[Read7]

Hello everyone! My school is looking at purchasing a new reading series to help us with the switch to Common Core Standards. There are three series for us to look at right now: Scott-Forsman Reading Street, McGraw Wonders, and Houghton Journeys. We are a K-5 building and those of us in the the 3-5 wing despise our current reading series so we are very excited about the new ones we are seeing. What have you seen that works and doesn't work? We are leaning more towards Reading Street and Wonders right now as they seem to have more to them, which is both scary and exciting at the same time. Any comments are appreciated!

[GiantSubs]

Journeys. We compared Wonders and Journeys at length and thought Journeys had better assessment materials and more technology based components that we could use.

[delidkteach]

My experience with Journeys in the upper grades has been negative. The students are unable to read quality books that teach important lessons. I think that quality literature for these students is highly important. It is a great way to teach them about history, social justice and other topics that students at these ages need to learn about. In addition, this reading series doesn't teach them as much vocabulary as quality literature does and doesn't provoke discussion. I think discussion among these students are important because this is when students begin to form their own opinions about various topics. It is important to teach students how to have conversations about controversial topics and a safe way to do this is by connecting it to the characters in the stories that literature provides.

I'm sorry but I can't comment on the other reading programs as I have not used them.

Best of Luck!!