1,000 Words Now Available in Our Reading Program

In just a little over a year, we have reached an important milestone: all 1,000 words have been added to the Reading Program, concluding an intensive work period by GCFLearnFree.org staff. (And I mean ALL the staff – usually a new tutorial or new project doesn’t involve everyone like this one did but we worked like crazy to get this launched.)

This is big news!

Utilizing various educational tools, the GCFLearnFree.org Reading program allows learners to explore the sounds of letters and words, see images and videos of words, hear them used in sentences and paragraphs, and practice matching words and sounds. Everything is self-paced and self-directed so that students can choose to focus on the areas that are most important and relevant to learn.

Since it’s original launch in April 2010, over 260,000 learners from over 200 countries have used the Reading Program. The top countries served are the United States, India, Colombia, Pakistan and Chile.

We feel the Reading Program has been incredibly successful and we’re excited about the future as we continue to add more educational content in the way of more word videos and activities. We hope that you will share the program with anyone you think may find it useful: English-language learners, adult literacy students, school-age students practicing reading, and anyone in between.

Have you looked at the Reading Program? What do you think? What’s your favorite game?

If you are a Reading Teacher, ESL Tutor, or just want to help someone with their reading – be sure to check out the Reading section of our site. Since its launch in April of 2010, GCFLearnFree.org has helped over 40,000 learners improve their English reading skills.

Now, in addition to our popular self-paced “Learn to Read” program we have added eight new stand alone activities that teachers can use in their classrooms. Presented in a classroom friendly format, these activities make it easier than ever to choose an activity, select a category of words, and start learning!

If you want to know more about the program, take a look around, view our educational objectives and check out the word list. Many of our videos can also be seen on  YouTube, and finally – be sure to stay tuned for the launch of our mobile apps in early 2011.

Learn to Read – The GCF Reading Program

The interactive learning tools in the Reading Program are designed in a way that learners can choose how they learn to read. We offer a Letter Explorer, which allows the learner to choose a letter and then see and hear different words that contain that letter. The Word Explorer allows a learner to pick a category of words, such as Transportation, and then see a group of words that fall into that category. When a word is clicked on, learners can choose to watch a video about the word, see a picture or hear it pronounced. If a learner wants to practice reading larger portions of text, the Text Explorer allows them to choose a category and listen as a male or female voice reads the original text to the learner. The Video Explorer allows a learner to pick a category of words and watch videos that define the word. Lastly, we have included an Activities section which will contain game-like word activities. Learners can decide which activity will best help them learn to read English.

GCFLearnFree.org decided to develop the Reading Program because of the large portion of adults who struggle with reading proficiently. There are over 43 million American adults who cannot read and over 50 million adults who cannot read higher than a fifth grade level. Our goal is to help these adults become more confident in their reading abilities.

We will continue to expand upon the Reading Program in 2010. GCFLearnFree.org will be developing more sample texts, more categories to choose from and more interactive learning tools. If you know someone who struggles with reading or would like to see the Reading Program yourself, visit www.gcflearnfree.org/reading/. This is an excellent reading resource and is free of charge. Please help us spread the word about this free Reading Program.