Our Research-Validated Programming

Reading Mastery

Reading Mastery is a complete basal reading program that uses the Direct Instruction (DI) method to help students master essential decoding and comprehension skills. The program places particular emphasis on teaching thinking skills and helping students acquire background knowledge. Program materials include fully scripted lessons to guide teachers through carefully constructed instructional steps. It teaches student's the following foundational reading skills: phonemic awareness, letter-sound correspondence, sounding out words, word recognition, vocabulary, oral-reading fluency and comprehension.

Corrective Reading: Decoding & Comprehension

Corrective Reading is a powerful DI remedial reading series that solves a wide range of problems for struggling older readers, even if they have failed with other approaches. Explicit, step-by-step lessons are organized around two major strands, Decoding and Comprehension. Corrective reading is for students whose reading is characterized by misidentified words, confusion of similar words, word omissions or insertions, lack of attention to punctuation, and poor comprehension. Decoding lessons range from instruction in letter sounds and blending to the reading of sophisticated passages such as those found in content-area textbooks. Comprehension skills covered range from simple classification and true-false identification to complex analogies, analyses, and inferential comprehension strategies.

Spelling Mastery

Spelling Mastery is a six-level DI series that teaches students dependable spelling skills by blending three approaches: the phonemic approach, the whole word approach, and the morphemic approach. Students are taught specific strategies that encourage them to think their way through spelling, rather than memorize weekly word lists. These strategies, combined with repeated practice and application, enable students to spell unfamiliar words and to remember familiar words more successfully than they would using other methods.

Expressive Writing

The Expressive Writing Program is composed of two levels, Expressive Writing 1 and Expressive Writing 2. In the Expressive Writing programs, students learn how to write paragraphs that describe a sequence of related actions using simple declarative sentences, punctuate sentences correctly, write in the correct verb tense, include details, and stay on topic. Students also learn how to make inferences, write a multi-paragraph narrative that is written clearly (using clear pronoun referents and including details necessary for clarity), use a variety of sentence types, and include correctly punctuated direct quotes. When working in this program at Appletree, we also introduce students to the Plan, Organize, Write, Edit, and Revise (POWER) system of writing. 

JUMP Math

We use the JUMP Math program at Appletree. This program is available for K-8 students. JUMP provides intervention and additional practice on essential math concepts. This evidence-based curriculum helps to replace math anxiety with an understanding and love of mathematics. Through careful scaffolding, continuous assessment and a variety of creative instructional approaches, JUMP facilitates ‘guided inquiry’ for our math students.

Students working in the JUMP Math program develop an understanding of core math concepts, combined with mastery of essential math facts and operations. JUMP Math corresponds to provincial grade level expectations.

This award winning, Canadian program aligns well with Appletree’s philosophy and initiatives. We believe every child can learn math and love it! Our goal is to encourage a positive attitude and view towards mathematics.

Connecting Math Concepts

Connecting Math Concepts is a DI program that provides highly explicit and systematic instruction of the fundamental concepts in math. The program stresses understanding and introduces concepts carefully, then weaves them together throughout the program. Lessons are designed to introduce concepts at a reasonable rate and help students make connections between important concepts. The lessons provide the practice needed to achieve mastery and understanding. Focusing on the "big ideas" of mathematics, the Connecting Math Concepts program teaches explicit strategies that enable students to master difficult concepts such as place value, subtraction, multiplication, word problems, money, time, etc.

Handwriting Without Tears

Handwriting Without Tears provides students with the explicit, direct instruction and purposeful practice they need to master handwriting and automaticity.

Handwriting Without Tears guides students to success with:

  • Developmentally appropriate sequence of instruction

  • Consistent guided practice to develop automaticity and fluency

  • Multisensory components engage visual, audio, kinesthetic learners

  • Hands-on manipulative for developing fine motor and phonics skills

  • Simple, student-friendly, step-by-step language for letter formations

  • Using correct letter and number formation, sizing and spacing. 

REWARDS

The Reading Excellence: Word Attack & Rate Development Strategies (REWARDS) program is an explicitly taught, research-validated reading intervention program. It incorporates a highly generalizable and effective strategy for decoding multisyllabic words frequently found in content-area texts (e.g., student textbooks). The goal of the REWARDS program is to increase fluency rates and deepen comprehension of informational and content-area texts. Lessons are designed to increase oral and silent reading rates (fluency), expand students’ knowledge of general academic and domain-specific vocabulary, and build students' confidence in their reading ability. This program introduces students to a unique multisyllabic word reading strategy. This strategy, developed by Dr. Anita Archer, has been proven effective in helping students:

  • Break words into manageable, decodable chunks

  • Read long words in content-area textbooks

  • Read accurately, quickly and with confidence

  • Increase oral and silent reading fluency

  • Improve comprehension as decoding and fluency increase

  • Expand students' knowledge of general academic and subject-specific vocabulary. 

Executive Functions Curriculum

This neuroscience research-based program was developed by the Rush NeuroBehavioural Centre. It is split up into two levels: Middle School and High School, and covers topics such as: Materials Management, Time Management, Planning, Study Strategies (e.g., following directions, memory techniques, organizing information, note taking, test preparation, etc.) and Personal Growth (e.g., goal setting, decision making, problem solving, etc.). Given the nature of this particular program, students working in this program must attend in-person sessions