About the Course
Basic Language Skills (BLS), based on the Orton-Gillingham approach, is individualized program that allows the student(s) to set the pace. It's systematic and sequential because it teaches regular, reliable patterns of English, moving from simplex to complex.
Basic Language Skills concepts taught include:
Word Recognition Skills
- Phonemic Awareness
- Sound/Symbol Correspondences
- Syllable Types
- Syllable Division
- High Frequency Words
- Contractions and Possessives
- Morphemes – suffixes
- Prosody
Handwriting
- Letter Strokes
- Letter Connections
Spelling Skills
- Phonemic Awareness
- Recurring Spelling Patterns
- Spelling Rules
Composition
- Nouns, Verbs, Noun Markers
- Sentence Structure
- Descriptive Paragraph
- Narrative Paragraph
- Summary Writing
Oral Language Skills
- Naming
- Describing
- Story Retelling
- Vocabulary
Comprehension Skills
- Text Structure
- Oral Language
- World Knowledge
- Strategic Thinking
- Inference Making
- Summarizing
Your Instructor
Trisha Clerk
I received extensive training from the Institute for Multi-Sensory Education (IMSE) and Neuhaus Education Center (Bellaire, TX) in Reading Readiness, Basic Language Skills (Advanced), Developing Metacognitive Skills, Written Composition, Multisensory Grammar, and Scientific Spelling. Additionally, I completed Region IV in Reading by Design modules. To assist students whose first language isn't English, I studied Words of our World (WOW) and WELLS 2 programs, which are transition to English programs to provide a systematic and explicit approach for teaching English language and literacy skills to Spanish-speaking English language learners.