Spring 2005 Newsletter
Volume 6, Issue 1
Inside This Issue
- At the Glenwood School for Boys and Girls, Success Happens!
- Free 60-Day Trial
- Frequently Asked Questions: Does Research Substantiate Discover Intensive Phonics Methodology?
- Online Software is an Administrator's Dream!
- New MVP Program
- Upcoming Workshops in Utah
- Like to Know How HEC Reading Horizons Can Help?
- Tell Us About Your Success
- Everybody likes free stuff, right?
- Come visit with us at the following conferences:
At the Glenwood School for Boys and Girls, Success Happens!
Success comes in many shapes, sizes, colors, and genders. At least that’s the experience of Jan Storms, resource director at Glenwood School for Boys and Girls in Glenwood, Illinois. After using Reading Horizons for 20 years, Ms. Storms affirms the positive impact the program has on her population of students, grades 2–8. In July 2003, Jan reported, “We have completed the first four months using the new Reading Horizons software with our second through eighth graders. They are averaging around 86% accuracy on their test scores. The computer-based management system, which assigns review to those needing it, allows students to progress at their own paces.”
Success is contagious, often passed along by word-of-mouth. Before becoming aware of Reading Horizons, Jan used some more traditional curricular methods of phonics instruction: sporadic phonetic principles interspersed throughout the reading material with workbook and run-off drill and practice. But Jan wanted a better organized phonics program in which skill sets built upon one another in a sequenced and organized pattern. “I wanted a more user-friendly, individualized program as part of a broad range of reading experiences,” says Jan. “A friend informed me about the Reading Horizons phonics program. I really liked the idea that students would do most of their work out of their seats and at the chalkboard.”
Success breeds success. Says Ms. Storms, “What I’ve seen after years of using Reading Horizons is teachers have an effective tool for guiding students in the decoding/encoding process, and once students become aware of the decoding rules, they are no longer dependent on sight word recognition. Also, the unique marking system becomes a part of their automatic response to unknown words.”
Success is an exponential equation. According to Jan Storms, the Reading Horizons phonics program complements and integrates well with other reading series and disciplines used at Glenwood. Jan explains how phonetic method and logic help students’ overall problem solving skills: “The clearly defined phonetic logic and rules help students make generalizations about other disciplines, like science and social studies.”
Success with reading at Glenwood School for Boys and Girls is real, and the positive results are occurring in real people. Thanks to Reading Horizons, Jan Storms’ students will continue reading fluently and accurately.
Free 60-Day Trial
If you haven’t already signed up for your FREE 60-day trial of the Reading Horizons or Discover Intensive Phonics software, do it today! All you need is an Internet connection and a willingness to try a phenomenal reading system. Let the product speak for itself. Call 1-800-333-0054 or e-mail us at info@readinghorizons.com to get started.
Frequently Asked Questions: Does Research Substantiate Discover Intensive Phonics Methodology?
Recently a lovely educator shared with me an article written by Pat Wolfe for publication in Educational Leadership. It entertained the interesting idea that some of our current research substantiates the conclusions and practices proposed by educators as far back as the ‘30s, including the work of Madeline Hunter, Alfred Whitehead, John Dewey and Barak Rosenshine, to name a few. She made the point that it is possible that the effective teaching strategies of 20 years ago are still relevant today and that we can now look to current cognitive and neuroscientific research to help us understand why.
Ms. Wolfe noted three important items that I felt had relevance to the teaching of Discover Intensive Phonics.
First, as an example, she used Hunter’s work relating to the importance of an anticipatory set: a way of helping students attend to the relevant data of upcoming instruction. This emphasis on setting the stage for learning fits precisely with research on the attentional mechanisms of the brain. “The only way to get information into the brain is through our senses. At any one moment, our sensory receptors (the eye, the ear, and so on) are simultaneously bombarded with an enormous amount of data. If we were able to pay conscious attention to all this sensory information, we would go mad! To keep us sane, our brain immediately starts sifting and sorting through all the sensory input and gets rid of irrelevant material.” You see, there is no such thing as a student who is not paying attention! Since the brain is always paying attention to something, what we call inattentiveness may just be the student focusing on something other than what the teacher intends.
What relevance does this observation have to Discover Intensive Phonics?
Discover Intensive Phonics involves the students in such a way that they are focused on what they are learning. They are the ones spelling the word. They are the ones proving the sounds. Student attention is involved and directed. The brain is constantly searching through existing neural networks to find a way to make sense of incoming data. The direct instruction technique employed in Discover Intensive Phonics establishes an anticipatory set which increases the possibility that the brain will search through the right networks and attend to the information that is relevant.
Next, Ms. Wolf again referred to Madeline Hunter and a phrase she oftenused: “Practice doesn’t make perfect; it makes permanent.” What an important caution with regard to allowing students to continue making the same mistake over and over again. If we practice something incorrectly, our neurons don’t know the difference and make the permanent connections incorrectly.
While students work with Discover Intensive Phonics at the chalkboard or whiteboard, teachers have the opportunity to observe every student’s work and can offer immediate feedback. Errors are contrasted with corrected work for reinforcement. A student’s spelling, handwriting, decoding and vocabulary are all obvious and observable. Discover Intensive Phonics offers the kind of practice that makes permanent and perfect!
Thirdly, Ms. Wolf emphasized that current research is increasing our understanding of the importance of prior knowledge and the reason it plays such a crucial role. Information, neuroscientific research explains, is not stored in a specific location in the brain. Rather, it is stored in various locations — in the visual, auditory, and motor cortices — and is joined in circuits or networks of neurons. It appears that each time we recall an event or a previous experience, we literally reconstruct it by using the same circuit or circuits we used to store it. Therefore, the more modalities we use to store the information or experience, the more pathways we have available to access it!
Discover Intensive Phonics employs the audio, visual, kinesthetic and tactile modalities in the learning experience. The unique marking system employed throughout the course allows students to construct multiple pathways for remembering important encoding and decoding principles.
I heartily agree that current research is certainly substantiating the conclusions and practices proposed by excellent educators from the past. Through her excellent teaching strategies, Charlotte Lockhart—the author of Discover Intensive Phonics—employed scientific principles that are now coming to light through current neurological research. Research only continues to add more luster to an already illuminating phonics program.
Linda Eversole
Certified Trainer
Online Software is an Administrator's Dream!
Now you can view reports on every student in every class at anytime from anywhere!
Superintendents, curriculum directors, and principals can get instant access to student data all online with the Reading Horizons and Discover Intensive Phonics online management system. View score reports, student progress, and time on task with the click of a button from any computer with an Internet connection.
Administrators also have the flexibility to move student seats between schools from their own computers as needs change. No more trying to wrestle schedules with the busy IT department.
Now is your chance to try this amazing, time saving version of the Reading Horizons and Discover Intensive Phonics software FREE for 60 days. Find out more by calling 1-800-333-0054.
New MVP Program
HEC Reading Horizons is pleased to announce the addition of our Most Valuable Player (MVP) program. We want to recognize and support our users who have had great success with their students using either Reading Horizons or Discover Intensive Phonics. Our MVPs will be highlighted in our newsletters and given the opportunity to share their stories with their local media and those investigating the value of our program.
We want to make sure that each of our MVPs knows how much he or she is appreciated and we wish to express our gratitude to those who have already given so much of their time and energy to share this wonderful program with their peers.
Upcoming Workshops in Utah
If you are interested in registering for a workshop in Utah* you can do so online. Just visit our Web site and choose “Products and Services,” then “Professional Development.” Then select the training and date you’d like to attend.
H410: Two-day workshop
April 14–15, 2005
H420: Teacher Certification—one- day follow-up
May 20, 2005
H440: Instructor Certification
June 16–17, 2005
* To be conducted at our offices
Like to Know How HEC Reading Horizons Can Help?
Log on to www.readinghorizons.com and click on our Online Presentations. Each presentation will cover in detail the Discover Intensive Phonics for Yourself methodology and the problems we can help you solve.
Learn more about how explicit, systematic, and sequential phonics can help you meet the needs of your low-functioning readers on an individual level. Find out how each of the skills is taught and how they will help your students improve not only their reading, but also their fluency, spelling, and comprehension.
Tell Us About Your Success
HEC Reading Horizons is dedicated to making sure you get the recognition you deserve. If you have a success story involving our products and method that you would like to share, e-mail us at info@readinghorizons.com and we will do our best to make sure your story is told, either in our newsletter or in your local media.
Everybody likes free stuff, right?
Login to our Teacher's Lounge at www.readinghorizons.com and you could be on your way to free software, classroom materials, and other cool HEC Reading Horizons products.
The Teacher's Lounge is a place for you to go to find tips and help for implementing Reading Horizons in your classroom setting. Post a question, ask for advice, help another teacher answer his or her question, or send us a referral and you will receive points that can be added up and redeemed for free products.
Additional resources available in the Teacher's Lounge include our Online Tutorial, Free Online Assessment, timeline suggestions for lesson plans, and registration for our Professional Development training courses.
Log on to www.readinghorizons.com today!
Come visit with us at the following conferences:
LDA Conference
March 4, 2005
Reno, NV
IACEA
March 9-11, 2005
Springfield, IL
UREAD IDA
March 18-19, 2005
Salt Lake City, UT
TESOL
March 30-April 2, 2005
San Antonio, TX
OSPI
March 31, 2005
Yakima, WA
Family Literacy
Louisville, KY
April 27, 2005
CALICO
May 20, 2005
East Lansing, MI
