Sample Programs – Direct Instruction
At Firefly Education we teach the full range of Direct Instruction programs. Each program is built around the core Direct Instruction principles of consistent language, carefully sequenced material, highly individualized delivery, and continuous assessment. The following is a selected sample of Direct Instruction programs that we teach to adolescents, all of which are available either online or at our education centre:
Corrective Mathematics
Corrective Mathematics provides intensive support in mathematics through seven strategic modules – Addition; Subtraction; Multiplication; Division; Basic Fractions; Fractions, Decimals, and Percents; and Ratios and Equations. Problematic areas are targeted and addressed in a systematic way to ensure students will learn to work mathematical problems accurately and confidently. Teacher-directed instruction focuses on critical skills and concepts which struggling students often fail to grasp. The program teaches mathematics skills, rules, and strategies efficiently and effectively, by focusing on core content and breaking this content into a series of small conceptual steps and embedded skills. Students learn how to solve a wide variety of problem solving story types by translating word problems into numerical statements, determining the operation needed for the problem, and following a step by step process to correctly solve the problem. Fact practice and timed tests help students develop a high level of fluency in mathematics.
Corrective Reading - Comprehension
Corrective Reading - Comprehension is designed for students who need to develop vocabulary, background information, and reasoning skills that are the foundation of comprehension. Intensive, robust instruction targets comprehension and word learning strategies that students can carry into content-area classes. Extensive practice in following directions is provided to help students read carefully and attend to details. Students develop strategies for retaining information and relating it to new concepts. Writing skills related to sentence structure, grammar, usage, and mechanics are taught to prepare students for the complex syntax in text. The program develops the thinking tactics used by successful readers—applying prior knowledge, making inferences, and analyzing evidence. Students learn literal and inferential skills necessary to read content-area textbooks and learn new information. Higher order thinking skills are expanded to enable students to read critically, identify fallacies in arguments, and resolve possible inconsistencies encountered in reading. Reasoning and analysis strategies are taught in content-rich contexts, enabling students to transfer newly learned skills to many subject areas.
Corrective Reading - Decoding
Corrective Reading - Decoding provides intensive reading intervention for students who are reading below grade level and who must be taught more in less time to catch up. It has been widely used to accelerate learning in students who were not successful when taught using other methods. Tightly sequenced, carefully planned lessons give struggling students the structure and practice necessary to become skilled, fluent readers and better learners. The program proceeds efficiently and thoroughly from the most basic to the most advanced reading skills, equipping students with an understanding of the relationships between sounds and letters, letter patterns, word types, and higher levels of word analysis. Fluency practice with immediate feedback is used to build oral reading rate and accuracy. Stories written for the program provide a gradual progression in skill development that discourages guessing and overcomes the error patterns typically observed with problem readers. The varied reading deficits found among older students are addressed, including frequent word identification errors, adding or omitting words, confusion of high-frequency words, laboriously slow reading rates, and choppy oral reading. Comprehension skills are developed through careful questioning that leads to both factual and inferential interpretation of text that is read.
Expressive Writing
Expressive Writing is a corrective program that helps students learn to express ideas by writing sentences, paragraphs, and longer compositions that articulate precisely what the writer wishes to say. The program is ideal for students who need help getting started, write incomplete sentences, omit important parts of stories, edit ineffectively or not at all. Essential writing skills are addressed with four instructional strands: mechanics, sentence writing, paragraph and story writing, and editing. In every lesson, students learn to write with structure, coherence, unity, and correct grammar and punctuation, improving the overall quality of their writing. Carefully sequenced instruction moves students from simple sentence and paragraph writing to composing and editing sophisticated stories with varied sentence types. Students learn to communicate clearly by planning what they want to say, write and correctly punctuate compound and complex sentences, and produce paragraphs with a topic sentence, supporting details, and a conclusion. Students are equipped with the foundational skills needed to become confident, proficient writers.
Spelling Through Morphographs
Spelling Through Morphographs is a corrective program designed to give older students the tools they need to learn to spell. The program teaches a variety of morphographs -- prefixes, suffixes, and word bases -- and a small set of rules for combining them so that students learn a spelling strategy they can apply to thousands of words. Fast-paced lessons and a systematic review of every morphograph, combined with a few simple spelling rules, ensure that spelling strategies are mastered. In the first half of the program alone, students learn over 252 morphographs and the rules needed to spell over 3,000 words. By the end of the program, they learn over 500 morphographs, and are able to spell over 12,000 words. The fact that morphographs have meaning not only helps students remember their spelling, but it also helps them figure out the meaning of unfamiliar words. Writing and proofreading activities reinforce the connection between spelling and composition.