Superkids for K-2

St. Timothy Catholic School uses the Superkids Reading Program in Grades K-2.
The Superkids Reading Program is built on five research-based principles for teaching reading.

• To keep children engaged as they tackle the hard work of learning to read, the Superkids Reading Program features a cast of lively characters called the Superkids, whose adventures and activities delight children of all skill levels and backgrounds.
• Children are also motivated by the engaging fiction and informational texts the program provides, not only because of the good stories or interesting facts, but because children are taught the decoding skills they need to read the texts by themselves.

• Children come to school with a sizeable speaking vocabulary. Their academic task is to learn to read and write the words and ideas they can speak.
• The lessons of the Superkids Reading Program seamlessly integrate reading, spelling, writing, grammar, and listening and speaking. Children learn that listening, speaking, reading, and writing are all ways to communicate ideas, and communication is the goal of all the language arts

• English is a rich and complex language with hundreds of thousands of words. But at its base is the alphabetic principle, a relatively simple code in which 26 letters and combinations of them stand for all the sounds we speak. Mastering the sound-symbol code is the foremost step in learning to read—the only truly reliable process that opens written language to beginning readers. Current brain research has validated the efficacy and importance of the intense phonics-based instruction that is at the core of the Superkids Reading Program.
• The systematic, explicit phonics instruction in the program is thoughtfully and thoroughly designed so that children learn to decode words with continuous practice until they reach automaticity and fluency. Only when they can decode automatically are their minds free to comprehend fully what they have read.

• Research also validates that children learn to read most efficiently when they can apply letter-sounds they’ve been taught to read phonetically controlled, or decodable, texts.
• The phonetically controlled vocabulary in the texts of the Superkids program allows children to build the habit of decoding, rather than making guesses, until they can read automatically. The success children have builds their skills and confidence so they can readily apply the decoding principle.
• Multiple word-attack strategies are introduced once automaticity is achieved and students begin reading more complex fiction and informational texts.

• Multimodal instruction and practice are integrated throughout the Superkids program. Whenever children learn a new letter-sound correspondence or spelling pattern, they see it (visual modality), hear it (auditory), say it, and write it (kinesthetic). Thus, all modalities are engaged and are used to reinforce one another.

Click on the picture for more information.