Great Leaps vs REWARDS

[Mom-ninja.]

What is the difference between these two? I'm planning ahead at what to use after ABeCeDarian level D. The people on the ABCD email list recommend REWARDS.

[Laurie4b]

What is the difference between these two? I'm planning ahead at what to use after ABeCeDarian level D. The people on the ABCD email list recommend REWARDS.

 

I've never seen Great Leaps. I think REWARDS is excellent, though.

[Stacy in NJ]

I've used both in part. Great Leaps is a timed, structured fluency program; it doesn't teach phonetics. REWARDS is a mutisyllable learning to read program that incorporates some fluency practice. You could do both at the some time (I did). Great Leaps is very time efficient, taking only a few minutes per day. REWARDS is more time intensive.

 

If you have more specific questions, please ask.

[chiguirre]

I think something like this is what I need for my ds, but I'm not sure. He's a just turned 9yo who can decode 3rd grade books like Squanto, Friend of the Pilgrims (RL 3.0) but who lacks fluency. His main problems are tracking from line to line consistently and substituting high frequency words. He's also a slow reader, but he can answer basic comprehension questions well. He's got high-functioning autism, but I don't think this is specifically an autism related problem so I hope a general audience solution could work for him. I've heard of vision therapy, but it's just not possible for us to afford or drive to at this time, so I'd like to try something home-based first.

 

Would either Rewards or Great Leaps be what I'm looking for? They both sound great, but I need to choose one to start with. Is there something else that might work better in this situation?

 

Thank you!

[Stacy in NJ]

I think something like this is what I need for my ds, but I'm not sure. He's a just turned 9yo who can decode 3rd grade books like Squanto, Friend of the Pilgrims (RL 3.0) but who lacks fluency. His main problems are tracking from line to line consistently and substituting high frequency words. He's also a slow reader, but he can answer basic comprehension questions well. He's got high-functioning autism, but I don't think this is specifically an autism related problem so I hope a general audience solution could work for him. I've heard of vision therapy, but it's just not possible for us to afford or drive to at this time, so I'd like to try something home-based first.

 

Would either Rewards or Great Leaps be what I'm looking for? They both sound great, but I need to choose one to start with. Is there something else that might work better in this situation?

 

Thank you!

 

My completely unsolicitated opinion is that vision therapy is largely a scam. So, no loss there, imho.

 

REWARDS is for children reading on at least a 4th grade level, so you may want to hold off on that for a few months. Great Leaps would be a good place to start to develop fluency. Although, I think fluency is one thing that can easily be worked on without a structured program.

 

Have him read and then re-read, and then re-read again the same material aloud - every day - until he can do it fluently. Set a timer for 10 minutes, have him read a paragraph aloud, gently correcting word errors as he goes. Do the same thing the next day using the same paragraph, and the same the next day... You get the idea. If he continues to sound out words that he's encountered several time, place your finger over the word and say, "You know this word, close your eyes, take your time and then just say it."

 

Reading the same material over and over again develops fluency. That's it.

 

HTH, Stacy

 

ETA: I just want to recommend poetry memorization to help with fluency and memory as well. The poems from FLL are a nice place to start if you're not already doing this.

Edited November 18, 2009 by Stacy in NJ
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[Mom-ninja.]

Thanks Stacey,

 

ABCD level C teaches prefixes/suffixes and syllables and level D teaches Greek/Latin roots. So this is what REWARDS teaches pretty much? Maybe if ds still needs work in this area I'll look into REWARDS when we're done with ABCD. Right now he has a hard time with multisyllable words. He's just learning how to break them up to sound them out.

 

My friend has a copy of Great Leaps that she said I could check out. I might use that for fluency as well as having him read. For fluency (which he needs a lot of wrok on) should he read out loud to me or does silent reading also help? I'm thinking out loud, right?

[chiguirre]

Thanks for the help, Stacey! I'll stick with what we're doing including the FLL and fluency practice. Today went much, much better and I'm hoping it's the light at the end of the reading tunnel.

[siloam]

Thanks for the help, Stacey! I'll stick with what we're doing including the FLL and fluency practice. Today went much, much better and I'm hoping it's the light at the end of the reading tunnel.

 

From what I am hearing I would lean towards Great Leaps if you get any. It has three sections, first is a phonics, second is phrases and the last is a reading portion. The child goes over one page in each section every day and needs to be able to complete it without errors in a set period of time. The goal in say phonics is so the child can recognize b and d quickly and correctly. With phrases that the child recognize high frequency phrases and not do the word substitutes, and then the reading brings the other two together. I started to use it with my 2nd dd but she has just enough OCD tendencies that she started reading and rereading her worksheets for math and such till she also got them perfect. :blink: I had to put it aside (keeping it for 3rd dd to use later) and now am having 2nd dd read with recordings to build fluency and keep her out of the rereading habit.

 

Heather