Joyce Herzog has created a reading system that makes sense to kids. It is called Scaredy Cat Reading.
After using the placement test, I knew my daughter was on track for Scaredy Cat Reading System Level 3, $100, so that is the one I requested.
Scaredy Cat Reading System is set up to make reading fun!
After about 30 pages of teacher training, you are ready to teach the Scaredy Cat way where mastery is the key!
There is also some teacher prep work as far as cutting out some of the game cards. I decided to break that up into chunks. Each week I cut out what I think we will use for the following week. That way I haven’t been getting overwhelmed with all the cutting.
Games, games and more games is the Scaredy Cat way.
They use a “Menu Plan” to classify what type of day you will be having. By doing this you keep things new. Joyce Herzog says, “Variety is the spice of life!” Don’t worry, she also says, “DO not plan to do every activity.”
The “Appetizer Day” is for wetting their appetite and having fun, showing the student more fun is to come. You just do one activity on these days. Some examples are Cartoon Days, or a Letter Master Day. (more on the Letter Master below.)
The “Salad Day” is for getting into in a little bit more. On these days, Katey didn’t even realize she was learning yet. You just do one activity on these days. Some examples are a Story Day, a Bingo Day, or even a Review Day.
The “Main Course Days” are the bigger lesson days, you do two activities on these days. Some examples are, a Lesson Day (doing a lesson from the book), a Work Day, or a Test Day.
The “Dessert Days” are fun days, you celebrate the progress your child has made, or play a game with them.
The Letter Master – Ah, yes, let’s meet him. He is great! With all the levels of Scaredy Cat Reading you get a mini comic book which tells the story of how the letters got their sounds. It is fun. This is something you read/listen to repeatedly to get the letter sounds down. Joyce suggests listening to it while playing with Legos or something similar.
This system is based on mastery. How does Mastery usually happen? By doing something over and over. That could be boring. That is what is so great about this. You change it up every day, even though your child is learning/reviewing the same thing until they have mastered it. Mastery is considered reading words from the rule they are working on at 30 words per minute. By then they will have become sight words.
I have been glad that we could just jump right in and begin at the level we needed. This can be used for any age and I think my older children can benefit from the spelling rules taught.
This product is so great for me because there is just enough structure to keep us going, yet it is flexible enough for us not to get bored with it, and easy enough for us not to get burned out on it. Each day has taken us about 30 minutes to get through a lesson.
This isn’t really age specific, so if you have a child learning to read, have them take the placement test and see which level would be a good fit for them. There are 4 levels of the system.
Many of Joyce Herzog products were reviewed by the crew, including all levels of Scaredy Cat Reading System. Check out this post. While your there subscribe to our crew blog.
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