DISCLAIMER: I RECEIVED A FREE COPY OF THIS PRODUCT THROUGH THE HOMESCHOOL REVIEW CREW IN EXCHANGE FOR MY HONEST REVIEW. I WAS NOT REQUIRED TO WRITE A POSITIVE REVIEW NOR WAS I COMPENSATED IN ANY OTHER WAY.
MaxScholar, using the MaxScholar Orton-Gillingham Software, is a complete reading program, helping YOUR students read and write better. A reading intervention, that also includes phonics, reading comprehension, and spelling words. This multi-media, online program provides encouragement to your student in the way of games and other interactive elements. Come see what I am talking about won’t you?
What I am Reviewing
MaxScholar is a reading and phonics program that will help students learn how words are put together, letter sounds, and how to read a story or essay. They use a systemic approach starting with Kindergarten level and working their way up.
When you start the program you need to take a test to help place you at the appropriate level. I had my son take the test to see where a typical ninth-grade student would place, and that was level seven. My review will be based upon what he would see.
Teacher Dashboard
Parent/Teacher and Student each have their own login and password. The teacher dashboard looks like this. From it you can look at your class/students, see their reports, check out the scope and sequence and much more.
In the teacher dashboard everything is readily at your fingertips.
You can monitor student progress. Also you can pull up class reports, reading reports or phonics reports. You can also look specifically at a particular student.
It takes a bit of time to set multiple students, but it’s not onerous. If you change something and don’t like it, you can go back and change it again.
Read through the scope and sequence for each section. This way you can see what is coming next and be able to help your student where needed.
Make backend changes to the student’s workload, like removing the need to highlight text, getting rid of all kindergarten material (like practicing letters), and remove access to games if needful. This is where you fine-tune the program to meet the individual needs of your students.
Student Dashboard
Students have a dashboard of their own. They can choose where they want to start. If they start with three main areas, they will find it helps with the games they can play.
With MaxWords: helping you build words from roots, prefixes, suffixes, and spelling rules. Delve into the Latin and Greek roots.
Then MaxPhonics: four sections helping you understand the sounds of the English language. PreK, Alphabet, Blends and Digraphs.
Along with MaxReading: Choose from four chapters, that open into different books. Practice your reading comprehension.
There are three main areas to focus on. MaxPhonics, MaxReading and MaxWords. Each area allows to you choose what you want to do. You might want to in MaxPhonics work on blends, in MaxReading take up inventions or reading about places, and MaxWords lets you learn a list of new words, choosing the category you want to learn from. The sheer variety of options means that a child isn’t forced to read something that they aren’t at all interested in.
From there you can branch off to MaxMusic, MaxBios, MaxPlaces and MaxVocab. Each of these areas assesses different parts of learning to read. For instance you will be understanding verbs in MaxMusic, comprehension with MaxBios and MaxPlaces, and focusing in on words with MaxVocab.
Each new section you enter presents you with a tutorial explaining what you need to do. Read a passage, highlight words, drag definitions etc.
Take your time, responsive grading
One of the things I love is that you can take your time. I found no timers or countdown clocks for any marked work. The only timer I found was for the challenges where you are encouraged to read through a list of words. I never found meeting the timeline difficult, but for students who might read slowly, or who lack confidence, this might prove to be more of a challenge then they want. Those students can also choose to have the word list read for them.
You will find that each area covers somewhat different things. For instance MaxMusic let’s you read the lyrics of various songs, and then focuses on finding the verbs hidden within. Later on, it will see what nouns, adjectives and adverbs you remember.
Everything that is graded gives you immediate feedback.
Refinement through Change
I noticed a change to the system with one game. Hangman changed! They reinvented it maintaining the name but better focusing on enabling students to learn new vocabulary. The change made playing hangman a great deal less frustrating to play while maintaining it’s intent – testing new vocabulary! I rather like seeing how programs refine themselves.
Recommendation
A MaxGuru Pack subscription gives one child twelve months of access and includes all the different Max programs for $279/year. They even have a free trial program for 15 days. Try it out!
MaxScholar has been specifically created to help students with a variety of learning disabilities. MaxScholar Orton-Gillingham Software addresses various issues by teaching the grapheme/phoneme connection through visual, audio and kinesthetic step-by-step instruction. The creators very much want your students to succeed with their early intervention program. Their programs are systematic, explicit and multi-sensory. They have the best of various research-based methods to help your students learn.
Fully accessible on any computer or tablet. If you use it on your phone you’ll find yourself scrolling around the screen a bit, but it is still fully usable.
As I played around with the various programs I found that overall they worked well. I occasionally ran into glitches (the drag and drop word definitions) but overall everything worked well. The responsive feedback and the ability to see where you went wrong was fantastic.
If you are looking for an online program, that will support your student through kindergarten up through highschool, you’ll find MaxScholar a helpful, highly researched and well-executed program
Links and Invitation
Social Media Links for MaxScholar are:
Facebook: https://www.facebook.com/MaxScholarLLC/
Twitter: https://twitter.com/MaxScholarLLC
Instagram: https://www.instagram.com/maxscholarsoftware/
Pinterest: https://www.pinterest.com/MaxScholarLLC/pins/
60 People from the Homeschool Review Crew took the time to check out MaxScholar on your behalf. I invite you to check out their reviews.
This program has some really good looking features for students struggling in reading comprehension at the older ages. Also, looks like some good test prep help, if the student needs it.
I thought so, it was good.