WILSON READING
SYSTEM
Cassie Anderson
Background
• Barbra A. Wilson
• Special Education teacher
• Chairperson for I.E.P. meetings
• Noticed special ed. students
struggling with reading
• Orton-Gillingham Language
Therapist Certification program at
the Reading Disabilities Clinic at
Massachusetts General Hospital in
Boston.
• 1985 founded Wilson Learning
Center
• 1988 published Wilson Reading
System
• Fundations 2002, Fluency Basics
2007, Just Words 2009
Wilson Students requirements
• Meant for students in grade 2-12 and adults
• students have a decoding and spelling problem
• Cannot mix students who can proficiently read with students who struggle
• Minimum IQ of 80
• Overall reading ranked in 5th to 30th percentile
• Minimum total reading score of 2.o
• Students’ listening comprehension ability is higher compared to
independent reading comprehension
•
•
•
•
Wilson tutors read grade appropriate material to students
Widen schema and
Provide grade appropriate vocabulary
Lessen gap between students and their peers
Wilson Teachers
• Multiple Training
Sessions
• Must be certified.
Tutoring Session
• One on one or is small group up to six students
• Grouped according to pacing
• Low decoding=stay in earlier steps for several sessions
• Others students quickly finish first few steps=go to more complex
material
• Three groups
• Group 1; slowest pacing track; 0-15% percentile word attack
• Group 2; medium pacing; 16-30% percentile word attack
• Group 3; fast pacing; 30-50% percentile word attack
Tutoring Session
• Tutoring sessions that work for students’ individual schedule
• Three to four 45 minute sessions
• Two to three 60 minute session
• Two to three 90 minutes session
• 90 minutes to complete entire lesson
• Lesson broken into blocks
• Can complete block of lesson in shorter session
Lesson Structure
• 10-part lesson plan
• 10 parts broken up into three blocks
• Block 1: parts 1-5, takes 30 minutes
• focuses word study, decoding, and vocabulary
• activities include sound card quick drill (say the sound on card), teach and
review concepts for reading, word cards, wordlist reading, and sentence
reading
• Phonemic awareness help sound out words while reading
• Block 2: parts 6-8, takes30 minutes
• spelling and writing
• activities include quick drill reversal (hear the sound write the letter), teach and
review concept for spelling, and written work dictation (sounds words,
sentences)
• Block 3: parts 9-10, takes 30 minutes
• controlled text passage reading and listening comprehension and applied skills
• controlled text passages only include concepts that students have learned or
are currently working on
• Listening comprehension=access to prints at current grade level
Scope and Sequence
• Twelve steps are focused on the six different syllable types
•
•
•
•
•
•
Closed syllable
Vowel consonant-e syllable
Open syllable
Consonant-le syllable
R-controlled syllable
Vowel diagraph/diphthong syllable
Steps
• Step 1 – Closed Syllables (3 sounds)
• Blending two and three sounds, Digraphs, Practice with above sounds, Double
consonants, f, s, l, and –all, am, -an, Adding suffix ‘s’ to closed syllable words
with three sounds (bugs, chills)
• Step 2 – Closed Syllables (4-6 Sounds)
• Glued sounds: ang, ing, ong, ung, ank, ink, onk, unk (bang, pink), Closed
syllables with blends (4 sounds) + suffix ‘s’, Closed Syllable exceptions: ild, ind,
old, ost, olt, Five sounds in a closed syllable + suffix ‘s’, Three letter blends and
up to six sounds in a closed syllable (sprint, scrap)
• Step 3 – Closed Syllables (Multisyllabic Words)
• Two syllable words with 2 closed syllables combined (no blends), schwa
(catnip, wagon), Two syllable words with two closed syllables, including blends
(disrupt, fragment), Words with two closed syllables ending in ct blend
(contract, district), Multisyllabic words, combining only closed syllables
(Wisconsin, establish), Suffixes ed, ing added to unchanging basewords with
closed syllables (slashing, blended)
Steps
• Step 4 – Vowel-Consonant E Syllable
• Vowel-consonant e syllable in one syllable words (hope, cave), Vowelconsonant e syllable combined with closed syllables (combine, reptile),
Multisyllabic words combining two syllable types (compensate, illustrate), –ive
exception: no word ends in v (olive, pensive)
• Step 5 – Open Syllable
• Open syllable in one syllable words, y as a vowel (he, hi, shy), Open syllables
combined with vowel-consonant-e and closed syllables in two-syllable words
(protect, decline), y as a vowel at the end of two-syllable words when
combined with a closed syllable or another open syllable (handy, puppy),
Multisyllabic words, combining 3 syllable types: open, closed, vowelconsonant-e (instrument, amputate), 'a’ and ‘I’ in unaccented, open syllables
(Alaska, indicate)
• Step 6 – Suffix Endings (unchanged basewords) and Consonant-le Syllable
• Suffix endings –er, est, en, es, able, ish, y, ive, ly, ty, less, ness, ment, ful added to
unchanging basewords (thankful, classy), Suffix ending ed: /d/, /t/ added to unchanging
basewords (thrilled, punished), Combining 2 suffixes to an unchanging baseword
(constructively, helpfulness), Stable final syllable: consonant –le, stle exception
(dribble, whistle)
Steps
• Step 7 – Introduction to Sound Options, Contractions
• Sound Options: c (e,i,y) (concentrate, concede) g (e,i,y) (gentle, pungent),
ge, ce, dge (lunge, indulgence, fudge), new trigraph and digraph: tch, ph
(fetch, ph), – tion, sion (subtraction, expansion), contractions (we’ve, I’ll)
• Step 8 – R-Controlled Syllable
• R-Controlled syllable: ar, er, ir, or, ur in one syllable words (firm, turn, barn),
ar, or in multisyllabic words (market, cortex), er,ir,ur in multisyllabic words
(skirmish, surgery), Exceptions: vowel rr (hurry, barren), para, Exceptions:
ar, or in final syllable (beggar, doctor) ard, ward (blizzard, onward)
• Step 9 – Vowel Digraphs/Diphthong “D” Syllable
• Vowel Teams: ai,ay (plain, display), ee,ey (tweezer, valley), oa,oe,ue (croak,
toe, revenue), oi,oy,au,aw (thyroid, employ, saucer, squawk), ou, ow, oo
(trousers, drowsy, spoon), ea (eat, bread, steak), eu, ew, ui (Europe, few,
suit)
Steps
• Step 10 – Adding Suffixes to Changing Basewords
• V-e exceptions: ice, ace, ate, ile, ite, ine, Spelling Rule: Adding a suffix to a
baseword ending in e (taping, lately), Spelling Rule: Adding a suffix to a onesyllable closed or r-controlled baseword (starred or saddest), Spelling Rule:
Adding a suffix toa multisyllabic baseword when the final consonant must
double (regretting, controlled), Additional suffixes: -ic, -al, -ible, -ous, -ist, -ism, ity, -ize, -ary, -ery, -ory, -ent, -ence, -ant, -ance
• Step 11 – Additional I, E, Y Vowel Work
• 'y' in open, closed, v-e syllables (reply, gym, type), the y spelling rule
(enjoyable, player), 'i' in an open syllable /e/ (orient), 'i' pronounced as /y/
(genius, million), ie/ei (piece, ceiling, vein), igh, eigh (light, eight)
• Step 12 – Advanced Concepts
• Split vowels: vowel team exceptions (create, violin), silent letters: rh, gh, mb,
mn, kn, gn, wr (rhyme, ghost, lamb, column, knife, gnat, wrist), w affecting
vowels (water, worship), ch, que, /k/ (chorus, clique), ti, ci, tu, ture (patient,
official, actual, nature), chameleon prefixes (correct, accent)
Website
• http://www.wilsonlanguage.com/
• Information about all four Wilson Programs
• Wilson Reading System
•
•
•
•
•
WRS Description
WRS Target Population
Principles of Instruction
Distinguished Characteristics
WRS Lesson Plan
• Webcast
•
•
•
•
Visuals of how program is used
Talks about syllables for 12 steps
Purpose of nonsense words
Overview of program
Lesson
• Vowels different color than other cards: orange=multisensory
• Tap multisensory: map, lash, slash, chick
• http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=f9m56Ajp2Ok
Bibliography
• Bishop Reading. n.d. Web. 22 May 2013.
• Wilson Language Training Corp. Wilson Reading System Level I
Certification. 2010. Web. 22 May 2013.
• —. Wilson Reading System . 2010. Web. 22 May 2013.
• —. WRS Lesson Plan. 2010. Web. 22 May 2013.
• Wilson, Barbara. "Wilson Reading System in the Classroom." Wilson
Language Training Corporation, 2007.