Read Naturally's One Minute Reader - TOS Review

It's

REVIEW DAY

and today I am so pleased to share with you

READNaturally's

I was truly excited when I was selected to review One Minute Reader.  My 10 year-old son has some struggles with reading some days, so once I read the description, I thought this might just be the program he needs to boost his reading skills as well as his desire for reading.

One Minute Reader is a home reading program that uses the same research-based strategy as Read Naturally classroom programs. One Minute Reader is a fun and effective way for students to get extra reading practice at home.

For our review we received:

Ready, Set, Orange! Level 1 Starter Kit

Price: $24.95

A book with Audio CD

Instructional DVD

Timer

Scoring Pencil

As well as a bonus Disasters Level 3 Book/CD

One Minute Reader Flyer

THE BOOK CONTAINS:
Level 1 Ready, Set, Orange! - 5 Stories: Salmon, Ann Bancroft, Fan Palms, Big Ben, and the Nile River
Level 3 Disasters- 5 Stories: Titanic's Forgotten Sister, An Unquenchable Fire, Deadly Dust, Caught Unprepared, and Mystery at Rupkund Lake

 

These 1 page stories are five high-interest nonfiction stories that are the right length for readers to practice without being overwhelming. In fact, Nicholas enjoyed these short and interesting stories so much that he was bringing his reading to me asking if we could do it together.  Wow! 

"Lots of people think Big Ben is a clock.  But Big Ben is not a clock...Big Ben is a bell."

-Ready, Set, Orange p. 9 

In each story, Vocabulary words are highlighted in bold, giving attention to words the are defined in the glossary in the back of the book.   Each sentence line is numbered with the word count, increasing with the number of words read. 

Starting with the book, the 1 Minute Timer, and the red/blue recording pencil, Nicholas read the story, out-loud, to me until the one-minute timer went off.  Looking to the side, he checked to see how many words he read in one minute.  If he missed or struggled with any words, he underlined them with his pencil. Then recorded his 'cold' score in blue at the bottom of the page and the graph in the back of the book. This number is how many words he read in one minute minus any words missed.
 

Sample Book

Students develop fluency through modeling (Read Along step), repeated reading (Read Alone step), and progress monitoring (Marking Hot and Cold Scores steps). Students should work in One Minute Reader for 15 to 30 minutes a day, three to five times a week.

Audio CD: Each story is accompanied by 3 Audio readings, starting at a slow pace and gradually increasing each time the narrators reads. At the top of the story page there is a small notation on which track to use on the CD. 

This is when Nicholas would read out-loud with the narrator, over and over, to gain a better handle on the words and story.  Once he felt like he was able to read the story faster without mistakes he then read it outloud to me again.  This time his goal was to improve his score/# of words read in a minute, with fewer mistakes.  I can not tell you how refreshing it was to see him to want to read, not be overwhelmed by the information or length and challenge himself to be better every time he read. 

Quick Quiz: Answering questions about the story encourages students to read for meaning.

These are comprehension, multiple choice questions that helped Nicholas solidify the information he read more concretely into memory. Later, the answers helped him to solve the Joke Jumble game in the back of the book. What a fun reward after all their hard work.

Graph: By graphing their cold and hot scores, students see their progress, which increases self-esteem and motivates them to continue improving.

Sample Record and Activity Sheet

I found this to be extremely true for Nicholas.  He was inspired by the 'beat the clock' time to not miss a single word.  Then it became a race to read the story completely before the timer beeped.  It was great to see him so motivated to get it right so that his 'hot' score was at least much better than his cold if not at 100%.Joke Jumble: The answers to the quiz questions spell out the answers to a riddle.
A fun way to reward for your student after working so hard to complete their reading.

Crossword & Glossary: These help students learn new words from the stories.


Did You Know?: These are fun facts about the story topics.

"The sister ships, the Olympic, the Titanic and the Britannic, had a common passenger.  Violet Jessop survived the crash of the Olympic and the sinking's of both the Titanic and the Britannic."

The instructional DVD that comes with the kit is for the parent to view prior to beginning the program to grasp a greater understanding of how One Minute Reader works. 

To find your child's reading level Read Naturally offers you a One Minute Reader Placement Guide

To Purchase your One Minute Reader Starter Kit or Books Level 1 through 5 you can visit:

http://www.oneminutereader.com/products/

 
Other Level 1 Book/CD Titles include:

COOL CREATURES

INVENTIONS

PEOPLE TO KNOW

And more...

Other Level 3 Book/CD Titles include:

BUGS

ANIMAL HEROES

AMAZING ATHLETES
And more...

8 Books in each Level set that you can purchase in a Bundle for $99.95 or individually for $12.95

Thank you for reading!

From My Heart to Yours,
Mindy B.
Revelation 12:11

Disclaimer: I received this product free of charge for the purposes of sharing my honest opinion and review.

You can read more Reviews from my Crew Mates at The Old Schoolhouse Homeschool Crew HERE