NEARStar - About NEARStar

I want to thank you for all the hard work you have put into this wonderful program. My kids love it!!! I have over 100 ESL students that I see everyday and NEARStar has become an important part of our curriculum.

The kids think it is a reward when they get to use it and they are learning so much! They get so excited when it is time to print out a new book. They go back to their classes and read them to their mainstream teachers and then take them home and read them to their families.

Everyone is amazed that even my kindergarteners are able to read their books! The classroom teachers have really taken advantage of your program as well. I have several teachers that use NEARStar instead of giving their ESL kids regular morning work. So they get to use it everyday!

Thank you all again for all the hard work! Keep it coming! We love it!

Jessica Clark
ESL Teacher
Nora Elementary
Indianapolis, Indiana

The use of NEARStar with our ESLL kindergartners at Lunalilo School has been a learning experience for my students, as well as for me. The NEARStar program has created so much excitement and motivation to learn, that I challenged myself to see how far I could capitalize on the students' enthusiasm. The results were astonishing, and I then realized that I had underestimated the kindergartners' ability all these years and could not believe that they were capable of performing at such a high level in reading and writing.

One thing led to another. First I needed to know that the students were not reading the songs and stories from memory or through picture cues. So, students' reading was checked through word lists, sentences without picture cues, and cloze exercises. After successful completion of the reading assessment, students were given pictures from the NEARStar stories and asked to create their own sentences selecting from word tiles of all the words found in the stories covered. Most of my students did this with ease! They practiced copying their sentences onto ruled paper. The next and final step – could my students write their own sentences, using pictures based on a new story and without the aid of the word tiles? I held my breath. They did this exercise without hesitation. Of the 16 students, 13 wrote comprehensible sentences with very few misspellings!

Without the aid of NEARStar we could not have accomplished so much in such a short time of implementation (2 months). I can say with confidence that my ESLL kindergartners this year will meet and exceed the standards of NCLB.

Lorraine Ching
ESL Teacher
Lunalilo Elementary
Honolulu, Hawaii

I have seen my students grow and grow with NEARStar. Several ask, “Is this the day I get to go on the computer?” followed by a “yippee!” when I say yes. They have taken pride in their accomplishments and let me know what level they are doing. Today they were given the assignment to write and describe themselves without telling their name so we could try to guess who the writer might be. Elizabeth included in her description that she liked the color pink, pizza to eat and that she liked NEARStar. I felt that if NEARStar was included with pizza and pink, it has to be good!! I know that this program gives my students another media and opportunity to increase their language skills as well as facilitating their command of phonics. The phonics piece is presented in an engaging way that keeps the students working. I am so pleased to be a part of this cutting edge program.

Ruth Ann Eichele
Tully C. Knoles Elementary
Stockton, California

My kindergarten kids are delighted with this program! They get upset with me when I don't take them straight to the library to use the program. They are constantly asking, “When are we playing NEARStar?” Not only do they learn their sight words, but there is lots of interaction among them. In addition, their silent period seems to be a lot shorter this year thanks to NEARStar. Our principal (Mrs. Tschudy) has watched them read their print-out books in amazement. Keep up the excellent work.

Iraida Hidalgo
Calverton Elementary
Beltsville, Maryland

I have a child who is a newcomer from Samoa and reading at the mid-K level. In class, he would just copy sentences out of books but didn’t comprehend anything. He really didn’t have the phonics to read. He would just sit quietly in his chair and say nothing, perhaps nod or if he had to speak he would talk in a whisper. I knew he was bored. I heard about NEARStar at our school. I talked to the technology staff and that night I checked out the website. NEARStar is so easy… I just spent an hour searching through the site at home and the next day we were online.

Since then he’s totally changed. Since starting on NEARStar, he is speaking out, not afraid to get up and speak in front of the class, and actively participates in group sessions. I can see the effect of NEARStar transferring into his writing. Words he learns in NEARStar – they’re in his writing. Now, he’s growing in leaps and bounds. My student teacher sees that he’s come an extremely long way in a short period of time. After finishing all the lessons in NEARStar, he wrote an entire page. The first thing he wrote was “I love to learn.” When she asked him what he loved to learn he said, “I love to learn the computer.” He comes to school primarily to use NEARStar because he loves it so much. NEARStar taught him decoding skills, too. Now, he surprises himself because he can decode new words – he can sound them out! He likes to go over it again and again, no problem as all the practice is just good for him. He wants more! He’s just so excited. I’ve worked with kids with special needs before going to general ed. You’ve got to meet kids wherever they are at and take them from there. I’m so pleased with it. It has really encouraged him to read and write. If he had his way, he’d be on the computer all day long. He totally loves it, he comes to school and he’s totally happy. He’s not afraid to write or read now. It’s like having another teacher in the classroom.

Elizabeth Bonilla
4th grade Teacher
Makaha Elementary
Waianae, Hawaii

NEARStar is wonderful. My students all love it. The first question they ask is “Are we going to the computer?” – which means NEARStar. It is great for non-English speaking students. They can immediately feel successful at something and be learning when the other students are doing something that is impossible for them to do. They love to say “happy face” and “sad face” using the same tone and expression they hear. It is also helpful for the teachers to have something that the students can do on their own. This year, one of my Kinder students who got to Level 2 has started learning to read the words he makes in that level.

I'm so grateful that we are part of the program.

Dianna Johnson
ESL Teacher
Texarkana Independent School District
Texarkana, Texas

Even our top 3rd graders love doing NEARStar – it really keeps them engaged. Our lower-skilled learners are improving their reading skills through this program. It's great. The assessment reports are very helpful at pin-pointing problem areas with all students. Thanks for all the hard work.

Grace Windsheimer
3rd grade Teacher
Mid Valley Elementary
Odell, Oregon

I am a Tech Coordinator at Diamond Elementary School in Santa Ana. I also teach reading in a first grade class. My experiences with NEARStar have been very exciting. I have seen students soak up the material presented through the program with little difficulty and great enthusiasm. These children love the interactivity and sing along with the songs, and the phonemic awareness sneaks right into their brains! Some of my slowest first graders are really starting to get it! Thanks for all the hard work on such a comprehensive, entertaining tool for English language acquisition!

Jeffrey Gothard
Technology Coordinator
Diamond Elementary
Santa Ana, California

The radio song is the big hit. There are girls that visit the “r” pages regularly just to sing along with A room to read, a room to rest...

We also have some students that are going through some of the lessons a second time and getting mostly 100 percents on the assessments. They are starting to understand what reading is all about.

We have a young girl who just returned from Mexico and is very homesick for her mom. Almost every day she makes it to almost lunch and then starts crying to see her 3rd grade sister or that she has a tummy ache or... or... or... Anyway, I used NEARStar last time she started crying to get her mind off of how she was feeling and it worked like a charm. She interacted with the game and made a book that she could then take back to class and color. Now her teacher is going to try to get her on the program before the break point in the late morning and see if she can make it through the day without crying. This shows me that the program doesn't put up the affective filters that happen in the classroom sometimes unintentionally.