We have been using a variety of multi-sensory reading programs from MaxScholar. For this review, I received a one year subscription for two students for MaxScholar Reading Intervention Programs.
What is MaxScholar?
MaxScholar is a multi-sensory, reading, language program that uses the Orton-Gillingham and Lindamood Bell methods to teach reading. It is especially good for students with learning difficulties such as dyslexia. However, even if a student doesn’t have dyslexia or other reading issues MaxScholar works equally as well.
The two reading programs are MaxPhonics and MaxReading. MaxPhonics is based upon Orton-Gillingham techniques, using a multi-sensory approach. The activities feature visual, tactile and auditory drills. The visual aspect comes with learning to recognize the letters on sight. The student traces the letters for the tactile aspect and the auditory reinforces the sound the letter makes.
MaxPhonics is broken down into four different modules: PreK consonants and short vowels, consonants and short vowels, blends and finally digraphs. Rebekah found the activities in MaxPhonics to be engaging.
MaxReading is designed to improve students’ reading levels, reading comprehension, writing and vocabulary. The stories in MaxReading can be read either by the student, by a teacher/parent or by clicking on the button to have it read aloud. After the story is read the student is asked to highlight the topic, main idea and other important details within the story. Next the student is asked five questions which test the student’s comprehension of the passage.
I really like that the kids can get instant feedback on how well they do both with the highlighting and with the comprehension questions. The highlighting portion shows what the student highlighted on half the screen while the correct highlighting is shown on the other half. This works well so that they can see right where they had problems.
Other programs available on MaxScholar include MaxWords, MaxMusic, MaxVocab, MaxPlaces and MaxBios. These extra programs work to complement the reading portion and continue to strengthen the students reading skills in a fun way.
MaxWords, MaxPlaces and MaxBios were the favorite extras for Adisyn and Brock (who just couldn’t resist trying his hand at these MaxScholar programs.)
MaxWords uses the words that are most used in the other portions of the MaxScholar program. This helps the student to recognize both the word and its definition when they see it in context.
With MaxPlaces the kids get to travel the world and learn about different regions, cities and peoples. There is a highlighting portion involved with MaxPlaces that provides extra practice but is not scored. There are also comprehension questions after the student reads the passage.
Want to learn more about important historical figures? Then check out MaxBios. These people include those in the entertainment industry, business, women, athletes and musicians.
Overall we really liked MaxScholar. It is a great program to help kids improve their reading skills.
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Jennifer
