Wilson Reading System
The Wilson Reading System® (WRS) is the flagship program of Wilson Language Training® and the foundation of all other Wilson programs. WRS is an intensive Tier 3 program for students in grades 2-12 and adults with word-level deficits who are not making sufficient progress through their current intervention; have been unable to learn with other teaching strategies and require multisensory language instruction; or who require more intensive structured literacy instruction due to a language-based learning disability, such as dyslexia.
As a structured literacy program based on phonological-coding research and Orton-Gillingham principles, WRS directly and systematically teaches the structure of the English language. Through the program, students learn fluent decoding and encoding skills to the level of mastery. From the beginning Steps of the program, students receive instruction in:
- Word structure, in depth, for automatic decoding and spelling
- Word recognition and spelling of high frequency words, including irregular words
- Vocabulary, word understanding, and word-learning skills
- Sentence-level text reading with ease, expression, and understanding
- Listening comprehension with age-appropriate narrative and informational text
- Reading comprehension with narrative and expository text of increasing levels of difficulty
- Narrative and informational text structures
- Organization of information for oral or written expression
- Proofreading skills
- Self-monitoring for word recognition accuracy and comprehension
Designed for students in grades 2-12 and adults who have a language-based learning disability, such as dyslexia, or who have not internalized the sound-symbol system for reading and spelling, the Wilson Reading System® contains unique characteristics that set it apart from other programs:
- Offers a research-based program supported by thirty years of data collected and analyzed from school districts implementing it.
- Presents the material in 12 Steps, not corresponding to school grade levels, that are further divided into 52 incremental substeps, each building upon the previous one. Requiring the mastery of each substep before progressing to the next one makes the demands of the subsequent substep manageable and achievable.
- Follows a ten-part lesson plan that addresses the following in a sensible and logical fashion: decoding, morphology and the study of word elements, encoding and orthography (internalizing the rules that govern English), high frequency word instruction, oral reading fluency, vocabulary, and comprehension.
- Provides a systematic and cumulative approach to teaching total word structure for reading and spelling.
- Aids teachers by making all instruction multisensory and interactive.
- Uses a unique “sound tapping” system early in the program to help students segment and blend sounds.
- Provides a penciling technique for scooping sentences and passages into meaningful phrases in order to read with prosody.
- Teaches concepts through the manipulation of sound, syllable, and word element (prefix, base element, and suffix) cards.
- Has one of the most extensive collections of controlled and readable text (wordlists, sentences, stories) for students beyond the primary grades.
- Provides three levels of vocabulary: AB – appropriate for all students (comprised of core vocabulary, mostly drawn from the TextProject’s WordZones™ for 4,000 Simple Word Families as well as academic vocabulary words); A – appropriate for elementary students, ELL students, and those with limited vocabulary; B – appropriate for older students and adults with advanced vocabularies.
- Uses criterion-based assessments built into the program to measure student progress and success.
- Supports college- and career-readiness standards, including the Common Core State Standards, by providing students who have a language-based learning disability with the foundational and language skills that are absolutely necessary to be able to access grade-level text.
- Is a comprehensive program that can follow students from grade to grade, as needed.
The Wilson Reading System aligns with guidelines from the International Dyslexia Association, which recommends that students with dyslexia receive:
- Explicit, direct, cumulative, intensive, and focused instruction on the structure of language;
- Multisensory learning using visual, auditory, and kinesthetic-tactile pathways to enhance memory and learning of written language; and
- Consistent links made between the visual, auditory, and kinesthetic-tactile pathways in learning to read and spell. (International Dyslexia Association, 2008)
