Readign programs

I use a combionation of a classic phonics series that is thorough and not too childish, handwriting and directionality re-training, and oral reading from any good youth novel that is in the student’s zone of instructional/difficult level. Those whose reading is below the level of the easiest novels do short stories from old developmentally-designed readers. By choosing reading with the student, I can usually get a high level of interest.

Terese,

In your situation, a couple of things come to mind. The SRA Corrective Reading Program is one that is designed for older kids and is research-based. I bought all the manuals on ebay since they are very expensive new. The pretests are found on the SRA site. You have to be able to group your kids, but it can be used with groups. SRA does provide free or very low cost trainings for this program regionally in the summers. And there are other sources of training as well (including video) if you are interested.

http://www.sraonline.com/index.php/home/curriculumsolutions/di/correctivereading/102

The other good choice for kids reading at a 2.5 grade level or above is REWARDS by Sopris West.

http://www.rewardsreading.com/

Both of these programs are direct instruction and are scripted for the teacher.

Janis

Language! that Sopris West publishes is also a very good DI program. It is more involved than Corrective Reading but also covers a lot more depth and breadth of the reading process. I’ve had some training in both; CR focuses very much on decoding and fluency - if that’s the crux of the issue then it may be the way to go. Language! includes writing and just lots of other building-of-language (I haven’t put it to practice; it doesn’t meet my current needs, but I have used CR before Language! existed).
Both of these programs are structured, systematic, DI and research based… and scripted. CR is a little more of an adjustment (helps to think of conductor and orchestra).

If they read on a beginning 2nd grade level or better, I would use Intermediate Rewards from Sopris West. This program consists of 40 lessons that work on word attack skills and fluency. It is designed for classroom use and can be used entirely scripted (scripting provided in the teacher’s manual).

If they read on a beginning 4th grade level or better, I would use the original Rewards program from Sopris West. This version consists of 20 lessons. The vocabulary words used in this program are much more advanced than in Intermediate. (I prefer this program because of the layout — makes using the scripting option extremely easy. Their subsequently-issued programs, including Intermediate, use a different format because many teachers preferred not to use scripting.)

Both programs are available at http://www.rewardsreading.com . I strongly recommend calling the company to order rather than trying to use the website which, last time I looked, was very bad for online ordering. I don’t know if there is a video available for Intermediate, but the original Rewards video is very helpful for classroom teachers in terms of understanding how to pace the lesson and how to use hand signals to make sure all students have enough time to process answers.

Nancy

I just wanted to clarify that there is complete scripting in the REWARDS Intermediate teacher guide, though. But there is also a box with narrative directions for each lesson as well.

Janis

I used REWARDS last year with my 7th and 8th graders, and this year I have started SRA Corrective Reading with them (the current 8th graders). I am seeing much more success with the SRA after ony 10 lessons-I’m very impressed so far. The kids seem to like it much better as well, which is half the battle.

What do they like better about it? (Curious…)

Right now they like the stories better. The second story in Level B of Corrective Reading is all about a high school baseball player, and the story continues over the span of about 10 lessons. They really do look forward to the next lesson to find out what happens next. I also think that once they got the idea of the scriptedness and the signalling, it became a little easier for them. They enjoy working with partners for the reading checkouts-anything that will motivate them to read is fine by me.

I was skeptical when I started the program-I swear by Wilson Reading and I found it hard to believe that these kids would learn just by being told what words say during the word attack exercises instead of learning the rules and rationalizations that are taught in Wilson. However, two months into the SRA and I am seeing an improvement in their reading, finally!

Ah yes, Art the amazing loser baseball player. Whoever wrote this did a very good job with this story in taking a misfit type kid (some of ours) and making him a hero*. I am a bit skeptical how telling kids the words will help. But I think for some kids Wilson (or anything OG) is not that great. I wouldn’t want to SRA for some kids either though.

I have seen kids that are in their third go around in one book though, so I know that it just doesn’t work that well for some kids. OTOH, I am comparing private practice with a group.

* OTOH, I am less impressed with Book C. The first no. of stories is about sailors, etc. The kids just don’t get these, the terms, etc.

—des

Yes, one of my students said “I bet this is a true story!” They really got into Art… and all kinds of neat little character lessons, too. The C stories are more like the ones I associate with SRA - the kinds of things about topics so arcane that *nobody* has background knowledge in them already. Fascinating for word nerds and trivia buffs… but not exactly grabbing for regular folks :-)
I think the saying & doing part works the same way Reading Reflex does - it goes to that language-processing part of the brain that doesn’t necessarily need rules. However, if your LD means that that language-processing part of the brain doesn’t behave, then it’s not going to help but so much.

(not on my bike ‘cause it’s SNOWING SNOWING SNOWING :-) :-))

Oh Drat-I’m not liking what I’m hearing about Level C! And just when I thought I’d found a nice program! Well, we might just have to try to muddle through it if we make it that far. After this year, I won’t have these students anymore.

Laurie

Oh, it’s not bad… but the stories just aren’t as engaging. On the other hand, they tend to have more information stuffed into them (if I remember right, there’s one about the life span of a sequoia - I’d probably want to show some pictures to inspire them before we read it).

I am using B1 and like it a lot so far. Some of the stories have been pretty funny…like the tramp! I am using it with a fifth grader. The word practice at the beginning has been great for him. I’ll be interested to test him in the spring and see the results.

Janis