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Reading: tackling multi-syllable words (with a child who guesses at the drop of a hat)


forty-two
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Dd7 is the whole language dream child. We have done a 100% strict phonics-only approach to reading, and thank God for it, because she guesses enough as it is. She naturally reads for meaning and intuitively uses all the whole language strategies (pictures clues, context/grammar clues, phonics clues) plus guessing from word shape/length to tackle unknown words. And she is *good* at it, very good (for a while when she was 4 we thought she could read, because she could guess so well from so few clues).

 

But she has all the typical downsides of reading via whole words, and I can tell which words she learned phonetically (from explicit teaching or from being forced to slow down and sound it out because her natural whole language strategies all failed) versus those she learned/absorbed as wholes from her fun reading. (She tends to miss suffix changes on words she learned as wholes unless context indicates her default choice just doesn't fit grammatically and so she is forced to take a second look. Plus she is unable to use her whole word knowledge as a help in decoding phonetically similar words, but she *can* do that with words she learned phonetically).

 

We used Let's Read: A Linguistic Approach to teach reading (but I used a phonics method, not the author's hybrid method), but she had a few explosions in reading last spring and it's now too easy for her. She can read almost anything she picks up, but her ability to phonetically decode unfamiliar multi-syllable words is almost nil; however, her large vocabulary plus her amazing ability to guess right from context mostly makes up for it, especially given the 3th-4th grade level books she mostly reads. Plus, her visual memory is fantastic, and once she figures out what a given word is, she'll remember it as a whole after one or two repetitions. Decoding phonetically is definitely a lot harder for her than just remembering the word, and even though I never just give her the word but help her sound it out, she figures plenty out on her own.

 

Anyway, right now I am using ElizabethB's syllable dividing lessons and working through Webster's Speller (as a reader). It does seem to be working well enough - her ability to sound out unfamiliar multi-syllable words and to pay attention to little niggling letter differences is improving - but idk, it all feels sort of haphazard and flying-by-the-seat-of-my-pants somehow - like I am throwing things at the wall to see what sticks. I guess I'm just wondering if there is a more systematic or efficient approach, or some particular techniques that are quite useful in this situation.

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My son has the same tendencies so I continue to flash words (I like alligator apps because they sort them into phonic families), but I am using webster spelling book to strengthen his phonics too.   He doesn't care to write so I am using this customizeable spelling app called spellosaur to go through the webster spelling book.   This has turned out better than reading the words because it forces him to really pay attention to the sounds.  

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I cured my son with dancing bears in a matter of weeks.

More than one year later, the tendencies are creeping back in, so ill go back to it or just do some cursor work.

I also used Elizabethb's nonsense things, which go well with dancing bears.

 

I can't say enough how dancing bears goes directly at the word guessing in a physical as well as mental way through its eye tracking method of the cursor.

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Spalding. :D It's my go-to fix for almost anything.

:lol: I do have the 3rd edition of WRTR on my shelf (if only I'd known, as I was picking up a cheap copy for reference, it was the *4th* edition I should have been getting ;)), as well as SWR. I've read through the 1st edition of WRTR (library copy) a couple times a while ago and I understand the basic idea, but the devil's in the details and all that. I've been procrastinating starting up formal spelling, partly because of having to figure out a WRTR routine and partly because I haven't figured out how to get handwriting in yet (dd7's handwriting is self taught, and as a lefty, she writes a lot of her letters from right to left; I've been trying to find a time in the day where I can work with her one-on-one *without* sibling interference, to remediate her letter formation).

 

Maybe I need to get off my duff ;).

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:lol: I do have the 3rd edition of WRTR on my shelf (if only I'd known, as I was picking up a cheap copy for reference, it was the *4th* edition I should have been getting ;)), as well as SWR. I've read through the 1st edition of WRTR (library copy) a couple times a while ago and I understand the basic idea, but the devil's in the details and all that. I've been procrastinating starting up formal spelling, partly because of having to figure out a WRTR routine and partly because I haven't figured out how to get handwriting in yet (dd7's handwriting is self taught, and as a lefty, she writes a lot of her letters from right to left; I've been trying to find a time in the day where I can work with her one-on-one *without* sibling interference, to remediate her letter formation).

 

Maybe I need to get off my duff ;).

 

The Spalding Method is really not that complicated. The third edition of the manual will be fine. So yeah, get off your duff, lol.

 

Spalding will take care of handwriting, too. Just sayin'...

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