A Language Arts Program that Delivers what it Promises!
Recently a father of one of my students I tutor from home said, “I’ve been watching you teach my son this fall. Your reading program is not just the best program for my son because he has dyslexia; it IS THE BEST READING PROGRAM FOR ALL CHILDREN! It just makes sense!
It does make sense: it teaches them the way they learn and it works!
His comment made me start thinking about programs I had used while teaching in public education.
Have you ever thought about just how much money a school district, a charter school, a homeschooling parent pays for their language arts program per year? It can reach millions of dollars!
Several times during my public school teaching career I was on textbook selection committees. Each committee was composed of dedicated, caring teachers with combined years of experience reaching in the hundreds.
All of us had hopes of finding a reading, writing and spelling program that would meet the needs of all of our students and guide each and every one of them to excel in their learning of language arts.
We attended curriculum workshops, piloted several programs, attended grade level meetings, and wrote critiques of each program.
In the end, after choosing what we felt was the best curriculum available, we dreamed of guiding and teaching every one of our students to reach their full potential in reading, writing and spelling every school year.
When the new program arrived, we meticulously studied it and then thoughtfully and thoroughly prepared lesson plans and materials.
We diligently used the program to teach the children in our regular education classrooms, reading specialist classrooms, ELL/ESL classrooms, Title 1 classrooms, special education classrooms, profoundly disabled classrooms, and speech and language classrooms.
We had children with no learning differences, children learning English, children with learning differences such as ADD, ADHD, dyslexia, autism, Down syndrome, dyspraxia, central auditory processing disorder, hearing and visual differences and more. We had children needing speech and language support, children needing emotional support, children with poor attendance, children routinely missing class to receive medication, children needing help feeding and dressing themselves, children needing occupational therapy—you name it; we had it all.
What was the cumulative result of all of our best-intentioned efforts put forth to choose the “best” curriculum for all our students?
At the end of a school year, on average 25% of our students were above grade level, 50% of our students were at grade level, and 25% of our students were below grade level. This was basically the same results we had been having for decades with whatever language arts program we used! It was disheartening, to say the least.
But now, we don’t have to be disheartened!
Today educators can teach children the way they learn using Phonetic Reading with Silent Elephant “e”, A Phonetic Reading Program for ALL Learners of Any Age Particularly Dyslexic or Struggling Readers! They can relax and trust that every child will learn to read, write and spell.
The proof is here—as I shared in the last Data - Yay For Data blog post! I’m proud of my data. It’s not disheartening.
Back to that father who observed his son beginning to learn to read. When his young 4th grade son began tutoring with me, he had completed 4 years of Montessori school. He told me, “My favorite word is the word “the” because I know I can read it right every time!”
He did not know all the names of the upper and lower case letters, and he did not know all of the sound of the letters. He was frustrated reading at a pre-primer reading level!
After 4 months, he has just finished Part 5 in Phonetic Reading with Silent Elephant “e” and is fluently reading and comprehending sentences with affixed short vowel words, consonant digraphs, and beginning and ending consonant blends. This profoundly dyslexic young boy is currently reading at a 3rd grade reading level! He jumped 4 grades levels in 4 months.
His pride and happiness radiate from every part of him as he confidently reads! He is seeing his future very differently than he was 4 months ago.
I am so proud of every one of my students. It is so rewarding to be a part of their success, to watch them begin to see themselves differently, begin to see themselves as a success.
If you are questioning whether Silent Elephant “e” is the comprehensive reading, writing and spelling program you’d like to look into, feel free to contact us. We have answers for your concerns.
