60 Powerful Seconds

Getting early readers to practice their new craft is often one of the most difficult things that an elementary school teacher has to do, so a reading program that doles out small, pithy selections is a great idea. Called One Minute Reader, the program was created by Read Naturally for home schoolers, but it can be an effective tool in the classroom. The program seeks to improve comprehension, vocabulary and especially fluency while boosting confidence with age appropriate short reading selections. Each story has comprehension questions to help reinforce the skills learned and students or teachers are encouraged to graph the results. The starter kit comes with everything needed to get going, including an instructional DVD that explains how One Minute Read works, a book with five illustrated stories and a companion audio CD, a timer and a red/blue graphing pencil; it all fits into a handy storage album. There are packets for E through Level 5 readers, each of which costs $250.