What happens in a TRT session?
What happens in a TRT session?
There are 30 Levels in That Reading Thing followed by 20 Levels if needed. Every learner does every Level but works at their own pace because teens and adults struggle with reading for all sorts of reasons. This means that two people might be at Level 25 but one will be reading quite fluently and the other still improving their fluency. The point is that they're both many steps ahead of where they started.Levels 1 -13
Foundations
Level 1 is the TRT word reading assessment.
It is essentially a decoding exercise of real but unfamiliar words which start at ‘lot’ and become increasingly complex. The first two pages have single syllable words comprised of basic code sounds with the gradual addition of sh, ch, th, ck and ng. The third page of the assessment has multisyllable words, the last three of which represent the advanced code. It’s rare for a student to even attempt the last three words, and very common for them to come to a halt when they see the long basic code words.
For the rest of the Foundation Levels (2 – 13) learners are building, reading and spelling words out of context and then reading them in text. Building is simply spelling with visual clues available – a 'sound chart' for single syllable words and puzzle pieces for multisyllable words. Multisyllable words appear in the first 20 minutes of the first lesson with most students attempting to spell ‘fantastic’ by the end of that first session.
In any one TRT Foundation session, a student reads, writes on custom TRT dry erase boards, says sounds, moves graphemes around and reads and discusses sentences. They are learning an automatic script for what to do when faced with an unfamiliar word.
It can take as little as 3-5 hours to move from reading and spelling words like ‘sap’ and ‘fax, to reading and spelling ‘instructions’ and ‘conditioning’. This is possible because we continue to limit the code while introducing endings.
We also apply The Deal throughout every lesson which means a student never has to know anything that we haven’t done together – nothing. In this environment of guaranteed safety even very reluctant students start saying sounds while they’re writing, and saying sounds and listening for a word they know while reading. They also discover that mistakes are fine, an opportunity to learn rather than a source of shame.
By the end of the Foundation Levels, the student has developed confidence in word attack and is learning to track through long words from left to right and to actually read what’s in the middle rather than guessing badly. They’re learning to check meaning from context in sentences. (Note that this is different from creating meaning from context in sentences.)
Levels 14-30
Advanced
From Level 14 to 30, the learner discovers both the complexity and the logic of the rest of the code. They are no longer intimidated by long words and they're in the process of learning that reading right through an unfamiliar word is better than guessing when it comes to reading for meaning. With this in mind, they discover that a letter or group of letters can Look the Same but Sound Different (sunny, try, yet, myth) and that one sound can have several spellings so they Sound the Same but Look Different (both, close, grow, coat, soul, toe, though).
They discover this by sorting words on TRT boards and seeing the patterns of spelling and pronunciation from most to least common. They are also still building with puzzles and spelling. Some students will do only a little spelling but others will be ready to delve deeper with strategies from That Spelling Thing. Reading more complex text becomes a much bigger part of the lesson. We encourage use of newspapers, magazines, short stories, non-fiction and even novels. The one requirement is that the reading material has to be something that our learner wouldn't be embarrassed to be seen carrying down the street. Read more about choosing reading material for TRT students.
If a student needs them, there are 20 more levels available at the tutor support site. However, by this point, most students need to be reading a great deal more and spending less time on TRT Levels.
- Concepts, Knowledge, Personal Growth
- All 3 are equally important