FAQS regarding Sonday Instruction

1. What exactly is “Sonday”?Sonday System is a research-based, multi-sensory, reading program that focuses on the explicit teaching of phonics, phonemic awareness, fluency, vocabulary and comprehension. This structured, systematic reading intervention is based upon the Orton-Gillingham method, and is delivered in a small group setting.

2. How is the Sonday program being implemented in Pequannock elementary schools? What data was used to determine the students who were recommended for Sonday instruction?All of our elementary faculty members have been trained in the Sonday program and the skills and strategies that are used. Teachers will use these strategies and skills during the ELA instructional block, as needed. All elementary students have taken assessments in the Sonday program to determine if they are decoding at grade level. Based upon these results, students in need of additional skills and support in the areas of phonics, phonemic awareness, fluency, and/or vocabulary instruction, have been enrolled in the additional pull-out program. For students attending this pull-out program, the Sonday System will provide systematic, multisensory instruction required to fill specific individual needs in order to help all of our students experience success. Students attend their entire ELA block and attend this additional support during other flexible times.

3. Will the program be used daily in the Resource Room? English Language Arts Instruction in the Resource Room follows our standards-based elementary reading curricula which is designed to meet specific objectives that align to the New Jersey Student Learning Standards. This includes many reading skills that are beyond the Sonday Program objectives such as summarizing, comparing/contrasting, identifying point of view, making inferences, extracting and using supportive text evidence, identifying themes and main ideas, vocabulary and text structure. Sonday skills and strategies will be utilized however, the systematic instruction will be provided during the Sonday pull-out time.

4. Why isn’t Sonday being implemented during the Language Arts block? Students will continue to receive the regular ELA instruction following the approved curriculum. For students in grades K-2 their whole-class instruction includes Fundations, which is also a multisensory, structured language program. The support students receive in Sonday pull-out serves as an additional measure to help meet the specific needs of our students. *Please see the district website for additional information about the Sonday System.

5. What is the communication between classroom teacher and support specialist?Support specialists communicate with classroom teachers to make sure that students are making progress towards goals. If you have any specific concerns or questions, first reach out to your student’s teacher.

6. What will be given to parents for progress reporting?Parents will be given progress reporting in February and June. If parents have specific questions regarding their student’s progress, they are encouraged to reach out to their student’s teacher.

7. Can we have copies of the tests?Unfortunately, we cannot provide copies of the tests, as these are confidential. Remember, the assessments we are using are provided through the program, in order to monitor student progress in achieving mastery of the learning goals. The tests are not ones that a student can “study for” because the Sonday System is measuring the transfer of skill. In other words, does the student understand the concept enough to be able to use it in a new way? For this reason, sometimes “nonsense” words are used to determine if the student really can transfer individual sounds to words or if the student has memorized the spelling of a particular word but cannot transfer that knowledge and apply it is a new situation.

If you have further questions, please contact Carrie A. Thomas at carrie.thomas@pequannock.org or Nina Pearsall at nina.pearsall@pequannock.org