I just wanted to post to tell about success I have had with one of my students. I posted a while back that I was going to use Audiblox in my regular classroom of 5th graders. We have been spending 30min/day on this program. I started the first week in September. I had one student who was new to the school this year and had great difficulty reading, spelling, writing, and doing math. He has trouble even writing on the line. He read about at an early 2nd grade level. This past week he volunteered to read in front of the class. He did a very good job and only mixed up 2 words in the 3 sentences he read. This was from our 5th grade English textbook. He was so pleased. One of the other students in the class stated aloud that “D is reading better.” He seems to be picking up words very rapidly now. He is so pleased and his confidence level has increased so much. I have not noticed any improvements in his writing, spelling, or math. I know we are early in the program, so we will just continue to do as it is set up.
This past week I was asked to fill out an evaluation for the area’s curriculum that was just written. We already have a curriculum written for each subject at the school level, and the state has guidelines for each subject too. Federal money was used for the writing of this curriculum in this area. It was a use it, or lose it grant. What a waste of money!!! We are not producing better readers or mathematicians than there were 50 years ago. More curriculum guidelines is not going to help. Money needs to be spent on programs that help kids develop skills that they need so they can learn such as the Audiblox program. Simply shoving info down kids’ throats earlier and earlier in their lives is not working either. When will some of these necessary foundational skills be addressed?