Monday, July 29, 2013

What's the Word on Wilson?

Hi all.  I'm in need of some guidance.  Our school is system is moving toward Wilson Fundations for our K-2 classrooms.  I have participated in some trainings and have some, not all of the materials.  I'm trying to wrap my head around using this program knowing that I have not had in depth training and that I do not have all of the resources.
So I have some questions . . .
1.  Have you used Wilson Fundations in your class and are you still using it?  (if not, tell why)
2.  Do you use Wilson with your whole class or do you use it as an intervention?
3.  If you had to outfit your class with materials (for Wilson), from your own pocket, what are the essentials?
4.  Do you follow Wilson's pacing to a T or do you teach some units out of sequence?

If you have experience with this program leave a comment, I would love to hear from you on any (or all) of these questions.
Thanks so much for stopping by and have a great week.

8 comments:

  1. I'm going to a full day training for this program tomorrow, so I'll be watching this post.

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  2. This will be my third year teaching Fundations for my K's and my 1st graders. We have to teach it with extreme fidelity. So, I'm pretty fluent with the program. In first grade I'd hope that you have the magnet board and letters for your kids over all other supplies. You can always print out Fundations paper and make composition books on your own. Some other materials that are key are the large letter cards, standard cards, and the posters. My students refer to Abc poster, the Glued sounds poster and the Vowel teams poster all the time. We stick with the order of the units now that we have the Second Edition. I have yet to complete the program with my kiddos as we don't move on to the next unit until my students have passed the Unit Test with 80% mastery.
    I could go on and on...
    I hope this helps and feel free to email me if you have any questions.
    ~Andi

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  3. We began using Fundations as an intervention program about 6 years ago. I was then a reading interventionist so I was the first to use it in our school. Since then, we've moved to using it as a whole class phonics program for K-2, but we still also use the double dose plans for our intervention group. I follow it very closely--especially since they re-did the manual and they made many of the changes that I was hoping for! I would say "must haves" are the magnet boards, tiles and dry erase boards. The large and small sound cards would be important, too. I'm headed to a full day training in two weeks to find out about some of the changes that they have made and we will be getting updated materials. I think it's a great program, and I've seen it be VERY successful with our kiddos. Feel free to email me with any other questions! I've used it as a classroom teacher only in Kindergarten, but as a reading specialist, I've taught it to k-2!

    Lisa
    Always an Adventure in Kindergarten

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  4. We adopted the Fundations program for my second graders last year. The program was tough at first to learn the correct and proper procedures. I must say that now I love this program. My students made huge reading, writing, and spelling progress last year. It must be taught with fidelity or it will not work. We use it whole class and double dose for intervention. I got plastic boxes for my magnetic letter tiles from Michaels. Plastic boxes for my student pouches, and black socks to use as erasers for white boards. Spent maybe $20 max. And was reimbursed by pta. Good luck. I love Fundations!

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    Replies
    1. Great info from you and the comments above. My team is trying to figure out what to spend on and how to craft to get ready for Wilson.
      Know that teachers are seeing such success is huge motivation to start this journey.
      Have a great year.

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  5. I wanted to let you know that I nominated you for a Liebster Award. Go my website for more information and how to "accept." It is to give new bloggers more exposure! Have fun!
    http://thenewprincipalprinciples.blogspot.com/2013/08/liebster-award-i-accept.html

    ReplyDelete