"I am a Pre-K teacher at Hillery Park Elementary School in Buffalo, New York. My teaching career began in 1981. With my age and experience, I have observed and utilized a full gamut of programs claiming to be able to facilitate a child’s need for masterful reading skills. I have developed a great respect for the developmentally appropriate and sequential Magic Penny Reading Program over the past three years.
Dr. and Mrs. Schneider have created an exciting array of activities for the teacher and assistant to use with the entire class, with a small group, one-on one with an individual student, parent and student, peer tutoring style, and for the students to work independently. This multi-faceted approach allows the student many opportunities to master a skill without becoming frustrated or disheartened. The Magic Penny Alpha Animals on DVD is a particular favorite of the children and mine. The children enthusiastically sing along with Dr. Dan and learn the proper phoneme sounds. Working together on the Interactive Whiteboard with the magnificent Magic Penny Reading App and flipcharts provide motivating, productive, and successful experiences.
Students are grouped for differentiation from Magic Penny pretest data. This data also determines the literacy activities that the students will practice, both when working with the classroom teacher and the teacher assistant or on independent activities. Students are divided into four groups, so each adult works with two groups daily for 15-20 minutes while the other students are working independently at literacy stations. Therefore, all students are serviced by an adult in a small group setting each day.
The Daily Monitoring Log is used for daily progress monitoring during small group literacy activities. The groups are color-coded based on skill development for classroom management purposes. The objective is coded as having achieved one of three results; 100% accuracy or 80%+ accuracy or less than 80% accuracy. Depending upon the activity, students will progress to the next more complex skill once they have attained at least 80% accuracy.
This differentiation management tool allows for students in need of additional remediation on a particular skill(s) to get extra practice, if needed, on the fun-filled Magic Penny Apps.
Here it is- December of Pre-K. The sounds of the twelve letters presented in Level A have been mastered by nearly all of my three and four year olds. All of the groups are successful at reading and spelling three letter words. The “Top 6” are really reading the first book in the series, Pam and Sam. I eagerly anticipate very high scores at mid-year.
MOST IMPORTANTLY, THESE BEAUTIFUL MINDS ARE EXCITED ABOUT READING!"
Mary E. O’Connell
Pre-K Teacher