Become an Institutional Member Today

Posted by Brian McCabe, Brian@avko.org

AVKO has recently revamped Institutional Membership, increasing the resources offered as well as the discount. Everyone can become an Institutional Member, not just schools, non-profits, tutoring centers, etc. and can reap the benefits.

The newest e-books are available for free download with Institutional Membership, including the Word Family Supplements 1-7 (that correspond to each of the levels of Sequential Spelling) and the Spelling Remediation Test Kit (which has 17 pre-tests, diagnostic tests, and prescriptive tests for remediation and evaluation of spelling and reading level). Additionally, Institutional Members have read-only access to all of the other AVKO materials (excluding Sequential Spelling and Engaging Language Kits). They can read and use the entire books of the other AVKO supplemental and reference materials from the internet, but cannot download or print them.

Benefits of AVKO Institutional Membership

Institutional Membership is open to individuals as well as tutoring centers, schools, learning centers, homeschool resource centers, etc.

• Access to all of the benefits of AVKO's Individual Membership (see below)
• 25% discount off all materials ordered
• Read-only access to ALL AVKO curriculum materials (except for Sequential Spelling and Engaging Language Kits)
• Access to AVKO's newest e-books:
  • Word Family Supplements 1-7 for Sequential Spelling
  • Spelling Remediation Test Kit

If you are currently an individual member, you may upgrade your membership to an Institutional Membership for only $50 from now until the end of August. E-mail info@avko.org or call AVKO at 810.686.9283 or toll-free at 1-866-285-6612 to do this.

Learn more about membership here

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New AVKO Resource: Sequential Spelling Word Family Supplement E-books

Posted by Brian McCabe, Brian@avko.org

AVKO is proud to announce that we have launched a new e-book resource series called Sequential Spelling Word Family Supplements. These invaluable e-books correspond to each of the Sequential Spelling levels and contain the pages from The Patterns of English Spelling: Combined with Word Families in Sentence Context for ALL of the major word families presented. This means that you can quickly turn to see all of the other words in a particular word family being tested, as well as have a bank of contextual sentences for the most common words. These can be used for dictation exercises, vocabulary building, choral reading, reading practice, handwriting practice, keyboarding practice, and more! These e-books are available for $7.50 apiece on Scribd.com

AVKO's Sequential Spelling 7 Word Family Supplement

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New AVKO Resource for Testing Spelling and Reading Levels

Posted by Brian McCabe, Brian@avko.org

AVKO has introduced a new e-book resource: a collection of diagnostic, prescriptive, and pre-tests for spelling and reading. This collection of 17 tests written by Don McCabe will allow you to quickly determine which spelling patterns your students need to learn, where they should be placed in Sequential Spelling (or another spelling program), and how to best remediate their spelling. This collection will also give you all of the information you need to quickly create your own spelling program. These tests can also be used for ESL instruction, special education, creating an IEP, and many other things!

This is available for purchase from AVKO for only $5.00 from the Scribd website. You can see all of AVKO's documents on Scribd here.

Spelling Remediation Test Kit

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Handwriting Resources

Posted by Brian McCabe; Courtesy of Kate Gladstone

Kate Gladstone was gracious enough to pass along some handwriting resources that she thought everyone could appreciate and use.

Enjoy!

1. Getty Dubay whole series
   
2. Briem.net
   
3. Barchowsky Fluent Hand
4. The Complete Program for Better Handwriting (Getty-Dubay)
5. Write Now! Italic Handwriting
6. Stage-Write Paper

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Brain Rules

Posted by Brian McCabe, Brian@avko.org

Brain Rules, a new book, extolls the essence of what AVKO's philosophy is all about with psychological and biological research evidence.

AVKO recommends that you check out this wonderful and readable book about how we think, how we best learn, and what doesn't work in our present educational and professional systems for our own brains.

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A Review: Irlen Syndrome

or Scotopic Sensitivity Syndrome, by Gloria Goldsmith, AVKO Foundation

The AVKO Foundation recognizes there is no one thing that will fix everyone’s problems. But we know our spelling program is a giant help for those with spelling difficulties, just like the Irlen Institute is a giant help for those with light sensitivities.

I was speaking to a Mom just yesterday who had a son with severe headaches, problems with concentration, visual tracking problems and I forgot to mention the Irlen Syndrome, a light sensitivity problem. I hope she finds this blog.

Irlen Syndrome is not an optical problem; it is a problem with the brain’s ability to process visual information. Often it runs in families and there is no standardized educational or medical test which can identify this syndrome.

It can affect both academic and work performance, behavior, attention, the ability to sit still and concentration. This syndrome is often mistaken for ADHD. Often the problem is white paper and dark ink – high contrast printing. Ordinarily, parents and teachers would think that high contrast is excellent, just the thing to make sure the printed words show up nicely on the page. But for most sufferers of the Irlen Syndrome it is the exact WRONG thing for their perception.

How is it evident in individuals? Each individual with Irlen Syndrome exhibits the problem differently. It is believed that forty-six percent (46%) of slow readers could be helped by the colored filters prescribed by the Irlen Institute. You or your child may experience some or many of these sensitivities: print looks different (blurred, spinning, dancing, rivers, etc),environment looks different, slow or inefficient reading, poor comprehension, eye strain, fatigue, headaches, difficulty with math computation, difficulty copying, difficulty reading music, poor sport performance, poor depth perception, low motivation, or low self-esteem. Glare, florescent lights, bright lights, sunlight and sometimes lights at night can bother those with light sensitivity.

The problem is not able to be corrected with remediation. But there is a solution, and that is colored filters. The filters can be bought in page sized overlays and for even better solutions, color filtering lenses for glasses. The remarkable changes that take place for those who have moderate to severe cases of this syndrome are documented in video clips on the Irlen Institute website. There is also a book available called “Reading by the Colors” by Helen Irlen, her first book describing the syndrome in detail and several other helpful books are offered on the web site for children and parents.

I recommend checking the Irlen Institute website http://irlen.com/index.php for more information about the syndrome, a self-test, samples of the distortions reported, research, testimonials, and to find an Irlen Testing Center. You can even change the color of the webpage to see how it affects your reading perception. (For my eyes ease, I prefer the light blue.)

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