Students who struggle in the early grades with reading fluency and blending word parts together often find themselves falling further and further behind their peers in language arts. Teachers do what they can to provide extra instruction or intervention outside their classrooms and when that fails, refer these students for special education services, hoping more intensive instruction will better meet their needs. However, research has found that special education students who begin services two or more years behind in reading do not catch up with their peers and can be expected to fall further behind (Allington, 2009; Hernandez, 2012). Most of the usual remediation techniques used in special education settings to address the needs of these students do not bring the desired results quickly enough, and often make no difference at all (Allington, 2009).
Many of those who have qualified for special education services have language-processing issues that cause significant letter confusion. The good news is that there is now a solution for these students, even when they have entered middle and high school reading below third-grade level. A new breakthrough system, Rime Magic, gives teachers the tools to provide specialized instruction that allows students to move past the issues that interfered with fluent word recognition.
School districts have long been searching for programs that will support teachers in making that critical difference with students who have been labeled “dyslexic” or who have been unable to exit special education services. Rime Magic is not a program; it is a system for gaining access to the internal structure of words with ease, causing a fast buildup of confidence and proficiency. Rime Magic is quite easy to implement and cost effective.
Following the Rime Magic steps with the Power Pak component, students with processing issues are able to train their own brains to perceive word parts clearly. For example, some students will perceive the word scatter as “scratter” or “scrattie” every time they see it. Working with a teacher one-on-one using the Rime Magic Power Paks, they are able to notice where they are inserting the letter r and remove it themselves. Students begin to see words as a series of perceivable chunks rather than a string of random letters.
Resource Specialists, Special Day Class teachers, and Learning Center teachers are excited and encouraged when they are introduced to the Rime Magic system. When they observe their students, who have fallen far behind in word recognition, responding so quickly and with unfettered enthusiasm to the Rime Magic lessons, they can see right away that fast progress will be made and that many of their students have a good chance of fully and successfully participating in content area instruction in their regular classrooms.
The Rime Magic system takes only five to ten minutes per lesson, followed by TO WITH BY reading of high interest material. The Teachers Guide gives teachers very specific direction on a particular way of having students read exciting text that they thought was out of reach, allowing for a boost in confidence and fast improvement in fluency and word recognition. Special education teachers are seeing startling results when they slip the Rime Magic system into their program.
Even more exciting, five minutes of Rime Magic each morning with the whole class in the primary grades will prevent the problem in the first place for nearly all students.
Allington, R. (2009). What really matters in response to intervention. Boston: Pearson Education, Inc.
Hernandez, D. (2012). Double jeopardy: How third-grade reading skills and poverty influence high school graduation. Baltimore, MD: The Annie E. Casey Foundation.