Our Program
Our Program
Every student starts their journey at ReadingPlex with a
free reading skills assessment.
Then, they do small-group sessions with their session partner(s).
For more information about our program options
, click here!
What's the assessment like?
ReadingPlex's assessment process
takes about an hour and is based around the Common Core State Standards.
It's not all about level, but it provides
1. us an idea of which grade level your student's reading skills are at.
also
2. a first look at specific skills your student may struggle with!
During the assessment, we'll be examining a few key skills including
vocabulary, comprehension, and discussion.
From there, we'll be able to tell you more about your student's reading level
and decide on the best level of our program for them!
Right now, we have lower and upper elementary programs.
The assessment also shows us if your student and their session partners are at a similar reading level.
Speaking of which...
What's in a session?
Each session at ReadingPlex addresses three core
English language skills: comprehension, discussion, and synthesis.
You may have read about them on our home page! Here's some info about how each of them factors into the average session.
Comprehension
The bulk of each session is spent on reading comprehension skills.
Reading comprehension is the ability
to deeply understand the information and meaning of a particular text.
Many students are able to verbally or mentally read a text,
but few of them have mastered the skill of retaining
information once they're done ready!
To combat this issue, we employ a process that we call
guided reading.
In our guided reading process, students learn about different
kinds of important information found in any text--things like
setting, characters, conflict, plot, and resolution.
/
Students practice identifying this information with us
so that they'll be prepared to do it on their own when the time comes!
Comprehension is about learning not just what a text says,
but what the author means for us to understand.
It involves building both a student's vocabulary and
their ability to interpret context clues.
And it pays back in big ways! Students who build their reading comprehension skills benefit across the board--in their science textbooks, math word problems, history lessons, and more.
Discussion
Once we've explored the text itself, we open the floor for discussion!
Students learn to explore the important ideas contained in a text
using their own knowledge and perceptions,
and they get to hear and engage with other students' perspectives.
Discussion is not just about reviewing the contents of a story.
It is about exploring themes and motifs, developing skills of analysis and interpretation,
and preparing to be a part of the verbal milieu of high school and college.
Discussing these ideas verbally also prepares them for essay-writing!
Over the course of their stay at ReadingPlex, students will discuss a variety of topics,
all of which are key to their success at higher levels! These topics include diction and syntax,
literary devices, thematic development, and more.
We break down these tough ideas into questions, discussion topics,
and verbal prompts that are easy for students of all ages to understand!
Synthesis
After verbally discussing the important features, themes, and motifs of texts,
we help students to build up their synthesis skills!
This involves expressing, organizing, and writing out their ideas,
and can take the form of short writing prompts, responses to literature, and persuasive writing.
Many students already have the discussion portion of their skillset down;
they're full of bright ideas! Building their synthesis skills helps
them to compile those ideas in a way that is effective and sensible.
As you might imagine,
synthesis skills become more and more important for students to access as time goes on.
Whereas they may only be writing a page at a time at the 5th-grade level,
they'll eventually be expected to write thousands of words for a single assignment!
By slowly building up their capacity to write,
we'll help them prepare themselves for the arduous writing they'll be doing in the future.
Along the way, we help them build their spelling and grammar skills!
Program Options
Program Options
1. Discussion club
The first one is the discussion or speaking program.
Our discussion or speaking programs include
twice a week (approx. 8 hours of instruction per month)
with your session partner(s) under
the guidance of one of our master instructors, vocabulary instruction,
and selected worksheets and materials.
The discussion program focuses on reading comprehension using books and online articles. The speaking lesson program focuses on students' articulation, pronunciation, and grammar using online articles rather than books.
2.Writing
Our third program is writing.
This program helps students practice the different styles of writing
and address specific areas in their essay writing
such as ideas and content, organization, style, and language convention.
Our writing program helps students develop the necessary skills to write comfortably according to the Common Core State Standards. Students must take a writing assessment in order to join the writing class. The assessment will require students to respond to a prompt under a time limit of one hour.
Writing classes meet once a week for one hour and 30 minutes.
What do students do in the writing class?
Students are introduced to a writing style (informative, argumentative, or narrative) and a topic. Over the next 3-4 classes, students will develop their writing assignments according to the writing process. One day will be spent on each of the following: drafting, editing, and publishing.
It is mandatory that students complete their assigned writing before class,
so the writing instructor can give feedback on their writing.
The goal of this program is to acquaint students with the writing process and the different types of language, form, and style required in informative, argumentative, and narrative writing. This will help prepare students for essay writing required in higher-level education.
3. Academic skill practice
Intense review and practice of grade-level vocabulary word lists using workbooks.
For more information about the program and pricing, please contact us at (657) 200-1118.