Reading Horizons Review: Beth Gillig

Our middle school depends on Reading Horizons Elevate to help our kids become better readers and test takers. I love that we devote class periods to this program every day. Sixth grade has reading 1st hour all year long and during that time the students earn a reading grade from their reading comprehension scores. Seventh and Eighth grade have semester classes during 8th hour. (I love having the same kids in my reading class from 6th to 8th grade) We offer advanced reading classes 8th hour to those kids who have passed the Elevate program in 6th grade.

At the beginning of every year I tell the kids I want everyone to have the gift of reading. I don't want 5 good readers I want the entire class. My favorite part of this program is when the kids realize that they can achieve their reading goals.

The hardest part of implementation in 6th grade is to retrain students to be fast, specific readers that read above 80% all of the time. I have to check reading scores on a daily basis to make sure we are achieving our goals. This takes time... tons of time! But the proof is how good our readers are by 8th grade and is well worth the effort.

I am so proud of how hard my middle school students are working at their reading. Here is the good news:
6th grade: we started at 29 or 30% on or above grade level at the beginning of the year. As of 12/17 we are at 42% on or above grade level.
7th grade: The seventh graders have 77% of the entire class reading on or above grade level.
8th grade: This is a special group! The 8th grade has 78% of the class reading on or above grade level.

I love your program. We feel that Reading Horizons has helped all of the Middle School students so much!

***The reading curriculum referenced in the review above teaches structured literacy and has helped hundreds of thousands of struggling readers learn to read.***

Grade Level: Secondary