"Love to Read!"
 |
This article was written by
Tracy Locher, a Speech-Language Pathologist and teacher in a special
education classroom for students in kindergarten through sixth grade.
The students in her classroom have learning impairments, language impairments,
and varying medical and orthopedic challenges.
This is a conversation among my students prior to lunch. They had just
finished using The Sentence Master by Laureate Learning Systems.
“I’m on Story 2, Level 3.”
“That’s great!”
“I’m on Story 5, Level 4.”
“I can spell bus, b-u-s.”
“That’s right!”
“I’m on Level 2.”
“I’m reading after lunch.”
“I hope I get to read again this afternoon.”
Last November, I began to use The Sentence Master with 10 students. I
immediately saw a change in my students’ attitude toward reading.
They were visually reinforced for correct responses. Both struggling
readers and non-readers began to see progress. Students began to set
goals for completion of a lesson or story. They were participating
in reading instruction for longer periods of time. The students in
my class became excited about reading.
Shane was a ten year-old non-reader. He had been struggling with reading
programs for five years. He was unable to consistently identify letters,
sounds, or words. Reading was not his favorite time of the day. He was
eager to try the new Sentence Master program as it was computer-based
and, within a week, he was hooked on reading.
Within one month, Shane had completed the first story and was becoming consistent with content and non-content words. He was recognizing words and consistently starting on the left side of the page for reading.
Within one month, Shane had completed the first story and was becoming consistent with content and non-content words. He was recognizing words and consistently starting on the left side of the page for reading. His letter recognition and spelling improved with the spelling component of the program. He was even spelling several words. Almost immediately, Shane began looking for the words that he recognized in a variety of printed materials in his environment and began to demonstrate the use of contextual cues to figure out unknown words.
Shane is willing to work on his reading skills 60-90 minutes every day. He creates homework for himself - writing sentences using his sight words. At this time, Shane has been using The Sentence Master program for nine months. His sight word vocabulary increases daily. He is now making progress in other reading programs. He loves going to the library and choosing books to read. He proudly states that he can read to his younger brother.
The Sentence Master is now consistently used with students in my classroom. Staff, students, and parents have seen the tremendous progress made in the past school year with this addition to our reading program. Students enter the classroom in the morning and want to know when they will have their turn reading. The best testimonial of all came from a student who approached a visitor to the classroom and asked if he wanted to hear her read. When finished, she told him, “I love to read.”
Tracy Locher, M.S. (CCC-SLP)
Catamount Elementary School
Bennington, Vermont