Stride Ahead

"Last week I rolled out an intensive reading programme using Stride Ahead to 17 of our 68 students studying for a Certificate in Agriculture. I had identified these 17 students as having a low level of literacy. I and a helper managed to get through all 17 students each day (whew!). We took them out of classroom and workshops individually for 20 minutes at a time and they worked incredibly hard – many of these are hard drinking “take-no-shit” young men who have not succeeded well in the school system. All but one is very positive about the program because they can see progress and at last reading is making sense. The female student not so happy is not convinced she has a problem so I re-tested her to make sure. However, she does keep coming.

Based on my experience last year with Stride Ahead (the program was terrific but it was in the student’s own time and thus I did not have a good uptake) and so far this year, I am absolutely delighted to have a programme that has been so well developed, which I don’t have to stay up late into the night planning, preparing and marking and which captures and convinces the students.

If you have the opportunity to pass on my thanks to Keda please do so. Her incredible hard work and dedication to the task of creating Stride Ahead has given me a tool which has not only allowed me to do my job properly (there does not appear to be a similar program out there for my aged students) but most importantly it has given 17 mainly young men a chance to move from the barely able to cope in this world of text to confidence"  

Jan Johnstone, Telford Rural Polytechnic, New Zealand - May 2009

"He is also reading Stride Ahead. It is indeed a great book. I have found his short term memory to have increased after reading just 1/3rd of the book. It not only is an essential add on for Toe by Toe but also has a very positive effect on comprehension.  My son is now more confident, has a very good reading capability, can write emails and essays better and can comprehend much better, JUST BECAUSE of the GREAT Keda Cowling."

Dr Unwar Aswan – Medical doctor and parent, Pakistan - Feb. 2009

"...it gives a fantastic foundation in literacy skills.  My son came top of his class in reading after going through Stride Ahead" 

Mrs Shaw (parent), Ayrshire, KA5 6HN

More recommendations for Stride Ahead can be seen at:   Striding Ahead...

Stride Ahead has been written for students who can read but have difficulty in understanding what they are reading. I believe that this is the result of their minds being too taken up with the mechanics of decoding the written language to be able to give adequate attention to meaning.

Often these students become so adept at disguising their poor reading skills (by guesswork allied with contextual clues) that their teachers may not even be aware that they have a problem. In effect, they are on a 'reading plateau' and they often remain there throughout their school careers and on into their adult life.

In the late 70's Keda Cowling created a unique syllable division which was incorporated into the reading manual Toe by Toe.  Over the last few years this system has successfully taught thousands of people - dyslexics and non-dyslexics alike - to read (i.e. decode). This success has been due to the application of this easy-to-use syllable division and the structured over-teaching of the phonemes in question.

The aim of Stride Ahead is to make these phonemes so familiar to dyslexic students that they become able to recognise them instantaneously and without concentrated mental effort and thus they can get on with the process of understanding the text in front of them.  Timing is the key to this process and careful timing forms the essence of the Stride Ahead method. 

Stride Ahead F.A.Q.s

 

  1. How old do students need to be before commencing Stride Ahead ?
  2. Why is a stopwatch necessary to use with Stride Ahead ?
  3. How long does it take to complete Stride Ahead ?
  4. Why does Stride Ahead have 3 preliminary exercises ?
  5. Why are ‘reinforcement pages’ included at the end of each part ?
  6. What to do if a student looks like he will never achieve the target time ?
  7. Is it necessary to finish every exercise in Stride Ahead before moving on?
  8. What are the extension sheets for ?
  9. Why is Jabberwocky included in Stride Ahead ?
  10. In 'Section C' of the exercises, do students have to achieve 13 seconds when reading each word in the list 3 times?

 

How old do students need to be before commencing Stride Ahead ?

Answer:  Stride Ahead is more suitable for older students - usually secondary school students or adults.  However, some primary schools also use it in years 5 and 6 (i.e.  10 or 11 years old).

 

Why is a timer necessary with Stride Ahead ?

Answer:  Our aim is automaticity in the decoding process.  Only when this has been achieved can a student focus fully on the meaning of the text.  Timed practice is the best way to achieve automaticity.  Effectively, Stride Ahead is a structured series of timing targets. 
Note:Customers often find that using the stopwatch function on their mobile phones is the easiest way of facilitating this process.

 

How long does it take to complete Stride Ahead ?

Answer:  The length of time necessary to finish the scheme depends very much on the severity of the students’ reading problem.  With (say) 30-minute daily sessions, the average time to complete would be 2-3 months.

 

Why does Stride Ahead have 3 preliminary exercises ?

Answer:  Older students will often resist being taken back to the absolute basics (letter sounds… etc) so Stride Ahead  makes a few assumptions in terms of students’ prior knowledge.  The 3 preliminary exercises are to ensure that the necessary skills are in place before embarking on the exercises.

 

Why are ‘reinforcement pages’ included at the end of each part ?

Answer:  As is the case with Toe by Toe, reinforcement and over-learning of skills previously covered are essential features of the scheme.

 

What to do if a student looks like he will never achieve the target time ?

Answer:  It is often a good strategy to provide an example of how the reading task should be approached.  Pass the stopwatch to the student, so he/she can time you as you read.  They should track along the words and sentences with their finger at the same speed you are reading.  This is an opportunity to demonstrate that the timing targets do not require a rushed approach.  Read it without haste and as naturally as possible.  The next time the students read there is almost always a huge improvement in both speed and accuracy.

To a large extent the timing targets in S.A. are arbitrary.  In essence, we have timed a 'normal' person reading the passage at 'normal' speed and then added a few seconds to come up with our target.  It does not really matter whether a student is achieving the precise target.  The important thing is that they are getting intensive practice in accurate decoding.  We are trying to make decoding as 'automatic' as possible.  As Diane McGuinness (a famous reading expert in California) points out:

"A good reader is only conscious of meaning.  The print on the page is all but invisible.

This is the ‘holy grail’ of reading.  We are unlikely to get to this point with a severely dyslexic student but we can aim to get as close as possible…

Therefore, if a student is struggling to reach a particular target (and showing real signs of frustration in the process), it is perfectly acceptable to do a little discreet 'cheating' to help them get there.  You could start the stopwatch a little late or finish a little early.

Do whatever it takes to keep the student believing they CAN do this thing.  However, do try to do it discreetly so the student remains unaware that they have 'failed' in any reading task.

The important point is to keep the student on board and believing.  You are not going to teach anyone to read without their active co-operation...

 

Is it necessary to finish every exercise in Stride Ahead before moving on ?

Answer:  For motivational purposes, it is essential that students maintain a sense of momentum and progress.  (This is especially the case with teenagers).

Therefore we cannot allow students to feel that they are getting ‘bogged down’.  If a student is really struggling to meet a particular target, move on to the next exercise and come back to the stubborn problem later.  Every target should be met but it is not necessary to reach every target time in sequence.  Most important is to make the students feel that they are finally succeeding with what is – to them – a mysteriously difficult skill.  As a tutor, you are not going to succeed without the active co-operation of the student so we cannot allow them to lose heart.

 

What are the extension sheets for ?

Answer:  It is essential that students practice their skills as they near the end of the book.  Certainly by the time they have reached the 4th part they should be reading something which matches their interests away from the scheme itself.  They should be able to appreciate that reading is not a chore but something to do for entertainment as well as enlightenment. The extension sheets simply provide essential practice in using their new-found skills.  It is often a good idea to challenge them to see how many consecutive words they can read perfectly before stumbling.

 

Why is Jabberwocky included in Stride Ahead ?

Answer:  We have included Jabberwocky because students who have finished the Stride Ahead course will be better able to read the poem than their non-dyslexic peers.  Non-dyslexic people are more likely to be unaware of the rules / skills Lewis Carroll applied when he wrote the poem.  We tend to use the poem as a ‘party piece’ so that our students may have the opportunity to show off their reading skills.

 

In 'Section C' of the exercises, do students have to achieve 13 seconds when reading each word in the list 3 times?

Answer:  No, the student reads each of the 9 words in the list one time only.  Typically, they would begin with a 'benchmark time' of 20 seconds and make several mistakes and/or get tongue-tied.  This will quickly improve as they practise and they should achieve the target in (typically) 5 or 6 attempts.  If they have problems with a particular word, there is no problem 'drilling' but please do insist that they track along the word with their finger as they read.  This should ensure that they are decoding rather than trying to memorise the sound.  Memorisation is the coping strategy that we are constantly fighting against in Stride Ahead.  It is often easier for them to try to memorise rather than knuckle down to the process of decoding which is - of course - what we require.