Michelle is the literacy lead and reading specialist for a school in Ontario, as well as being Orton-Gillingham trained. In her role as reading specialist, she works directly with students who have been diagnosed with reading disabilities such as dyslexia and other language disorders. As a literacy lead, Michelle mentors the general education teachers and oversees the implementation of UFLI Foundations which they have been using since 2024.
In 2023, Ontario changed their language curriculum based on the Human Rights decision that all children have the right to learn how to read. A lot of teachers were surprised by this new way of teaching, and felt that teacher college did not adequately prepare them for the complicated process of teaching children how to read. Michelle’s job involves giving teachers the background knowledge and skills to support their students and implement a phonics-based program in the classroom.
Phonic Books has brought a lot of enrichment to our base phonics program. It really builds confidence and excitement for reading in our students.
Michelle first discovered Phonic Books when she was the director of a Montessori program. She ordered a set of Phonic Books to trial, and her students “loved the color and pictures, and they loved that they were able to finish a book in a short amount of time which felt like a huge accomplishment. It was an easier way for them to build confidence in their reading that they were able to read a book in one sitting.”
Michelle also liked the scope and sequence of the books, especially when she was teaching the vowel teams and long vowel sounds. The way they taught children in Montessori was to give them a key grapheme, so the key grapheme for the /ae/ sound was ‘ai’. Once the students learned that, they showed them all the other graphemes for /a/ as well. The Phonic Books scope and sequence matched this, so Michelle was able to give her students books that would practice all the graphemes.
Michelle’s school has just received funding to put Phonic Books in each classroom from Senior Kindergarten to Grade 3. “We use the Dandelion Launchers and Dandelion Readers for the younger students. The teachers really love them and the children love the stories, they’re really great books.”
Michelle discovered the catch-up range for older readers when her son was diagnosed with dyslexia. When she started in her current role she fundraised to get a full set of the Phonic Books catch-up range in the school and now they have every series! “Our students love the stories, I have one student who isn’t quite ready for the last book in the Alba series and she asks every lesson if we can read the last book yet.
The Talisman series is really popular with the boys, and girls love the Alba and Magic Belt series. The young students like That Dog! and the Moon Dogs series… They’re all really good!
Michelle’s school uses UFLI Foundations as a basis for their intervention and she finds it a clear and easy way to implement a structured literacy approach, especially for teachers who are new to phonics. The same scope and sequence is followed in both mainstream classrooms and with intervention classes which is really important.
Michelle uses the catch-up readers for small group instruction. She teaches the explicit lesson in the skillset the student is lacking and then uses the catch-up range to follow-up after the lesson. This means the student gets to read a whole book rather than just a decodable passage.
“The books are just more interesting to them as older students–we’re talking about Grade 3, 4, and 5 students who are reading at a Grade 1, maybe the beginning of Grade 2, level. So to be able to give them books that are actually interesting to them, it really builds their confidence and their love of reading. They are interested and they want to go to the next book, so it’s an incentive to keep reading for them as well.
“I want my students to reach uncontrolled text as soon as possible but when they’re still learning, they need controlled texts. And they’re not boring, they’re not baby-ish, the catch-up range is an amazing resource.”
Michelle finds it really helpful to have a choice among the series as well. There are multiple sets which cover the same scope and sequence but with different storylines and characters. For a student that needs extra practice, she works through a different series so they aren’t reading the same books again or scrambling for other resources. Sometimes, Michelle and her student will go back and forth between series at the same time, if she feels they need more practice on a specific phonics skill. “I love that they’re interesting for older readers.”
I love the activity books. Especially the comprehension work, I’m trying to build reading fluency in older students so it’s really important to use those exercises from the activity books.
“Phonic Books has brought a lot of enrichment to our base phonics program. It really builds confidence and excitement for reading in our students, and for our intervention students it has helped to rebuild that confidence in themselves as readers so it has had a huge impact.”