Funnix Reviewer’s Guide · the second-grade level. ... Funnix Reviewer’s Guide 3 of 48 ... nap, lap, tap, rap, map Lesson 98 Exercise 13 ip: lip, slip op: top, stop

Funnix Reviewer’s Guide 1 of 48

Funnix Reviewer’s Guide A Consumer’s Guide to Evaluating

Supplemental and Intervention Reading Programs

Introduction • 2

Funnix Beginning Reading and Funnix 2

Part 1 Critical Elements Analysis of Funnix • 4

PHONEMIC AWARENESS • 5 PHONICS: DECODING • 13 PHONICS: IRREGULAR WORDS • 30 TEXT READING AND FLUENCY • 36 VOCABULARY AND COMPREHENSION • 40

Part 2 Reading Intervention Program Items • 41

INTERVENTION DESCRIPTION • 42 INSTRUCTIONAL DESIGN AND EMPHASIS • 43 INSTRUCTIONAL GROUPING • 46 INSTRUCTIONAL ASSESSMENT • 47

Siegfried Engelmann Owen Engelmann Funnix.com PO Box 448 Eugene, OR 97440-0448 (541) 284-2441


Funnix Beginning Reading (FBR) and Funnix 2 (F2)

Funnix Beginning Reading and Funnix 2 are Direct Instruction programs

that present complete lessons using CD discs, workbooks, readers, and lined

paper.

Funnix Beginning Reading is designed for children who have never

received instruction. This level, therefore, is appropriate for level K, level 1, or as

a remedial program for older children. Funnix 2 is appropriate for children who

have completed Funnix Beginning Reading or for children who perform around

the second-grade level.

Funnix Direct Instruction Programs

Funnix programs were designed by the senior author and creator of Direct

Instruction, Siegfried Engelmann. Direct Instruction programs are designed to

control all the variables that make a difference in how students learn—how fast

new material is introduced, the amount of practice provided on applying

concepts, the feedback teachers provide students, the sequence of skills that are

taught to teach a complex skill like reading. The goal of Direct Instruction

programs is to teach everything the children need to master a particular subject

or skill and to teach it efficiently, but not to teach them things they don’t need.

There are five critical features of all DI programs:

1. DI lessons do not focus on a single topic (such as decoding a family of

words that contains a specific sound or rhyming). Instead, each Direct Instruction

lesson works on 5 or more different skills. Each skill is practiced and applied on

more than one lesson.

2. Only about 10% of what occurs on a lesson involves new concepts. The

rest of the material involves reviewing and applying concepts that have been

introduced on preceding lessons. This small-step design and constant review

guarantees that all children will learn everything the program presents.

3. Direct Instruction programs are scripted to assure that teachers give

adequate explanations, quickly and efficiently. Funnix programs take scripting a


step further by providing the ideal audio and visual presentation delivered on

computers.

4. The structure of the program permits predictions about the skills

children will have mastered at any time during the year. If the teacher follows the

program carefully, an average group will progress at the rate of 1 lesson per day.

The prediction would be that all children in the group will learn to read by the end

of the school year.

5. All Direct Instruction programs are extensively fieldtested, and revised

on the basis of how children perform. When published, the program will work.

In summary, Funnix ensures an expert presentation by assuring that both

the sequence of activities and the clarity of the presentation are presented as an

expert would present them. By following the program specifications, therefore,

any instructor can teach children like an expert would.


Part 1 – Critical Elements Analysis of Funnix The progression from skill to skill in Funnix is efficient and seamless;

however, the design of the program makes it difficult for an unaided reviewer to

identify examples of the various criteria.

1. The Funnix program cannot be “scanned” the way a print program can

but has to be examined at the rate the narrator presents the exercises.

2. Each lesson presents 8 to 12 exercises, and has a running time of

more than 15 minutes.

3. Most exercises work on multiple skills.

An exercise that practices letter identification may also work on phonemic skills

by directing children to say the phonemes for the letter name after children

identify the letter. The first part of a reading exercise may work on oral phonemic

tasks by presenting words a phoneme at a time and directing children to blend

the phonemes to create words they’ll read later in the exercise. The first part of

spelling exercises may present words orally and direct children to segment the

words into their phonemes.

Part 1 of this Reviewer’s Guide addresses essential component criteria

presented in Consumer’s Guide to Selecting Supplemental and Intervention

Programs: A Critical Elements Analysis; Part 2 addresses Items for Analysis of

K–3 Reading Intervention Programs. Both parts provide a brief summary of how

criteria are met in the Funnix programs and present two or more examples of the

lesson and exercise that show how the required element is addressed in the

Funnix sequence.


PHONEMIC AWARENESS 1. Teaches skills explicitly.

All skills are taught explicitly in Funnix Beginning Reading (FBR). The

narrator first tells children what they are supposed to do for each task then

models the tasks before directing children to perform them.

Blending The first blending tasks instruct children how to combine familiar one-

syllable words into multisyllabic words. (Pop . . . corn . . . Say it fast.) Children

also work with single-syllable words that are presented continuously (without

pausing between sounds). (Listen: mmmaaannn. Say it fast.)

Later, children blend words that are presented as a segmented series of

phonemes (with pauses between the phonemes). (Listen: mmm . . . aaa . . .

nnn. Say it fast.) This format prepares them for spelling activities in which they

sound out words a phoneme at a time and then write the letter sounds.

Here are examples of explicit instruction for phonemic blending tasks in

FBR:

Combining syllables to form words:

Lesson 1, Exercise 3: hotdog, toothpaste, popcorn

Lesson 2, Exercise 3: walnut, window

Combining individual phonemes to form words:

Lesson 1, Exercise 3: ear, mouse

Lesson 2, Exercise 3: feet, ram, she

Lesson 3, Exercise 3: ran, sat, at, sick

Lesson 4, Exercise 7: ride, leaf, see, pail

Combining phonemes with pauses to form words:

Lesson 4, Exercise 7: (after phonemes for words are presented

continuously)

Lesson 5, Exercise 2: read, fly, rope, sore

Lesson 6, Exercise 7: ear, road, pan, mole


Segmenting Segmenting words follows an introduction similar to that for blending

words. The narrator first models each type of task before directing children to

perform tasks of that type.

Children learn how to break words into syllables and how to break words

into individual phonemes. The first words children segment into individual

phonemes are letter names of consonants. Segmenting letter names into their

individual phonemes serves two purposes. It prepares children for spelling and it

prepares children for deriving sounds for letters. The letter name “Ef” is

segmented into eee . . . fff. The last phoneme of the name is the sound the letter

makes in most words. This derivation of letter sounds from names makes the

relationships highly explicit.

Here are examples of explicit instruction for phonemic segmenting in FBR.

Breaking words into syllables:

Lesson 2, Exercise 2: shoelace, ice cream, fireplace

Lesson 3, Exercise 5: sunshine, cheesecake, football

Lesson 4, Exercise 4: quickly, fishing, brother, happy

Breaking letter-name words into their individual phonemes:

Lesson 5, Exercise 6: l (eee . . . lll), m (eee . . . mmm)

Lesson 6, Exercise 6: m (eee . . . mmm), s (eee . . . sss)

Lesson 7, Exercise 8: s (eee . . . sss), m (eee . . . mmm)

Breaking other words into their individual phonemes:

Lesson 9, Exercise 1: me, see, no, eat

Lesson 10, Exercise 4: see, am, so

Lesson 11, Exercise 6: me, no, eat, feet

Lesson 12, Exercise 2: am, fan, ran


2. Models phonemic awareness tasks and responses orally and follows with students’ production of the task.

In all tasks listed above for criterion 1, Teaches skills explicitly, the Funnix

narrator first models the correct responses before directing children to produce

the responses. The following list of exercises contains the lesson number and

the exercise number of some additional phonemic tasks that model responses

before children are directed to produce them.

Saying the initial sounds in words:

Lesson 1, Exercise 1


Saying the first part and last part of words:



3. Progresses from the easier phonemic awareness activities to the more difficult (e.g., isolation, blending, segmentation, and manipulation).

Phonemic awareness exercises progress from the easier to the more

difficult. The table below shows the first appearances of the following phonemic

tasks: saying phonemes in isolation; blending phonemes to create words;

segmenting words into syllables; segmenting words into phonemes; adding

phonemes to the end of words; blending more than 3 phonemes to create words;

segmenting words that have more than 3 phonemes into phonemes; rhyming

manipulation:

Phonemic activity First appearance Second appearance Third

appearance Saying sounds in isolation

Lesson 1 Exercise 1 ate, money, sail, ram, little

Lesson 2 Exercise 1 eat, fan, land, ss, mm, rr

Lesson 3 Exercise 2 no, as, good, me, ate, ff, ss, ll

Blending phonemes into words

Lesson 1 Exercise 3 ear, mouse

Lesson 2 Exercise 3 feet, ram, she

Lesson 3 Exercise 3 ran, sat, at, sick

Segmenting words into syllables

Lesson 2 Exercise 2 shoelace, ice cream, fireplace

Lesson 3 Exercise 5 sunshine, cheesecake, football

Lesson 4 Exercise 4 quickly, fishing, brother, happy

Segmenting words into phonemes

Lesson 5 Exercise 6 l (eee … lll) m (eee … mmm

Lesson 6 Exercise 6 m (eee … mmm) s (eee … sss)

Lesson 7 Exercise 8 s (eee … sss) m (eee … mmm)

Adding phoneme at end

Lesson 49 Exercise 2 /s/ ropes, books, mats, jokes

Lesson 50 Exercise 4 /z/ fans, tires, keys, poles

Lesson 54 Exercise 9 rats, seeds

Blending 3+ phoneme words

Lesson 50 Exercise 6 sleep, slip

Lesson 51 Exercise 4 flat, stove, trip, sleep

Lesson 52 Exercise 1 flame, drive, stove

Segmenting 3+ phoneme words

Lesson 71 Exercise 10 rats, sits, pins, pans

Lesson 72 Exercise 9 fits, sits, pins, pans

Lesson 78 Exercise 11 cats, hats, hits

Rhyming Manipulation

Lesson 75 Exercise 9 say, may, day, play, pay, stay, hay

Lesson 77 Exercise 11 nap, lap, tap, rap, map

Lesson 98 Exercise 13 ip: lip, slip op: top, stop


4. Incorporates letters into the phonemic awareness activities.

Of the first 11 consonant sounds children learn, all are derived from letter

names. These letters are from two different families—one in which the sound is

the last part of the letter name (ef), the other in which the sound is the first part of

the letter name (tee). In a third family, letter names of the vowels are shown to be

phonemes. In me, the sound for E is the letter name E.

The following exercises are some of the first in which letters are

incorporated into phonemic awareness activities:

Lesson 5, Exercise 6: l, m

Lesson 6, Exercise 6: m, s

Lesson 7, Exercise 8: s, m

Lesson 8, Exercise 6: s, l, m

Lesson 9, Exercise 2: l, m, f

Lesson 10, Exercise 6: f, s, n, r

Lesson 11, Exercise 5: s, r, f, m

Lesson 12, Exercise 1: l, f, s, n, r

5. Makes students’ cognitive manipulations of sounds overt by using auditory cues or manipulatives that signal the movement of one sound to the next.

For all phonemic activities in which children respond, the Funnix program

provides clicks to signal the timing for moving from one sound to the next. For all

the tasks in the exercises listed above, clicks or oral prompts are provided to

signal the children to move from one sound to the next or to “say it fast.”

6. Analyzes words at the phoneme level (e.g., working with individual sounds within words).

Many details of the analyses are specified under criteria 7–10.

For the following phonemic exercises, the narrator models each word a

phoneme at a time.

Lesson 8, Exercise 3: mmm … eee (me); sss … eee (see);

nnn … ooo (no); sss … ooo (so)


Lesson 9, Exercise 3: my, she, me, no

Lesson 10, Exercise 2: me, shy, my, so

Lesson 11, Exercise 2: no, in, an, eat; feet, ran, rain

Lesson 13, Exercise 3: an, so, feel

Lesson 14, Exercise 3: at, soap, mat

For the following phonemic exercises, children say words a phoneme at a

time.

Lesson 9, Exercise 1: me, see, no, eat

Lesson 10, Exercise 4: see, am, so

Lesson 11, Exercise 6: me, no, eat, feet

Lesson 13, Exercise 7 (the oral part): so

Lesson 14, Exercise 7 (the oral part): so, me

Lesson 15, Exercise 6 (the oral part): am, ram

7. In K, focus is on first the initial sound, then on final sound, and lastly on the medial sound in words. In grade 1 focus is on phonemes in all positions.

Because Funnix Beginning Reading teaches both K skills and grade 1

skills, it addresses phonemes in all positions. In the spelling activities, for

instance, children first identify the sounds of the words then identify the letters

that correspond to the sounds. This activity requires attention to phonemes in all

positions of words that vary from 2 to 5 letters.

Initial position: When children are introduced to the task of saying

sounds in isolation, the narrator first models each sound in a word. Children then

say the initial sound. (Say the first sound in fan.)

Last position: After children have focused on initial sounds and have

practiced segmenting words, they focus on the last sound of words. The words

that are presented in these exercises are letter names of consonants. The names

have two phonemes. Children identify both the first phoneme and the last

phoneme. Children focus on the last phoneme. (The last part of the letter name

ef is the sound that letter makes. What’s the sound?)


Medial position: Children are presented with words that have a long-

vowel sound (mean, rain, boat, fine). Children are asked to identify the letter

name that they hear in the words (A, E, I or O). The letter name is in the medial

position.

The table below shows the first three exercises that focus on the initial, the

last, or the medial phoneme of words: Focuses on: First

exercise Second exercise Third

exercise Initial phoneme Lesson 1

Exercise 1 ate, money, sail, ram, little

Lesson 2 Exercise 1 eat, fan, land

Lesson 3 Exercise 2 no, as, good, me, ate

Last phoneme Lesson 7 Exercise 8 es, em

Lesson 8 Exercise 6 es, el, em

Lesson 9 Exercise 2 el, em, ef

Medial phoneme Lesson 14 Exercise 1 ear, fine, soap, feel

Lesson 15 Exercise 4 mole, fine, ice loan, mice

Lesson 19 Exercise 4 safe, aim, loaf, seem

8. Focuses beginning phonemic level instruction on short words.

The first words children analyze on a phonemic level in Funnix are two-

sound words (so, no; at, eat; me, see, she; am; em, el, en, ef, es), and three-

sound words (feet, fan, ran, ram, seem, sick, sat). (See Lessons 8, 9, and 14

above.)

9. Works with increasingly longer words and expands beyond consonant-vowel-consonant words to more complex phonemic structures.

The exercises listed above show that children analyze two-sound and

three-sound words. Starting on Lesson 49, children add the ending S to three-

sound words (jokes, mats, books). Children start work on short three-sound

consonant-blend words (fly, try, fry, spy, dry, play) before Lesson 50. They blend

four-sound words containing a consonant blend in Lesson 50 (sleep, slip, tree).

Children begin to orally segment longer words (flat, stove, trip) starting on Lesson

51.


Children also analyze rhyming words and word families with blends

starting on Lesson 98. (Say the sounds in rip . . . What sound do you write for the

sound rrr? . . . What letter do you write for the sound iii? . . . The procedure is

repeated for the words grip, trip, drip. )

The table below shows some of the exercises in which children work with

increasingly longer words: Phonemic activity

First exercise

Second exercise

Third exercise

Adding phoneme at end

Lesson 49 Exercise 2 /s/ ropes, books, mats, jokes

Lesson 50 Exercise 4 /z/ fans, tires, keys, poles

Exercise 54 Exercise 9 rats, seeds

Blending 3+ phoneme words

Lesson 50 Exercise 6 sleep, slip

Lesson 51 Exercise 4 flat, stove, trip, sleep

Lesson 52 Exercise 1 flame, drive, stove

Segmenting 3+ phoneme words

Lesson 71 Exercise 10 rats, sits, pins, pans

Lesson 78 Exercise 11 cats, hats, hits

Lesson 84 Exercise 11 ears, tears

Rhyming Lesson 98 Exercise 13 lip slip, top, stop

Lesson 100 Exercise 12 rip, drip, trip, top, stop

Lesson 101 Exercise 12 rip, grip, drip, trip

10. Focuses appropriate amount of daily time on blending, segmenting and manipulating tasks until proficient.

The first lessons of FBR are almost entirely dedicated to teaching

phonemic tasks and bringing children to mastery on those tasks. Gradually, the

introduction and practice of phonemic tasks decreases as phonics and decoding

skills are introduced. However, phonemic skills are practiced regularly throughout

the entire FBR program. In the last part of the program, phonemic tasks continue

to be presented during the first part of the spelling exercises.


PHONICS: DECODING 1. Introduces high-utility letter sound instruction early in the sequence

(e.g., m, s, a, r, t) instead of low-utility letter sounds.

The first “lower-utility” letter sound, the long sound for Y, (my, by) is the

13th sound introduced. Below is a table that shows the lesson number and the

exercise number for the introduction of letter sounds and combinations in FBR.

High-utility letter sound instruction occurs early in the Funnix sequence. (See

Sounds and Letters on the Parent Disc for detailed information about the

strategy for letter-sound introduction in Funnix. See Sounds and Letters in the

Funnix Teacher’s Guide for tables containing letter families, their sounds, and the

lesson numbers on which they are introduced.)

Introduction of Sounds in Funnix

Lesson Exercise Letter Combination 6 6 m 6 6 s 8 6 l 9 2 f 9 8 a (rain) 9 8 e (meet)

10 6 n 10 6 r 15 4 i (like) 15 4 o (hope) 15 6 a (ran) 17 4 ea (sea) 17 4 oa (goat) 18 4 ai (pail) 19 2 t 25 4 y (my) 32 2 p 36 3 th (bath, bathe) 38 2 d 41 1 i (lick) 44 2 ay (may) 48 2 v, k, j 51 1 c ck 56 6 u (use) 57 2 w (wow) 59 1 g (gum) 65 1 h 68 1 u (us) 73 2 b 73 4 o (from) 80 2 wh


82 1 ar (arm) 86 1 sh 89 4 oo (moon) 91 6 er (herd) 92 1 o (hop) 97 4 ir, ur (bird, curd) 101 1 x 105 4 y (happy) 105 1 ch 111 1 e (met) 119 2 al

2. Sequences the introduction of letter sounds, letter combinations and word parts in ways that minimize confusion.

Children do not confuse sounds in Funnix, because many of the first

sounds are derived from the letter names. The sounds for letters and

combinations that aren't derived from the letter names are initially prompted to

ensure children remember the sounds for those letters or combinations. For

detailed information about how Funnix minimizes confusion of letter sounds,

letter combinations, and word parts, see How Skills are Taught on the Parent Disc and in the Funnix Teacher’s Guide.

The letter A is the first letter for which children learn a second sound. The

long sound for A is presented in isolation beginning on Lesson 9. On Lesson 15,

Exercise 6, Funnix initially presents the short sound only in spelling tasks for

words that have the short A sound.

Children practice the short A sound for 3 days. On Lesson 18, Exercise 4,

the long A sound is reintroduced in the combination ai. (See Sounds and Letters: Blue-Letter Combinations on the Parent Disc and Sounds and Letters in the Teacher’s Guide for more detailed information about blue-letter

combinations.)


3. Incorporates frequent and cumulative review of taught letter sounds to increase automaticity.

After children learn the sounds for number symbol names, Funnix

integrates that knowledge into word reading, story reading, story extension,

spelling, and workbook tasks.

Symbol Name Lesson introduced

5 five 60

9 nine 65

3 three 84

1 one 90

2 two 90

4 four 93

6 six 106

10 ten 111

All sounds that children learn appear first in words children read in word

lists, and later in connected story text. During most early word-reading exercises

in FBR, children are directed to say the sound for each letter or combination in

the words. Sounds that are reviewed in isolation are usually sounds that have

been recently introduced or sounds that do not appear frequently in the word-

reading exercises.


The table below shows the exercises from Lesson 20 to the end of the

program that review sounds in isolation.

SOUNDS PRACTICED IN ISOLATION Lesson Exercise(s) Lesson Exercise(s) Lesson Exercise(s)

20 2 54 2 88 1 21 3, 4, 6 55 2 89 1 22 2, 5 56 2 90 1 23 2 57 2 91 1 24 4, 8 58 2 92 1 25 4 59 1 93 1 26 4, 6 60 1 94 1 27 2 61 1 95 1 28 2 62 1 96 1 29 3, 8(1st part) 63 1 97 1 30 3 64 2 98 1 31 2,3 65 1 99 1 32 2,7 66 2 100 2,3 33 2 67 2 101 1,2 34 2 68 1,2 102 1 35 2,3 69 1 103 1 36 2,3 70 2 104 1 37 3 71 2 105 1,2 38 3 72 2 106 1 39 2,3 73 2 107 1 40 2,3 74 1 108 1 41 2 75 1 109 1 42 2,3 76 1 110 1 43 2,3 77 1 111 1 44 3,5 78 1 112 1 45 2 79 1 113 1 46 3 80 1 114 1 47 1 81 1 115 1 48 2,5 82 1 116 1 49 1, 2 83 1 117 1,2 50 2 84 1 118 1 51 1 85 1 119 1,2 52 2 86 1 120 1,2 53 2 87 1




4. Models instruction at each of the fundamental stages (e.g., letter-sound correspondences, letter combinations, prefixes, word endings, blending, reading whole words).

Letter-Sound Correspondences

The letter-sound correspondences are all modeled. For letter-sound tasks,

the narrator models the sound for each letter before children are directed to say

that sound for the letter. For most tasks, the narrator confirms each sound after

children respond to letter-sound tasks. See criterion 1 Sounds Table (page 15

above) for the introductory lessons and exercises in FBR that model letter-sound

correspondences.

Letter Combinations See Introduction to Sounds in Funnix table in criterion 1 (page 15 above).

Basic Word Reading Word reading is modeled. Children first learn to sound out words. The

narrator models the children’s responses before directing the children to respond.

The initial strategy children use is to say the sound for each letter or combination

in a word (from left to right). Then children blend those sounds. Here are the

lesson and exercise numbers for the first word-reading exercises:




Prefixes Children learn to read the word came on Lesson 65, Exercise 3; the word

way on Lesson 74, Exercise 5; the word side on Lesson 86, Exercise 3; and the

word turn on Lesson 105, Exercise 5.

Children later learn to read prefixed words: became on Lesson 93,

Exercise 4; away on Lesson 84, Exercise 5; inside on Lesson 115, Exercise 2;

return on lesson 116, Exercise 5.

In Funnix 2, children learn many words that have prefixes. The

introductory tasks are often modeled before students are directed to respond, or


they are modeled as a confirmation after students have responded. The following

table shows the root words, the prefixed words and exercise for each word.

Root with

prefix

Lesson in F2 Exercise Root Lesson Exercise

Almost 15 6 Most 15 F2 2

Also 12 5 So 11 FBR 3

Always 39 2 Ways 74 FBR

(way)

5

Across 37 2 Cross - -

Alone 31 2 Lone - -

Apart 60 3 Part 78 FBR 6

Asleep 67 4 Sleep 50 FBR 7

Awake 53 2 Wake -

Become 13 3 Come 76 FBR 3

Belong 91 3 Long 7 F2 2

Below 5 2 Low 56 FBR 6

Disagree 100 1 Agreed 20 F2 3

Disappear 100 1 Appear 91 F2 3

Disbelieve 100 1 Believe 6 F2 3

Explain 64 2 Plain 24 F2 3

Inform 79 2 Form 62 F2 5

Recall 57 3 Call 1 4

Unhappy 40 2 Happy 105 FBR 4

Unless 50 2 Less 31 F2 2

Unroll 86 2 Roll 112 FBR 4

Until 20 3 Til - -

Word Endings

The S ending is the first ending that is introduced in FBR. Here are the

next 4 exercise numbers for the S-ending formats. These exercises focus on the

phonics application of suffixing s to written words:

Lesson 55, Exercise 4: jokes, pins, vans

Lesson 56, Exercise 3: jails, lakes, stoves, trees

Lesson 57, Exercise 3: cats, naps, pals, rakes


Lesson 58, Exercise 4: cans, coats, kicks, kites

The ed ending is introduced next. The same instructional sequence for

introducing the S ending is followed for introducing the ed ending. Children

practice pronouncing words with ed endings (played, walked) then they read

words. In these exercises students see only the suffix ed, not full words. See:

Lesson 63, Exercise 6: “filled,” “jumped,” “walked”

Lesson 64, Exercise 7: “talked,” “walked,” “plowed,”

“shopped”

Lesson 65, Exercise: “smelled,” “hoped,” “talked,” “smiled”

Then children decode the words. See:

Lesson 66, Exercise 6: liked, played

Lesson 67, Exercise 6: filled, lived, sailed

Lesson 68, Exercise 5: kicked, smiled

For decoding words that end in ing, see:

Lesson 91, Exercise 4: digging, playing, trying

Lesson 92, Exercise 6: trying, playing, digging

Lesson 93, Exercise 3: going, raining

For decoding words that end in er, see:

Lesson 91, Exercise 6: her, mother, other

The sound combination er is introduced in Lesson 91, Exercise 6 (her,

mother, other). The comparative suffix er comes in at Lesson 95 (faster), 110

(bigger), 112 (better), 114 (hotter), 115 (harder) and 117 (closer).

The agentive suffix er comes in at Lesson 98 (robber), 115 (taster, tasters)

and 120 (farmer, farmers).

Blending The oral blending skills children are expected to apply when decoding

words are taught in Phonemic Awareness activities. For initial decoding tasks,

children generate the sounds for the symbols in words then blend the phonemes

to read the word.


Reading Whole Words On Lesson 52, Exercise 5, children reread whole words, without first

saying the sounds for the word. Before Lesson 52, children practice word finding

as part of their story-reading activities. Word finding prepares children for reading

whole words because it acquaints children with the notion that words can be

treated as whole units. (After the first and second reading of the story, children

are directed to find different words in one of the sentences of the story.)

After children work on finding words in sentences for several lessons, they

read whole words. The first exercises in which children read whole words directs

children to sound out each word in the list before reading the word. After children

have sounded out each word, children are directed to reread the list again,

applying the sounding-out strategy silently.

After children have worked on rereading words for many lessons, they are

directed to read words “the fast way,” the first time a list is presented.

Later, children are guided to read parts of stories a word at a time. Then

they are directed to read parts of stories a sentence at a time.

Here’s a table that shows lesson and exercise numbers for the

introduction of each of these skills:

Task First Exercise

Second Exercise Third Exercise

Word Finding Lesson 38 Exercise 7

Lesson 39 Exercise 7


Rereading whole words




Reading whole words


Lesson 60 Exercise 4 (said) and Exercise 5

Lesson 61 Exercise 2 (said)

Reading whole words in story

Lesson 66 Exercise 7 (4th sentence)

Reading whole sentences (story)

Lesson 67 Exercise 7 (2nd sentence on)

Lesson 68 Exercise 6 (2nd sentence on)

Lesson 69 Exercise 5( 2nd sentence on)


In Funnix 2, new words that children would have trouble sounding out, and

words that are irregular, appear in word lists and are modeled by the narrator

before children are directed to spell or read them. All words that have been

modeled appear on lists on subsequent lessons, and then in stories. See the list

at the end of the last word-reading exercise in any lesson after Lesson 58. The

last word-reading exercise is the exercise that comes just before the first story-

reading exercise. (See Story Exercise table in Appendix G of the Funnix

Teacher’s Guide for FBR Story Exercises.)

5. Introduces regular words for which students know all the letter sounds.

The first 163 words children are directed to read, from Lesson 10 through

Lesson 59, are all regular according to the rules the Funnix programs teach. (See

the Reading Word Lists in the Teacher’s Guide starting on page 40 for a

complete list of words and the lesson numbers in which they are introduced.)

Funnix 2 continues to present regular words that students sound out.

Funnix 2 introduces various sound combinations, such as tion, sion, ex, ce, ci,

and re, which permit children to attack more elaborate words like silence, exactly,

fashion, and messages.

See Sound and Letters: Sound Charts 1–6 in the Teacher’s Guide

starting on page 23 for a complete list of the sounds Funnix teaches and the

lesson on which they are introduced.

6. Progresses systematically from simple word types and word lengths and word complexity to more complex words.

The first words Funnix teaches children to read are 2- and 3-sound words.

The single sound words I and A are introduced on Lesson 24, Exercise 6 and

Lesson 25, Exercise 3, respectively. Next, children read words with consonant

blends (Lesson 50, Exercise 6; words with the S ending (Lesson 55, Exercise 4);

multisyllabic words (Lesson 61, Exercise 2). The first compound word, into, is

introduced on Lesson 72. The following table indicates the features of more

complicated words and where they are introduced in FBR.


Feature Sample words Lesson

introduced Exercise introduced

Consonant Blends (4+ sounds)

sleep, slip trip stove

50 51 52

6 4 3

Word endings (s) pins, jokes, vans lakes, stores, jails, trees

55 56

4 3

Word endings (ed) played, liked filled, lived, sailed kicked, smiled

66 67 68

6 6 5

Compound words into became something

72 93 105

4 4 6

Word endings (ing) digging, trying, playing going, raining

91 93

4 3

Word endings (er) her, were, mother under

91 92

6 4

2-syllable words ending w/ y

story, happy funny really dirty, nearly

105 106 107

4 3 3

7. Incorporates spelling to reinforce word analysis. After students can read words, provides explicit instruction in spelling, showing students how to map the sounds of letters on to print.

Spelling tasks begin on Lesson 13 of FBR and continue through Lesson

120. The spelling list, on page 49 of the Teacher’s Guide, shows the lesson,

exercise, and the spelling words that children write. The spelling exercises

provide explicit instruction in spelling that connects spelling with the strategies

children have been taught for decoding words.

8. Provides teacher-guided practice in controlled word lists and connected text in which students can apply their newly learned skills successfully.

After reading words is introduced, Funnix provides narrator-guided

practice in word lists containing only words for which children have learned the

strategies to decode.


Here are the word reading exercises for the first 30 lessons.

WORD LIST EXERCISES (Lessons 10–30) Lesson number Exercise number Lesson number Exercise number 10 7 21 5 11 3 22 3 12 3 23 3 13 4 24 5, 6 14 5 25 5 15 3 26 5 16 3, 4 27 3, 4, 5 17 3, 5 28 3, 4 18 3 29 2, 4, 5 19 3 30 2, 4, 5 20 4

Connected text is introduced on Lesson 24, Exercise 6. All of the

connected text children read in Funnix is completely composed of words that

children have previously read in word lists. Here are the exercises in which

children read connected text up to Lesson 30.

CONNECTED TEXT READING EXERCISES (Lessons 24–30)

Lesson number Exercise number Lesson number Exercise number 24 6 28 5 25 3, 6 29 6, 7 26 3, 7 30 6 27 6

Beyond Lesson 30, the first part of each lesson presents word-attack

exercise which consists of letter/sound activities, phonemic activities, and

reading words in controlled lists. The next part of each lesson presents story

activities. The last part of each lesson presents workbook activities, which

include spelling. All words presented in FBR and F2 follow the same pattern.

The words are presented in word lists at least twice before they appear in the text

of stories. After words have been presented in word lists or stories they are

reviewed in the workbook or lined-paper activities.

The following table shows the first 20 words that children learn to read, the

lessons and exercises in which the words are introduced, the lessons in which

the words appear in stories, and the lessons in which the words appear in other


workbook activities. Stories in FBR contain connected text beginning on Lesson

25.

Word Lesson/

exercise Appears in story Appears in

Spelling Appears in Workbook

Me 10/7 18, 27, 28, 32… 14, 18, 24… 20, 35, 37… No 10/7 18, 21, 31, 44… 34, 34 79, 80, 81… See 11/3 22, 25, 28, 31-33… 46, 48 31, 37, 76… So 11/3 41, 42, 46, 49… 13, 14, 26… 31, 41… Seem 13/4 119; (F2): 42, 97, 98 46, 47, 74… 5 Feel 14/5 20, 33, 37, 61… 48 25, 26, 40… For 15/3 41, 46, 48, 70… 25, 32, 33… 24, 25, 41… Or 15/3 51, 52, 57, 87… 20, 32, 36… 24, 25, 26… Am 15/6 18, 19, 23, 24, 26, 27,

28, 32… 15, 28, 29… 22 …

Ram 15/6 19, 22, 23, 24, 26, 29, 33…

15, 19, 20… 24, 35, 41…

Man 16/3 21, 28, 31, 40… 23, 27, 37… 23, 24, 28… Ran 16/3 20, 23, 28, 331… 17, 33, 43… 19, 27, 30… Seen 18/3 110, 116… - 21, 31 Rat 19/8 19, 42, 62, 63… 19, 26, 40… 41, 45, 46… Sam 19/8 19, 23, 27, 50… 19 19, 27, 28… Fat 20/7 20; (F2): 15, 30, 43 36 31, 39, 44… Mat 20/4 - 21, 42 46, 59, 98…. Mail 21/5 48, 63, 83, 97… 61, 68, 69… 29, 47, 48… Mean 21/5 22, 24, 26, 66… 68, 83, 85… 26, 28, 66… Rain 21/5 33, 37, 46, 49… 61, 62, 63… 31, 36, 37…

High-utility words that don’t appear in stories right away tend to be

practiced and reviewed more in word lists and in workbook activities.


9. Begins instruction in word families, word patterns, and larger orthographic units after students have learned the letter-sound correspondence in the unit.

The following table shows that the root words are introduced before the

introduction of the more complicated words.

Root word Lesson

introduced More complicated words

Lesson introduced

pin, joke, van lake, store jail, tree

48, 54, 51 54, 54 51, 50

pins, jokes, vans lakes, stores jails, trees

55 56 56

play, like sail smile

48, 51 27 65

played, liked sailed kicked

66 67 68

in, to be, came some, thing

43, 62 79, 65 73, 79

into became something

72 93 105

dig, try, play go, rain

64, 28, 48 63, 21

digging, trying, playing going, raining

91 91 93

store, fun real dirt, near

54, 72 23 99, 31

story, funny really dirty, nearly

105 106 107

Word families and patterns are used extensively in Funnix 2. For

instance, words that begin in wa are reviewed together because they have the

same transformed pronunciation in words like water, wander, washed, watched.

See Exercise 3, Lesson 90.

Some patterns are shown with words or word groups that rhyme,

particularly after children have learned a new sound combination or word that

follows a particular pattern. See Lesson 82, Exercise 3. Children read buy and

guy then face and place. For both pairs, the spelling of the part that rhymes is the

same. Also see “Donna” stories Lessons 49–51, Exercise 6), which present

many rhyming pairs.

The appearance of words in the various activities in Funnix 2 follows the

same trend that the appearance of words in FBR follows.


10. Teaches students to process larger, highly represented patterns to increase fluency in word recognition.

See the word lists on pages 40–49 of the Teacher’s Guide for highly

represented patterns. Examine story texts in FBR by accessing the lesson and

exercise number indicated in the table in Appendix G of the Teacher’s Guide to

verify the extent to which patterns are highly represented.

In Funnix 2, new words that children would have trouble sounding out and

words that are irregular, appear in word lists and are modeled by the narrator

before children are directed to spell or read them. All words that had been

modeled appear on lists on subsequent lessons, and then in stories. See the last

word-reading list in any lesson.

11. Teaches advanced phonic-analysis skills explicitly, first in isolation, then in words and connected text and utilizes other program materials when students are proficient.

12. Teaches explicit strategies to read multisyllabic words by using prefixes, suffixes and known word parts.

13. Uses structural analysis judiciously to support word recognition strategies.

The three main vehicles for advanced phonic analysis, reading

multisyllabic words, and structural analyses are:

1. sounding out longer words

2. spelling words

3. reading word parts or syllables, then whole words.

All three strategies are introduced in FBR. The table below shows the

strategies that children use to analyze the first 15 multisyllabic words introduced

in FBR. Word Strategy Lesson Exercise over Sounding out 61 2 into Spelling 72 4


didn’t Sounding out 77 2 other Spelling 79 4 away Spelling 84 5 began Sounding out/Spelling/Part-whole 85 3 under Spelling 89 4 digging, playing, trying Part-whole 91 4 mother Part-whole 91 6 going, raining Part-whole 93 3 became Sounding out 93 4

Sounding out is continued on nearly all lessons in Funnix 2. It is used

primarily for regular words that incorporate newly introduced sound

combinations. See Lesson 82, Exercise 2 (action, fraction, fashion, mansion).

Lists in which students spell words appear on just about every lesson in

Funnix 2. Sometimes, children spell the word first, then identify it; sometimes

children are directed to read the word first then spell it.

The whole-part exercises in Funnix 2 present words with part underlined.

Children read the underlined part, then the whole word. This exercise gives them

practice in analyzing longer words for parts that are the same (roots, prefixes,

embedded words, suffixes). Examples of all types appear on Lesson 80.

One list has words with parts underlined.

Two of the words are boring and snoring.

The underlined parts reinforce the idea that long-vowel words that end in e

don’t have the e when they end in ing.

One of the words in the list is except. This underlining isolates a prefix that

is isolated in other lists.

Several lists on Lesson 80 have children spell words. For one, they are

introduced to new words and then spell them. Two words are irregular—patient

and certain. For this list, the spelling reinforces the unusual arrangement of

letters (ient, which says ent and tain, which says tun).

For another, they first spell each word, then identify it. Two of the words

are irregular—school and sure. The spelling reinforces the notion that in these

words the spelling does not match the pronunciation. (The words are not spelled

skool and shure.)


PHONICS: IRREGULAR WORDS

Irregular words are those that can’t be analyzed a letter or combination of

letters at a time, according to the rules that have been introduced in the

program. Funnix teaches various combinations and underlines them to prompt

children to recognize the unit. In addition, some words have blue letters to

regularize their pronunciation. The rule for the blue-letter combinations (ai, ea,

oa, ar, and ay) is that the blue letter makes no sound and the black letter says

its name. Later, this rule is applied to words with combinations that are split

apart. The blue letter makes no sound, but another letter in the word says its

name, as in the word pine. The e is blue and doesn’t make a sound. The i says

its name. Other sound combinations taught in Funnix Beginning Reading (FBR)

and Funnix 2 (F2) are: al, ar, er, ur, ir, ou, oi, oo, ch, th, sh, wh, ce, ge, aw, ew,

tion, and sion. Also, words that end in CVC and E are regular within the rule

formats of Funnix.

The words that cannot be accommodated through the Funnix conventions

are irregular. Because the Funnix conventions are highly efficient, the two levels

together teach a total of over 2000 words, which includes all the high utility

irregular words.

1. Selects words that have high utility; that is, words that are used frequently in grade-appropriate literature and informational text.

In FBR, children learn only a few irregulars. Some require only a variation

in the pronunciation (has, are, have). Others are more irregular because they

have patterns like familiar words, but they are pronounced differently (to versus

go and so; of versus on; was versus has).

The first irregular words in FBR are: said, to, do, and was. Other high

utility irregulars presented in the beginning level include: have, come, some,

other, mother, what, one, and two. See:

Lesson 60, Exercise 4: said

Lesson 62, Exercise 2: to, do

Lesson 65, Exercise 2: was


Funnix 2 introduces nearly 200 irregulars, including many “families,” such

as the gh words (high, right, night, etc.). Also, many of the irregulars in F2 are

multisyllabic words: beautiful, because, behind, believe, become; and

somebody, someone, move, remove; and words like love, lose, look, took,

through, thought, book, island, soup, touch, head, worry, school. The procedure

for introducing these words involves spelling by letter name. (It would be difficult

to sound out school using letter sounds.) The narrator first identifies the word,

then directs the students to spell the word and identify it. See Lesson 86,

Exercise 6 (beautiful).

2. Controls the number of irregular words introduced at one time.

In BFR, the first irregular word, said, is introduced on Lesson 60. On

Lesson 62, two irregular words are introduced, to and do. The next irregular

word, was, is introduced on Lesson 65. The program is designed for teachers to

present five lessons a week; the largest number of irregular words children would

have presented to them during any week is three. Only one week would have

three irregular words; the rest would have two or less.

In F2, the rate of irregulars is increased progressively, however, the

schedule for introduction is careful, based on the difficulty of the irregular, the

similarity of the irregular with known words, the number of distinguishing features

that make the new word unique and easy to recognize, and the number of words

that follow the same pattern and can be introduced together.

See Lesson 30, Exercise 1 (heard, high, higher, knew).

3. Separates highly similar words for initial instruction (e.g., was/saw).

Difficult words are pairs that are highly similar in structure, but have

different pronunciation (e.g., here and were, have and gave, to and no, what and

that, was and as). In FBR, the introduction of the words in each of these pairs is

separated by at least 15 lessons. The following table shows the introduction of the

irregular word and a highly similar regular word. The table also shows the lesson


on which each word is introduced and the number of lessons separating the

introduction for each pair.

Irregular

word 1st appears

Lesson/Exercise Highly- similar regular word

1st appears Lesson/Exercise

Lessons separating introduction

Here 73/3 Were 91/6 28 Have 77/3 Gave 64/5 13

To 62/2 No 10/7 52 What 86/3 That 38/4 48

Was 65/5 As 44/4 21

4. Points out irregularities and provides a strategy for reading irregular words using letters or parts of the words.

Both strategies are used in Funnix. In FBR, words with a squiggle

underline identify the irregular part. See Lesson 77, Exercise 3 for an analysis of

have.

F2 points out irregularities with squiggle underlines, too. See Lesson 3,

Exercise 2 (want, wash, water).

In F2, students also spell the irregular words, with emphasis on the irregular part.

See Lesson 3, Exercise 3 (been).

5. Preteaches sight words and incorporates them into connected text.

Irregulars always appear in word lists at least two times before they are

incorporated into stories. For instance, on Lesson 62, to and do are introduced

and appear in word lists (Exercise 2). After being reviewed in lists on Lessons 63,

Exercise 2, Lesson 64, exercise 3, and Lesson 66, Exercise 4, they appear in

stories, starting on Lesson 66, Exercise 7.

To appears in most stories after Lesson 66. To also appears in word lists

on:

Lesson 71 83 86 89 90

Exercise 4 3 5 4 4


Do also appears in word lists on:

Lesson 65 70 71 75 83 84 89

Exercise 2 5 4 3 3 3 4

After Lesson 66, do appears in stories on:

Lessons 74; 91-93; 95; 103; 104; 107–117; 114; 117; and 119.

The word live, with a short i sound is irregular because the e is silent, but

another letter in the word doesn’t say its name. Live is introduced on Lesson 1,

Exercise 3 of Funnix 2. It is reviewed on Lesson 2, Exercise 2 and appears in the

story for the first time on Lesson 2.

6. Provides ample practice and cumulative review of important high-frequency sight words.

All irregulars follow the same pattern as to and do. The review occurs

both in lists and in stories that are designed to incorporate recently taught

irregulars at a relatively high rate.




TEXT READING AND FLUENCY

1. Provides fluency practice at the word level.

Fluency practice is provided in word lists. Beginning with Lesson 52,

students read lists the fast way after reading the words by sounding out. See

Lesson 52, Exercise 5.

Fluency with words is further increased through a final word list presented

at the end of the word-attack portion of each lesson. The final list first appears on

Lesson 58. The final list presents some of the same words that appeared earlier

in the lesson and sometimes includes other previously introduced words that will

appear in that lesson’s story.

For FBR, see the final list in Exercise 5 of Lesson 58, 59 and 60. For F2,

see the final list in Lesson 1, Exercise 7, and Lesson 2, Exercise 6.

2. and 3. Introduces passage reading soon after students can read a sufficient number of words accurately.

Teaches explicit strategy to permit readers to move from reading words in lists to reading words in sentences and passages.

Children read their first word on Lesson 10 of FBR. Beginning on Lesson

17, Exercise 6 of FBR, words in passages are taught as an extension of reading

words in lists. After a word is taught in lists, it appears as a single word or,

beginning of Lesson 25, Exercise 6, in a phrase that is framed as part of an oral

story. Children read their first sentence on Lesson 26, Exercise 7. On Lesson 38,

children read their first complete story. (I am a fly. I fly near an ear.) On Lesson

41, Exercise 7, children read a passage with wrapped sentences (A sentence is

on more than one line). On Lesson 65, Exercise 6, children read their first

passage that includes quotes. The stories that are presented for each

subsequent lesson through the end of F2 gradually increase in length and

sophistication. See the Teacher’s Guide, Appendix G for a complete list of story


exercises for FBR. The complete list of story exercises for F2 is in the table of

contents for the Funnix Reader.

4. 5. 6.

Initial stories/passages composed of a high percentage of regular words (minimum of 75–80% decodable words). Passages contain regular words comprised of letter-sounds, phonic elements, and word types that have been taught.

Passages contain high-frequency irregular words that have been previously taught.

The percentage of decodable words in all stories in Beginning Funnix and

Funnix 2 is 100%. All words are presented in lists before they appear in stories.

7. Introduces fluency practice (e.g., repeated reading) after students read words in passages accurately.

The fluency practice is built into the program through the story reading

procedures. Students read the story twice. The first reading focuses on decoding

and the second on decoding with comprehension. If children need more practice

on any story segment that appears on the screen, the teacher may repeat it by

clicking on the over button. Also, because the second-reading version is

illustrated and may have animation, students often want to read the second

version more than once.

See, for instance the story: Bitter Butter, Lesson 104, Exercise 7; Lesson

105, Exercise 7; Lesson 106, Exercise 6. See the Funnix Teacher’s Guide Story Reading, page 27, and see Fluency Overview, page 31.

8. Includes sufficient independent practice materials of appropriate difficulty for students to develop fluency.

FBR presents complete workbook activities for each lesson. Tasks for the

workbook activities are presented on the screen and children write the responses

in their workbook. In F2, children write answers to workbook type activities on


lined paper. Story Comprehension questions and another activity are presented

as independent tasks for each F2 lesson.

See the Funnix Teacher’s Guide For more details about independent

activities in FBR, see the Funnix Teacher’s Guide Written Work, page 27.

For information regarding independent passage reading and providing

additional independent work, see Funnix Teacher’s Guide Supplemental Materials, on page 30 and see Fluency Overview, on pages 31–32.

9. and 10.

Builds toward a 60 word-per-minute fluency goal by the end of grade one.

Builds toward a 90 word-per-minute fluency goal by the end of grade two.

Procedures for shaping the reading rate are discussed in the Teachers

Guide, Fluency Overview, pages 31–32. The objective is for children to read

accurately at around 60 words-per-minute by the end of FBR and around 90

words-per-minute by the end of F2.

11. (Grade 3 criterion is not applicable.)

12. Assesses fluency regularly.

Oral reading, reading fluency, and accuracy are assessed as part of each

lesson. Starting with Lesson 68, during the first story-reading, children are

directed to read the first sentence or two of the selection in unison. Then the

teacher calls on individual children, each to read a sentence or two. The teacher

also directs individual children to read parts of the second-reading version of the

story. The teacher, therefore, receives daily information about every student’s

oral-reading performance.


See Fluency Overview on pages 31–32 of Funnix Teacher’s Guide to

read the procedures teachers are to follow.

See Story Reading for any lesson starting with Lesson 68 of FBR. (The

story exercise table for FBR is on page 62, in Appendix G, of the Funnix

Teacher’s Guide.)


VOCABULARY AND COMPREHENSION

Although oral and written vocabulary is taught through direct instruction

and critical comprehension strategies are taught explicitly, we are not addressing

these criteria in the current Reviewer’s Guide.

End of Part 1 Critical Elements Analyses


Part 2–Reading Intervention Program Items

Part 1 of this Reviewer’s Guide addresses essential component criteria

presented in Consumer’s Guide to Selecting Supplemental and Intervention

Programs: A Critical Elements Analysis. Part 2 addresses Items for Analysis of

K–3 Reading Intervention Programs. Both parts provide a brief summary of how

each criterion is met in the Funnix programs and presents two or more examples

of the lesson and exercise that show how the required element is addressed in

the Funnix sequence.


INTERVENTION DESCRIPTION Delivery requirements of the intervention program:

Grouping Structure Whole group No See Funnix Teacher’s Guide (FTG)Scheduling

and Grouping the Reading Lessons; page 14. See the Parent Disc, Before You Start section.

Small group Yes 5 – 8 5 to 8 students. See above. 1:1 Yes 1 See Parent Disc, Rules for Presenting the

Program. Time Recommendations Minutes per day Yes 30 See FTG, Scheduling and Grouping; page 14.

See Parent Disc, Before You Start; Scheduling Lessons.

Days per Week Yes 5 See above. # of Weeks (minimum) FBR F2

Yes 24 + 20 +

See above. 120 lessons ÷ 5 days per week 100 lessons ÷ 5 days per week

Interventionist Qualifications Certified Teacher Yes See FTG Funnix Reading in the classroom,

page 1 and Uses for Funnix, pages 36–39. See Parent Disc, Before You Start, Who operates the mouse?

Paraprofessional Yes See above. Other: Parent Volunteer Non-native speaker Older student

Yes Yes Maybe Maybe

See above.

Professional Development Requirements Total number of hours 6–8 hrs See FTG, Uses for Funnix, pages 36–39. Materials All materials provided No Some materials provided teacher must gather the following materials:

Computer that meets Funnix Computer Requirements. (See back of CD jewel case.)


INSTRUCTIONAL DESIGN AND EMPHASIS

1. Introduces a manageable amount of information and objectives within a lesson.

Only 10% of each lesson involves new concepts. 90% of each lesson

reviews and applies familiar material. Comparing the number of words children

read in a lesson to the number of words that are new can be used as a litmus

test for determining if the amount of new information presented in each Funnix

lesson is manageable. For example, the Reading Word List from FBR on pages

40–42 of the Funnix Teacher’s Guide shows eight words are introduced in FBR

Lesson 80: back, bike, end, hive, sea, tale, while, and why. However,

examination of Lesson 80 shows that children are directed to read over 140

words. In Funnix 2 Lesson 50, 18 new words are introduced. The root words for

Donna’s, entered, meeting, parents, reading, rhymed, schools, slower, unless,

verses and voted had already been introduced on previous lessons, so the

number of completely new words introduced on Lesson 50 is only 7. The Word

Attack and Story Reading Exercises in Lesson 50 direct children to read over 300

words.

This ratio of new-to-familiar words holds for all other skill areas throughout

FBR and F2.

2. Provides sufficient emphasis on high priority skills and strategies.

See the other sections of this Reviewer’s Guide for discussion regarding

the Funnix skill emphases.

3. Provides sufficient modeled examples prior to learner practice.

Exercises in this Reviewer’s Guide listed above model the new task before

directing children to respond to similar tasks. Criterion 2 of Phonemic Awareness,

and criterion 4 of Phonics: Decoding in this Reviewer’s Guide are two specific

criteria that address modeling of tasks.


4. Includes sufficient opportunities for student responses.

Every lesson in Funnix is designed to elicit hundreds of responses from children.

5. Structures adequate practice and review for mastery of new skill/strategy.

See criteria 1, 3, 9 and 10 in the Phonemic Awareness section for

information about review and mastery of phonemic tasks.

See criterion 3 in the Phonics: Decoding section for information about

review and mastery of sounds.

See criterion 11 of Phonics: Decoding for examples of how review and

practice of skills is systematically integrated into a variety of contexts.

For example, the sound for the letter M is introduced on Lesson 6,

Exercise 6, and is practiced on the following lessons and exercises:

Lesson 7 8 9 10 11 13

Exercise 8 6 2 6 5 2

Children also read the sound for M in words. The following table shows

the lesson and exercise numbers for the word-reading exercises in the first 30

lessons. Children read the sound for the letter M in almost every exercise.

WORD LIST EXERCISES (Lessons 10–30) Lesson number Exercise number Lesson number Exercise number 10 7 21 5 11 3 22 3 12 3 23 3 13 4 24 5, 6 14 5 25 5 15 3 26 5 16 3, 4 27 3, 4, 5 17 3, 5 28 3, 4 18 3 29 2, 4, 5 19 3 30 2, 4, 5 20 4


All letters and combinations follow this pattern. All words are composed

exclusively of sounds that have been taught. All words and word families appear

frequently in the 220-lesson sequence.

6. Provides specific guidance for corrective feedback.

See the Funnix Teacher’s Guide Rules for Presenting the Lessons, Basic Correction Procedures on page 15 for information regarding appropriate

feedback; and see Sounds and Letters, Word Reading and see Story Reading, Correcting Story Reading Errors on pages 25–27 for information

regarding corrections. Also see the following sections and subsections in the

Parent Disc:

Sounds and Letters: Correcting Sound Identification Mistakes; Reading Words: Correcting Sounds When Reading Words,

Blue-Letter Corrections, Correcting Whole Words; Story Reading: Correcting Story Reading Errors, Reading the Fast

Way, sub-subsection Correcting Story Reading Errors.

7. Includes specific recommendation or guidance for reteaching.

The Funnix Teacher’s Guide indicates different situations that may require

re-teaching tasks, exercises or entire lessons. See the information regarding

corrections in criterion 6, above, for guidance regarding re-teaching tasks and

sometimes exercises.

See the FTG, Assessment, page 33, and the Parent Disc, Story Reading: Correcting Story Reading Errors, for guidance regarding re-teaching

exercises and sometimes entire lessons.


INSTRUCTIONAL GROUPING

1. Includes a placement test or process that allows students to start at different entry points in the materials depending on student performance.

See the FTG, Testing and Placement, pages 7–14 for complete

information regarding placement of children.

2. Provides recommendations on group size and range of performance

within group.

See the FTG, Scheduling and Grouping the Reading Lessons, page 14.

3. Recommends and accommodates flexible groupings to maximize student learning.

See the FTG, Testing and Placement, pages 7–24, Grouping Children

for Instruction, page 14, and see Assessment on page 33.


INSTRUCTIONAL ASSESSMENT

1. and 2. Allows teachers to determine the effectiveness of instruction

by conducting frequent and ongoing assessment checkpoints on critical skills.

Includes assessment items for each major reading skill/strategy that can be used to determine what students need to learn and how much they have learned.

Funnix provides ongoing assessments of fluency, accuracy, and rate of

progress. See the Funnix Teacher’s Guide, Story Reading, subsection

Promoting Rate-Accuracy Performance, page 27; and see Fluency Overview

on page 31; and see Assessment, page 33.

Projections based on placement information indicate roughly how long it

should take the child to complete FBR and F2.

Any lesson may be used as a show-off lesson. After the lesson has been

presented once, it is repeated. All children should be at least 90% correct on

everything in the lesson. Furthermore, the lesson should be completed in a

reasonable amount of time.

The placement passages in Appendix B of the Funnix Teacher’s Guide

are used as in-program progress tests. They provide assessments for individual

children at FBR Lessons 40, 60, 80, and 101; and at F2 Lessons 30 and 57.

The daily work, the Fluency Practice, and the placement passages

provide ongoing data about each child’s rate-accuracy performance.


3. Provides guidance to teachers on how to use assessment information to plan and differentiate instruction.

Because of the program design, remedies are simple and are implied by

the children’s performance. The teacher simply repeats parts of the lesson that

are weak. If the placement passages show that the child is not reading

accurately, the remedy is to repeat passages from earlier lessons until the child

reaches an acceptable level of accuracy.

4. Monitors student progress at the end of each unit of instruction.

All the exercises have provisions for firming parts or the entire exercise. If

the children do not perform acceptably on an exercise, the teacher simply

presses over and the program repeats the exercise from the beginning.

Some exercises that involve word reading and letter-sound identification

end with individual turns. These are good tests for determining how firm the

children are on the material presented.

Both the word lists and the stories generate many overt responses from

individual children. Also, the children do independent work for each lesson. The

teacher may use these work samples to identify how well the students perform.

End of Part 2 Reading Intervention Program

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Funnix Reviewer’s Guide · the second-grade level. ... Funnix Reviewer’s Guide 3 of 48 ... nap, lap, tap, rap, map Lesson 98 Exercise 13 ip: lip, slip op: top, stop