Where Do I Start?

1. Click the back arrow from the "Store" page twice to return to the website "Home" page.
2. On the website "Home" page click on "Where Do I Start" in the Where Do I Start? section.
3. Follow the instructions which appear which will be:
4. Click on “Identifying and Correcting Blocked Learning Gates.”
5. Circle the symptoms in each Learning Gate that your child/teen is exhibiting. Carefully study the interventions (corrections) that are used to correct each gate.
6. If reading is a problem, click on "Quick Word Recognition Placement Test with Instructions", and give the Quick Word Reading Test to determine present reading level.
7. Click on the tab: “Lesson Plans”
8. If your child/teen has a Reading problem:

Instead of the present reading and phonics program you are using, follow each step in the Daily Lesson plan for a Struggling Reader.This is a 45-60 minute daily remedial teaching session that covers all parts of reading. It is exactly the plan I followed when working with my struggling readers or kids/teens with Dyslexia in my Resource Room in school (students 2^nd-8^th grade) , to achieve the 2 year growth in reading in one year. You can be your child’s own Resource Reading teacher at home. This replaces your present reading curriculum until your child tests one grade above reading level in the Quick Score Reading test. (Be brave…trust me)   When this happens, you can then go back to your other reading curriculum, or any ‘regular’ reading curriculum.

1. If your child/teen has a Writing Glitch (which can accompany a reading problem, or can be all by itself, in a child/teen who actually reads way above grade level, or who writes or spells very primitively).

Instead of the present Language Arts program (grammar, composition, handwriting, and spelling) you are using, follow each step in the Daily Lesson Plan for a Struggling Writer and Speller. This is a 45-60 minutes daily remedial writing/spelling session that covers all parts of writing. It is exactly the plan I used when working with my struggling writers and spellers in my Resource Room in school to achieve the 2 year growth in writing and spelling in a year. Just be brave and put the ‘other’ curriculum you have been using on the shelf. After all, if that was working well, you wouldn’t be on this site, looking for alternative answers to teaching. You can go back to the other “typical” curriculum once your child/teen is spelling and writing easily for you.

In summary,   your teaching/tutoring day for a child/teen who has a reading AND writing glitch, you would spend 45-60 minutes doing all the steps in the Daily Reading Plan. Then, after a break, you would then have your other part of the Language Arts program…the Daily Writing/Spelling plan for about 45-60 minutes.   The rest of the day, you can do the other subjects (Math, History, Science) in the way that has been working.