A second grader with severe disabilities from shaken baby syndrome. He was successful with Accelerated Reader in kindergarten and first grade because the program let the youngest students listen to the stories and questions and he had a good memory but in second grade the students had to read independently. He went from being top AR reader in first to not earning a single point in second grade. His adoptive mom wanted him to stay in gen ed and have 100% inclusion but he was so frustrated and acting out aggressively by the end of Oct that mom relented and let me schedule one hour of reading in the resource room. By March, in the monthly AR celebration he had earned the most AR points of all students K-5th grade.
Severe and Profound Disabilities secondary age class- GROUP! Direct instruction- 90 minutes per day- 10 students. Of the 10, four were learning to read at a very primer level, the other six were learning other valuable skills such as waiting turns, being encouraging to others, for one student who was quiet as a mouse all the time we worked on making a big sound when it was his turn because someday his safety might depend on being heard. One boy, very big and very physical, who was ID and ASD learned to clap and cheer for others and not be the center of attention every second. A girl ( one of the successful emergent readers )was elective mute and she began selectively talking at school and at home.
ESL 10th grader NV 2015 tested on MAPS to be reading at the 4th percentile in September- He did Elevate on line with no other instruction- He finished the course and actually hacked into another student’s account and did her course. She didn’t start her resource class until Jan. and I found her course was completed – only He was working alone in the library. I set the student passwords to be initials it wasn’t hard to figure it out. His December Reading MAPS was 40th percentile.
8th grader tested on STAR Reading to be at the 5th grade equivalency which matched level of performance in his current IEP. He has ADHD, Conduct Disorder and PTSD- His latest STAR Reading grade equivalency was greater than 10th grade equivalency. No direct instruction, Elevate alone.
***The review found on this page references the elementary reading curriculum by Reading Horizons. The company also creates and distributes other reading curriculum products including a reading intervention program for grades 4+, and an ELL reading program for non-native English speakers.***
Grade Level:
Elementary