overly structured to some teachers, the purpose is to provide all the support necessary for a task that could otherwise feel intimidating---- teaching your student to read.  Feel free to make adjustments as needed to fit this plan of instruction to your particular situation.

Using Real Books As Readers
The common sense reading program is unique in that the instruction and materials enable your student to read "real" books, rather than a basal-type reader.  By purchasing this program, you have obtained 28 individual real books. Your student will enjoy reading these books in and of themselves, as well as using them as a basis of instruction.  Students receive the satisfaction of reading a "whole" book early on, rather than waiting months for this experience, as in other programs.

This authors' approach to reading instruction is to introduce a few sounds at a time, and then provide the opportunity for your student to read a book utilizing those sounds in words.  Three sets of readers are included, containing imaginative stories in each book.  They are sequentially organized to allow your student to use and review previously developed abilities.

The three sets of readers are:
Successful Reading for Beginners - Short Vowel Readers by Yuriko Nichols.
Successful Reading for Beginners - Bridge Readers by Debbie Strayer.
Successful Reading for Beginners - Long Vowel Readers by Yuriko Nichols.

Certainly, the literature component of this program makes it distinctive and uniquely appealing. First graders should be frequently reminded that a reason for all the work they are doing in phonics is the joy of reading wonderful books.  Teachers will appreciate that included in the literature instruction are the important thinking and reasoning skills that develop young minds, as well as the reading instruction itself.

Reviews and Assessments
Interspersed among the lessons are five Reviews and Assessments.   Easy-to-use directions are provided for their administration and for evaluation of the results.  These tools will help you assess your student's ability to hear and identify phonics skills.  Later in the program, the assessments expand to include assessing a student's ability to hear phonetic sounds and correctly write the words made up by those sounds.

The goal of these assessments is to obtain information about your student's progress in order to determine how you, the teacher, can better assist your student.   It is not necessarily recommended that these assessments be used for grading purposes, as that might put undue pressure on your student.  As Dr. Beechick says:

"Blending skill is one of those things you cannot hurry in students.  You can't sternly shake your finger at Johnny or promise him cake if he gets it right.  All you can do is give him opportunities to learn it, and one day you will see he is beginning to catch on.  That's a great day.  The major hurdle to reading is about to be crossed.  Nurture his beginning skill.  Help it grow."
      -From A home Start in Reading, by Dr. Ruth Beechick.

Additional Literature Used In Lessons
Following the lessons, and the Reviews and Assessments, is a list of the books containing literature selections used in the weekly lessons.  These books can be easily obtained at libraries and bookstores.  For your convenience, the books are listed in the same order in which they are used.

This program introduces students to such classic first grade literature as Caps for Sale by Esphyr Slobodkina, The Snowy Day by Jack Ezra Keats, Bedtime for Frances by Russell Hoban, Blueberries for Sal by Robert McCloskey and Mike Mulligan and His Steam Shovel by Virginia Lee Burton.

Student Activity Book and Materials Packet
The final aspect of The Common Sense Reading Program is contained in the Student Activity Book and Materials Packet.  Here you will find all the materials needed to make sound/picture cards, consonant and vowel cards, game cards, puppets, activities, and dice letter games.  These are referred to in the lessons, with specific references to make them easy to find. 

This aspect of The Common Sense Reading program is very important, because it is through "doing" that students practice and enjoy their newly learned skills.  One favorite is the "Head, Tummy, Toes" card game, which practices identifying beginning, middle and ending sounds. We are also fortunate to be able to include a dice letter game developed by Dr. Ruth Beechick and mentioned in her book, A Home Start in Reading. Teaching reading should be a fun and natural process.   With LLATL The Common Sense Reading program it is.

THE RED BOOK PROGRAM OVERVIEW

For the fluent reader, The Red Book encourages his love of reading.   The necessary spelling, grammar, and writing skills are taught using the six readers. In order to determine which skills to present in this program, the authors drew from their own classroom teaching, from experience teaching their own students to read, and from the excellent information obtained from two primary sources: A Home Start in Reading by Dr. Ruth Beechick; and Teaching Students: A Curriculum Guide to What Students Need to Know at Each Level Through Sixth Grade by Diane Lopez.

Structure
The Red Book portion of The Common Sense Reading Program is divided into three parts, a total of 36 lessons.  It is expected that each lesson will take one week, thus providing 36 weeks of instruction, which is equivalent to the common 180 day school year.

Each of the 36 weekly lessons is divided into five days.  Though this may seem overly structured to some teachers, the purpose is to provide all the support necessary to teach your student successfully.  However, feel free to make adjustments as needed to fit this plan of instruction to your particular situation.

Using Real Books As Readers
The common sense reading program is unique in that the instruction and materials enable your student to read "real" books, rather than a basal-type reader.  By purchasing this program, you have obtained six individual real reading books.   Your student will enjoy reading these books in and of themselves, as well as using them as a basis of instruction.

Six readers from the Successful Reading for Beginners series are included, each containing five or six stories in each book.  They are:

• All Around the Farm
• Forest Fables
• In, Out, and About Catfish Pond
• Up, Down, and Around the Rain Tree
• Underwater Friends
• Famous People

Enrichment Activities
In most of the lessons you will find the treasure chest icon for the Enrichment Activities.  While optional, these activities develop thinking and reasoning skills necessary for higher level learning.  These activities are especially recommended for the fluent reader who may require more challenging activities or independent work.

Assessments
This book provides you with seven Assessments, about one every five weeks.  Easy-to-use directions help you evaluate your student's progress.

Additional Literature Used in Lessons
At the back of the book, you will find a list of books necessary to complete this program.  Favorite classics have been chosen to encourage your student in the joy of reading.  They are conveniently listed in the order in which they are introduced in the lessons.

Books from which literature passages have been taken are not required to complete this program.

Student Activity Book
The Student Activity Book contains everything needed to successfully complete the program lessons.  Also included are handwriting pages, enrichment exercises such as word puzzles, reasoning activities, cut and paste activities and much more.  These are refereed to in the lessons, with specific references to make them easy to find.