Reading HorizonsReviews of readinghorizons.com

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.