Post: Headsprout Early Reading

Posted by Susan on 9/22/06

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Hello everyone,

Over the last year or two I recall several people posting
about their
experiences with the internet-based program, Headsprout
Early Reading.
In fact I think I was one of them -- we tried the free
scholarships at my
school two years ago, with outstanding results, and
followed that up by
purchasing accounts for a number of high-needs kids in
Grade 1 plus some
ELL kids in Grades 2 and 3 last year. Again, Headsprout
proved to be a
tremendous catalyst to the kids' reading -- not only their
skills, but
(most important in the long run), their enthusiasm about
reading and their
self-perception as good readers. Even the most struggling
kids made a
lot of progress and LOVED to read -- they took home books
every night and
there was lots of book-sharing and book-talk in the
classroom. One of
our teachers remarked that this was the first year that
every single
child was enthusiastic and really pumped up about reading .
Of course she
is a very skilled teacher herself, but she attributed the
palpable shift
to the effect Headsprout had on the (previously) "low-
performing" kids.

It's an excellent supplementary program but I'm a theme-
oriented person
myself and like to integrate stuff. I can see lots of
potential to tie in
other reading and language activities (also science and
social studies)
with some of the Headsprout characters and backgrounds --
more thematic
expansion about ocean life, the coral reef, rain forests,
habitats &
communities,.... writing activities.... I am never short of
ideas but I
would be a lot more productive in getting them on paper and
organized if I
had others to share ideas with. So far I am the only one in
my district
using Headsprout and I don't know of people elsewhere,
either, but I know
they are out there.

So, I have started a Yahoo group for teachers using
Headsprout, hoping we
can get enough folks to subscribe, trouble-shoot and swap
ideas to be a
support system for one another and also share materials and
ideas we
develop. I made up little letter tiles for word-building (a
la Isabel
Beck's new book -- a good one if you haven't seen it), a
kind of tracking
log to monitor kids' reading the "episode stories" (place
for
observations), and have some printing activities and games
I have
developed but not uploaded yet. If others were interested
it would
galvanize me into going farther with the themes idea and
actually organize
it -- need input from other people, though.

It would also be great to swap ideas on how to solve some
of the practical
issues, like timetabling and progress monitoring, that come
up along the
way.

So, if you are using Headsprout, please go here:
http://groups.yahoo.com/group/headsprout-educators/
and click "Join this group." I made it restricted access to
prevent
spamming (I co-moderate a different group and we had to
make it a
restricted one to keep dating sites etc. at bay), so you
need to enter
something in the little box and I will approve it. So far
there are only
a few people, but please spread the word -- it will be much
more fun and
better learning for the children if we can work together.
Also, please
forward this to any teachers you know who are using
Headsprout. I heard that quite a few schools in Utah are
trying it. Since I
am the only one in my area I don't have many contacts!

This is always a busy time of year but the kids are already
excited about
reading, so I am excited too.

Susan S.
Toronto, Ontario

Posts on this thread, including this one

Headsprout Early Reading, 9/22/06, by Susan.

Re: Headsprout Early Reading, 5/31/07, by Chris.