Use it and love it! By Darla

Seven of my 20 students are pulled aside with me for 30 minutes each day. That time is very structured--my kids do well with the routines and feel successful. Every week is laid out in the manual and gradually pulls away the support so that by the end of the 30-week program they can do things independently. I introduce a book, picture walk it, do shared/choral reading, and then have them partner read and read independently as I monitor & coach them. This mini-lesson is about 15 minutes and follows about 5 min of them rereading books they know and me doing running records to track their progress. We also work on letter sounds, spelling & writing, and high frequency words. I see a big difference in these kids' recall of what letters make what sounds and strategies to use if they get stuck. I attribute that to the constant "drill" of those skills day after day. I have taught a few years without this program and can see improvements in THIS YEAR'S "low" kids that I didn't see in my past classes.

Some other things to consider... EM goes at pace that may not be consistent with your reading program. Even though my kids are making gains, most are not gaining at the pace that would fill that reading gap. They are still low readers and are not on grade level (with an exception to 1 of 7 kids). I think though, that without EM this group would be even further behind and possibly plateaud in their reading ability. Also, to do EM we have to take those 7 kids out of 30 min of regular classroom work. This requires an assistant to teach your class while you teach EM (or your school to employ a person to do everyone's classes as pull-out) and also some good planning so that the 30 minutes of class they miss is not going to be detrimental when they test.

Whew! This was a bit long... I really hope this helps you make a decision!