Friends on the Block
About Our Curriculum
Our Goal
Offer effective, fun, and friendly instructional resources to help ALL students—including those with disabilities—read fluently with comprehension.
Key Differentiators in Friends on the Block
Evidence-Based Instruction
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Explicit, systematic instruction to teach decoding skills and high-frequency irregular words
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Clear and immediate corrective feedback for a positive and productive learning experience
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Ongoing progress monitoring assessments to guide instruction
Supportive Learning Environment
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Predictable routines that promote emotional regulation, encourage positive behavior, and support learning
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Gradual-release scaffolding to foster confidence while encouraging emerging independence
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Engaging social stories with familiar characters and concrete experiences common to most
Fluency and Comprehension
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Highly decodable texts with natural, meaningful sentences and stories
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Fluency building routine that supports fluency, automaticity, and progress monitoring
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Repetition via fun learning games that build automaticity, fluency, and, ultimately, reading comprehension
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Listening and reading comprehension supported through dialogic reading style discussion and graphic organizers
The Friends on the Block program is a student-paced, comprehensive, evidence-based literacy curriculum.
Friends on the Block addresses all areas of reading, including phonemic awareness, letter-sound knowledge, word recognition, fluency, and comprehension. Aligned with the Science of Reading, the program is appropriate for use as initial literacy instruction, as an intervention, and as instruction for students with disabilities.
Students progress at their own pace, moving from level to level as soon as they are ready. Each level includes multiple books and learning games to keep students highly engaged. The lesson cycle has 3 parts: a brief warm-up with modeling and practice, book reading, and learning games to provide fun and intensive practice of target skills. Levels gradually increase in difficulty and include extensive, cumulative, interleaved review.
Scope and Sequence
The Friends on the Block Lesson Cycle
Built on principles from the Science of Reading, Friends on the Block (FOTB) combines evidence-based instruction with innovative design features to support students with intensive literacy needs. The program integrates explicit instruction, meaningful reading practice, and engaging learning games within a flexible instructional framework, all based on data and current research. Ongoing student performance data enable teachers to customize instruction, select appropriate comprehension supports, target key skills for practice, and determine when students are ready to advance to the next level.
1. Warm-Up
5-8 minutes
During the warm-up, students develop critical foundational literacy skills through brief, explicit instruction and guided practice. Taught skills include phonemic awareness, letter-sound knowledge, sounding out words, letter patterns, reading words with inflectional endings, and decoding multisyllabic words. Detailed Teacher Guides provide step-by-step guidance for delivering instruction, providing immediate corrective feedback, and scaffolding.
2. Book Reading
10-15 minutes
During Book Reading, students apply literacy skills in connected text while having discussions about vocabulary, story content, and key concepts. Teachers are provided with flexible discussion questions and prompts that help foster language development and comprehension. Teachers provide explicit comprehension strategy instruction and use graphic organizers to support understanding.
3. Learning Games
5-10 Minutes
Learning Games are an integral part of every FOTB lesson, providing engaging, intensive practice in targeted literacy skills. Teachers select games based on student performance data, ensuring practice is focused on the skills students need most. Detailed game instructions provide step-by-step guidance for effective instruction, including modeling, corrective feedback, and scaffolding.
Check Out Our Research Results!
Across two federally funded randomized controlled trials involving 132 students, those receiving Friends on the Block (FOTB) consistently demonstrated stronger reading outcomes than students receiving business-as-usual instruction. In the first study, FOTB students demonstrated statistically significant advantages over comparison students in word recognition, phonics, reading fluency, comprehension, and other literacy skills in as little as 42 weeks, while the second study replicated the overall pattern of positive findings.
All Friends on the Block studies were conducted with students with intensive needs, including students with intellectual and developmental disabilities, autism spectrum disorder, and learning disabilities.
What Is Friends on the Block?
Watch this video to hear our lead author Dr. Jill Allor answer questions like "What is Friends on the Block?" "Who developed it?" and "Who is it for?"
View more videos like this in our Video Library.
Check out Dr. Allor and Dr. Al Otaiba's chapter in Structured Literacy Interventions!
Watch the book study session:
