UOS Impact Report - FINAL - Units of SoundThis impact report outlines its main features, including...

IMPACTA report highlighting how Units of Sound makes a difference to the lives of learners with low literacy levels.

IMPACT 3

CONTENTS PREFACE

No one doubts the importance of being able to read and write effectively in our increasingly connected and digitised world.

Yet, despite improvements in teaching in schools, as many as 1 in 5 people have difficulties learning to read and spell, and for very many this is due to specific learning difficulties such as dyslexia. If unacknowledged and unaddressed, specific learning difficulties can lead to frustration, loss of confidence, underachievement and disengagement, which is both an individual tragedy as well as a loss of talent and a cost for society.

Dyslexia Action has been working for over 40 years to improve our knowledge and understanding and to develop services and products to try and prevent this from happening. At the heart of our philosophy is that almost everyone can learn if they are taught in a way that is right for them. Or, as our founding

Education Director Harry Chasty would often say “if they can’t learn the way you teach, can you teach the way they learn?”

Some people with literacy difficulties may be lucky enough to have talents and find opportunities in creative or technical fields where the written word can be avoided; others may learn to make good use of assistive technology to turn speech to sound and vice-versa. However, for the vast majority, there is a level of essential literacy skills that is needed, for example to access technology or to clear the hurdles of written examinations even in practical subjects. Here is where specialist teaching and teaching resources play a crucial role.

Units of Sound has been developed to provide the kind of teaching that works when other approaches have failed.

This impact report outlines its main features, including the very obvious one

that a flexible computer-based system can support extensive, personalised, non-judgmental practice, which allows knowledge to be acquired in small but solid steps. It is a safe learning environment that will go at the pace that is right for the individual. The report also outlines evidence showing the kind of gains that have been made by individuals using Units of Sound who have experienced repeated failures in schools.

Dyslexia Action’s experience over many years has been in working with the children and adult learners who have not learned with previous attempts. That knowledge and experience is built into Units of Sound, and we know it works. We know it works for those with severe difficulties as well as those who have just missed key parts in early teaching. This report explains why we believe that to be the case and provides quantitative and qualitative evidence of impact.

John Rack is Director of Education and Policy, and leads Dyslexia Action in the evaluation and development of professional services.

PREFACE 3

INTRODUCTION 4

SUMMARY 5

ASSESSING IMPACT 8

IMPACT BY DESIGN 12

SUCCESS STORIES 16

START TODAY 19

CONSIDERATIONS 20

GOT A QUESTION? 21

BACKGROUND AND EARLY DEVELOPMENT 22

DYSLEXIA ACTION 23

IMPACTUNITSOFSOUND.COM 54

SUMMARYUnits of Sound has been helping students improve their reading and spelling skills for over forty years. Thousands of students have benefitted from its systematic and explicit instruction in reading, spelling, writing and comprehension strategies.

In evaluation studies Units of Sound has shown convincing benefits for primary school students (ages 6-10) and, in a home intervention version, for secondary school students (ages 11-14).

Primary students improved by 16 percentile points on average, after intervention.

Secondary students, working largely from home, improved by 11 percentile points on average, post intervention.

In a smaller analysis, Secondary students using Units of Sound in school also made good progress.

Since 1972, schools have used Units of Sound to help thousands of students improve their literacy.

Impact on Reading for students using Units of Sound (percentile)

INTRODUCTION

Units of Sound is a unique solution to address the low literacy levels that blight the lives of children and adults. It has been developed for computer use by Dyslexia Action, an education charity in the UK.

The program facilitates independent literacy study for students of all ages and a wide range of abilities, making it a cost-effective solution for mainstream

schools. Staff who support students on Units of Sound do not necessarily need to be reading or literacy specialists, because specialist teaching is built into the program. This gives schools more flexibility to reach more students with poor standards of literacy, without sacrificing quality.We are confident that if you adopt this system, then your students will improve their reading, spelling

and writing skills. We appreciate that there are many factors to consider before adopting a literacy intervention program into your learning environment, and that there are often many steps in the process. This document sets out to answer your questions, wherever you are.

Additional information can be found on our website:

www.unitsofsound.com

If you are considering using Units of Sound to raise literacy standards, this impact report answers all your questions.

“Units of Sound is a fantastic resource to support reading and literacy. It works because the programme is tailored to the needs of the individual so they can work at their own pace.”

Oasis Academy, Southampton

CardiffSecondary

Home basedSecondary

Primary

DarlingtonSecondary

NewhavenSecondary

69

61

66

68

65

50th Percentile


Why does it work? Units of Sound provides a unique package of controlled readability, multi-sensory, cumulative activities and achievable tasks. It uses a continual learning spiral so students expand skills and build new understanding in their linguistic framework.

How does it work?Units of Sound is a literacy intervention, but it does not need to have a reading specialist to deliver the teaching. The specialist teaching of reading and spelling is within the program software, which guarantees that each student learns accurately and precisely, has the opportunity to correct mistakes based on immediate feedback and provides teachers with close monitoring of progress.

Who is Units of Sound for? Units of Sound is a second chance at literacy for anyone aged 8 to adult. It has been designed to reach a wide range of needs and abilities.

What is the teacher’s role? The classroom teacher, teaching assistant or volunteer helper is given full training to become a Units of Sound Tutor as part of the software package. Units of Sound software takes the pressure out of lesson preparation and differentiation, so Tutors have more time to spend working with individual students and more flexibility to work with larger groups of students.

How often can students use Units of Sound?Units of Sound is designed for flexibility. With its universal log-in page, students can work at school or at home with unbroken continuity. Lessons can be scheduled to suit individual schools and timetables.

How closely is progress monitored?Units of Sound provides students with an intervention which increases in intensity and which responds to student outcomes. In evaluation studies in the UK, the statistical significances of both primary and

secondary outcomes are high, and show that the students in these schools made good progress. In primary schools, student performance moved from the 50th to 61st percentile. Older students improved too: secondary students moved from the 50th to 65th-69th percentile.

How much does it cost?Units of Sound is designed for flexibility and cost efficiency. Purchasing Units of Sound is through licences, which run for three years. Units of Sound can address literacy under-achievement in your school for as little as £4 per student per year.

Please spend some time looking through the rest of this document, which explains Units of Sound in more detail. More information can be found on our website.

www.unitsofsound.com


Effect sizes can be thought of in terms of the normal or ‘Gaussian’ distribution, known for short as the ‘bell curve’: how far along the curve would a given effect size push the child at the middle of the distribution, or ‘on the 50th percentile’? Table 2 illustrates this.

From Table 2 we can estimate that the average improvement in reading shown in Table 1 would have moved a child from the 50th to about the 69th percentile, and the improvement in spelling to about the 65th percentile.

Table 2

An effect size of:Would increase

percentile scores from:

+0.10 50 to 54

+0.20 50 to 58

+0.30 50 to 62

+0.40 50 to 66

+0.50 50 to 69

+0.60 50 to 73

+0.70 50 to 76

+0.80 50 to 79

+0.90 50 to 82

+1.00 50 to 84

Interpreting effect sizesSource: http://www.bestevidence.org/methods/effectsize.htm

ASSESSING IMPACT

The impact for primary schools

Between 2005 and 2009 Dyslexia Action worked with 41 primary schools in England with a total pupil population of more than 2,000. Within these totals, according to a DA technical

report (Rack, 2011) in 2008–09 ten schools provided data on 147 children who had received the full Partnership for Literacy intervention and completed pre- and post-tests using the Wide Range Achievement Test, 4th edition (WRAT4) carried

out at a suitable interval (eight months on average). The data obtained from those children were independently re-analysed by Greg Brooks, Emeritus Professor of Education, University of Sheffield, UK and the results are shown in Table 01.1

Greg Brooks, Emeritus Professor of Education, University of Sheffield, reanalysed data from Dyslexia Action’s Partnership for Literacy projects.

1 Brooks, 2013:81 http://www.interventionsforliteracy.org.uk/widgets_GregBrooks/What_works_for_children_fourth_ed.pdf

Table 1

GroupN

Pre-test Post-test Gain Significance Effect size*

Mean SD Mean SD Mean

Reading 147 82.5 9.6 89.9 9.5 7.4p<0.001

0.49

Spelling 147 84.4 10.2 89.9 10.8 5.4 0.37

Reading and spelling results for primary students receiving P4L/UofS.*Cohen’s d calculated using standard deviation of the test (15.0)


Although the numbers in each school were very small, the statistical significances are all high, and do show that the students in these schools were making good progress, on average (see Table 4). The effect sizes are less reliable, given the small numbers, but from Table 2 can be interpreted to mean that the average improvement in reading would have moved a child from the 50th to about the 69th, 68th and 65th percentile, respectively.

The impact for secondary schoolsSchool-based version

The evaluation of the school-based version took place in the academic year 2009/10 within a number of schools in England and Wales. Data available from one school in each of the three towns showed indications of significant improvement.

Cardiff

Darlington

Newhaven

69

68

65

Table 4

Centre Start End Gain Sig. Effect size*N Mean SD Mean SD Mean

Cardiff 9 83.78 1.56 91.11 6.53 7.33 0.01 0.49

Darlington 10 77.00 3.59 83.70 6.91 6.70 0.00 0.45

Newhaven 13 80.23 3.03 85.85 9.30 5.62 0.03 0.37

Reading test results for secondary students receiving the school-based version of Units of Sound.*Cohen’s d calculated using standard deviation of the test (15.0)

The impact for secondary schoolsHome-supported version

The data at this level come from external evaluations of Dyslexia Action’s Units of Sound program carried out by the Centre for Evaluation and Monitoring (CEM) at Durham University, also independently re-analysed by Greg Brooks.

The evaluation yielding evidence on the home-supported version took place during academic year 2010/11 in ten schools in England. Units of Sound

was implemented in a home support format which involved training and support at school first, but the majority of the program work was then done at home. In addition to the work with individual pupils, Dyslexia Action staff delivered training within the school to all staff, and advice and information sessions were also held for parents.

Groups of students in Years 7, 8 and 9 (equivalent to grades 6-8) in the participating schools were selected by Dyslexia Action staff using existing test data within the school,

to identify those with poor reading. Within each school, 24 students were chosen for the intervention. The students were then randomly assigned (by the external evaluators) to either the intervention or the control group. The evaluation design was therefore a randomised control trial.

Pre-test data on reading abilities were obtained for all participating students using the Wide Range Achievement Test 4th edition (WRAT 4), and for as many students as possible at post-test. The results are shown in Table 3.

Taking this effect size and consulting Table 2 again (see previous page), we can estimate that that the average improvement in reading would have moved a child from the 50th to about the 61st percentile.

50 61

Table 3

GroupN

Pre-test Post-test Gain Significance Effect size*

Mean SD Mean SD Mean

Intervention 118 86.0 3.3 90.4 7.9 4.4p=0.008

Cohen’s d=0.27Control 99 86.0 3.3 88.4 7.1 2.4

Reading test results for secondary students receiving the home-supported version of Units of Sound.*Calculated as difference in gains over pooled post-test SD.


QUESTION 2: Does the program provide flexibility for use with the range of learners in the different settings where it will be used?

Units of Sound has been developed to provide the utmost flexibility for use with a range of learners in different settings. It provides individualised program routes of study, to match the needs of students, which are identified through placement tests. Once placed on the program, students can work individually, in small groups, larger groups or within the whole class environment.

A central principle of Units of Sound is that students learn best when they are confident, independent learners. To achieve this:

Units of Sound helps teachers reach more students with individualised interventions than is usually possible in small group work in busy schools.

• Sessions are conducted at a good pace, which the student controls, based on his or her answers and accuracy• The student never works

at a pace which is too fast or at a level which is too high to achieve success

• Every aspect of a session requires active engagement, and although tutors are present for support and monitoring, the student works independently for 90% of the time

• AutoRoute ensures that learning in all skill areas is kept in balance and that students can’t repeat one skill area immediately or neglect other skill areas

QUESTION 1: Does this program provide systematic and explicit instruction in the particular strategies that have been proven to relate to high rates of achievement in reading?

IMPACT BY DESIGN

The short answer is yes. Units of Sound provides systematic and explicit instruction in decoding and comprehension strategies. Units of Sound is a fully integrated program which has a carefully constructed sequential structure. Units of Sound:

• Teaches phonemic awareness explicitly• Develops decoding skills

and fluency through audio-visual patterns• Develops comprehension

skills by using authentic vocabulary in real contexts• Lets teachers monitor

progress and modify teaching accordingly

Units of Sound continues its use of evidence-driven good practice to provide systematic and sequential

teaching of spelling. The program teaches spelling through:

• Explicit linking of audio-visual patterns for encoding• Cumulative practice which

is distributed over time• Continuous and

immediate feedback

• Assessment

In addition, it is important for the student to be able both to recall information and to apply it in new ways. In Units of Sound:

•Memory and Dictation exercises develop single word spelling into applied spelling in phrases and whole sentences• Reading Check exercises

develop and test the student’s ability to apply information in new contexts

• Reading Check Activities are teacher-led monitoring sessions which challenge the student to read unprepared, factual texts and answer questions

•Writing Activities are teacher-led and develop the student’s extended writing skills.

Units of Sound has at its core learning by distributed practice, which we call “revisiting”. Units of Sound ensures that the student learns accurately and precisely, with the opportunity to correct mistakes. It probes, through frequent tests, that knowledge from earlier sessions is secure. This expands the student’s phonemic-graphic knowledge over time

Units of Sound’s unique structure and methodology is designed to raise literacy standards for you.

Schools look for interventions which are closely matched to student needs, as identified through both formative and summative assessments. Interventions need to be student specific, with increasing intensity and frequent monitoring of progress. In addition, any intervention needs to utilize successful strategies proven to relate to high rates of achievement in literacy and which have been evidenced through research.

RevisitingThe process of ‘revisiting’, where you come back to words and sounds again and again, over many lessons, but do something different with them each time, is the essential learning model for Units of Sound.


QUESTION 4: Are there assessment tools that assist teachers in identifying individual learning needs?

Accurate monitoring of progress and the ability to adapt to the student’s needs are essential to any good intervention. Units of Sound works alongside the teacher to provide formative data that schools need to make good decisions about the successfulness of interventions:

• Teachers have access to monitoring tools to identify individual learning needs• Teachers have immediate access to up-to-date records to monitor how often and for

how long the student is working• Scores are used to determine learning pathways and the speed of progress through the

program• There are live records on the Student Progress Overview and Student Progress Report• Teachers can adjust the program of study in response to student monitoring at any

time.

Units of Sound provides formative assessments, but can be used in conjunction with schools’ own summative assessments to demonstrate progress as measured in standardised scores.

Units of Sound can be used as a literacy intervention, but does not need to have a reading specialist to deliver the teaching. The specialist teaching of reading and spelling is within the program software and so the tutor is supervising or guiding rather than delivering direct teaching.

Successful and effective delivery of Units of Sound is dependent on tutors completing training on the Practitioner’s Course:

• Designed to be completed in 5-6 hours• Can be done online wherever there is

internet access• Guides and trains tutors in all aspects of

Units of Sound in a logical order• Contains 20 learning modules which

include screen tutors, theoretical information and practical activities to develop your expertise• Provides tutor support from the Units of

Sound team who will monitor progress, and answer queries• There is a final assessment to access the

Units of Sound Practitioner Certificate

• Once the training is complete, tutors are qualified to use Units of Sound with students

When a tutor starts working with students, he or she actively supports students when they are first new to Units of Sound. Once students are settled within the program and working independently, the tutor takes on a monitoring role, with progress review conducted with students in rotation.

The tutor uses Good Practice monitoring sheets to make sure students get maximum benefit from Units of Sound activities. These sheets also assess when students are ready to work on Units of Sound independently outside of the classroom.

There is a dedicated help site which contains comprehensive instructions on how to use all aspects of the program together with audio-visual screen tutors and support materials and documents. Within the program there is a demonstration screen tutor for each new activity for use by students and teachers.

Explore the Practitioner’s Course unitsofsound.com/practitioner-course

QUESTION 3: What staff are required to implement the program effectively and what professional development is needed?


Secondary AcademyHampshire (11-16yrs)

This school has 52 students working on Units of Sound. They are impressed with the program because it is tailored to the needs and ability of each individual student.

Units of Sound is useful because students can focus on the areas they particularly need to work on and at their own speed; students like it because they can work independently and go over things as much as they need to. This school finds that the way the program is separated into three separate levels helps to give the students a sense of progress and also the fact that it is in four skill strands gives the students variety and reinforces learning.

“It’s a great program which allows pupils to work at their own speed and level so you can have pupils of different abilities in the same groups. The pupils are generally positive about the program and they love moving on to the next level.”

SUCCESS STORIESSince 1972 Units of Sound has been helping thousands of students engage in literacy, with a positive impact on both their learning, and level of attainment.

Westminster Drug ProjectLondon (adults)

Since 2014, Units of Sound was used with adults who had problems with literacy due to a variety of life circumstances, including specific learning difficulties, disrupted education and issues around addiction.

Teachers and volunteers working with their clients on Units of Sound were equally impressed with the program and could see an improvement in self-esteem. One support worker said Units of Sound gave reassurance to clients.

“It enhanced self-esteem, confidence and added value.”

“Concentrating on this twice a week helped people maintain abstinence.”

Westminster Drug Project believes that with the right support people can make long-lasting transformations in their lives. After using Units of Sound, one of their service users said:

“It gave me more confidence to apply for jobs. I don’t know if I would have done this without the program.”

Coeducational AcademyEast Sussex (11-16yrs)

This school was looking for a solution to the problem of how to reach students who are already behind when they start secondary school.

It has a number of students who are not meeting targets, a minority of which also have specific learning difficulties. It found Units of Sound to be helpful with students who had dyslexia, but also with students who have gaps in their phonetic knowledge which had not been identified or addressed in primary school. They valued the way in which Units of Sound allowed teenagers to go back to basics and fill in knowledge gaps with privacy. This helped with student self-esteem in two ways: by solving the literacy problem and by maintaining student integrity.

“All the students I have worked with on the program have been closely monitored and regularly tested. The vast majority have increased their standardised score in reading and spelling when using Units of Sound as part of a literacy withdrawal scheme of work. Units of Sound … is a very valuable tool.”


START TODAYUnits of Sound is the cost-effective literacy intervention.

5

25

50

100

USERS

USERS

USERS

USERS

£400 +VATincludes Practitioner’s Course worth £100Averaging £20 per student per year




Visit our website to purchase today.

unitsofsound.com

All licence costs are for a 3 year period, after which you will need to renew.

“Units of Sound is a fantastic resource to support reading and literacy. It works because the programme is tailored to the needs of the individual so they can work at their own pace.”

Oasis Academy, Southampton


GOT A QUESTION?We hope you found this report helpful in highlighting all the ways Units of Sound makes a difference to the lives of learners with low literacy. But should you have any further queries we are always here to talk. Feel free to contact us.

01323 412 [email protected]

unitsofsound.com

CONSIDERATIONS

Hardware and Installation•Windows or Mac – no installation required• Short access checklist to ensure there are no sound download blockages• Flash Player required

Technical Support• Free technical support with no annual maintenance fee

Staffing•Units of Sound can be supported by teachers, teaching assistants or volunteers

Staff Teaching Ratio• The independent computer work enables flexible staff: student ratios• Groups of 4, 6, 8, 10 students to one member of staff are not unusual• Team teaching facilitates 1:1 teaching within a group lesson• The level of literacy needs and the students’ profiles are also considerations,

particularly if you are in a special school

Staff Hours•Units of Sound independent work can be completed away from the teacher•Units of Sound can be set for homework, needing no direct staff supervision

Lesson Preparation and Monitoring•No individual lesson preparation needed• All the support materials needed are built-in and stored within the program•No need for bespoke worksheets to be prepared by staff• Home Access• There is no additional cost for accessing Units of Sound from home

Staff Training• There is an online course, the Practitioner’s Course, to introduce staff to Units of

Sound and to step them through the processes in a logical order• The cost of one place on this course is built-in to the licence fee• The course has 20 modules of around 15 minutes each and so takes a minimum

of 5 hours to complete• Everyone on the course has access to a Units of Sound tutor for extra support as

needed• Additional staff can be trained on the course, with discounts for larger numbers


Early Developmental FactorsStructure: The structure of Units of Sound was developed following analysis of eight widely used reading materials and tests. This meant that progress through the Units of Sound programme would also be reflected as progress in standardised tests.

Vocabulary: The vocabulary for Units of Sound was selected from the Thorndike/Lorge Word Count Index of 30,000 words as a control for vocabulary frequency in the English language.

Readability: Walter considered control of readability to be an essential element of Units of Sound and so relied on the Fry Graph of Readability, which he converted into a numerical table. This formula was used to control the readability in passages.

Overlearning: Programme research gave a clear message of the need for built-in repetition of learning points beyond the initial ‘one-off’ learning task. Units of Sound includes repetitive revision and practice to reinforce the student’s knowledge of the units of sound so far covered in the programme.

Timing: In the audio tape version, each lesson was standardised to last precisely 15 minutes. Within this, the time between words (outside of sentences and passages) was controlled to develop automatic decoding skills. The Dyslexia Institute acquired Units of Sound from Walter Bramley in 1993 and began developing the first computer-based version, which was released in 1995. Since then, Units of Sound has been used extensively in Dyslexia Institute (later renamed Dyslexia Action), school projects and has been adapted to suit mainstream classroom needs.The Online version was launched in 2014-15, again with new design and fully accessible by students anywhere, thus finally breaking down the home – school barrier.

BACKGROUND AND EARLY DEVELOPMENTUnits of Sound was first published in 1972 by Walter Bramley, using audio cassettes and pupil books. Walter had been in Army Education and so his initial target students were young adults. Early trials were conducted by the City of Bath Psychology Service and by the Army Special Education Unit in Corsham, Wiltshire.

DYSLEXIA ACTIONDyslexia Action is a national charity with over 40 years’ experience providing support to children, young people and adults with literacy and numeracy difficulties, dyslexia and other specific learning difficulties.

As a charity we’re passionate about providing the right help and support to individuals, educational establishments and organisations through advice, assessments, teaching, training and consultancy. We also offer teaching materials and tools and undertake research.

Visit Dyslexia Action to see how we help support those with dyslexia.

dyslexiaaction.org.uk

Dyslexia Action is the working name for Dyslexia Institute

Limited. A registered charity in England and Wales.

Charity No. 268502

Company No. 01179975

Scotland: Charity No. SC03177

Registered Office

Dyslexia Action House,

10 High Street, Egham, Surrey TW20 9EA

© Dyslexia Institute Limited 2005-2015

UOS Impact Report - FINAL - Units of SoundThis impact report outlines its main features, including...

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