I’d love to do an end of year (our midterm) assessment for the kiddo I’ve been working with. What’s the best resource to easily download or to guide my building of one? Context - I’ve been tutoring a 3rd grader who was diagnosed right at a year ago. Texas has reading by design and I think they fast tracked him through Vol 1 & 2 or the school just put him in the second grade group. He’s struggling with short vowel sound cues. We practice them every session with cards & repeat the closed syllable card. He can identify open vs closed one syllable words. If we start adding in open syllable, a_e i_e etc long vowel sounds, he doesn’t cue switching back to short vowel sounds even with familiar words we’ve been practicing for months. So we continue to work on building word length capacity with short vowel sounds, two and three syllables, & sound pairs (sh, ch, st). I would like to do an assessment to mark where we’re at right now so we can see progress in June at our year mark.

In January, Outschool will be rolling out new parent course offerings. These courses are intended to help parents support their students, especially students with learning differences. Reading Success Academy has been selected to participate in the initial rollout of the program. We now have three parent course listings with another coming later today. We offer an "Office Hours" class - a weekly support meeting for families of struggling readers and/or neurodivergent readers. These are 55-minute sessions designed to answer any questions you have about helping your child learn to read. You can find the listing here: https://outschool.com/classes/parent-servicesweekly-support-for-struggling-readers-for-parentsguardians-only-tJDxmqM1 We also offer a less formal 45-minute session that is less focused on learning differences. This is the place to check in to consult with a reading specialist about any reading concept you are working on, how to teach Phono-Graphix lessons, and get resources for lessons. You can find the listing here: https://outschool.com/classes/parent-services-teaching-reading-support-office-hours-parentsguardians-only-BHsjUOZn The third published offering is a 1:1 private consultation with a reading specialist. This is a 30-minute consult that can be used just for your questions or as a reading placement test for your child with a brief consult about the results. You can learn more about it here: https://outschool.com/classes/parent-services-11-reading-help-consultation-with-reading-test-dyslexia-help-TTSO1p5i Coming later today...a 5-part Phono-Graphix instructional course so you can learn how to teach your child to read using the Phono-Graphix method. In these five, 55-minute sessions, you'll gain a general understanding of the Phono-Graphix method and how it fits into a homeschool ELA program. You'll also learn how to confidently run a 20-minute Phono-Graphix-style reading lesson at home. You'll leave with a clear game plan for implementing the method with one or more children.

👋 Hey everyone! We’ve added quite a few new members in the last week. Welcome @14274493 @christine-eichenauer-4420 @jaylynnda-girardot-5443 @chris-logan-6396 @shelby-evans-8176 Our community supports literacy for children. Please share a read-aloud that is your go-to for reluctant readers. Mine is in the comments.

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Reading Success Academy and I were featured today in an online local magazine. It's a challenge for small businesses to be seen, so this was a great opportunity for us. You can check out the article here: https://voyagekc.com/interview/hidden-gems-meet-paula-smith-of-reading-success-academy-llc🎉