New program focuses on frosh reading, math skills
Freshmen use the Freckle Program to improve their reading comprehension and math skills.
March 2, 2020
The year 2020 started with a lot of surprises, and one of them includes a new program for Riordan, that will give freshmen the ability to improve their math and English skills either at school or at home by using a specific website designed by the teachers.
The Freckle Program, which started at the beginning of the spring semester, helps students improve basic skills by having them practice English and math questions at their current level, and then slowly increase the difficulty.
English teacher Diana Assereto said, “Improving reading comprehension and reading levels is the primary goal of the program, but also honing in on developing reading analysis and inference levels are important goals, too. Riordan students benefit because the program is specifically designed to address these skills with a more individualized program for specific student needs rather than a one size fits all approach.”
Assereto added, “Also, students can access the program even when they are not on campus so they can practice and improve their reading level and reading skills whenever possible. I am hearing from students that they like the format of the program, the reward system, and the freedom to choose reading selection topics that interest them.”
RSP Director Nate Simon, who was instrumental in instituting this program, said, “All of our skills whenever possible. I am hearing freshmen took the STAR test at the beginning of the year, and it showed that a large number of students in the class have a lot of room for growth in their reading and math skills.”
He added, “The Freckle Program is an adaptive app that meets students where they are and helps them improve their reading and math skills at their own pace, and in turn will hopefully help them improve their STAR test scores and in their overall learning here at Riordan.”
Simon said, “We have only been running the program for [a few] weeks. We won’t be able to see the results until the students take the STAR test again in April. It’s adaptive, so no matter where the student is, the app adjust sits difficulty level to that student and slowly increases the difficulty as it sees the student is learning.”
Students took their second STAR tests in both subjects on Feb. 10 and 11.
Luke Grogan ’23 said, “The Freckle Program is all about math, comprehension and vocab, and it basically helps us in improving our academic skills. I’ve taken the test twice and I think I did very well on my STAR test, and I don’t feel the need to take it anymore.”
Assereto said, “Except for a few technical issues and learning to read and interpret the results, there have been very few challenges.”
Simon further added, “This is helpful because classrooms are not like this, and sometimes students can fall behind – whereas with this app, it will always be at the level of the student.
“It was difficult to get up and running, butwe handled that on the back end and have not had many hiccups since.”