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Now is the Time to Bring Every Child Up to Speed
Right now in the Eastern Caribbean, a lot of high school students are reading below grade level—in many cases, far below—at Kindergarten, Grade 1, and Grade 2 levels—and some are stuck at “alphabet level”—that’s right, teenagers who do not know their letters and sounds. The situation is shocking, but with passion, dedication and a teen-targeted remedial reading toolkit, educators can begin to turn the tide. Our Remedial Reading Toolkit equips educators with a suite of powerful literacy-building materials. It's time to get serious about the problem—are you in?
Click to send a Hands Remedial Reading Toolkit (described below) to a Caribbean high school
"No Baby Books for Teens" That’s the concept behind the 24-book, three-level TERL (Teen Emergent Reader Libraries) phonics system from Saddleback Educational Publishing, and it’s brilliant. Usually, helping Caribbean teens catch up on reading skills means using Kindergarten books—which serve to further humiliate and turn teens off of reading.Saddleback says, “The TERL series has been developed specifically for emerging teen readers who are developing decoding skills. Written at emergent and beginning reader levels, the books have been carefully controlled to showcase phonics skills, beginning with CVC (consonant-vowel-consonant) words and progressing through long vowels, r-controlled vowels, diagraphs, and multisyllabic words. Accompanied by dynamic full-color photos, the engaging storylines are teen-centric and represent a variety of genres.”
Music, Sports, Love, Real Life Instead of princesses, fairy tales, and candy-colored dinosaurs, teens will find action/adventure, sports, and teen-issues content and graphics that speak directly to them. The TERL system has been created to build teen skills in five critical reading components: phonemic awareness, phonics, comprehension, vocabulary, and fluency. More from Saddleback: “Each of the three levels (lexile levels from BR to 60L, BR to 90L, and BR to 120L) feature eight 16-page books, six fiction and two nonfiction. Each of the 24 books includes a word list of used sight words that is organized by phonics skills. Vocabulary-building words are also highlighted in the text. A Teacher’s Guide supports each book with a lesson plan, vocabulary-building activities, guided reading questions, reproducible activities focusing phonics skills and comprehension, plus a quiz.”
Going Beyond Reading
Children who are reading well below grade level can start catching up through a variety of methods. We've assembled hands-on tools for children who learn in a way that works for them: word sort cards, pocket charts with phonics and word-family cards, rhyming and phonics puzzles, word and letter tiles, alphabet, phonics, and word family flashcards, phonics listening centers and CDs, sight-word Bingo, and Bananagrams word games. Which tools Hands sends depends on the needs of each school. Yes, I'd like to send a Remedial Reading Toolkit to a Caribbean high school
Requirements for Educators
• Participating schools must have trained Reading Teacher(s) or a Literacy Coordinator specifically tasked with remedial reading.
• Hands Across the Sea will require progress reports, and we welcome suggestions from educators for improving the program.
• Remedial Reading Toolkits are part of a multiyear program with Hands Literacy Link support, including training workshops for teachers.
• Materials and support provided will vary according to the needs of specific schools.
• Yes, I'd like to send a Remedial Reading Toolkit to a Caribbean high school
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Amanda's phone: 631-806-4116
amanda.sherlip@handsacrossthesea.net
Harriet's phone: 617-320-3601
harriet@handsacrossthesea.net
Tom: tl@handsacrossthesea.net
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Hands Across the Sea, Inc.
P.O. Box 55071, Suite 85043
Boston, MA 02205 U.S.A.
Tel: 617-320-3601

Hands Across the Sea is approved by the Internal Revenue Service as a 501(c)(3) tax-exempt organization, and all donations are tax deductible to the extent allowed by law. Hands Across the Sea’s Federal Identification Number (EIN) is 20-5897380.
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