Do you want to improve your ability to read and think about what you are reading? Allow me then to introduce to you a program my son has been using for the past while by MaxScholar. Thiey have a Reading Intervention program to encourage students to learn to read better and understand what they read. Let me tell you about the Reading Intervention Programs that we reviewed for them.
What Is MaxScholar?
MaxScholar a bundle of programs designed to foster comprehension in reading, as well provide support in phonics. It is a comprehensive and multi-sensory approach (audio-visual is a big part of it). They use research-based methods to help their students improve their skills in reading. Research-based methods include orton-gillingham and lindamood bell.
What you get:
A 12 month, on-line subscription that has three basic parts: MaxPhonics, MaxWords and MaxReading.
They also have four subsections. These sections are ways of organizing the other material in an easy to find manner. For instance, my lad liked learning about different people in the MaxReading section, so I encouraged him to read more the bios section and he loved it! All these real people to learn about, he thought that was just fantastic. This was his favourite part of the reading program.
How We Used It:
At the start of the program we worked our way through the various tests. I admittedly didn’t understand the point of them as at the end, it still had my son at the Pre-K level for phonics. So I dropped the phonics portion for him completely. This allowed him to work through the MaxWords and MaxReading. We quickly discovered that he knows more vocabulary and could come up with words on his own, and understood the language rules fairly easy though he has a horrid time remembering them. But during the lessons he had them nailed. He found the wait time in reading a tad too long for his taste so for a few lessons I asked him to find other words that fit that pattern during the minute reading time. Good challenge for him.
Therefore our sole focus became MaxReading. After the first couple of stories where I saw my confident son’s confidence plummet due to the marking in the program, I chose to sit down with him to discuss what was going on. We worked through a couple of articles together and I showed him that even I couldn’t get perfect mark. We talked about how programs are set up in different ways and not every program works in a way that makes sense to us. At the end of it I said “as long as you are understanding the passage what mark you get doesn’t matter.” He decided he liked the stories well enough that he wanted to keep reading them so off he went.
Son’s Thoughts:
“I wish they taught people how to highlight important details” and “Why do they say that everything is important? It makes it too easy to just cheat”. “I liked the stories, they were interesting. Do you think they can do some stories from Canada?” “They should do more stories from people all over the world mom, but especially from Canada too.”
My Thoughts:
I listened to a lot of angst from my lad with this program. I strongly disliked watching his confidence plummet, especially it seemed like something missed in the program. It did give us a good talking point about learning to work with the quirks of a program. I understood his frustration as I was able to replicate it trying to do a lesson on my own, finding myself struggling to pull off 50%. In the end my lad learned what parts of the program worked for him, but the struggle remained for him, colouring his perception. The bios section remains a hit and he intends to finish that section off as he’s enjoying it, WOOT WOOT!
I do need to mention that perhaps part of it was my hands off approach and maybe this program needs more of a hands-on approach. The fact that we have a lot going on in our lives right now … son’s surgery, hubby’s new job, settling the purchase of a house and all that goes with living in community just added to that mix. It is a program built with students with learning disabilities in mind, great for children with dsylexia and more. My son is used to being independent with his schoolwork and most programs, once I have him set up, he just flies with it, merely checking in with me weekly. I do know that he loves the bios. That was a good fit for him.
MaxScholar
Reading Intervention Programs
Online subscription, 12 months
Reading, dyslexia, intervention, ortongillingham,
For individual pricing, attend this link.
Other Reviews:
55 other members of the crew reviewed Reading Intervention Programs by MaxScholar. I urge you to check out their experiences.
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The Critical Thinking Co.™
Isn’t that a great segway into StickerWorld Museum? 🙂 
