Clubbhouse Happenings: Readers in Residence Volume 1 (Sleuth) By Debra Bell~Homeschool Review Crew

Apologia Educational Ministries Readers in Residence

I received the full set of Readers in Residence Volume 1 (Sleuth) as a part of the Homeschool Review Crew to review. It is a reading program written by Debra Bell and published by Apologia Educational Ministries. It has been designed to help your child read to learn, instead of learning to read. How is this different? Learning to read is what we all do (or did) when we were between the ages of 3 and 6, starting with letters and sounds, moving to sight words and then finally sentences and books. In working thru this process we are not necessarily taught to read to learn, or pull information out of and comprehend what we are reading. Learning to read isn’t the end of the literacy or learning road!

So what does this program provide?

The Student Book:

*It provides detailed instruction in reading for inference

*Shows students how to identify a text’s genre and then deploy the reading strategies relevant to that genre.

*Teaches close reading techniques

*Helps students to recognize and analyze the author’s craftsmanship

*Shows students how to use context clues to make educated guesses about the meaning of unknown words

The Answer Key:

Gives you all the tools you need to help your child work thru the program from making a daily schedule to keeping tack of progress and evaluating your child’s work!

Readers in Residence is written to be a fun but challenging program. Challenge is good for kids but you don’t want to frustrate them, therefore this program is written with flexibility so that you can challenge but not torture your child as you work thru it. The program is laid out to be used 4 days a week, however there isn’t a set time on when your child should end the program or how long it should take them to get thru it.. totally at their own pace.
The philosophy of the program encompasses 6 things that reading is or should be: Reading should be a pleasure, a learned experience, an apprenticeship, an internal process and diverse.
    With this program your child will work thru 3 well know and books: Sarah Plain and Tall, Charlotte’s Web and Because of Winn Dixie. Then they get to pick 3 other books, a Historical Fiction and Animal Fantasy then your own choice. As they work thru the books there are different activities like a making predictions, meeting Authors and unit projects (including storyboards and a character map) that make the program more than just reading. It keeps the child’s interest, I think.
      Working thru this program I feel has made my daughter more aware of the details of the books she is reading, instead of just reading to read, (or get thru the assigned daily reading chore). When we first got the set, she was super excited when she saw it because Charlotte’s Web was in it and even more excited (if that is possible) when she saw that the student book was larger than the teachers book! She loved the book list (even though she has only read half of them). It was excited and easy to get her to sit down and work on it.   She loved the idea that it can be done in a group setting as well. She would like to get together a book club this summer!
   My take on the program was anything to help kids get into books and learn from them is a great thing! I loved the choice of books as well, the explanation of the program and the lay out is easy to read and follow. I think this program is a great eye opener to the details of reading. I think it helped my daughter finally understand how to determine the plot of a story and the main characters (instead of listing everyone in it). We enjoyed working with this program!

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Check out what my friends on the crew have said about this program