[robintz]

Thanks in advance for any help!

My district is finally considering piloting a reading curriculum. No, we do not have any reading curriculum! My principal asked me if I knew of any good programs out there to submit as suggestions, so I am hoping I can get some ideas from other teachers.

I'd like to know what you like and don't like about a specific reading curriculum you use. How much time does it take, what does it include, etc.??

I'm thinking here of big programs, like Open Court, Houghton Mifflin, etc., although if you have something else that you love, please let me know. Thanks!

[Ali'a]

My district is also looking for a new reading program. Right now the number one consideration is Open Court. I can't wait to hear what others have to say.

[ecsmom]

When we adopted our reading program, we looked at all the state had approved. This included Reading Street by Scott-Foresman which most of the schools around us adopted and Treasures by Mcmillian McGraw Hill which we adopted. All of the big name publishers offer a lot of materials and are geared toward differentiation on 3 levelsand for ELL, including leveled readers and practice workbooks. Most also include activities for centers, sight word cards, phonics cards.

I don't know if your state does adoption cycles like our's does. When we are in an adoption year the companies will send their programs for the schools to review. You should consider contacting the local reps for each company and asking for their samples.

Personally, I worked for the state writing reviews during the last reading cycle. I am happy with Treasures but would have been just as happy with Reading Street. I didn't care much for Open court.

[kls1103]

My school uses Imagine It (which is the new Open Court). It was designed for a full day kindergarten, which we are not, so there is a lot of picking and choosing.

The Pros: the phonemic awareness is really great.
Great ELL ideas/support

The Cons: the program lacks spelling and writing.
The workbooks are really lame. They are made for the low
students so my middle and high kids are left out. I have
stopped using the workbooks.

Overall I would say it is okay. Not horrible, but certainly room for improvement. However, my friend (1st grade teacher) in another district uses Scott Foresman and she raves about it. If you have the option you should look into that program also.

[grade2rocks]

We've just adopted Mondo, which is set up to be used in a reader's workshop format.

Pros: the books are beautiful; it includes an oral language segment (for ELL); and a phonics segment; and a shared reading segment (mini-lesson)

Cons: the books seem to be leveled at a more difficult level than DRA; the lesson plans (which we are required to use) are often weak;

We haven't used it long enough for me to make a judgement yet.