Reading Horizons Avis 58

I am so grateful to have this program. I moved from 3rd grade to 2nd grade. With the pandemic, 50% of my students are below grade level. I am hoping this will help to bring them to grade level!

Reading Horizons has changed my phonics instruction! Never have I used a program that had such a systematic and explicit approach to phonics instruction. RH helps develop routines and procedures that provide meaningful support for various types of learners, including kinesthetic and auditory learners. Learning to identify the 5 Phonics Skills and using the marking system helps my students as we tackle increasingly difficult text. In 2nd Grade most of our students come with the knowledge of RH phonics so we use beginning lessons and little books to provide intervention while we review and practice all RH skills through dictation and daily reading passages as a whole group. I am thankful I have had the opportunity to use Reading Horizons in both my 1st and 2nd Grade classrooms!

This is my 14th year teaching either first grade or kindergarten. I first heard about Reading Horizons 3 years ago because my son came home from first grade with marks all over his papers and when I asked him what the marks were he could explain it in detail. When he got to the c & k lesson and could tell me that “c takes i and e, k takes the other 3” I suddenly realized that my first grade son knew more about phonics than I did and I had been teaching phonics for 11 years! I decided right then and there that I was going to figure out what this amazing program was. I’ve been in love with Reading Horizons ever since, and so have my students! My students are so engaged and we all love it. Teaching phonics is hands down my most favorite part of my day, everyday! I love how explicit it is and how easy it is to implement. There are so many games and activities that can be paired with the program and their staff is amazing. The trainings are fun and informative and their website is packed with amazing digital and supplemental materials.
I feel so empowered using Reading Horizons; I highly suggest the program to anyone interested in using it!

I have been teaching primary grades for 12 years now and have always struggled with teaching phonics and spelling. So when I found Reading Horizons I was hooked. Now I understand why things are the way they are and it makes sense to my students as well.
The lessons, the software and spelling all go hand in hand and provide a review so that you can I have been teaching primary grades for 12 years now and have always struggled with teaching phonics and spelling. So when I found Reading Horizons I was hooked. I love how now I understand why things are the way they are and it makes sense for my students.
The lessons, the Discovery software and spelling lessons all go hand in hand and provide a refresher of the skills taught.
I feel like I can't say enough good about Reading Horizons. I'm impressed how they provide so many professional development trainings to help teachers be successful in teaching the program and understanding phonics. Jenna is the best and is always willing to answer my questions no matter how weird they may be.
My first year teaching Reading Horizons, I had a little boy who only spoke Russian and was just learning English. So when I started using RH with him, I was able to see him pick up things so quickly and point out the blends, and digraphs out in stories or whenever he saw them. By the end of the school year he was reading almost on grade level, was writing words phonetically, and excited about the daily RH lessons. I know that I owe that success to using the Reading Horizons program and the tools that I was given to teach it.
I look forward to seeing the impact that teaching the Reading Horizons has on my students this year who are part of the Covid19 soft closure this past spring.
Melinda Littlewood
1st grade Teacher

Reading Horizons is by far the BEST program I have ever used to teach phonics! Using Reading Horizons makes reading make sense! My students every year make huge growth using this program and become excellent decoders. I myself even learned things about reading after using it. I honestly and truly feel like this program helps ensure students don’t have “holes” in their phonics learning and become strong readers. Before using this program, many of our school’s first grade students were not performing well on the DIBELS test. After implementing this program our scores have drastically changed and our students are much stronger readers. I am so grateful to use this wonderful program!

I have been a primary teacher for just under 10 years. I have experienced various phonics programs throughout this time. Nothing compares to Reading Horizons! Like the program states- its explicit, systematic, sequential, and multisensory!

The content builds so well. As a teacher, I feel confident in my instruction, and my students are never cognitively overloaded with content. It's my favorite part of the day, as well as for my students!

I am the Supervisor of Reading in a large suburban school district. We are a high-performing district, but there is a wide array of needs across our 10,000 students. After tracking early literacy data and seeing 25% of our students lacking foundational skills, we began looking for an explicit, sequential program that would lead our students to develop a stronger foundation. We piloted RH and another well-known program and saw many advantages of RH. Teachers loved the simplicity of implementation, how manageable the resources are, and the PD provided by the consultants. We decided to plow ahead this year with full implementation K-2, and despite the many bumps in the road we are experiencing during the pandemic, we are making inroads already. Matt and Jen are great to work with and they really want our teachers and students to be successful with the skills. Our reading specialists are confident that this level of instruction will help to close gaps after many years of being persistent!

I have used Reading Horizons as a classroom teacher and reading specialist for six years now. RH has changed the way I teach phonics. I love that this program has taught me “the why” behind why we pronounce certain words or letter combinations. I wish I had this program during my early teaching career and even as a reader myself.
The lessons are organized and laid out in a manner that is easy to follow. There is a clean purpose behind each lesson and each lesson has activities that are worthwhile and engaging. There are actions, games, chants, and visuals that help students remember what they are learning. The sequence of lessons flow smoothly and build on one another making it easier for the students to retain past skills. Students at any grade can learn the phonics and decoding rules to improve their reading.
My students have learned how to attack unknown words by proving them and putting the phonics rules the have learned to practice. They are no longer afraid to try to figure out a word. I have also seen improvement with my students looking at the whole word before reading instead of just seeing the beginning of the word and then taking a guess. This change has improved reading accuracy as well, which in turn boosts comprehension.

I began implementing Reading Horizons five years ago as a reading interventionist in small groups. Basal literacy materials simply do not cover phonics in an thorough, explicit or systematic way. Even though we had recently adopted a new program, it fell far short of what was needed for whole class instruction, and certainly students with intensive instruction needs.

Reading Horizons puts phonics front and center as part of students' experience as they strive to become proficient readers. This saying puts it succinctly: "You can't comprehend the words you can't read!" The old system of cueing, context clues, guessing, has been proven ineffective. The solid phonics instruction provided by the Reading Horizons program has changed the way we teach reading. Beginning-of-year data, when compared to end-of-year data for students who received small group and/or whole class instruction shows an unmistakable increase in student growth.

I have the responsibility of training paraprofessionals to conduct interventions during 30-minute sessions. This team has been able to implement the program effectively. Rather than a nebulous system of "Try this" and "Try that," "Read more," the reading team has a concrete strategy for providing instruction, the effectiveness of which they see on a regular basis. Those students for whom reading has been a blur begin to understand the "science" of reading, why words sound the way they do, and also develop the skill to spell those words in their own writing. It empowers them. The kinesthetic component makes an enormous difference in student understanding.

One of my goals is to educate our upper grade teachers in the system, so they are able to continue the support as students enter those grades and encounter more domain specific words. These skills will help them throughout their entire lives.

Thank you, Reading Horizons

Patty Nielson
Plain City Elementary

I have been a Reading Horizons kindergarten teacher for the last 3 years and am very familiar with the kindergarten curriculum, phonics rules, procedures and lessons contained within Reading Horizons. There are so many phonetic rules and skills that students learn within the program that help in decoding, spelling, and reading almost anything that we give them to read. I love that I can explain to my students and their parents why a letter doesn’t make its normal sound.

I love that my kindergartners get so excited when they can read and write what they want to communicate to others because of what they have learned from Reading Horizons.

Reading Horizons is truly engaging, hands-on, and systematic in its approach to phonics. Lessons are easy to follow, straightforward and complete. Best of all students are all participating and regularly demonstrating what they know throughout the lessons.

I have utilized many phonics programs in my years as an educator and tutor. Reading Horizons is based on the Orton Gillingham program for teaching reading to people with dyslexia. I have used OG as a tutor for many years, Reading Horizons is a complete program that is motivating and allows each of my students to have success.
I highly recommend it to any teacher, working with those learning to read.

I have been a RH kindergarten teacher for the last 7 years and have become very familiar with the kindergarten curriculum, phonics rules, procedures and lessons contained in RH. However, last year our principal challenged all of the teachers in our school to go through the online training for the entire RH curriculum. I learned so much through this experience, and realized through that process what a complete, phenomenal phonics program RH truly is. There are so many phonetic rules and skills that students learn throughout the program that help in decoding, spelling, and reading most anything they can get their hands on. I continually found myself thinking, "Oh, that makes sense!" I even find myself using these skills in my own reading experiences.

I love that, even at such a young age, my kindergartners leave my classroom successfully reading and ready for first grade because of the things they learn from RH.

As a district this year, we have also been focusing on gradual release of responsibility and learning to our students. RH is the perfect example of how to do this, using explicit teacher instruction, then group work in dictation, then individual work on practice worksheets, then having the opportunity to "be the teacher" using transfer cards.

RH is engaging, hands-on, motivating and instructionally sound. The lessons are easy to follow, instruction is straight-forward and complete, and students are all participating and continually showing what they know throughout each lesson. Assessments are simple, yet valuable, and students learn through spiral review everything they need to know about phonics, decoding and reading/spelling rules throughout the program. I have had several aides that have worked in my classroom say to me, "Why didn't I ever learn this?"

I read a quote recently that said, "Scientists have discovered that it takes approximately 400 repetitions to create a new synapse in the brain unless it is done in play, in which case it only takes 10-20 repetitions." - Karyn Purvis. RH provides multiple games and learning activities to get the children "playing" so they learn in the best ways possible.

I have used many phonics programs in my multiple years of teaching. However, I have never found one as complete, motivating and successful for each of my students, no matter their level, as RH. I highly recommend it to any elementary teacher.

Reading Horizons has transformed my life as an educator. I have never felt so empowered to teach reading and to meet the needs of all of our students. Reading Horizons has taught me proven, simple, and engaging ways to teach phonics and help my students and fellow teachers to feel empowered as well.

Reading Horizons has changed the culture of our school. Our children are excited about learning and our teachers excited about teaching and the progress our students are making. We are seeing great strides in our data.
RHConn was an exceptional PD. I love taking my learning to another level. The excitement is always so high energy with all that RH does for conferences.

Reading Horizons is an amazing program. English is my second language and this program is helping me to pronounce words and to know the reason behind the pronunciation.
I recommend this program to adults, children and ELL.
I can’t say enough about how great this program is!
Also, the customer service and support is the best!
Thank you RH representatives for everything you do!

I was introduced to Reading Horizons not long before we were sent into the crazy world of virtual teaching. With little experience being a virtual teacher, this program saved my life. I was able to easily follow this explicit phonics program with my students and utilize the resources it provided to assist my students in learning from home. I had support through the company and was able to access answers to questions quickly and efficiently. This program provides students with the resources they need to build confidence in their reading abilities.

Reading Horizons is an excellent explicit, systematic phonics program that not only has fantastic in-class resources but they have also developed so much to help teachers transition their programs to fully online if necessary. I cannot say enough about the customer support. I and my first grade team would have never been as successful teaching online without our customer success manager, Joseph Heeb. He is so incredibly patient and knowledgeable to help us continue to help every first grader learn to read either in person or online. I cannot say enough positive compliments about the help we have received.

I teach adult literacy in Mississippi. I have used Reading Horizon Elevate for about 4 years. I love it!! My students have grown in their reading abilities and confidence. They have made level gains in the reading and language sections of the TABE test. I have had some advance from the E level TABE test to the M level and move on to other adult education classes.

This is the fourth year using Reading Horizon. We have pleased with all aspects of the program and the resources it provides our teachers and students.