Tuesday, November 25, 2008

Reading Strategies being used in Kansas Schools

The past couple of summers, I have had the opportunity to work at Smoky Hill Education Service Center (SHESC) in Salina, Kansas. While working there I have been introduced to two different Reading programs that have become very popular around Kansas and the United States. One program is called Fast ForWord. It is a computer simulation that retrains the brain how to read and comprehend what has been read. I can say first-hand that this program works. During my time working at SHESC, I spent time coaching students of different ages and learning styles. My most successful story was an Autistic boy that was going into 7th grade when I first started working with him. When starting, he could not comprehend information that he read to save his life. After working with him on this program for the past three summers, he is now reading at his grade level and comprehends what he read with great detail. Not only have I seen an indescribable change in him but I have seen one in myself as well. I was “diagnosed” with a reading comprehension problem in the 5th grade and did not know what to do. My parents tried every strategy they could to get me to read better and comprehend faster. Nothing seemed to work, until my father found out about Fast ForWord and made me go through it. I was not successful at first but then when I got the job at SHESC and was forced to become familiar with the program, I was blown away at how well it works. In order to get the full picture, you must go to the website and check it out. It is sweeping the nation and I am sure you will be in a school someday that will have it (at least that is my dad’s goal). Anyway, the website is:

www.scilearn.com

I encourage everyone to look at what this program can do for your students and urge your school to get it implemented into the school. It is not only successful for special education students but gifted and in-between as well. If you would like even more information about it, reply to my blog and I will give you as much information as I can. If I can’t answer your questions, then I will connect you with someone who can.

Another program I have gotten the opportunity to work with at SHESC is Achieve 3000. I am not as familiar with this program as I am with Fast ForWord but I know it works. Students will be successful readers and will want to read for fun after going through this program. Their newfound love for reading will take them far in life. To get more information about Achieve 3000 go to:

www.achieve3000.com

Take some time to look around and get familiar with the program because this is a fast growing thing that is spreading the nation and is one of the best things to come to education. That is a blessing in this day in age when education is set on the backburner. I hope you enjoy looking at these websites and if you have any questions/comments/concerns just let me know and I will do my best to get you the information you want.

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