Great Leaps Reading

         Great Leaps Reading uses proven instructional tactics with powerful motivators to remediate a variety of reading problems. Efficient in both cost and time expenditure, Great Leaps Reading is widely implemented across the country.  Students with reading problems have responded with significant gains.
         Students work individually with an instructor and the materials for less than ten minutes per day (three days per week minimum).   The materials (one instructor's manual and one student notebook) are age appropriate and comprehensive. For example, the high school book can take a non-reading high school student to independent reading status. (Depending on the severity of the reading problem, one to two school years is the average length for intervention.)
         Schools and tutors should purchase one Great Leaps Reading Package per instructor. Parents need to purchase only the Reading Program. The K-2 manual does not require a student edition. The stories for all levels are presently available in the two Great Leaps Stories Collections, one for elementary students and one for all students. These collections contain the published stories as well as a considerable number of additional stories.  The Stories Collections are not necessary – sufficient stories are included in the programs and packages.
         Great Leaps is divided into three major areas: (1) Phonics: developing and mastering essential sight-sound relationships and/or sound awareness skills; (2) Sight Phrases: mastering sight words while developing and improving focusing skills; and (3) Reading Fluency: using age-appropriate stories specifically designed to build reading fluency, reading motivation, and proper intonation.
         The Phonics takes students from identifying sounds in isolation to being able to sound out cvc, cvcc, and cvce patterns. This enables students to (with contextual clues) decode unknown words with a high degree of success.
         The Sight Phrases uses phrases to teach sight words while significantly increasing focusing skills. Teaching high frequency words in isolation has not worked for most students with reading problems. The Great Leaps approach of using sight phrases helps to minimize the age old problems of readers continuously missing words such as these, them, of, off, from, etc.  Great Leaps was the first major published program to actively use “sight phrases” for the express purpose of sight (high frequency) word generalization.
         The stories have been designed and written by Kenneth Campbell to not only significantly increase reading fluency, but also motivate students to want to continue reading. Use of point of view, humor, rhyme, and rhythm all contribute to a powerful fluency-building intervention.
         As students achieve goals in each area of concern, they advance to a more challenging next step. For the first time in their lives, many students begin experiencing consistent reading success.
         Great Leaps Reading has been researched and used successfully in schools across the country. Great Leaps has the support of special education and reading specialists in many universities. One of the differences of Great Leaps is that decisions have been built into the materials, allowing parents, volunteers, and classroom assistants (as well as professional staff) to successfully implement current research-based practices.
         Great Leaps is not complicated. A typical training session takes about three hours. Most users find the instructions which come with the program adequate to begin implementation without training. Although the appearance and strategies appear simple, Great Leaps has its origins in over thirty years of instructional research and practice from the world of precision assessment and teaching.
         Areas that have implemented the Great Leaps Reading Program (from New York City to Seattle) have shown similar results. At-risk and dysfunctional readers are learning to read - many in a short period of time. (Approximately 25% of the students presently surveyed showed two to five years of oral reading growth in less than six months!)
         Purchase orders, checks, Master-card, Visa, Discover, and American Express are accepted on our order form. Orders are shipped via US parcel post within a week of being received. Priority postage and handling are available at an additional charge.

Great Leaps Math
Cecil D. Mercer, Kenneth D. Mercer, & Kenneth U. Campbell

The Great Leaps Math Program focuses on building fluency in the basic facts, including addition, subtraction, multiplication, and division. It features concrete lessons (using manipulative objects) and representational lessons (using student drawings) to help the student understand math operations.

Once the student demonstrates understanding through the concrete and representational lessons, fluency-building lessons begin through one-minute timings of oral and written student responses to math facts. The student repeats the one-minute timings until a standard practice rate on oral timings and a standard fluency rate on written timings are achieved.

During the 5- to 7-minute daily session, the instructor follows the word GREAT as a mnemonic device to conduct a five-step lesson plan. The student moves from oral practice lessons to written fluency lessons to written generalization fluency lessons. Results of the timings are recorded on a math chart, and goals are provided according to the age of the student. The use of rules and relationships throughout the lessons enhances mastery of the math facts.

The program consists of three instructor manuals and three student workbooks: Addition and Subtraction Facts 0 to 9, Addition and Subtraction Facts 10 to 18, and Multiplication and Division Facts. Placement tests and instructional math games are provided. The program has been field-tested, and the data indicate excellent student progress and teacher acceptance.