Pilot Curricula Very Cost-Effective

IEI has not been able to secure enough funding to provide free curriculum. We are still attempting to do so, but it appears too late for the 2003-04 school year. We are able to provide Pilot Project participants with heavily discounted curricula, as described below.

To what extent you participate in the Pilot Project will be your decision. Will you use the curriculum as your exclusive reading curriculum, as your primary curriculum with outside supplement, or as a supplement to some other curriculum? We will analyze resulting data accordingly.

One advantage of the COMPUTERIZED CURRICULA recommended is that after the first few days, students can work quite independently under the guidance of an aide or volunteer. The teacher then can use this time to work with smaller groups of children while the children on computer are progressing rapidly with the recommended multi-sensory curricula providing visual, auditory and tactile learning simultaneously. (Some computerized curricula are less than beneficial to students, but other curricula, such as Reading Master, have helped students make incredible improvements -- in some cases where even one-on-one tutoring has failed.) Especially if volunteers are used to oversee the computerized training, this Combo Curriculum is very cost-effective.

CHILDREN, AGES 3-7

FRONTLINE PHONICS

We recommend Frontline Phonics as the primary curriculum to build basic decoding skills, and both Reading Master and Doman Picture Dictionaries as supplemental curricula to build reading vocabulary and comprehension. Frontline Phonics is the primary curriculum we are using in our First-Year Pilot Project for kindergartners and preschoolers. It can also be used for older children who need to develop phonics-based decoding skills quickly.

You can customize your Frontline Phonics curriculum, as in the first example below, or order a Classroom Package (I or II). In private schools where book costs can be passed on to parents or in other well-funded classrooms, having a book for every child (from each and every set) is ideal -- especially if the children, after mastering a reader, can take it home, read it to their families, and keep it for repeated reading.

READING MASTER

Reading Master is a multimedia reading curriculum that teaches phonics, vocabulary and comprehension, along with interesting and valuable information about science and nature. You are free to customize the Reading Master curriculum order, as needed. Some classes are only ordering the computerized version for use in the school computer lab, and maybe one or two sets of books and videos for use in the classroom. Others are ordering enough of the book and videotaped versions to send home with children to encourage and facilitate parental involvement. Here are a couple of example prices. Our recommendation is to give children access to the computerized version at least 15 minutes a day. Other versions are optional.

DOMAN PICTURE DICTIONARY CDs

The set of 10 CD-ROMs cover 1,500 written and spoken vocabulary words on a wide range of subjects and in five languages.

STUDENTS, AGES 7-18

COMBINATION CURRICULUM FOR OLDER STUDENTS

IEI's Combination Curriculum for Older Students includes:

READING MASTER

Reading Master is a multimedia reading curriculum that teaches phonics, vocabulary and comprehension, along with interesting and valuable information about science and nature.  You are free to customize the Reading Master curriculum order, as needed, so the pricing below is provided as an example. Some classes are only ordering the computerized version for use in the school computer lab, and maybe one or two sets of books and videos for use in the classroom. Others are ordering enough of the book and videotaped versions to send home with children on a daily basis. Our recommendation is to give students access to the computerized version at least 15 minutes a day at school and have all versions available as "homework," depending on their individual needs and interests and their access to technology outside of school.

DOMAN PICTURE DICTIONARY CDs

The set of 10 CD-ROMs cover 1,500 written and spoken vocabulary words on a wide range of subjects and in five languages. Our recommendation is to give students access to the Picture Dictionaries at least 15 minutes a day.

ONLINE CURRICULA

SkillsTutor contains approximately 1,100 lessons or learning activities available on demand via the Internet. We recommend 20-30 minutes a day on SkillsTutor -- plus additional time outside school.

The MDI Learning Center offers hundreds of self-improvement classes in multimedia format. Courses include Computer Literacy, Excel Spreadsheet and Time Management. We recommend these courses be made available to students about once per week -- as well as from home computers. The Learning Center also offers live video-conferencing between students and teachers for consulting, discussion and assistance.