Signature Programs
Student Interventions & Services
Research-based Literacy Interventions
Summit View strives to provide balanced reading instruction that includes the four domains of reading: word identification, fluency, vocabulary, and comprehension. Students receive explicit, systematic instruction in phonemic awareness and phonics, intensive training to build vocabulary and use comprehension strategies. The elementary students receive basic reading instruction for at least 50 minutes per day. The high school and middle school students have reading and math labs, four days a week to reinforce basic skills. Summit View utilizes research-based reading programs recommended by the Cal STAT Literacy Institute, a project of the California Department of Education, Special Education Division. All teachers, including subject area staff, have been trained in research-based strategies for teaching reading as well as specific reading programs, which ensures all students receive effective direct instruction and are provided with multiple opportunities throughout the day to apply these skills and strategies.
Student Support Services
Multisensory Phonomic Awareness Program
A primary cause of decoding and spelling problems is weak phonemic awareness or the difficulty in identifying individual sounds and their order within words. The key to helping individuals develop phonemic awareness is the conscious integration of the three senses of hearing, seeing and feeling. In this program, students become aware of the mouth actions which produce speech sounds so they can feel sounds within words. They hear, see, and feel their physical characteristics and the contrasts between them. The program, which is appropriate for age levels ranging from elementary to adult, progresses from words containing two sounds to multi-syllable words.
Read Naturally Live
The Read Naturally Live interactive program provides a method to improve reading fluency. Most struggling readers have difficulty with fluency and they spend little time reading independently. The Read Naturally Live program combines three powerful strategies that accelerate reading development: teacher modeling, repeated reading, and progress monitoring. Using this web-based edition of the program, students work in the level of material appropriate and work at their own pace. Read Naturally Live has 19 levels, each containing 24, high-interest, non-fiction stories. Each story has key words, a prediction step, a passage, comprehension questions, and a retell step. Daily monitoring of student progress improves student achievement and facilitates the student’s involvement in the learning process.
REWARDS
REWARDS is a specialized reading program designed to teach intermediate and secondary students a flexible strategy for decoding long words and to increase their oral and silent reading fluency. Students are taught to identify prefixes, suffixes, and vowel sounds to assist them in segmenting the word into manageable, decodable chunks. Twenty comprehensive teacher-directed lessons help reading deficient older students word recognition skills.
Step Up to Writing
This program helps students improve the writing skills with multisensory, classroom-proven teaching strategies and writing activities. Students are taught to write clear, organized paragraphs, reports, and essays. With Step Up to Writing students learn to break down the writing process into logical steps and transfer these skills in logic to longer multi-paragraph essays and research reports. Most importantly, they learn the skills to prepare them for real-world writing.
The Wilson Reading System
The Wilson Reading System is a direct, multisensory approach that teaches students the structure of words. Through a carefully sequenced 12-step program, they master decoding and spelling. Students work from sounds to syllables, and words to sentences, by hearing sounds, manipulating color-coded sound, syllable and word cards, and performing finger-tapping exercises. The program is organized around the six syllable types and allows students to learn cumulatively and systematically.
Assistive Technology
Integration of technology and assistive technology is an essential element of the academic program. Both assist our students in discovering ways to compensate for learning deficits and better access the curriculum. For example, text-to-speech software enables students with decoding impairments to access and understand text. Concept mapping software facilitates organization of ideas in the writing process. Each classroom is equipped with interactive white boards and access to computers and ipads that promote student engagement and target diverse learning styles.
Occupational Therapy, Language and Speech Therapy and Counseling Services
At times, students with learning differences benefit from additional support in order to fully access the curriculum. Summit View recognizes this need and provides on-site, licensed clinicians who deliver Occupational Therapy, Language and Speech Therapy or Counseling Services as indicated on a student’s Individual Education Plan (IEP) or private contract.
These school-based supports are provided during the school day making this a unique model of service delivery that affords students the opportunity to learn and practice strategies within the context of a one on one or a small group setting and then apply them in the school environment. Clinicians work closely with faculty and staff to schedule sessions at a convenient time for the student.
Each of these services provides skill or strategy instruction, modeling and practice, and ongoing assessment all with the intent to improve how a child approaches academic, social or physical challenges.
