Mississauga, Ontario Canada
Evaluate Reading Horizons software
Slosson Oral Reading Test (SORT)
10-month study conducted between August 2002 - June 2003
The Peel Learning Centre of Mississauga, Ontario conducted a research evaluation on the Reading Horizons computer courseware between August 2002 – June 2003. The national reading assessment tool used in the evaluation was the Slosson Oral Reading Test (SORT).
Many students involved in the study represented countries where English was not their primary language. Many had lived in Canada for so many years that they were not considered traditional ESL students. However, their English reading and writing skills lagged. Many students had observable learning disabilities that had never been formally diagnosed.
Twenty-three students participated in the project and were supervised by four teachers. Each student worked on the Reading Horizons computer component at least three days a week for approximately 40 minutes per session. Many students who attended regularly spent 50 minutes per session, five days a week, working on the computer lessons.
Completing the program laid the essential groundwork for tremendous future gains. Because the students had worked through all the skills necessary for decoding words, the teacher and the students were speaking a common language. The teachers knew how to relate what they were trying to teach the students about spelling or vocabulary words or decoding to concepts that the students were already familiar with from the program.
Because students in adult education arrive with "gaps" in their knowledge, a tremendous amount of time is spent finding those gaps. Reading Horizons helped fill in those gaps, in a controlled, sequential manner and in a way that gives the students a feeling of being successful from the very start."
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