Reading Detective

Reading Detective's® standards-based critical thinking activities develop the analysis, synthesis, and vocabulary skills children need for exceptional reading comprehension. The activities are especially effective at helping children understand more challenging reading concepts such as drawing inferences, making conclusions, determining cause-and-effect, and using context clues to define vocabulary.  Help your child develop the skills of a critical reader using the Reading Detective series.

Methods
Students read and analyze short literature passages and stories that include fiction and nonfiction genres. Then they answer multiple-choice and short-response questions, citing sentence evidence to support their answers. (Software questions are all multiple-choice.)

The grades 3–4 (Beginning) and grades 6–12+ remedial (RX) levels are organized into single-skills units with a concluding mixed-skills unit. The grades 5–6 (A1) and 7–8 (B1) levels include mixed-skills throughout. All levels provide an introductory lesson for each skill.

(RX activities are "prescriptive" to help underperforming students in grades 6–12+ improve their comprehension skills. Reading level is grades 4–6; story content is grades 6+.)

Teaching Support
Includes pretests, post-tests, lesson guidelines, and answers with detailed evidence. Reading and literary analysis skills are based on grade-level standards.

Books or Software?
Choose one or the other. Both provide the same engaging stories and critical thinking (comprehension) questions. Review the features listed below for additional benefits offered by the software.

Features (Software) 51–62 activities per CD
Self-tutoring: includes quick or detailed instructions, hints, and explanations for correct and incorrect answers
Self-scoring
Saves unfinished games
Fun reward games
Administration (password protected)
On-screen teaching guide: Answer keys; Glossary of Terms; Reports: diagnostic, comparative, scoring details; Learning mode or test mode
Password protected user login (optional)
 

Assessment Prep**:   Reading Detective guarantees top performance on assessment tests, including

Stanford Achievement Test™ (SAT/9)
California Achievement Tests (CAT/5)
Florida Comprehensive Assessment Test (FCAT)
Iowa Tests of Basic Skills® (ITBS®)
Secondary School Admissions Test (SSAT)
Michigan Educational Assessment Program (MEAP)
Palmetto Assessment Challenge Test (PACT)
NYC English Language Arts Test (ELA)
and many more!

**from the publisher

 

What My Customers are saying about Reading Detective:

"It  really does a good job of making them look into what they are reading and having them pull out the information."

"It makes them slow down and get the details."

"I've found the Reading Detective to be so good, I've put away my EPS material, permanently.  Reading Detective is all I'll be using from here on out." (Tutor, MN)

My Story:

Do you remember being taught HOW to do reading comprehension?  I don't.  A good reader, reading above grade level, but I still dreaded those reading comprehension questions on the standardized test because I'd never had instruction in methods that would make them easy, strategic, and would build my confidence.  So, when I started my son in Reading Detective, I was amazed at what he was being shown.  As with so many of the skills that our materials teach, I was once again saying to myself, "Gee, I wish someone had taught me that when I was in school!"

No longer is reading comprehension relegated to the presentation of some text from who knows where, and a list of multiple choice questions.  No guessing here.  Choose your best answer and then provide the evidence that supports it.  Read excerpts from award-winning literature, practice, and then go read the whole book!

My son's test scores have increased every year in the reading comprehension portion of the annual ITBS assessment.  Most importantly, he looks at the reading comprehension section as, "A piece of cake."  I can't recommend this series strongly enough to you.

As for software or book form, my son loves the software.  I've never seen a boy so interested in doing reading comprehension work, and all so that he can win some tokens to play in an arcade game!  Bright Minds understands how to challenge, engage, and create fun, too!

Sandee

A Teacher Story:

Reading Detective

As an educator of learning disabled high school students, I am always on the look out for new things and new ways of helping my students gain the necessary skills they need to be successful. I was given the ultimate assignment during the 2005/06 school year. That assignment was to get my students ready for the Ohio Graduation Test. As a veteran teacher of 20 years, but a first year English teacher, this was a major task. It just so happened that during the summer I had signed up to be a Bright Minds Consultant and the products I had in my hands were either going to make me a believer or be placed in the trash. I used the Mind Benders, first. My students lacked the reasoning abilities necessary to solve this form of problem independently, so we did them as a group. Little by little, I could see the growth of critical thinking and reasoning skills developing in these students age 13 to 17. Next came Reading Detective. You may have heard my students growling all the way from Ohio to California. Again, we started off doing the worksheets together, taking each question, dissecting it and looking back at the text to find the answer. I saw an increase in vocabulary skills, reading comprehension, drawing inference (and this was a big one they had really struggled with), making conclusions and determining the cause-and-effect. By the end of the school year, the students were completing the Reading Detective activities independently! Best of all, EVERY student passed the reading portion of the Ohio Graduation Test! I have no doubt that these products played a major role in their success.

  Virginia H.

Read other parent comments on our resources.

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