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Thank you for visiting our page about Read Right--a reading program designed to help all readers grow and achieve personal excellence in their reading skills!

Read Right was established at Paola Middle School and Paola High School during the 2016-2017 school year, and has been serving students of all ability levels from grades six through twelve.  The goal of our program is to help all students become effective, efficient readers through a guidance system that improves comprehension skills.  It is a brain-based approach to improving the guiding process of reading in the neural network, reforming neural processes within the brain that allow students to make meaning of text more quickly and easily.  

Each student who enters Read Right is given an individual consultation to determine where best to begin their journey.  The program is self-paced, allowing students to start in their comfort level, and slowly and methodically increase their skills in more difficult text.  Repetition of the cycling process in the Excellent Reading component allows students to practice comprehension, predictability, and understanding while reading, and to confirm or reject their predictions as they read.  They will then practice reading for Excellence with a teacher.  Tutoring sessions are limited to small groups (no more than 5 students per tutor), so students get frequent opportunities for performance and feedback during each class session.

Students also practice reading whole text without practice during Coached Reading sessions.  This is an opportunity for one-on-one coaching from a tutor and occurs weekly.  Students are encouraged to challenge themselves with text that will help them grow, but not frustrate them, as they read aloud for a ten minute session.

During Critical Thinking sessions, which occur once a week, students work as a group to discuss their answers to articles or activities that require them to pick the best answer or response to questions over a selection.  Students discuss how they came to the answers they chose, and decide as a group if the answer is the best choice for the question.  The tutor's job is to ensure that the group stays on task, and that thinking stays focused on using the text to guide answers.  Students enjoy Critical Thinking sessions as this gives them the opportunity to be in charge of the lesson.  They develop their reasoning skills and their speaking skills during this activity.

Independent Reading is encouraged for all students involved with this program.  We encourage students to read at least 20 minutes outside of class, so that they can experience how the new strategies they are learning during tutoring effect how they are reading.  Books below their current tutoring range are available and students are encouraged to read these in class.  The tutor can help guide students to the best levels for them to read outside of the classroom books as well, using books available from the school or public library.

We encourage students of all ability levels to come to Read Right to experience how powerful the learning process is for themselves!  At the high school level, we use Read Right to help prepare students for taking the ACT and SAT tests.  Our graduated levels are more difficult at this level for students who are cycling in the Excellent Reading component of the class, as well as during Coaching.  

Students who Graduate from Read Right have achieved Excellence in the highest level of difficulty they are able to reach.  They are confident readers, and more often then not, find that their academic success has improved in other classes as well.  More responses from graduate student and current students can be found in an additional link on this page.  Please visit this link to see what students think of Read Right, and what parents have shared about their experiences with their children as well!