Reading: it's a destination. (new products).

Riverdeep--The Learning Company, www.riverdeep.net, Software, $20,000 (20 licenses per site)-$40,O00 (unlimited licenses)

All educators know how a longstanding reading deficiency hurts older students. With the divergent backgrounds, learning styles and preschool experiences of today's students, every child can't follow the same route to reading--and some end up falling through the cracks. Destination Reading K-3 aims to prevent this from happening by guiding all students through the essential steps of becoming successful readers.

The series is based on the latest that leads to children's success in learning to read fluently and with a high level of comprehension. For example, research shows that children who enter school without a fundamental understanding of print are at risk of falling behind in reading proficiency. Destination Reading has an entire unit devoted to emergent literacy.

Other research-based features include a whole/part/whole approach to reading instruction that includes both phonics and authentic text, as well as a mix of focused task-oriented activities and open-ended exploration activities. The inclusion of several text styles--such as multicultural folktales, original fiction, poems, encyclopedia-style articles, graphically presented texts and newspaper articles--helps children become comfortable early on with various kinds of reading and acquire "read to learn" abilities.

Aligned with state and national standards, Destination Reading takes learners from key emergent literary concepts through phonemic awareness, phonics, coding and comprehension. Language skills are learned in the context of real language use and then applied to real language tasks. In addition, reading and writing skill development is sequenced so that each new skill builds upon prior learning.

The curriculum levels include:

Kindergarten: Fundamental print concepts, alphabetic principles, phonemic awareness, phonics, three-letter words and early reading

First grade: Continued phonics and phonemic awareness, automatic word recognition, vocabulary, comprehension strategies, narrative fiction, informational text, decodable texts and writing activities

Second grade: Comprehension, advanced phonics, word study, elements of fiction, elements of nonfiction, writing and early grammar

Third grade: Continuation of second grade topics, plus research skills, reading for task-related purposes and reading graphics-based texts.

Riverdeep's Learning Management System, a combination of student curriculum management, standards-based testing, instant reporting and prescriptive assignments, is built into Destination Reading. LMS continually evaluates students so teachers and administrators can see links between those evaluations and Destination Reading curricula.

To help implement the series, Riverdeep offers two days of on-site professional development, two days of on-site technical support and ongoing toll-free telephone support. A teacher's guide, home-school connections for every unit and blackline masters for print activities are also included.

CIRCLE #510 FOR INFORMATION

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