Unlock your child’s reading potential

Together with instruction in phonics and a phonemic awareness programme, the learners’ phonics, spelling, reading fluency, reading comprehension and sight word recognition are targeted and developed.

The RAVE-O (Retrieval, Automaticity, Vocabulary, Engagement and Orthography) programme offers explicit instruction in the development of reading and language skills. Difficulties in any of the above areas affect a learner’s level of accuracy, fluency and comprehension. RAVE-O offers metacognitive (knowledge of your own thoughts and factors that influence your thinking) strategies and opportunities to practice and develop automaticity in the skills needed for reading.

This approach, therefore, helps children use all of their knowledge about phonology (sounds), orthography (written symbols), semantics (meaning), syntax (grammar), and the use of prefixes and suffixes while they are reading. RAVE-O also focuses on improving difficulties with word retrieval and reading fluency that often results in slow, effortful reading, reducing the child’s ability to comprehend what they are reading. (Tufts University)

RAVE-O focuses on teaching learners that words have multiple meanings through the introduction of Miss MIM (the spider representing Many Interesting Meanings). This is supported by the identification of words in context when reading the ‘Minute Stories’. The learners are also given opportunities to broaden their understanding of these core words by making connections to these words through the introduction of Mayor MIC (the mayor representing Many Interesting Connections). The learners are encouraged to think of situations or instances where these words are used in different contexts. The ‘Rhyme Time Clock’ is introduced to encourage learners to identify the rhyming patterns in words. In addition, the ‘Jam Slam’ technique is used to create and read words by ‘slamming’ a starter (onset) onto a known rhyme pattern, for example, adding /j/ to /am/ creates the word ‘jam’.

This provides a quicker alternative for the decoding of words as opposed to sounding out one letter at a time. Suffixes /ed/, /ing/, /s/ and /er/ are also introduced, enabling the learners to grasp how the addition of these suffixes change the meanings of the base words. RAN (rapid automatized naming) charts of core words, together with repetition of the Minute Stories allows the learners to build increasing reading fluency, accuracy and comprehension.

The RAVE-O programme unfolds in a specific and scripted way, allowing children to learn how to read and spell through a guided and procedural approach. The programme is exciting and enjoyable for the learners as it incorporates fictional characters through varied and fun activities. This encourages the children to apply learnt strategies to develop their reading skills. This programme can be used successfully in both larger and smaller groups. Despite the challenges posed by increased numbers of children in classrooms, the stimulation provided by the novel approach of the fictional RAVE-O town with its functional characters would serve to engage larger groups more actively.

The combination of the RAVE-O programme together with a phonemic awareness and phonic program is highly beneficial and effective for all learners, as it allows for the consolidation and reinforcement of the requisite reading skills to become more competent and successful readers. These two programmes, when used together, provide a comprehensive and holistic reading intervention that enhances reading ability. Statistical analysis of pre and post test results indicate that there is an overall improvement in decoding skills, sight word recognition, reading rate automaticity and comprehension skills.

In conclusion, the RAVE-O programme in conjunction with a recognised phonics and phonemic awareness programme, enhances and nurtures children’s learning potential with positive outcomes.

Bellavista is proud to celebrate its 17th year implementing RAVE-O as a successful literacy and reading intervention. The school has responded to the needs of children in the Gauteng area by launching regular clinics, using RAVE-O as an intervention for children referred by their schools. Michelle Yudelowitz, head of the Winter School programme has personally engaged and attended the Summer Reading Clinic at TUFTS University, Boston, Mass, USA, the home of RAVE-O.

For further information on our Winter School offering starting on June 3, please visit the website or emailshare@bellavista.org.za.

Article supplied by Michell Yudelowitz, remedial educator at Bellavista School