Research & Validation | F.I.R.S.T. Foundation Paper

OVERVIEW OF SCHOLASTIC F.I.R.S.T. Scholastic F.I.R.S.T. (Foundations in Reading, Sounds & Text) is an instructionally robust, highly adaptive digital adventure on Ooka Island that teaches the five foundational reading skills: phonemic awareness, phonics, fluency, vocabulary, and comprehension. Through developmentally appropriate and highly personalized practice, F.I.R.S.T. builds a solid foundation for students to become confident readers. Digital instruction supports young learners when it is both enjoyable and highly motivating. Rooted in research and guided in real time by READirect analytics, the full 80-hour F.I.R.S.T. program delivers instruction within an interactive, engaging, and personalized learning environment that includes manageable learning tasks, ongoing feedback, reinforcement of learning concepts, and encouraging characters like Auntie Kay and Zobot. All students begin their adventure on Ooka Island by creating customizable avatars to represent themselves in the program. As students progress through their adventure teaching the Ooka Elves to read, they earn stickers and new and fun items for their avatar. F.I.R.S.T. begins with an introduction to phonemes —single sounds that are the smallest units of spoken language. Students encounter each phoneme among the other sounds and in multiple activities (e.g., blending, segmenting, rhyming, etc.) throughout the program to build automaticity. All of these concepts are reinforced throughout F.I.R.S.T.’s 24 levels using auditory and visual cues to guide students as they build reading skills. Within these 24 levels, each reader also experiences a set of 6,695 rigorously designed micro-actions that provide a personalized path to becoming a confident reader.

Student customizing avatar

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SCHOLASTIC F.I.R.S.T. FOUNDATION PAPER

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