| What is Reading In Motion? |
| What kind of results do you get? |
| I already have a reading program. Why do I need Reading In Motion? |
| Does Reading In Motion fit the Chicago Public Schools Reading Framework? |
| Who supports Reading In Motion? How is the company funded? |
| What percentage of fundraising dollars goes directly to the programs? |
| Do you choose the schools or do they choose you? |
| How many children do you serve? |
| How can you know that students read better after Reading In Motion? |
| How does Reading In Motion train teachers? |
| What does a typical Reading In Motion classroom look like? |
| Does Reading In Motion have programs outside of Chicago? |
| Can I receive graduate credit for participating? |
| How can I schedule an informational workshop on Reading In Motion
at my school? |
| How much do your programs cost at each school? |
| Do you work with Special Education students? |
Do you work with bilingual students?
|
| What is Reading In Motion? |
Reading In Motion teaches children to read by using the natural connections between reading and the arts. The curriculum is engaging and fun. Reading In Motion trains teachers in public schools to make their reading curriculum more effective and help at-risk children learn to read through music and drama. Also critical to the success of the Reading In Motion program is the step-by-step approach to classroom management, including data-driven small group instruction by the teacher and literacy-based work areas for students when they are not participating in a small group.
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| What kind of results does Reading In Motion achieve? |
Reading In Motion commissions outside researchers to measure and evaluate its programs. Studies have been published in peer-reviewed journals including the Journal of Educational Research (2000) and Evaluation Review (2003).
The research shows that Reading In Motion programs have greatly improved the reading skills of students in Chicago Public Schools. According to the 3D Research group, which has conducted all of the independent studies of Reading In Motion work: "These results provide strong evidence that teachers trained in Reading In Motion improved their students' reading scores significantly more than teachers who used other methods."
To see specific studies on Reading
In Motion programs, click
here.
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| I already have a reading program. Why do I need Reading
In Motion? |
We use the arts to teach reading because the arts work. Study after study has shown that arts-based instruction helps children learn to read and improves their test scores. We have seen that children learn faster when they are engaged in and excited about what they are learning. Use of music and drama in the education process facilitates this. Simply put, Reading In Motion uses things kids like – to sing and act – to teach them something they need – to learn to read.
Reading In Motion is unique because it will boost the results of the reading program you are currently using. Students respond enthusiastically to our activities, and the research on our program is conclusive.
Click here to see the full research
results.
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| Does Reading In Motion fit the Chicago Public Schools Reading
framework? |
Yes. We address Word Knowledge, Fluency and Comprehension.
* In Kindergarten to second grade, Reading In Motion focuses on word knowledge.
* In second and third grades, Reading In Motion focuses on fluency and comprehension.
In addition, Reading In Motion is approved as an External Partner by the Chicago Public Schools Office of Accountability.
For more information click
here to link to
CPS Reading Framework page.
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| Who supports Reading In Motion? How is the company funded? |
Reading In Motion is funded by private and corporate donations. In addition, the schools that use our programs pay a fee for the services we provide.
For a complete list of our supporting organizations, please click here.
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| What percentage of fundraising dollars goes directly to
the programs? |
Nearly 75 percent of all contributed dollars go directly to programs for children, not towards administration or fundraising costs. This is better than the recommendations of The Better Business Bureau's charity watchdog organization, Wise Giving Alliance, which suggests that no less than 65 percent of solicited contributions go directly to program support.
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Do you choose the schools or do they choose you? |
"We collaborate with schools to help them create the right Reading In Motion program for the school, the teachers and the students," explains Executive Director, Karl Androes. "We work together to offer the school the kind of reading help that they need."
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| How many children do you serve? |
Since its inception in 1983, Reading In Motion has improved the reading skills of more than 35,000 Chicago Public School students. During the 2006-2007 School year, Reading In Motion served over 3,000 students.
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| How can you know that students read better after Reading
In Motion? |
Each year, we analyze progress monitoring and benchmark data for all the students receiving Reading In Motion instruction and compare it to control classrooms (without Reading In Motion) in similar schools. We also look at data across years to assess sustained results.
Independent research has demonstrated that Reading In Motion programs have improved the reading skills of students in the Chicago Public Schools by nearly two months for every month Reading In Motion is in the classroom. Click here to read summaries of several such studies.
Research on the correlation between drama-based reading instruction and improved reading comprehension test scores merited a juried article in The Journal of Educational Research in 2000.
Two of our research studies were cited in a report by researchers at Harvard University. The report was entitled, “The Arts and Academic Improvement: What the Evidence Shows” © (2000).
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| How does Reading In Motion train teachers? |
Reading In Motion provides a summer training session giving teachers a thorough orientation to the techniques and curriculum used in the program. Then during the school year, Reading In Motion teacher coaches visit the classrooms of those teachers on a weekly basis, answering questions, providing feedback and ensuring the fidelity of the program.
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| What does a typical Reading In Motion classroom look like? |
At each grade level, the first few lessons focus on basic learning skills such as self-control and teamwork. Children enhance these skills through lessons that they experience as games rather than schoolwork or self-discipline. Gradually, the lessons shift from learning skills to reading skills.
For young children, hearing the individual sounds in spoken words is a skill that requires careful listening, just as hearing and performing music does. That’s why in kindergarten we use music to teach phonemic awareness, a critical building block for learning to read. Phonemic awareness is the ability to hear and manipulate individual sounds within a spoken word. We have found that music provides a rich, engaging environment for children to explore this skill through rhythm, tempo and call-and-response lyrics. For example, our kindergartners learn to identify the first sound in a word through songs like “Train Is A-Coming,” which compares the train’s engine to the first sound in a word.
Once children learn to hear the individual sounds in spoken words, they need to learn that printed letters visually represent those sounds. Then, through a carefully crafted progression of songs and games, the children begin to work on the essential skills of segmenting the sounds within a word and its corollary, blending to make words out of their individual sounds.
Once children have mastered these skills, they can move on to fluency in grades two and three. Fluency, reading with speed, accuracy and expression, is accomplished through practice reading of a printed text out loud. To prevent boredom, which may come with repetition, Reading In Motion uses drama to keep the students engaged. Children love to act out stories and by using drama techniques, we make repeated reading fun by turning their oral recitations into “mini-auditions,” repetition into “rehearsals,” and the final fluent reading into a dramatic “performance.”
The final key skill necessary for successful reading is comprehension— the making and storing of meaning from text. Forming mental pictures while reading, or visualization, is a key to reading comprehension. Once again, drama is an engaging method for teaching visualization skills because both actors and good readers form pictures in their heads as they read. We use a variety of exercises to teach these skills, such as creating paper symbols to represent the story’s characters, setting and props, and 3-panel drawings, which help students recognize the beginning, middle and end of a story.
Click here to see the Benchmarks kindergarten program. Small Group | Whole Group
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| Does Reading In Motion have programs outside of Chicago? |
At this time, Reading In Motion’s programs are exclusive to Chicago. However, in the future, we plan to take the program to classrooms all across the country.
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| Can I receive graduate credit for participating? |
Yes. Reading In Motion is an approved provider of CEUs and CPDUs by the Illinois State Board of Education. Contact our office at 312-357-9463 for more information.
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| How can I schedule an informational workshop on Reading
In Motion at my school? |
You can call our office at 312-357-9463 or email Sandra Sorrentino at sandy@readinginmotion.org to set up an informational workshop.
Reading In Motion is located at:
65 E. Wacker Place, Suite 1800
Chicago, IL 60601-7238
Telephone: (312) 357-9463
Facsimile: (312) 357-0130
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| How much do your programs cost at each school? |
Reading In Motion is fee-based, depending on the number of classrooms and teachers involved in the program. Each school pays a portion of the cost. For more information contact sandy@readinginmotion.org.
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| Do you work with Special Education students? |
Yes. Special Education teachers find Reading In Motion effective for two reasons:
* Students can get up and move around in specific, controlled ways during Reading In Motion activities. These activities allow students to release built-up energy that Special Education students sometimes channel into misbehavior.
* All our programs start with classroom management activities that teach students to respect each other and listen carefully.
We have a specific process for implementation of our curriculum, but are also flexible and tailor our program to different formats or schedules.
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| Do you work with bilingual students? |
"Reading In Motion began development of a Spanish version of its successful reading program in 2006 called "Lectura en movimiento." The kindergarten Spanish language program was piloted during the 2006-2007 school year. By year end, 85% of those students had achieved grade level reading skills, the same great results as with the English language Reading In Motion program.*
This Reading In Motion program is designed to help Spanish speaking students learn to read, first in Spanish and then in English. Research has shown that stopping exposure to a child's native language has an adverse effect on cognitive development. Additionally, there is strong evidence that early literacy skills developed in a native language facilitate the development of those skills in a second language.
The Reading In Motion Spanish language version is not simply a translation of the English program. It is based on the same philosophy, using music and drama as tools to engage and motivate students to learn to read. However, the scope and sequence of skills learned are specific to how children learn to read in Spanish. Additionally, the program is based on learning to manipulate syllables, as opposed to phonemes, since the syllable is the most salient linguistic unit of the Spanish language.
*These results were based on IDEL (Indicadores Dinamicos del Exito en la Lectura) in Spanish and DIBELS (Dynamic Indicators of Basic Early Literacy Skills) in English."
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