**Edited to add the reading mastery webpage where you can get more information on it if you are interested.
Reading Mastery is the reading program that the district and most of the state of Texas ascribe to for teaching students to read. You cannot teach it unless you have been trained by the woman that supervises the implementation of the program in the area schools. Despite my teacher informing this woman that she would be getting another student teacher in January and she wanted me to be trained I wasn't going to get trained. Fortunately, a new teacher needed to be trained on January 20th she let my teacher know that she was willing to train me if I came during the time that she was training the new teacher. By this stroke of luck I was able to get trained so I can take over everything like suggested. The training began with her explaining that reading mastery is a research based and field tested. She really stressed that it was the only reading program that has been field tested to prove that it's methods work in teaching all students to read. Then she showed us the phonemes that are taught in Kindergarten and the remaining phonemes that are taught in first grade. The basic progression of the program wasn't explained to us because I am jumping in in the middle of the year and the other teacher is a second grade teacher. Although this didn't bother me at the time I am finding it hard to figure out where my students started because that was never explained. I know why it wasn't explained, but it is something I would like to know.
The program is all scripted! You must say what the book tells you and you have to respond to the students in the same way every time. I can't tell you how many times she stopped me from practicing because I didn't say the exact thing, I responded to her differently, or I wasn't prompting her correctly. It really takes a lot of the fun out of teaching being forced to follow a script and because it takes so much time there isn't any time for real literature study. There are even steps that are supposed to be followed if a student doesn't respond correctly when prompted. The one thing I really do like about the program is that the vowels are marked so the students can see right away if it is a long or short vowel sound in the word.
We then went over the introduction of the workbook pages. This again is scripted, but it is a little freer than the instructional book. There is a short two sentence story that they are to read slow and then read fast. After that the introduction of the other activities goes quickly because it is going over letters(that are to be written) and their sounds, what the picture is illustrating, and then the words with pictures underneath(which one illustrate the word and which ones don't). It takes from start to finish without having to correct a child 30 minutes, but if you have to stop and correct which happens it can take 45 minutes or more. If you have three groups to do this with it takes at minimum 1.5 hours! That's a large chunk of time just on that one program when you only have 5 hours with your students. And while you are working with one group the rest of the class is supposed to be working quietly and independently. That's an hour of quiet independent work that each child is expected to complete. For kindergarteners that is a hard task especially when they are just beginning school.
https://www.mheonline.com/program/view/1/3/21/0076181936/
Our district has Reading Mastery as well. We have a 1.5 hour block in the morning and then a 45 minute block in the afternoon. We did have an hour block in the afternoon when we were first implementing it, but after a couple of years we cut back to a 45 minute intervention time. Kindergarten has its own reading block from 8:20-9:50. Then 1st-3rd has their reading block from 9:50-11:20, so the kids can walk to read. I know the Kindergartens have 3 groups. One group is doing RM with the teacher, one is doing Language for Learning with a paraprofessional, and the third is doing seatwork, 30 minute rotations each. I think you will be amazed at what Kindergarteners are reading at the end of the year.
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