Phonics! Let's Read and Write

Ability Level-Grades K-3 • Interest Level-Grades K-8
Struggling readers, in my district, get held back at the second grade level for Reading Recovery. What if, we "recovered" these readers before they had to repeat a grade. I know that my son had to repeat second grade because of a failure to learn to read. Which, I might add did not truly happen until the end of fourth grade. I have seen other kids with a disability respond the same way. I pushed and pushed to get an IEP for him but that did not happen until the last month of third grade. This was after being in second grade twice. One of the major issues we had was his reaction to his spelling tests. Every week the teacher would tell me how he "melted down" and I had to deal with the crying the rest of the day. I begged her to just stop telling him how he did. It did not matter if he missed 9/10 or 1/10 (and generally it was many errors) he still reacted the same way. What if, the school had found out about WordMaker, follow the link and check it out. This piece of technology used in classrooms today would definitely help those struggling or not. It has many excellent features, like following the class plan so the students being pulled out for help will not fall further behind. There are set-ups for your regular education class, resource room class, or the self-contained class. When my son could not learn to read he could not learn to spell. This spelling and decoding software has the advantage of individualized instruction and corrective feedback that many teachers do not have time for on a one-to-one basis. The "techy" design of the program allows for its use with the older students as well. In our district, we have spent large amount of money to help the high school student who still has very low reading levels. Encourage your school district to spend a little on software like WordMaker and we may not still be trying to recover teenagers who lacked the access to the technology we have access to today.