School-based support staff provide all instruction in the Once Early-Reading Program. Here's what they are saying about Once.
I absolutely love the ONCE Program!!! I strongly believe the students gained a strong basis for phonics with this program! It was a wonderful program that went hand in hand with what teachers did in the classroom with their students.
I đź’— Once! The program has helped my students become more confident with their sounds and words. The familiar format and fun characters has created a joyful learning environment. The intimacy of the program (the proximity and the daily interaction) has helped me form even better relationships and rapport with my students. The coaching, constant availability, kindness, genuine care, encouragement of the Once team (special shout out to Mike!) has made me feel supported, valued and loved every step of the way.
The Once program provided much one on one support for early readers, and the success of their program helped them become more fluent readers.
A great experience. I agree that consistency was important.
I was very impressed with the design and implementation of the Once Program. It was so streamlined that I could give 5-6 sessions within an hour and a half without any time wasted. The coaching from Mike and Moira was very specific to each student and helped me to improve overall as a teacher. The Once experience was very rewarding for both students and instructors.
This program really helped me learn how to make relationships with students, know what to say when kids say the most "off the wall" things, working on the fly or when the schedule does not go to plan. I was happy with my materials and the cooperation of all the teachers. The ONCE coaching YouTube videos were great because I could refer back to if needed. Something I wish that could improve was a more stable Wifi network and maybe a less distracting space. Overall this program really helped me learn what curriculum meant in context (I am a preservice teacher and curriculum is something they don't really cover in undergrad). Even though I am a middle childhood major I have always been interested in phonics and the science of reading so I plan on using the skills I learned in my student teaching and hopefully my teaching practice. Thank you Moira for everything. I felt like I really grown.
I really enjoyed the individual time with the first graders in our building and loved to see the progress they made throughout the year. They loved all of the characters and loved to see what was going to happen next to them in their journey.
I really enjoyed helping my low performance students to grow some.
I don’t Really Like Once Because It’s Only certain students that’s learning this way and not All .
The program was helpful not only with phonics but it helped with communication as well
My students have progressed so much, and I think the daily sessions really help enforce the skills we are learning in the classroom. The fact that my students can blend and then say the whole word is something we are really working on in the classroom, and I feel like the tutoring is really making in impact in this area. Also for phonological awareness.
This program was helpful in creating strong decoders. Students all were able to meet NWF goals. If it's for kindergarten, I do believe it would be helpful to weave in letter names some how. It may also be useful to have more at bats with basic CVC words because I think the rigor increases too quickly for struggling readers. While some students do pick up the long sounds and r controlled vowel sounds quickly, I'm not sure how appropriate it is for that grade level. All in all, I believe that through this program I was able to get our TK-2 team on the same page about continuous blending when decoding because they were able to see the impact that it had on their struggling readers and I'm thankful that I got to be a part of the work ya'll are doing!
Nothing can beat the one on one attention when it comes to learning and teaching. You can really differentiate for each students. I do wonder why not teaching open syllable to children? If we take time to teach them se sounds like /z/ which most of the native speaker didn't even notice the difference, then why not include open syllable, which is more prominent, in the lessons?
I am very pleased with the growth my students made using the Once Program. I believe the program helped my students to slow down and to pay closer attention to the text. It also build their confidence as readers.
I, along with my colleagues, have seen this program truly work! The students' reading skills have greatly improved and they seem to really enjoy their ONCE time.
Looking forward to helping more kids with the program and continuing with those that have made great strides but still need to keep going. Thanks everyone.
It was a great program and did see growth in the short time I worked with the students. I would have loved to see them reading books.
Overall a positive experience, my only wish is that the HLE team had started sooner than we did. Time was not on our side sadly.
I had an overall good experience with the Once program. Sharlita was a great coach. I enjoyed helping my students better their reading skills although frustrating at times. Our class environment isn’t always the best but they pushed through and I am very proud of them.
I think this is a great program for students struggling with how to read and applying those skills. For 3 and 4 year olds this program needs to be re-worked. There are some prereading skills that need to be mastered before producing rhymes. If a child is ready, I think this is a great program...if they are not ready--this program is over their head. I also think this program takes lots of time away from a classroom teacher. If it is a pull out program or an intervention program, I think it is great...it is not for every child in the class. It is very time consuming program. I also think that all dyslexic students would greatly benefit from this program. If you have any questions or concerns, please contact me. I can explain more since this is my speciality.