School Days: Max Scholar

The month of June means the end of the school year for many families, including ours, for the most part anyway. We do a few light activities throughout the summer here and there, and I also use this time to assess the past school year. I look back on what did and didn't work, see where there may be any gaps in our coursework. At this time, it's helpful to track the progress of my girls, and see if they're on track with their grade level(s).

Happily, I have had some help in the assessment of reading skills for my daughters. Our family received a 12 month subscription to the Reading Intervention Programs by MaxScholar to review.

This bundle of programs uses a variety of techniques to help students of all ages in their phonics, reading, and comprehension skills.

Getting started was alright once we got going, but I confess that it took some clicking around the site to figure things out. Once you sign up, you'll have a username and password. Parents and students each have their own separate accounts. Once set up, you'll come to the menu page, and can select one of seven categories:

- MaxPhonics

We started with this one, as we weren't sure if this program was meant to be done using all seven categories, regardless of age. You begin with a pretest, and then the program places you where it thinks you belong. The program uses animation, video, and more to guide students that are learning to read in recognizing letters and blends.

- MaxReading

This section also has a pretest. After placement, several passages will be presented, and students choose which to read. They will read it, and use the mouse to click on words to highlight the most important ideas. They will then answer questions to test reading comprehension, and can create an outline using the phrases that were highlighted.

- MaxWords

This category teaches a variety of concepts. There are syllables, latin roots, spelling rules, prefixes & suffixes, and Greek roots.

- MaxMusic

The creators of MaxScholar have selected various musical artists to read and recall lyrics, and identify their context within the songs.

- MaxVocab

Students learn definitions, antonyms, synonyms, and using various vocabulary words in sentences in this category.

-MaxPlaces

This is the area in this program where geography skills can be practiced, along with reading comprehension. Choose a destination on the map, read a small passage about it, and answer questions to complete the exercises.

- MaxBios

As you have likely guessed, this is the section where the biographies of prominent people will be learned. Like other titles, there questions that follow to be answered.

Parents have access to student accounts, and can track progress, and print reports, and generally manage the settings.

I used this with my 12 and 14 year old daughters, who have just finished 7th and 8th grades, respectively. As I mentioned, we began with the phonics, as I wasn't clear where to begin. I figured that of course the girls would ace this section, and we could move on. Wrong. We struggled to get through the exercises, as it kept telling us that we hadn't passed sections. My daughters are easily at and above their reading levels, so I knew it was incorrect. After my 12 year old was very frustrated, we scrapped it, and moved to MaxReading. We did find some success here, as it placed her in 8th grade levels, which looked right since she just finished 7th grade. She would read the passage, and then highlight the main ideas, in order to create an outline. Unfortunately, this was also not the easiest to complete. It was very tedious to get the words highlighted, and there didn't seem to be a way to easily get more words highlighted at one time.

The MaxPlaces, MaxBios, and MaxVocab went much more smoothly. I would say that both girls got the most out of the vocabulary section, as it taught the various roots, blends, names, and the pages there were generally better to navigate.

Most of the work could be done independently, but as there was frustration early on, I stayed close by to assist. I was not thrilled with the selection of people that were offered for students to learn about in the biographies. Several were people that I would never hold up as role models, and I'm surprised that they would be featured here.

I would also like to see the main page, and the menu, have a more detailed introduction in how to use the program, in what order, and how parents can navigate the page to be able to adjust the levels for their children. This didn't end up being the best fit for my girls, but it could be a good choice for early readers who will have their parents working alongside them to offer a more guided experience.