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SPIRE Tips for Secondary Students

Follow the guidance below when using SPIRE with students in grades 9-12 after administering the placement test.

For students who place in Level 1 or Level 2:

  • Teach Level 1 and Level 2 Quick Start Lessons
  • Begin instruction in Level 3 (if students begin to struggle in Level 3, you can always go back)
  • Consider using Megawords (Books 1 & 2) during rotations and/or independent work.  This will give students experience with the syllable types and reading multisyllabic words using the concepts they are learning in S.P.I.R.E.  
  • Avoid assigning elementary looking independent work from the S.P.I.R.E. workbooks.
  • Consider spending 5 to 10 minutes at the beginning or end of class to read a high interest low readability book or novel, always focusing on the sounds and patterns they are learning in S.P.I.R.E.
  • Keep a class notebook that identifies Science of Reading Vocabulary, lists specific phonics information, and contains daily dictation.
  • Keep fluency charts in their notebooks so student can track their own fluency progress (pair students up to time each other on passage fluency.)
  • Give a list of spelling words from mastered S.P.I.R.E. concepts for students to learn  for a weekly dictation assessment.

Additional tips for students learning English:

  • For newcomers, the placement assessment is optional. If students are brand new to English, option to teach all introductory consonant letter lessons in Sounds Sensible before starting in Level 1.
  • In Step 4 (Decoding and Sentence Reading), focus on high-utility words (instead of suggested words within script) and incorporate substantial visual support.
  • When the Word Find or Passage Reading activities (Step 6) are not appropriate, option to utilize Alternate Dictation Sentences from the Appendix instead of the provided activities in the script.
  • Another option for passage reading (Step 6) would be to complete this as a choral, echo, or cloze read with visuals incorporated.
  • Incorporate 5 new red word cards per week until all cards for the level have been introduced. Continued cumulative review with taught words throughout lessons.
  • During Spelling (Step 9) and Sentence Dictation (Step 10), consider incorporating rebus images paired with dictation for visual support.
  • During Sentence Dictation (Step 10), use manipulatives instead of dashes when segmenting the sentence into words on the board.
  • Assess after the Introductory Lesson to move more quickly through instruction.