Reading Horizons Review: Brenda Hamm, M.Ed.

I have used Reading Horizons for approximately three years.  I have a strong reading background being a Master Reading Teacher, Reading Specialist, and an Educational Diagnostician.  I am always searching for scientific, research based reading programs that meet the needs of all students.  I work in a cooperative that serves thirteen school districts.  I advise the districts on reading programs to meet the needs of regular education students, at risk students involved in Response to Intervention, Special Education students of all handicapping conditions from severe and profound to learning disabled, as well as dyslexic and culturally diverse students.  I have implemented Reading Horizons in many of my districts and had the pleasure of seeing results that were astonishing!

I am currently an adjunct professor at the University of Houston-Victoria teaching a class of teachers how to teach elementary students to read.  Reading Horizons goes along with the curriculum at the university level.  The process uses the Common Core State Standards as a basis for their program.  Reading Horizons follows a logical and sequential bottom up approach to teaching children how to read.  The sequential order combines an interactionist point of view with a holistic orientation, and takes an integrated approach taking the students through each skill for basic decoding of words using a scaffolding system.  Visible learning occurs through this process.

Reading Horizons introduces all components of language: phonology, morphology, syntax, and semantics through its process.  The program offers an easy monitoring system for determining progress in the above areas as well as comprehension and fluency.  Benchmarking can be completed as often as is needed to determine student progress.  The material has adequate repetition in order to assist in decreasing memory deficits and processing areas that may impair the reading process.  Reading Horizons uses scaffolding to build skills students need to become proficient readers.

Reading Horizons staff has always been supportive and offered support for their product, when needed.  I am seeking the opportunity to continue endorsing this program.  The staff is knowledgeable of the materials, the development, and the implementation, as well as the basic concepts of teaching reading.  That is important in selling a product and standing behind it one hundred percent.

I am proud to have found a program that meets the needs of so many students.

***The review on this page is based on the award-winning Reading Horizons elementary reading curriculum that uses the explicit phonics instruction teaching approach. Reading Horizons also creates and distributes a full range of reading curriculum including, but not limited to, a reading intervention program, and an ELL reading program. ***

Grade Level: Adult Ed, Elementary