Recently, the kids and I were given the chance to review Reading Intervention Programs from MaxScholar. This was our second opportunity to review the reading programs from MaxScholar. I was excited to see what new, fantastic additions they had made.
For this review, we received a 12 month subscription to their online Reading Intervention Programs. The Reading Intervention Programs offer students that struggle with dyslexia, learning disabilities, ADHD, processing problems, or are just struggling to learn how to read a wide variety of resources. MaxScholar uses a multi-sensory and systematic approach in their learning programs. They have spent time researching various approaches, like the Orton-Gillingham, the Lindamood-Bell Process©, other phonics and reading comprehension programs. They've done all the hard work of researching for parents. Now parents can spend time helping their kids excel in their reading skills.
How Does the Reading Intervention Programs from MaxScholar Work?
Each student gets their own account. This was an easy process. We provided information to the company and they took care of the rest. Our accounts were set up by the wonderful folks at MaxScholar. We received an email with our username and password. The kids had no problem signing in. I also received a teacher's account so I could keep track of the kids progress. This logging in process was simpler than last time and definitely less confusing.
There are 3 major sections in the Reading Intervention Program. Students will find MaxWords, MaxPhonics, and MaxReading.
MaxPhonics..... This program is geared for the younger student. It's actually broken up into 2 sections, Pre-K Phonics and Phonics. Pre_K Phonics is geared for students ages 3 to 5, while Phonics is geared for students ages 5-7. Of course, the program can be used by older students who need work on their phonics skills. Individual letter sounds, letter pairs, blends, and digraphs are taught. Videos help teach proper pronunciation. There are drills, practices, and fun games to encourage learning.
MaxWords..... This program focuses on building a student's word knowledge. This is done by teaching students prefixes, suffixes, Latin roots, Greek roots, spelling rules, and syllabification. This is a fantastic program to help students to prepare for the PSAT and SAT. We've studied a lot of this over the years, but review is always important. The more we study, the more we'll remember.
MaxReading.... This program is broken up into 13 different levels. The stories vary in difficulty and interests. Students will work through each level. Placement tests help students know where to start. As the students reading skills improve, they will move along. This allows students work through the various stages at their own pace! The stories feature vocabulary and comprehension questions for building stronger language art skills. For the older students, they are given the opportunity to outline and summarize each story. This is key step in creating a stronger writer.
The program also has a few other areas students can explore and learn with...MaxMusic, MaxVocab, MaxPlaces, and MaxBios.
MaxMusic...This section uses music and games to encourage the slightly reluctant learner to learn. The games will work on memory, recognition, and auditory skills.
MaxVocab....This section is MaxScholar's dictionary. This section provides students with thousands of definitions and fun games to help students learn new vocabulary.
MaxPlaces....This section allows students to explore the world! Students choose a city or a location from the map, read a short passage about the place, and answer a few questions. There are 51 locations that students can visit and learn about.
MaxBios... This section introduces students to important people from the past and the present. The biographies are from around the world and set up in chronological order.
How Did We Use the Reading Intervention Programs from MaxScholar?
First off, I have to admit we are behind in our lessons with this program. Over the past few weeks, we have had a variety of issues come up that have affected our ability to use our internet. First, it was heavy rains, flooding, and power outages. Next we had telephone poles being changed out in our area which caused more internet connection problems. No power....no internet! Finally, we had an unexpected family emergency that affected our life rather drastically. Things are fine now, but it was a shock for our family and we've had to take some time off from school. In fact, we have officially stopped school, except math, for the year. My plan is to have the kids work 20-30 minutes a day over the summer with the MaxScholar program I think it will be a wonderful tool to increase vocabulary and reading skills.
When I requested this review, my goals was for Michael and Therese to really focus on the MaxWords section. I wanted to help reinforce the suffixes and prefixes they had learned in the past. Understanding the meaning of these will help them know the meaning of words as they go further in their schooling. PSAT's and SAT's are right around the corner. I can't believe it's almost here. It seems like we were just learning our ABC's and 123's.
What Did We Think of MaxScholar?
I found the site to be a lot easier to navigate. Set up and login were very simple. The teacher's dashboard was easy to reach, simple to understand, and I wa able to keep track of both my students. There was no confusion about what I was looking at.
I love the writing features to the program. It reinforced everything we have been learning over the past few years!
Therese found the site easy to navigate through. She logged in, took the placement test, and immediately got to work on going through the various levels.
Michael actually didn't mind MaxScholar this time. When we reviewed it last time, he didn't care for the program. This time he sat down and got to work.
What to learn about this wonderful reading program from MaxScholar? Find MaxScholar on Social Media...
What to see what they other crew members had to MaxScholar and their Reading Intervention Programs?
Click on the link below!
Till Next Time,
Monique
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