Where to Start

If your student is an advanced reader between the ages of 4-7, you may want to consider starting with Foundations B. Your student will still benefit from Foundations lessons with a few tweaks to the curriculum. Instead of focusing on developing early reading skills, the purpose of using Foundations B with an advanced reader is to help them understand the phonograms and spelling rules that explain why words are spelled the way they are. 

If you have an advanced reader, we suggest using our Starting at Foundations B Assessment for placement into Foundations. The assessment results are a good indicator if you should start with Foundations B.

Ways to Modify Foundations Lessons

• Focus on the tools needed to understand English spelling: phonograms, spelling rules, and spelling analysis 
• Skip the reading fluency and comprehension activities or other already known concepts.
• Change to a faster pace that works best for the student as long as they are mastering new learning confidently. 
• Increase the challenge by including practice where students masters all of the phonogram sounds by reading and writing them.
• Continue growing reading skills using books on their developmentally appropriate reading level.
• Slow down to a more typical pace whenever the lessons become more challenging for the child. This may be the case in later Foundations B lessons or as you move into Foundations C.

By making some modifications to provide an appropriate pace and level of challenge that meets the needs of an advanced reader, you will still be able to meet the needs of a young advanced reader while teaching them how English works!

For more information, review our articles, About Foundations and Can I Start Foundations at Level C or D? You can also check out our interactive tool to assist you in finding the best starting point for your student, Help Me Choose.