A single Wilson lesson is organized into three blocks. The first block focuses on decoding (reading), the second block focuses on encoding (spelling), and the third block gives students a chance to put their skills to use through reading fluency and comprehension activities. Regretfully, most tutors run out of time before they can get to that third block. As a tutor, I was guilty of this myself more often than not. The inability to spend time on that crucial block of the lesson leaves students missing out on some of the most important opportunities to employ their growing skills.

For ten years, I tried a plethora of methods to improve the frequency of getting through Block 3, to little avail. I was convinced that Wilson students needed to have three class sessions per week, with the third session focused entirely on Block 3. But so many of our students couldn’t attend three sessions per week (and we don’t exactly have the capacity to serve them three times a week), so I was stuck.

Then I started seeing a theme in student survey responses. To the question of what else they might like included in their lessons, many of our students indicated a desire for more opportunities to actually read stuff and for more variety in their lessons. These responses came from all ABE learners, not just Wilson students, and this was the catalyst I needed to finally develop this project and set it in motion. That’s when it occurred to me: Students don’t need three lessons per week, they can do a Block 3 lesson every third session. Pre-Secondary Education students could benefit from this, too, so we will adapt the lesson plan for them as well.