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A little guidance on reading


UncleEJ
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Hello! This is my very first time posting here, although I have been lurking for a year or more! I have three kids and I am working with my oldest DS (5.5) on reading and have a few questions.

 

First, we are using AAR1 and have been for a few months, but just recently have been consistent with it. We are only on lesson 8 currently. He is doing pretty well I think. He knows all the letter sounds and is able to sound out pretty much any CVC word. But he still has to sound out every single word. I know that this is very normal and I am totally fine with it. He really doesn't like the fluency sheets, even if I break them up over a few days. So I thought he might be more interested in reading more "real" books. I got out the Bob book and the Fun Tales (SL early readers) that had words he would know. At first, this was helpful, but then he got to the point he sort of memorized them. He started guessing on almost every word and would get upset when I asked to to sound it out. So I backed up again. I pulled out all the AAR cards I thought he might need more review on and wrote some on the white board with a missing letter and asked him to tell me the missing letter. He had no trouble at all with this. I also tried showing him a card and then saying a word which may or may not have been the word on the card and asking him if I got it right. He did awesome at this as well. That made me feel better, that he was actually getting it but I'm a little unsure how to proceed. Should I continue teaching new material and just practice it in different ways or should I stay put where we are for a bit and really practice the words we have so far? I am fine with going slow but I struggle with feeling like I am holding him back.

 

Another, sort of unrelated, question. Like I said before we are using AAR1 right now and I can't decide what to do next. I already have OPGTR and have been thinking of just using that once we finish AAR1. I kind of flipped though OPGTR and AAR1 side by side to see where to start but they do not really match up well. Has anyone does this? Where did you start? Or do I really need to get AAR2?

Thank you so much for any guidance!

Melissa

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I am a HUGE fan of Adventures in Phonics and have not used AAR. But if my DS, who is also 5.5, gets stuck we take time to review until we get the concept down. He was stuck on long vowels, specifically A, last week so I found what he needed for it to click and worked two more days on long A then found readers with long A and now that I know he has it, we will start long E. We are now 2 weeks behind and it bugs me but I am happy and he is gaining confidence.

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Both my oldest dd and my middle ds went through that phase. I still haven't figured out how to handle this phase where reading is hard work and they can sound out the simple cvc words but they still have to sound everything out. I started some easy stuff like starfall readers and I See Sam books with ds but he is doing a lot of guessing. He doesn't like reading things having to sound out everything. I am also using AAR. In his AAR he is still sounding all the words out . It is hard to know what to do in this phase. I don't want to push but I want to keep working on it to get through it but it is hard to know if I should stay doing an aspect of a lesson or move on. It takes time to click for some kids but I still haven't figured out what to do to help the process along or when to move on and when to practice something more.

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Should I continue teaching new material and just practice it in different ways or should I stay put where we are for a bit and really practice the words we have so far? I am fine with going slow but I struggle with feeling like I am holding him back.

 

Another, sort of unrelated, question. Like I said before we are using AAR1 right now and I can't decide what to do next. I already have OPGTR and have been thinking of just using that once we finish AAR1. I kind of flipped though OPGTR and AAR1 side by side to see where to start but they do not really match up well. Has anyone does this? Where did you start? Or do I really need to get AAR2?

Thank you so much for any guidance!

Melissa

 

 

Hi there...welcome to the boards! I would keep going and see how that pans out. I found that I was scared to jump into long vowels, but suspected my DD was ready, and sure enough she was, no problem. I just use OPGTR as a guide. I've found great success with teaching concepts (sh, ch, oo, ee, .....) worked well to keep her motivated/interested, while her fluency caught up. And sure enough her fluency did catch up and she's reading words more quickly now, but has a huge arsenal of sounds to work with.

 

Good luck!

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I also found that my DD wasn't super into the early readers (BOB) books when she had to sound out every letter. So I read lots of older books to her that were well-written and interesting instead. I did find a happier medium with reading early readers for the 2nd and 3rd grade levels with her (I'd ask her to sound out words or a sentence here or there), which includes lots of easier words scattered throughout, better stories, and the font is still often bigger. Now that her fluency is ramping up, she's happy going back to the BOB-style books and is happy/proud of reading them more on her own.

 

She loves Starfall as well, which was a big reading motivator for her, as she doesn't get much screen time.

 

I said I use OPGTR, but really it's just a book I pick up every once in awhile for ideas. She's quite a bit younger than your child, and isn't interested in much formal reading training, so we just casually incorporate reading into our days usually. It's pretty amazing how much she's picked up from informal lessons. So we're not really using a program formally.

 

I really liked the idea I saw someone post on here where they had their child drive cars onto words printed on index cards/parking lot. I recently did the same with my DD and some Dolch words and little dolls and it worked out beautifully. I had a packet of common word cards and I picked some that were easier as well as some that stretched what I thought she knew, and put out about 8 in a semi-circle. She LOVED having each doll find their word, and it involved some imaginary play as well. She asked to play it again immediately. The kinesthetic part of it was nice for practicing reading. Jumping to different words would work as well. Or my friend wrote words on the bottom of paper dixie cups and when the child read the word, she could build it into a tower (http://chasingcheerios.blogspot.com/2011/11/reading-power-tower.html) . Super fun!

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I really liked the idea I saw someone post on here where they had their child drive cars onto words printed on index cards/parking lot. I recently did the same with my DD and some Dolch words and little dolls and it worked out beautifully. I had a packet of common word cards and I picked some that were easier as well as some that stretched what I thought she knew, and put out about 8 in a semi-circle. She LOVED having each doll find their word, and it involved some imaginary play as well. She asked to play it again immediately. The kinesthetic part of it was nice for practicing reading. Jumping to different words would work as well. Or my friend wrote words on the bottom of paper dixie cups and when the child read the word, she could build it into a tower (http://chasingcheerios.blogspot.com/2011/11/reading-power-tower.html) . Super fun!

 

 

 

Great ideas! I will definitely try those out!

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