Online Learning with Ignita and the Five Pillars of Literacy - Phonemic Awareness, Phonics, Fluency, Vocabulary and Comprehension

 Monday, December 7, 2020 at 12:07PM

Online Learning with Ignita and the Five Pillars of Literacy - Phonemic Awareness, Phonics, Fluency, Vocabulary and Comprehension 

Reading instruction should not stop with the third grade, yet in most school programs fourth graders begin “content” reading of textbooks for the core subjects of social studies, science, math and language arts and for the  visual and performing arts, health, physical education and world languages according to “A Look at Fourth Grade in California Public Schools.” Schools present reading instruction from fourth grade on as remedial program with the social/psychological consequences of any remedial program. With Ignitia online classes, every lesson, quiz and test presents reading lessons in phonemic awareness, phonics, fluency, vocabulary and comprehension. 

Ignitia lessons, quizzes, projects and tests allow the student at their own pace and in a private environment to:

Develop phonemic awareness by highlighting the text and listening to the text read aloud. 

Develop phonics by listening to highlighted words, phrases, sentences, paragraphs and passages read aloud. Ignitia lessons present key vocabulary words at the beginning of every lesson with one click audio pronouncement of the key words, and Ignitia immediately tests the student on the key vocabulary words before moving into the rest of the lesson. 

Develop fluency by letting the student read along while listening to every lesson, quiz and test hearing fluency. 

Develop vocabulary by beginning each lesson with vocabulary and a test on the vocabulary before moving into the rest of the lesson and by allowing the student to take notes right beside their lesson and by allowing students to go outside Ignitia to look up words in Wikipedia and other resources. Every subject begins and builds on vocabulary. The average medical student learns about 15,000 words during four years of training. 

Develop comprehension by building lessons with lesson quizzes into three to four lesson quizzes and building three to four lessons quizzes into unit tests where a unit test and an alternate unit test offer students an opportunity to improve their performance.   

All 200 plus Ignitia courses allow the administrator working with the caregiver/teacher to set up each course with a separate lesson and a quiz and a test pass threshold grade and a maximum lesson attempts and a “Block Progress” set on or off. For example set the lesson pass threshold grade at 80% and the maximum lesson attempts at three. When the student gets 80% or higher in the first three attempts, the student may move on the the next lesson. If the student does not get 80% or higher, and the administrator and caregiver have set the “Block Progress” button “on,” the student must seek caregiver/teacher to give permission to the student to move to the next lesson. If the caregiver/teacher set the  “Block Progress” “off,” the student’s grade of less than 80% stands, and the student may move the the next lesson. The caregiver/teacher may at any time go back to a student’s lesson quiz, quiz (three or four lessons) or test and reassign questions missed which then allows the student to retake the questions they had missed. These options work for lessons, quizzes (every three or four lessons) and tests (unit, semester and final course tests). Caregiver/teachers may reset these options for any course throughout the school year. 

Course grades reflect the average of four weighted grades:  lessons, projects, quizzes (every three or four lessons) and tests (unit, semester and final course tests) with a percentage assigned  for each one of the four with a total of of hundred percent. Administrators may adjust these weights any time during the school year for each course. 

The above Ignitia options may sound complicated, but they offer the caregiver/teacher with the aid of the administrator and with input from the student to customize each course and adjust that customization throughout the school year. Think of how a child learns to walk. A child learns to sit up, to seat scoot, to use feet and hands, to stand, to walk sideways holding on to something, to stand, to toddle and to walk. Think of how a child learns to talk. Think of how you learned to drive a car. Learning takes place by approximating behavior, by approximation. Ignitia courses offer continual approximation with customized settings that the caregiver/teacher may change as the student changes. 

For more information of Ignitia courses and how you and your student may try these courses out for free, contact Henry T. Hill at 239/682-4291 (text or leave a message) or henrythill@gmail.com. See Marketplace Mission Learning Center at http://marketplacemission.squarespace.com/ for more information about Ignitia. 

References 

5 Pillars of Early Literacy. Arizona Department of Education, www.azed.gov/sites/default/files/2017/11/5%20pillars%20infographic%20Poster.pdf?id=5a1c969e3217e10144257f54. 

A Look at Fourth Grade in California Public Schools and the Common Core State Standards. . California Department of Education , Oct. 2011, district.mpcsd.org/cms/lib/CA01902565/Centricity/Shared/Ed%20Services/4thgradecurriculum.pdf.