A literacy solution that truly works.

"As the Assistant Superintendent for Curriculum and Instruction, I was able to see the Magic Penny Early Literacy Program in action. I witnessed PK and Kindergarten children decoding in the second semester of the first year of implementation. Sandy Schneider, the originator of the program came out and did several staff trainings on the effective use of the program as well as a district-wide parent training to support our early literacy efforts at home. The level of support made available to my staff was exceptional.

I cannot say enough about the Magic Penny Early Literacy Program. It is perfect to use during differentiated time and supports what is occurring in the core reading program in a very systematic and logical progression. It builds on the five pillars of literacy and students learn sounds as they learn sounds in language. The program incorporates a daily monitoring component so that the teacher knows student performance in their phonemic awareness and early literacy skills every day. Adjustments in groupings can occur flexibly, as well as additional sessions are provided to students who struggle the most. During the year Magic Penny provided a Beginning, Middle, and End of the Year Assessment to monitor groupings and progress. Scheduled visits were frequent to assist classroom teachers with questions in implementation, or just to help with any struggling students. We also participated in End of Year meetings with other Magic Penny teachers and schools to discuss the program and ideas.

I consider this program a gift to give my primary students and hold this program in high esteem due to the results it was able to drive in my students. I maintain the belief that this program can change the trajectory of lives in removing the barrier of reading difficulty and school performance by programming children to listen and decode with early reading success, making school more joyful, happy, successful, and exciting for children."

"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!"

The Batavia School System did a pilot project with Magic Penny Reading in the school year 2009-2010. The program was implemented in the classroom of Jacqueline Swinarski with the approval and supervision of Director of Learning, Pamela Schunk. The immediately following section is a transcription of an emotional video recording of Carter's parents in June 2010 when Carter was finishing Kindergarten. Mrs. Julie Wasilewski is an elementary social worker and interim principal in the Batavia City School District who later informs us that she has seen the devastating emotional, social, and educational effects of reading problems in the school children that she serves. (This video is available upon request.)

"With our son, we decided to have him do two years of pre-K, so he came in a year older. We didn't feel that he was ready for kindergarten, he would have been a young Kindergartner. When he was in Pre-K, he had a Special Ed itinerant teacher working with him. He also had a speech teacher working with him twice a week; she was working on speech and language with him. When he aged out of services in our local district, we would drive him down to Geneseo twice a week for Speech Language services. We worked with him every day at home (during the school year) and I worked with him every day last summer. My husband even bought a kit to teach your child how to read at home and we still had not had any success. He came into kindergarten screening knowing four letters. When they did the Magic Penny pre-test he scored 13 (mother cries)... when he just took it again he got a 97. Now he's 'at level' with reading. We just can't thank you enough. The fact that you came here and you did this... between Jackie, his teacher, and having Sandy Schneider here helping... I'm going to tell everybody I know about Magic Penny, I just can't say enough. I think it's a program that can teach so many people with the sounds.... he doesn't even need to know 'sight words' he just knows what a word says. He writes me notes; he writes my husband notes. It's fantastic; we just can't say enough. I don't know where he would have been headed in his school career if it had not been for this program. He came into Kindergarten a very discouraged and sad young man...."(mother cries). Father continues: "We are really thankful that he had this opportunity to go through the Magic Penny program (in Kindergarten) and again, thank you very much."

Nov. 8, 2013 Post on Julie Mueller Wasilewski’s Facebook Page

Our beautiful loving son Carter, who had such a rough time when he was little in school... he now has 50 DRA (Developmental Reading Assessment)... a year above grade level, and is in ACE (Batavia's 'gifted' program)! Teacher said he is top of his class!!! We used to cry since it was so heartbreaking; now we cry out of joy. Jacquelyn L Swinarski...praise God for you and Magic Penny in Kindergarten! From special education to a rock star! Thank you for everyone who helped. For everyone who saw the beautiful spirit and the potential I thank you!!!!!!!!!!!!!!! Jackie please tell Sandy Schneider, the Magic Penny guru who took such an interest in Carter and our family. Miracles do happen because of Magic Penny! (Edited for clarity)