Reading First is a national initiative developed under the No Child Left Behind (NCLB) Act to enable all students to become successful readers. Reading First provides grants to states for early reading programs that are grounded in scientifically-based research.
Reading First supports programs that systematically and explicitly teach the following five dimensions of reading identified as critical to early reading success, according to the National Reading Panel 2000(NRP):
- Phonemic awareness: the ability to hear, identify and manipulate individual sounds(phonemes) in spoken words
- Phonics: the relationship between the letters of written language and the sounds of spoken language
- Fluency: the capacity to read text accurately and quickly
- Vocabulary: the words students must know to communicate effectively
- Comprehension: the ability to understand and gain meaning from what has been read
Concepts are introduced by four emulated teachers who interact with the learner to provide immediate specific feedback, offering limitless patience and encouragement in English or Spanish. This program is based on phonics, phonemic awareness, grammar and reading comprehension using a supplemental learning technique called Read Like You Talk™ to improve reading fluency. My Reading Coach Platinum guarantees to teach students to read in 50 hours or less, narrowing the gap in reading abilities within the classroom and enabling schools to meet state requirements.
- Phonemic Awareness – My Reading Coach includes 61 phonemic awareness lessons that provide explicit instruction in letter formation and blending phonemes with letters to help students decode. It also teaches phonemic segmentation with letters to help students spell.
- Phonics – The early phonetic-based lessons emphasize phonemic awareness and then transition to systematic phonics instruction through repetition of letter and sound patterns. In addition to the alphabetic system, My Reading Coach addresses: short and long vowel sounds, blends, consonant/vowel digraphs, sight words, high-frequency words, spelling rules, prefixes, suffixes and decoding of multi-syllable words.
- Fluency – Fluency must be taught. My Reading Coach explicitly teaches the fluency techniques of Read Like You Talk™ including inflection and Pause Points and then provides students with numerous practice activities.
- Vocabulary – My Reading Coach teaches vocabulary by using a combination of methods: explicit instruction, indirect acquisition through sentence and story reading, and decoding instruction. Multi-sensory instructional methods are used for vocabulary development building vocabulary skills at a high-interest level.
- Text Comprehension - My Reading Coach uses a combination of specific cognitive strategies such as comprehension monitoring, graphic organizers, question answering summarization and story structure. The program models proper application as it teaches these strategies. It encourages students to become active participants in the learning process.
The bulk of the Reading First funds are used to meet students’ instructional needs. Funding is targeted to districts and schools with the highest percentage of K-3 students reading below grade level and schools with large numbers of low income students. Reading First is designed to help the students who need it most. My Reading Coach alligns with Reading First to provide:
- Accountability - embedded within the My Reading Coach program
- Assessment Testing - initial placement and 4 review tests are included
- 85 Interactive Lessons - includes 61 Phonics/24 Grammar with 200 Comprehension Stories
- Automatic Advance Feature - ensures students focus only on the lessons they need and moves them through the program at their own pace
- Teacher Tools - includes both student and class reports as well as certificates and blackline masters to monitor student progress
- Student Accountability - ensures students ownership of their program lessons: video controls, voice recordings, performance grids, activity reassignments, performance checking and review tests
- Scientific Research - supports My Reading Coach results
Numerous research studies, case studies, pilot sites and independent evaluations all prove that My Reading Coach produces dramatic results in the classroom. Scientifically-based research has proven that My Reading Coach produces significant gains in reading among all struggling readers, regardless of whether they are mainstream, Special Education or ELL students. This program is currently being used in traditional and alternative educational sites to quickly improve the reading skills of students in elementary, middle and high school. My Reading Coach is correlated to state standards. |