HD Word™ for 2nd-12th
HD Word is a set of lessons that build the important and lifelong foundations needed for all future academic and life success. The lessons systematically teach the essential phonics structures that unlock the English code in both simple and complex words. While the focus of HD Word is word study (phonics and phonemic awareness), there is a high rate of transfer to students’ skills in other areas of reading, such as fluency and comprehension. The net effect is faster, more accurate, and more confident readers.
- Whole-Class Preventative & Supplemental, 15-20 Minutes a Day - Grades 2–12 - Prevention, Tier 1
- Intervention, RTI, Tier 2 & 3, Small Group, 15-20 Minutes a Day - Grades 2–12 - Intervention for non-cognitively delayed students in small to medium groups who have mastered basic phonics skills, but struggle with more advanced phonics features. It can be supplemented with HD Word Plus and HD Word Skills Assessments.
Teacher Guides
HD WORD TEACHER GUIDE PLAN SET - HDLP
• Includes a thorough explanation of the concepts, routines, and procedures
• Can be taught by a wide range of educators, not just seasoned literacy professionals
• Provides incremental professional development
• Can be used with all three levels of student workbooks
• Includes: 3 lesson plan books, set of posters, set of 2 student workbooks
HD Word Online
HD Word Online Teacher Presentation Tool brings the lessons to life and is available in 6 and 12-month subscriptions.
• Includes integrated animations that make phonics instruction precise and concise
• Reduces teacher prep time by delivering virtual manipulatives automatically
• Can be used with an interactive whiteboard, LCD projector, tablet, or stand-alone computer
• Helps students learn and retain concepts faster and more effectively
HD Word Student Practice
HD WORD STUDENT PRACTICE
Introducing the Reading Playground and the Student Workbook Bundle. Design to ensure the best possible student outcomes. Use the student workbook for guided practice and the reading playground for independent student practice.
The bundle ($26/student) includes:
- Reading Playground School Year 2021/2022 - ($19/student)
- Student Workbook Set - ($19/student)
An essential component. The activities solidify student outcomes and serve as light formative assessment, so teachers can understand who mastered the concepts, and who may need more instruction.
HD Word Student Kit
The HD Word Student Kit provides the vehicle for effective multisensory phonics instruction. Students learn concepts faster and retain them better when they use the manipulative kits. The kits include the letter tiles, color tiles, SyllaBoards™, and other components needed to complete all 33 units. Note: If students participated in Blast Foundations G1A, the HD Word Kit upgrade (HDUP $18) will supplement the Blast Student Kit with additional tiles so it can be used to complete all lessons in HD Word.
In just 15-20 minutes a day, 5 days a week for only 33 weeks efficiently teach the foundational reading skills that lead to strong decoding and fluent reading. HD Word is a set of lessons that build the important and lifelong foundations needed for all future academic and life success. The lessons systematically teach the essential phonics structures that unlock the English code in both simple and complex words. While the focus of HD Word is word study (phonics and phonemic awareness), there is a high rate of transfer to students’ skills in other areas of reading, such as fluency and comprehension. The net effect is faster, more accurate, and more confident readers.
HD Word Structure of Units and Lessons - Just 15-20 minutes a day, 5 days a week
HD Word has 33 units (weeks), each with five daily lessons. Lessons are designed to be completed in 15-20 minute sessions. In one week, students are immersed in 75-100 minutes of explicit foundational skills instruction.
Lesson 1 (Monday) Oral Reading Fluency/Comprehension 15–20 minutes
In the first lesson of the week, students are given the opportunity to practice their Oral Reading skills by reading aloud from expository texts. At the same time, their classmates gain valuable reading skills as they listen to their classmates read aloud and identify errors. The students’ goal in Oral Reading is to read with an accuracy rate of 98% or higher. When students read accurately, their comprehension improves because they are correctly interpreting the words on the page. Comprehension questions are included beginning in Unit 21 of the Student Workbooks to encourage students to not only read accurately but to also pay attention to what they are reading.
Lesson 2 (Tuesday) Phonemic Awareness 15–20 minutes
The phonemic awareness component of HD Word (Units 1-20) involves various skill-building activities, such as segmenting, blending, and manipulating phonemes. These core skills are taught and practiced in a high-impact, engaging, and multisensory manner. The phonemic awareness instruction is pure; students concentrate on speech sounds without linking them to letters or spellings. There is a strong focus on vowel phonemes, which helps promote reading and spelling success.
Lessons 3 & 4 (Wednesday & Thursday) Phonics Concept 15–20 minutes each
The phonics concept lessons of HD Word build from simpleconcepts (digraphs, blends) to progressively more complex concepts about word structure (advanced vowel spellings, multisyllabic words, inflectional endings, all six syllable types). Most concepts are taught at a single-syllable level prior to advancing on to multisyllabic words. By Unit 14 of HD Word, students are reading multisyllabic words like absorbent, repeatedly, and inanimate. By Unit 26, students are reading words like entanglement, prescription, and humorously. By the last unit, students are reading words like programmable, predominate, and coincidence. Younger students learn the same concepts and develop the same skills while practicing with more age-appropriate words, such as fantastic, repeating, untidy, detective, thermometer, and celebration. Extension activities built into many of the lessons provide an additional layer of practice and challenge for students who need it.
Lesson 5 (Friday) Student Practice 15–20 minutes
Each unit has a series of high-impact practice activities that focus on the phonics concepts taught. The practice is cumulative and controlled. Students only practice with the items that have been explicitly taught, as well as with words from the Dolch 220 high frequency word list. These activities include Detective Work, Word Sorts, and Phrase and Sentence Reading. Each student reads aloud several times during each lesson so the teacher can provide immediate feedback through Positive Error Correction. These activities allow teachers to see who has mastered the concepts and who needs more help. Additional, optional activities, including homework, are also included.
Diagnostics
The most effective first step toward implementing HD Word is gathering data and establishing goals. If you don’t have data on your students, we offer a family of free diagnostic tools that help qualify students for HD Word. Download our free Diagnostic Decoding Surveys. This complimentary packets contain everything you’ll need for initial assessment of an unlimited number of students. The packet also provides an explanation of how the survey results can be used to group students. Learn more and download our complimentary diagnostic assessments>>
Not sure which assessment to use? Download our Recommended Assessment Timeline and Flowcharts>>
Grouping Students
Successful reading interventions start with accurate diagnosis and grouping. Really Great Reading’s Grouping Matrix helps facilitate differentiated data-driven instruction and reporting. It is a free, web-based data management system that enables educators to group students (K- 12) according to the type and depth of their decoding difficulties. The same data management system can be used to monitor progress, report, and adjust.
Grouping Matrix Live Assess
Now you can assess and group your students in just one step. As you listen to your students read, enter the miscues directly into the Grouping Matrix, and it will do the rest. “Live Assess” will pinpoint the types of word a student is misreading, identify specific areas of confusion, total the types of errors, record the results, and group your students according to their decoding strengths and weaknesses. It’s never been easier to diagnose and group your students.
Learn more and sign up for free access to the Grouping Matrix>>
Professional Development
Teacher background knowledge is a key component to successful reading intervention. Really Great Reading offers different training options to provide teachers and interventionists with the background knowledge they’ll need to successfully diagnose, group, and teach struggling decoders. Even if you don’t use Blast Foundations, HD Word, Phonics Blitz or Phonics Boost, our professional development will offer you valuable techniques for helping struggling readers.
Book a workshop or see a schedule of workshops and webinars>>
