“MEville to WEville with SBS is sole source and not available through distributors” 

Start-to-Finish Literacy Starters

Research Proven Multi-Year Literacy Curriculum

The MEville to WEville™ with Literacy Starters Program originated based on the belief that students with significant disabilities can, and deserve the opportunity to, develop generalizable literacy skills that can be applied in novel contexts, on assessments, and in every day life. The curriculum provides the type of scaffolding necessary for students to achieve this goal.

MEville to WEville with Literacy Starters Program is a research proven multi-year literacy curriculum for beginning readers with significant disabilities in grades k-5. This curriculum helps teachers accelerate student outcomes by building generalizable literacy skills.

Key Features:

• Provides age-appropriate lessons for older students
• Helps develop additional generalizable literacy skills
• Literacy lessons in: word ID, comprehension, writing, and application

• Utilizes the unique literacy of start to finish E-T-C books
(Enrichment, Transitional, Conventional)

Three Organizations Leading Change

The MEville to WEville with Literacy Starters Program was conceived by Dr. Karen Erickson, AbleNet, Inc., and Don Johnston, Inc. The partnership brings together the power of MEville to WEville with AbleNet's scientifically-supported early literacy and communication curriculum and extended MEville to WEville lessons that leverage the strength of Don Johnston's research-based Start-to-Finish® Literacy Starters content – all combined with the research expertise of Dr. Karen Erickson.

"Roughly 90% of students with multiple disabilities never learn to read above the 2nd grade level (Koppenhaver & Yoder, 1992). The fact is that too many students with disabilities get 'stuck' at the emergent literacy level. This means that they may listen to text for enjoyment, gain information from listening, and participate actively in reading activities, but they are not able to independently read new text that is presented to them. This clearly limits students' ability to be competitive in school and to gain information independently."

"Most popular approaches for leveling early literacy materials contain steps too large to show progress for students with significant disabilities."

- Erickson, K., Musselwhite, C. R., & Ziolkowski, R., (2002) Beginning Literacy Framework
 

Curriculum Details

MEville to WEville

Grades K-5 – Three Units: Me, My Family, My School

Each of the units includes:
• 300-page spiral bound manual in full color
• 75 lessons and 60 extension activities that focus on:
- Reading activities
- Vocabulary and word wall activities
- Writing activities
- Creating books
- Art projects
- Games
- Brainstorming
- Relationship building
• Action Dictionary
• Assistive Technology Guide
• One literature book that supports the theme and content of the lesson
• Activity reproducibles 
• Data collection tools for collecting and sharing student progress

MEville to WEville Extended with Literacy Starters Program

Older Students

The additional 3 units provide 135 lessons including:
• One set of Start-to-Finish Literacy Starters
• 3 Paperback books
• 3 Computer books on CD
• 3 Vocabulary cards
• 45 Lessons mapped to the included Start-to-Finish content
 

Research Results

The concept of blending MEville to WEville's additional lessons with Start-to-Finish Literacy Starters began as a cooperative research initiative supported by a U.S. Department of Education Steppingstones of Technology Innovation grant. This study was one of the largest literacy studies ever conducted with students with significant disabilities. The project was managed under the direction of Dr. Karen Erickson, from the Center for Literacy and Disability Studies at the University of North Carolina-Chapel Hill. The outcomes are truly remarkable.

More than 100 students between the ages 8 to 21, all with moderate to severe/profound intellectual impairments, participated in the research of MEville to WEville with Literacy Starters Program study, including 22 students with autism and 15 students with multiple disabilities. Dr. Erickson's research showed that integrating MEville to Weville with the extended lessons and Start-to-Finish Literacy Starters had a significant positive impact of the literacy outcomes of the students. And most importantly, the test results showed that students were able to generalize their skills!

Complete results of the MEville to WEville with Literacy Starters Program study

The research phase of MEville to WEville with Literacy Starters Program occurred during the spring of 2007 and employed a researcher-designed pretest/posttest (r = .83-.87) administered individually to each participant by members of the research team. In addition, classroom observations and teacher interviews occurred before, during, and after the intervention. The study included 109 students ages 8-21 years from 20 classrooms in two self-contained special education schools. All student participants had moderate to profound intellectual impairments, including 22 participants with the label of autism and 15 students with multiple disabilities. Teachers were assigned to one of three intervention groups and given a sequence of 40 lessons to implement with accompanying materials. The three groups were:

Group 1 – MEville to WEville (n=21)
Group 2 – Extending Lessons with Start-to-Finish Literacy Starters (n=68)
Group 3 – Combination of MEville to Weville, the Extending Lessons, and Start-to-Finish Literacy Starters (n=16).

Analysis of the pre- and post-tests administered to the students revealed that each of the three groups made significant gains following the intervention. Cohen's d was calculated to determine effect sizes for each of the three interventions with the following results: (a) Group 1, d=.23; (b) Group 2, d=.22; and (c) Group 3, d=.44.

Extending MEville to WEville Research Results