Reading Intervention Programs that incorporate Technology: Better Results?

We as teachers have many different technologies available to us for use in the classroom. Many can be used for whole group discussion but I have come in contact with some that work specifically for one on one intervention. The reading program my school uses is called Waterford. I wanted to research to see what the benefits of this program and if there were other programs out there that accomplish the same goal and what the benefits are for the students. The specific Waterford program my district uses for intervention is the Waterford Early Reading Program. This program has resources for one on one lessons as well as whole group activities. The WER program uses research based practices to create lessons based upon the students needs. There are four areas that make up the reading program: Phonics, Comprehension and Vocabulary, Language Concepts, and Phonological Awareness (Institute) and these four areas are broken down into three different levels of difficulty depending on the pre-screening of each child. When my students first log into the program, they are put through a skills assessment to determine their strengths and weakness in the four areas of reading. Once they have completed the pre-assessment, the WER creates a program that caters to each child's needs. My students are extremely engaged in these lessons and ask frequently to go on the computer and play the "games"! The lessons are taught through songs and games that work on each skill the child needs assistance with. Something I find really interesting about this website is that it will adjust based upon the students current level of performance. If the child is making less progress, it will incorporate more lessons to develop those skills. The goal of the WER program is to enhance the classroom teachings of the students (Institute). I use the lessons whole group as well as for interventions and my students thoroughly enjoy the nursery rhymes, games, and songs! I like to incorporate the interactive games on my starboard for the whole class to be involved in the lessons. Having used this program and seeing a lot of progress in my students, I wanted to see if there was another program that worked the same way or if it was different, did it have better results. The WER program has research that supports the success of the program and when I used the program, my students went from non-readers to reading about grade level! I was surprised by the success of my students but by talking to other teachers, I found they have similar results with their students. I found a program through Pearson that is tiered in three levels the same way as the Waterford program. It also targets writing, phonics, reading fluency, and reading comprehension as well as monitors the students’ progress (Pearson, 2011). The major difference between the two programs is the use of technology for delivering the intervention. The PAL program from Pearson is a pencil and paper workbook that works on the necessary skills whereas the Waterford program is completely delivered online. The PAL program provides a response to Teaching First legislation for NCLB. I am happy to see many different intervention programs for students but I really feel that with the technology driven generation that is entering our classrooms now we need to find ways to engage them in lessons they can be stimulated by. The Waterford program really generates lessons that the students can understand and will cater to their level of literacy development every time they log-in.

Bibliography

Institute, T. W. (n.d.). Waterford Early Learning. Retrieved September 16, 2011, from The Waterford Institute: www.waterford.org/products.early-learning/learning-approach

Pearson. (2011). Pearson. Retrieved September 16, 2011, from www.pearsonassessments.com/HAIWEB/Cultures/en-us/Productdetail.htm?Pid=015-8661-044