Start Reading consists of 15 storybooks on CD-ROM organized in the following format:
 

Stories on the CD are delightfully inspiring and organized around themes of interest for today's children.  Click here to see some screen shots of the stories.

Also included at the end of each storybook are comprehension questions, maximizers, and extenders.

The comprehension questions are designed to challenge the young mind. They cover literal, critical, inferential, and creative comprehension skills. They assist in assessing the child's understanding of the story. The questions are displayed after the story. Click here to see the comprehension questions.

The maximizers are displayed after the questions. These are unknown words that gives the child more opportunity to develop phonemic awareness and apply the knowledge of sounds to new words. Click here to see a maximizers section.

The extenders are sentences designed to provide further practice using cumulative vocabulary. These sentences contain words which stress the phonetic skill taught in each book. Click here to see an extenders section.

Teaching Procedures with the CD-ROM
        The narrator on the CD-ROM serves as the instructor for the children.  The teacher or parent is expected to assist the children, however, as they learn to use the keyboard or mouse to open the Start Reading program and respond to the requests of the narrator as they learn to read the stories.  See page 24 for instructions to install and use Start Reading on the computer.
        Children respond orally to the directions given by the narrator.  Some of the requests are to:  “listen,” “repeat,” “read the sentence,” and “spell and read.”  They are also asked to answer literal, interpretative, critical, and creative
comprehension questions about the stories they read.
        When children complete each workbook, they have the skills necessary to read the story on the CD-ROM.  Using the computer is highly motivational.  Reading the story and responding to the requests of the narrator provide opportunities to become fluent in reading, to read with expression, and to develop visual and auditory sequential discrimination, closure, and association skills.  Reading the words they previously have learned in interesting stories with pictures and animation also develops a real interest in reading.  Reading has become a successful experience!
        The words in the Start Reading stories on the CD-ROM are written in manuscript handwriting and correspond to the handwriting the children have learned to use in the workbooks.  This reinforces what the students have previously learned in handwriting and spelling.
        Start Reading prevents failure.  The narrator models first for the children, and the children repeat what they hear and see.  The narrator then prompts the children to read sentences and spell and read a few specific words on their own.  They listen to rhyming words.  At the end of each storybook, the children are able to read unknown words and new sentences using the sounds and words previously learned.  Children learn to readily recognize phonograms–chunks of sounds–so word recognition becomes automatic.  They re-read stories to develop expression.

Return to Start Reading!