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CLASSROOM & STUDENT LISTS
ReadingKEY Weekly is the core of the ReadingKEY Program. This link gives immediate access to our two powerful methods for teaching reading vocabulary to students in Grades 1 through 6. This includes the Classroom List Program and Student List Program.
The Classroom List Program is used for teaching a 20-30 minute reading vocabulary-phonics activity to a class of 20 - 30 or more students. Materials are viewed in a weekly format clearly showing all vocabulary words and activities that should be covered for the week in a school setting. Simply PRINT the Classroom List pages for the week and tape together. When teaching the lesson, simply follow the 10 STEPS listed at the top of the list page, thereby insuring you never "forget" a STEP. The Student List Program can be used for one-on-one tutoring or small groups of 2 or 3 students and is excellent for quickly advancing students reading below grade level.
ReadingKEY Weekly also gives quick access to other materials that parallel the same words in the Class and Student Lists. This includes our popular vocabulary building worksheet activties - parent support activities and Friday Tests. The master index also includes audio for saying the list words and common vowel sound for the list.
FLUENCY = COMPREHENSION
The main premise of the entire ReadingKEY Program is simple:
When students can read grade level vocabulary words quickly and easily (also called fluency) - then comprehension increases dramatically.
The program teaches students to read by introducing only a small number of words per list that share the same vowel sound. Words are arranged in order from most-common to least-common as seen in national school reading textbooks such as Scholastic and Houghton-Mifflin. The Classroom Program is meant to be used in a conventional school classroom where teachers teach a single list of 5-7 words using a series of fun and powerful technques. Just follow the simple steps at the top of each list and watch students learn reading vocabulary and decoding strategies at a greatly accelerated pace.
LOTS OF FUN!
Along with this, students (and the teacher) will have lots of fun during the activity and for these 20-25 minutes - students will be smiling as all eyes are focused on the teacher! Click the link below or at top of the page to watch an entertaining video of the Classroom and Student Lists in action.
ReadingKEY Extra gives access to many other support materials including. Here area few of our favorites...
1. Ping Pong
Every teacher has seen it.... students confusing critical words such as - who-how, was-saw, want-won't, were-where etc. Our Ping Pong program is the tool to use to quickly help students master these dificult words. Simply type two words into the Ping Pong input page and the progra displays the two words in a column of 27 words. However, the 27 words are only the two words you typed and appear in random order in the column. Have your student (or class) read the column of words several times a day and the words will be completely learned within the week. This so-called miracle occurs because the back and forth pattern forces"the brain to quickly recognize what is "visually different" between the two similar words.
2. SUPER TEST
A fantastic way to quickly identify an and record specific words students don't know. You begin by sitting at the computer next to your student. Pick a grade level and the Super Test displays all reading vocabulary words in the ReadingKEY program. Ask your student to read the words from any column. If the word is said correctly, you mark it as FLUENT - if it is said incorrectly, mark it as needing PRACTICE. At the end you can then PRINT only the words needing practice on 3x5 cards or have them appear in a special activity which covers alphabetical order and sentence writing. The Super Test is a form of what is called "Precision Teaching" as students only practice what they do not know.
2. Handwriting Worksheet Maker
Type student's name or small sentence and watch it transform into a series of dots for tracing and learning how to write.
Saves hours of time!
3. Database Reading Test
This 5 minute test will Identify your student's precise reading level and display it in a Grade.Month format. Identifies fluency problems - and where to begin with the ReadingKEY Program.
Also view student test results online row by row. Professional summary page can be printed for showing parents at teacher meetings.
4. Slapper
One of our favorites. If you have a new (or grumpy) student you won't find a better way to break-through the frowns and become friends. Print out the "Slapper paper" (which is simply a paper divided into four squares. Inside each square write a word (or anything the student needs to practice). You then say the word
(letter etc) and your student is to "slap" their hand on the correct square before you - (giving them a few seconds). Of course, let the student slap their hand just before yours and we guarantee a student smile. A few times you need to slap your hand first to keep the score close. Score keeping boxes on side of paper. It works because it uses what is called "recognition memory."
ReadingKEY Lightning is our new and highly improved online version of the Grade 1 ReadingKEY Program. Upon completion, students will have learned the 520 most-common reading words used in Grade 1 textbooks and will be reading at a solid 2.2 Grade Level.
STEP BY STEP
Students are taught the 520 words in groups of 5 words per list using a very special sequence of learning STEPS (each slightly more difficult than the previous). The 5 words also share the same vowel sound (short-a, short-e, r-controlled vowels, etc.) which is a strategy that further improves ease-of-learning for students.
FOLLOW-UP STORY
When students can say the 5 words in 2-3 seconds, they are shown two pages of an exciting ongoing story that uses only words from the list (and previous word lists), thereby, insuring succcess in reading.
COMPREHENSION EXERCISE
After reading the two pages, students are then given a 10 question exercise to insure understanding of word meaning and proper word usage. Audio is included which reads the questions aloud to the student, thereby allowing the teacher to move onto another activity with a different student.
Lightning also includes a database for entering student names and monitoring student progress month after month.
RKLightning is designed in such a way that anyone can become an expert reading teacher in minutes.
To watch a video of RKL in action - please watch our RKLightning demonstration video..
Children must first know all alphabet letter names and letter sounds before being taught to read. While consonant sounds should be learned 100% prior to learning to read - vowel sounds can be learned during the learning to read process (although still advantagious if mastered prior to reading). If you can achieve this as a teacher, your students will learn to read at a much faster pace. To help you accomplish this goal - we have set up a special phonics section that gives access to powerful worksheet activities - online computer programs - a phonics audio page - an online database phonics test - and excellent tips and suggestions to help with learning difflcult letters and sounds such as - b - d - l - w - wh - ch - sh - th - etc.
UNDERSTANDING PHONICS AND PHONEMIC AWARENESS
While phonics is the skill of knowing the sound made by each alphabet letter (or letters) - research has shown students must also master what is called phonemic awareness. Phonemic awareness simply means the student is aware of the sound's location and can identify if it is heard at the beginning - middle - or end of the word. While this skill is related to reading, as a teacher, you can also appreciate how this skill would help tremendously with spelling any unknown word.
The research clearly shows that the most successful readers are students who first know all alphabet letter names and sounds before being taught to read.
While many students know the primary consonant sounds made by letters - b, d, k, etc, many students have difficulty with sounds made by letters h - l - w - ch - sh - th - wh (sounds not heard and when saying the letter names). This is not acceptable and missing even a few of these sounds can greatly slow the learning to read process.
To insure students have these skills, we have developed a powerful online test with database.
Our advanced skils test is basically a Kindergarten checklist and includes the following critical pre-reading skills.
Lowercase letter names
Capital letters
Consonant sounds
Long/short vowel sounds
Advanced vowel sounds
The test then covers other skills which should be mastered sometime in Kindergarten:
Writes full name
Knows address
Knows phone number
Knows birthday
Knows colors
Recites alphabet
Says months
Days of the week
Color words
Phonemic awareness
Counts orally 1-20
Reads Numbers 1-20
Number words (one-ten)
CVC words
10 most common words
Patterns
Addition
Subtraction
Basic shapes
Rhyming
Syllables
Opposites
Punctuation
Categories
Positions (up, down, above, etc)
You can also select which of these skills you want to include in the test - all or part.
Results are recorded to a database for keeping track of student progress and viewing all results onlilne. Professional summaries of student results can be printed for parent conferences.