PRIDE Reading Program Review

Disclaimer: I received a FREE copy of this product through the HOMESCHOOL REVIEW CREW in exchange for my honest review. I was not required to write a positive review nor was I compensated in any other way.

Do you have a child who struggles to read? I have a 17 year old daughter with special needs and reading is an extremely difficult task for her. Recently we have been using PRIDE Reading Program and their PRIDE Orange Book Program Kit - Level 2. 

PRIDE Reading Program uses the Orton Gillingham methodology in teaching to learn how to read, write, spelling, and comprehension. Orton Gillingham is a multisensory approach that uses sight, hearing, touch, movement to help children learn to read. It is also sequential, cumulative, structures, and flexible phonics based reading methodology. It is idea for struggling readers and children with dyslexia.

PRIDE Reading Program has several levels to meet your child’s needs. 

 

Everything you need to teach your kids is included

I received PRIDE Orange Book Program Kit - Level 2.  The kit comes with a Student Workbook, Online Teaching Guide, PRIDE Sound Cards, PRIDE Letter Tiles with storage bag, and a PRIDE Activity Kit. PRIDE Activity Kit has a white board, red dry erase marker, dry erase eraser, reading tracer, game dice, poster, and a PRIDE tote bag.

 All the components are used throughout the lessons. Everything that we received is excellent quality. The PRIDE Sound Cards are heavy duty flashcards. PRIDE Letter Tiles are printed on heavy duty compressed cardboard and they can be stored in a zipped storage page that is included. The Sound Cards and Letter Tiles are color coded for consonants, vowels, and other colors for blends.

I love that the set comes with a place for everything to keep the set together with the tote bag. Everything you need to teach your child successfully is included.

You first step before you purchase is to have your child take an assessment test to determine the recommended level to start in. This took my daughter less than 5 minutes to do the placement test. This consisted of decoding & encoded phonemes to me making sure she could tell me the sounds they made. Then the assessment had her spell out some words and this is where she started to struggle. If your child is more advanced it might take a tad longer.

 

Total of eight levels for your teaching needs

There are a total of eight levels in all. Four beginning levels and four advanced levels.  

PRIDE Reading Program Training Course

 

When I open up my training course I know where I am with the training and what unit I have to do next.

The training course has videos and a scripted version for me to follow along.

After you have ordered your program you have a PRIDE Reading Program Training Course to walk you through how to use the program. It consists of videos and the videos are scripted so you can read along too. The course is around 3 hours long and can be taken in increments over several days. 

A quiz is followed by each lesson and a final quiz at the final unit.

Each step has a quiz with just a few questions that you must score 100% before you can go onto the next training step. The training covers every component of the program and how to implement them. The 3 hours seems like a lot of time but I found it moved really quickly and I could do the training when I had some spare time throughout the day. 

PRIDE Online Teaching Guide: is the heart of this curriculum as it provides you with a step-by-step teaching guide that is completely scripted. It is broken up in section with each module having several steps. There is no lesson planning at all as it is done for you.

 

The Online Teaching Guide keeps track of my place for me.

I always have my PRIDE Online Teaching Guide open during the lessons. You cannot do the workbook unless you have this open.

Above are a few photos of the PRIDE Online Teaching Guide. You can see how it is scripted and it broken up in steps.

Just to note that when you go to your account you have two options one is the PRIDE Online Teaching Guide and the Online Teaching Guide. Just click and you have access to the section you need.

Student Workbook: PRIDE Orange Book Program Kit - Level 2 has 19 Modules, each module has 3 units each. This is laid out clearly in the PRIDE Online Teaching Guide. The workbook is a spiral bound workbook with 179 pages. Each lesson can range from 20 minutes to an hour.

The lesson layout is typical in each module. There is a black and white illustration for the phonemes. Each lesson has a word list of words for the phoneme you are learning. 

A completed lesson with some of the words she was working on. You can see that she has the sound written on one side and the word on the other half. She writes a sentence that I give her.

Underneath it are sentences taken from the word list. For example: My daughter is introduced to words: bike, hike, chime, shine, tribe, vine, tile, wipe, drive, pike, slide, ride, and five are just some of the words in one lesson covering the i-e phoneme.

 

My daughter read the story to me. She learned the phonemes practiced some of the words with her spelling.

The next section has a story that is 3 paragraphs using the same words you have already did. The font and point size are a nice size for reading. 

 

My daughter showed that she comprehended what she read from the story. She still needed some help with the spelling of some of the words.

After you have read the story you can write down what you remember from the story. Starting with a title and then 4 sections in time ordered words to complete the assignment. There are several pages of spelling pages to record sounds, words, and sentences. You will also be flipping to some of the pages in the back of the workbook with the lessons for the Red Word list which is basically marking off the words they have mastered in the lesson. You also have fluency drills and games.

The introduction lessons have a sound clip of the sound to play out loud.

Your student can’t move ahead in the module as it is locked until you have completed the lesson. You can go back to the completed lessons if you feel you may need to review a certain skill again. 

The lessons include more than workbook learning as there is several multisensory aspects that should appeal to all learning styles. Some of the multisensory activities are sky writing while standing up, writing on the whiteboard, tapping on their arms, using the letter tiles is just a few things. There is a good variety to help the lessons interesting. 

How Did I use PRIDE Reading Program in my homeschool? 

After I received access to the PRIDE Reading Program Training Course I finished the training while I waited for the student material to arrive. I worked on it off and on for a week during my spare time.

I was really impressed with the training course. I have used a lot of Orton Gillingham & reading programs over the years with my daughter. This is the first time I have went over any training for a program. Sure I have read the "teachers manual" instruction that is provided. This was really unique and covered every aspect of the program.  The videos show you a lesson with a student and they are well done and scripted.

Once my PRIDE Orange Book Program Kit - Level 2 arrived I was ready to go.

My daughter is not your typical student and the Orton Gillingham method isn't new to her. One she is 17 and also she knows all of her constants, vowels, and blends. She can read but it can be extremely difficult for her most of the time and she tends to regress and forgets learned skills in reading often. Spelling is very difficult for her and writing can be challenging both physically and mentally. Some days we had to adjust and make a lesson shorter. I was able to stop in a middle of a lesson if needed.

Knowing her limitations we adapted as needed. She is a trooper and she is patient to go over things again. I added this to her daily schedule knowing that some days we may not get far and other days we flew through a lesson.

Even though the lessons are scripted it was flexible enough for me to work with my unique situation for my daughter.

She enjoyed writing on the white board for me. On days that writing was more challenging I would let her use the letter tiles instead or I would write for her.

She is sounding out each letter as she pulls down a letter tile. After she does that she reads the word to me out loud.

 

She found the activities engaging and not overwhelming. Sometimes a programs has to much going on with it and it makes her feel overwhelmed.

My daughter said, "I liked the stories and the size of the words in the story. " 

This has been a good fit for my daughter. PRIDE Reading Program has been one of the best Orton-Gillingham programs I have used. It is laid out nicely. It doesn't feel overwhelming to the teacher or student. This is nicely done.

Social Media Links:

Facebook: https://www.facebook.com/PrideReadingProgram/
Twitter: https://twitter.com/PrideReadingCo
Instagram: https://www.instagram.com/pridereadingprogram/
Pinterest: https://www.pinterest.com/pridereading/
YouTube: https://www.youtube.com/channel/UCCfQB_M2vL2Ebo8deuwwCrw


The Homeschool Review Crew is using different levels with their kids. I am just 1 of 35 using PRIDE Reading Program in my homeschool. Click here or on the graphic below to see what others think.