Breakthrough Readers of October

Sarah Forrest || 18 Jan 2017

The holiday season seems to slow down everything (not just the mail service!) and we are a couple months behind on our breakthrough readers… but they are still rolling in as children reach new heights with their literacy.

Dillon

Before DM Reading, Dillon was struggling with his fluency, and an irregular words. His spelling was similarly lagging for his age. He was having one-to-one lessons at school but not making much progress there.

At Lesson 89, we heard this report from his mother:

“Dillon is still enjoying his lessons every day. He does very well with the book Jack and the Seal. I only sometimes have to remind him that he has to decode the words. He enjoys the story and asks me lots of questions. He seems to understand more of what he is reading!“

Evelyn

Before DM Reading, Evelyn had trouble decoding words and often misread easy words she had previously been able to read. She had extra instruction at school because she was below grade level. She used Lexia at home and at school, but was becoming frustrated that she was still struggling to read. She really wants to read chapter books… but it was proving too hard to decode difficult or new words.

At Lesson 63 we heard this report from her mother:

“I am very pleased with Evelyn’s progress. We just received a progress report from the literacy intervention teacher at her school. Since she started in mid-August, she has increased her fluency from 50 words per minute to 73! She commented that her reading pace continue to improve every day…”

Theo

Before DM Reading, Theo was learning to read by recognising the word shape, rather than by sounds and using phonics skills. Letter sounds and blends just didn’t seem to be heard by Theo, or understood.

As of Lesson 100, his mother reported:

“We’re still really enjoying it, thank you! Theo is still keen to get going on the lesson in the evening, and he had a cracker of a lesson tonight… He had a lot of confidence tonight, and perhaps that is also as he’s approaching the 100th lesson. We are planning a small celebration to mark the milestone. He’s asked for a dinner out and a new set of sheets and duvet cover. Unusual request for an 8 year old boy (the linen, not the dinner!).”