(1888PressRelease)
August 07, 2007 - Parents and teachers are often struggling to find great reading resources to give their child or student the edge in reading. With so much on offer, much of it unaffordable in any great quantity, Stargazer's Guided Reading Kit is becoming a hit with schools and parents.
The concept is relatively simple. Take an entire guided reading kit that would go for upwards of 6,000-8,000 U.S. dollars and instead of printing it, put it on a CD.
The regular guided reading kits retail at such a high cost due to their printing, especially as the company takes great risk in deciding how many to print. But in the case of the CD, prices can remain relatively low because the whole program is on a CD, to be printed at home or on a school printer.
Stargazer's Guided Reading Kit definitely fills the void in the market. "People are amazed at the price. 'You mean we get a whole guided reading kit for 200 dollars?' They always want to make sure of what is one it," says Stargazer Press CEO.
But the program has a clean look. Each CD contains 130 printable stories in two different formats and these stories are in 26 levels of reading. They are fictional stories but of high interest with the interest and maturity growing with the child. There are also lesson plans for each story and coloring sheets. The layout of the CD is impressive, showing all the files to open.
The illustrations are done by professionals who specialize in this field. As a result, children are interested in the story, especially if the parent or teacher allows them to color in an occasional story.
"Every year, we add more schools to our list. We've even published a list on our website," says Stargazer Press CEO. "As a parent, I'm going to look at that list and say, well if the schools want it then I might as well buy it and get my preschooler going on this program."
The program itself has flexibility. Do one story and then skip to a different level or back and forth. Some teachers take out stories and maintain them for themes in Science. Just look at the lesson plan and read through the easy-to-use plan.
The biggest feature of this program are its easy-to-use quality and its ability to inspire a lifelong interest in reading.
"With guided reading as a philosophy, you can't loose. Unlike other teaching styles that try to quanitfy what children are learning, this philosophy is geared toward the concept that the children are on the journey and the adult is just doing his or her part along the way."
Lesson plans use the guided reading philosophy with its focus on the following: introducing vocabulary before reading, rereading stories at least three times over a month, prereading to capture interest, post reading to capture as much reading comprehension as possible, not to mention great Word Activities and fun Whole Reading Activities.
"Absolutely stop by our website, have a look at our samples and you will definitely see the advantages of such a program. What we find is that teachers, principals and parents are teaching us even more uses of our programs. One teacher told me she was laminating the program for a take home reading program. Another principal told me that he was sending them to the printers for masters. One set up a whole borrowing library. Another teacher said she'd use the coloring sheets as achievement certificates. The list goes on," says Stargazer Press CEO.
This program is now available in Canadian English, U.S. English, British English, French, Spanish and German.
The second program which compliments this program is Stargazer's Reading Games by a Reading Teacher in Missouri.
