The Superkids Program
A Core Program for Beginning Readers
The Superkids program consists of four levels designed specifically for the primary grades. The four levels contain 300 sequential lessons usually taught during the two-year period from kindergarten through first grade.
Simultaneously, the program teaches children to write. Handwriting, spelling, and simple grammar and mechanics are seamlessly integrated into the reading instruction so children see from the beginning that they can read what they write and write what they read.
- Multimodal instruction
- Reliable, efficient teaching routines
- Streamlined materials
- Proven pedagogy and brain research
Levels 1 & 2 - Usually Taught in Kindergarten
Level 1: Meet the Superkids ( Lessons 1-85 )
The focus is on 13 letters of the alphabet, 5 short vowels and 8 consonants. Students systematically learn how to read and write these letters of the alphabet, letter-sound associations for them, and several memory words. They learn how to blend sounds to read simple words. By the end of this level, students begin to understand how the written language they are learning relates to the spoken language they already know.
Level 2: Superkids' Club ( Lessons 86-145 )
Superkids' Club builds on the first level and introduces letter-sound associations for the remaining 13 letters of the alphabet. Children start to use their new decoding abilities to read independently and to develop comprehension skills and strategies. Students begin to understand that the primary purpose of reading is to gain meaning from what they have read.
Levels 3 & 4 - Usually Taught in Grade 1
Level 3: Adventures of the Superkids (Lessons 146-237 )
Students learn more complex letter-sound relationships, such as digraphs and long-vowel sounds. They continue to develop their decoding and encoding skills and read longer stories where comprehension and fluency are emphasized. They also gain a growing awareness of the structure and function of words and learn to spell phonetically irregular words, which aids reading and writing fluency.
Level 4: More Adventures of the Superkids ( Lessons 238-300 )
Students continue to develop skills in all the language arts while learning a greater number of phonetic variables, such as -igh, -ough, -ph, -tion, and so on. Children also learn strategies for using context to identify words. By the end of this level, students can read and spell all 200 words on the Dolch Basic Word List. They will be confident, full-fledged independent readers, with mastery of all phoneme/grapheme relationships in the English language. At the same time, they will be competent writers capable of spelling phonetically regular words with accuracy.
"Superkids phonics devotes a book
to a single letter and sound. With the
stories, writing activities, songs,
and listening activities, the child
assimilates the information, has cues as reminders, and knows
the letter and sound well before
moving on."
Valerie Williams
Kindergarten teacher,
Fort Worth Academy,
Fort Worth, TX