Continuing from my post from a couple of days ago regarding an easier way to teach Open Court to Special Education students, here are a couple more of the things that I do when teaching OCR.
When I am teaching the skills called for in the program, I scaffold it down very low. By this I mean that I photocopy instructional materials from a lower grade with simpler explanations and work from there.
Open Court teaching is on grade level, but Voyager is intervention. It is below grade level. During that block of time, I am allowed to teach the children what they need to know, like the Sound Spelling cards, high frequency words & sight words, word families, and whatever else they need.
During that time, I explicitly teach the sound spelling cards. I target a specific S/S card and work with it. For instance, when I come to a S/S card that has more than two spellings, like the S or sausage card, I write a word with the spelling in it to show the children that it’s not just there for show; that it’s there for a reason. So, now when they see it when they’re reading, they will know.
I subscribe to a newsletter from All About Spelling and am encouraged as I read the weekly newsletter. In the newsletter, the author, Marie Appel, writes about explicitly teaching the sound spelling cards in order to help students with their spelling.
I guess I’m on the right track.
Special 2 Me 
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