The Teacher’s Guild is dedicated to providing quality programs that give all students access to the best instruction and curriculum. The Teacher’s Guild program Intelligent Reader utilizes curriculum widely used in private schools that is grounded in respected research on brain development and learning styles.
Why a reading program? Reading is fundamental, critical to all other learning paths. Education is still about being strong in reading, writing, and arithmetic, but those disciplines all begin with reading. The way that you learn math and writing and science is by learning to read first.
Great thinkers are great readers and learners. Becoming a great reader is a foundational piece to all other education. Intelligent Reader challenges students to learn to read, think, and love to learn.
Intelligent Reader is tailored to K-8 students who would benefit from an intensive supplement to their normal schooling or as an option for home schooled students who would benefit from instruction from a trained professional teacher and a strong curriculum. Intelligent Reader will help with all other pieces of the home school curriculum.
Each month classes focus on mastering specific skills in reading like sequence of events, cause & effect, or character development. Learning these skills equip students with the ability to analyze any type of reading and apply lessons they learn through literature to real life situations.
In the Intelligent Reader classroom, students are always creating. Students keep a spec log - a graphic organizer for their learning. Classes approach every story from different skill sets and students begin building their knowledge about the story by identifying key words, characters, main points, etc. as well as engaging kinesthetically by creating graphic representations of key points.
During class time, students engage in what they have learned about the story so far, spend time reading in small groups with classmates, work on spec logs and create visual representation of the skills they have just learned. Intelligent Reader emphasizes teaching strategies, so students know how to apply their knowledge.
Teachers challenge their students to answer questions like “How did the author use the main characters to convey the main points of the story?” and “What were the main events of the story and how do they relate to each other?” Students also strengthen their skills by presenting to their peers. Presentations include constructive dialogue such as the student’s conclusions about aspects of a story, why the author made certain decisions, and the morals of the story.
In most classrooms learning happens through the teacher dispensing information, but pedagogical research has proven that is not the most effective way to learn. Intelligent Reader teachers do a lot of listening, understanding that students learn most by speaking and creating.
Classes meet for 1hr 30min once or twice a week (depending on the enrollment package) on Mondays, Tuesdays, Wednesdays, Thursdays, and Saturdays. Teachers are also available outside of class time for independent instruction.
Intelligent Reader classes include 12 different skills per grade per year, K-8th. Every four weeks the classes focus on a different reading skill. Skills are not dependent on each other, but students must start with “sequence of events.” Students can enroll at the beginning of any month.
Parents receive a feedback report at least once a quarter with a narrative assessment of the student’s work and progress. Teacher’s Guild is also developing standardized pre & post assessments for the Intelligent Reader program.
With so much time spent on test prep in public school today, where do students learn to intelligently analyze a story? or learn how to apply the principles of a story in their own life? Intelligent Reader equips students the skills to be an effective reader and develop the thinking skills they need to be most successful.
The cost of Intelligent Reader is similar to test prep tutoring, but the quality of instruction is not comparable. With Intelligent Reader students create meaningful content, not just respond to multiple choice questions.
In many classrooms, more gifted students are losing out on the opportunity to be challenged in test/result focused classrooms. With the Intelligent Reader program students are developing the reading skills and strategies that are most common in the best students and thinkers that are successful at universities.
Find out more about Intelligent Reader on the Teacher's Guild Facebook or Twitter, also by callling the office at (678) 527-8911.
