Fast ForWord Overview 1 of 5: Think of a Student
When it comes to your students, you’re the expert. You know what makes them frustrated, what makes them happy and which skills they need to be successful learners and successful readers.
Take a moment now to think about a student you know who struggles to read; what are their strengths and areas for growth?
List these on page 2 of your Workbook or on a sticky note where you can keep them in mind.
Got that student in mind? Let’s check out some examples of how Fast ForWord can support the growth of some of those skills you listed.
How Fast ForWord helps struggling students
Do they have difficulty with cognitive skills such as listening accuracy, auditory sequencing and auditory word recognition?
Similar to working out our muscles, Fast ForWord gets your students to work out their foundational cognitive skills like the ability to, recall and sequence phonemes and recognise words. The cognitive work helps to activate and engage key networks in their brain needed for reading (as you’ll soon learn). As one teacher put it, “it’s like Fast ForWord lit a fire in their brain!”
Do they struggle with speaking and listening skills like listening comprehension and following multi-step directions?
Fast ForWord uses evidence-based, game-like activities that build critical learning skills such as following multi-step directions and listening comprehension. With improved cognitive skills like working memory, attention and listening comprehension, students can be better learners in the classroom.
Do they have difficulty with foundational reading and language skills like phonological awareness, spelling and decoding, and English grammar?
Fast ForWord presents developmentally
appropriate exercises that give them hands-on practice (no matter their age) using exercises focused on foundational reading and language skills like phonological awareness, high
frequency words, spelling, comprehension of English grammar features and word structure and knowledge.
First you’ll complete a short quiz. Then, in the next lesson you’ll explore the focus on cognitive skills that makes the Fast ForWord program unique in its class.