Our curriculum is sucking the joy out of teaching reading!

[A home for their hearts]

We are using PAF, (Preventing Academic Failure), and I am seeing some improvement with my ds10, but there Merrill Readers are so dry and boring!  It's a struggle for both of us to get through them.  I like how the curriculum is laid out, we do fine with the spelling and dictation put it's the reading that I just can't take another day of.  I picked PAF because I thought my son needed the repetition that the Merrill Readers has but it's really beginning to be over kill. 

 

Any suggestions to adding some excitement to our reading time?  I don't want my son to hate reading!

[cherylswope]

While reading through the many interesting posts here, I noticed this post unanswered, even though you raise a good topic!

 

Sometimes in our efforts to remediate, we set aside real books. Yet for many of us, a love of real books (contrasted with progressive "twaddle") led us to seek a more classical approach to homeschooling in the first place!

 

Even for our special-needs children, we want the skill of reading to provide a window into the language, characters, and themes of good literature. And as you note in your thread title, we want to cultivate the joy of reading.

 

 

I noticed a quote from Jim Trelease in your signature, so you may already read aloud together. If not, even as you work on the skill of reading in another program, real books might help restore your son's joy of reading.

 

To combine writing and language arts with real books, have you considered Writing With Ease? WWE provides the dictation your son already seems to manage well, but each dictation exercise flows from good children's literature. This might help revitalize his love of a good story.

 

With Susan Wise Bauer's characteristically structured, linear approach, WWE often works well for our special-needs students. My own daughter with multiple learning disabilities thrived with WWE. Not only did her language skills improve, she loved the stories. Clapping her hands after the excerpts, Michelle asked me to jot down titles, so we could find the entire book at the library. Not just for girls, WWE held my son's attention with some boy-friendly, worm-featured literature selections that made Michelle say, "Eww!" :)

 

 

Just a thought, because the overarching theme in your question is an important one -

 

Thanks-

Cheryl

 

homeschooling mom of boy/girl twins with autism, learning disabilities, coordination delays, severe mental illness

Simply Classical: A Beautiful Education for Any Child

[Lecka]

Something I did was to look through things I was reading to him, and underline words and phrases that would be appropriate for him to read.  

 

It is not the same as having a whole reader, but he enjoyed it more and it was still practice.  

 

The problem is that it is not independent.  If he is willing to be independent, or prefers to be independent, I would not do that.  

 

But if he wouldn't mind or is not independent anyway with any readers, then I think it is nice.  

 

I could also scan ahead and then point to words for him to read as we came to them.  

 

You might also look at High Noon books.  They specialize in books that would be enjoyed by slightly older kids, who do not want to read early readers written for an audience a few years younger than them.

 

The readers might not coordinate, but maybe they would.  When I looked at them they looked higher than what my son would be interested in, so I have not used them.  But, I thought they looked really good, and they are a place that gets mentioned a lot, too.  http://www.highnoonbooks.com/index-hnb.tpl?cart=14036396808515149

 

Another option is to make your reading times shorter, but do them more often.  Then do them before a lot of his preferred activities, and present it like "we will run through this quickly, and then it is time for snack/swimming/basketball."  Or, give him a sticker for every page and keep track and let him get something for stickers.  

 

Or, photocopy a page instead of having the book.  It gets rid of the "here comes the book" feeling if you get a sinking feeling when you see the book.  

 

Another thing -- separate your "working on reading" time from "enjoying reading."  Make sure he still has enjoyable reading experiences, listening to books or looking at pictures.  

 

My son did do better with frequent short sessions, and I would have practice pages in strategic locations (the kitchen, the front door).  It would not have to be "now we are sitting at the table, ugh."  But he did well with that.  He could focus quickly when it was for a short time.  If it is not his personality then I would not try it.  

 

Always try to end on a good note, too, by ending before he is too tired, and maybe have something you think will be easy for him at the end.  It does help.  Or, have a special drink to have at that time, maybe one you don't usually allow.  

 

But I don't know of any readers, specifically, those are just things that can go with any reader.  

 

Good luck!

[cherylswope]

From Lecka:

• Another option is to make your reading times shorter, but do them more often.  Then do them before a lot of his preferred activities, and present it like "we will run through this quickly, and then it is time for snack/swimming/basketball."
• Or, give him a sticker for every page and keep track and let him get something for stickers.
• Separate your "working on reading" time from "enjoying reading."  Make sure he still has enjoyable reading experiences, listening to books or looking at pictures.
• I would have practice pages in strategic locations (the kitchen, the front door).  It would not have to be "now we are sitting at the table, ugh." 
• Always try to end on a good note, too, by ending before he is too tired, and maybe have something you think will be easy for him at the end.  It does help. 

Excellent tips, Lecka. Thank you for chiming in on this.

 

We distinguished "working on reading" at the table from "reading books" on the sofa, so "reading books" always seemed more pleasurable. In addition to the two brief periods of reading instruction and reading practice, I also read aloud from more advanced chapter books after lunch to give them a break and to stimulate an interest in good stories.

 

As Lecka said, finishing each task successfully, before the child fatigues, helps tremendously.

 

This combination seemed to help foster a love of reading, as evidenced by the armloads of books my 19yo daughter carried back from the library this afternoon, dropping them around our floor as the books spilled from her arms! (She cannot do many things, but she can enjoy books.)

 

 

Another quick suggestion - for early reading practice on the sofa, my own son loved the best of the I Can Read books, such as the Frog & Toad series, Owl at Home, and others by Arnold Lobel.

 

Your son may be more advanced in his reading than this. Regardless, I hope you can supplement "working on reading" with "enjoying reading" real books soon!

 

Thanks-

Cheryl

 

 

mom of boy/girl twins with autism, learning disabilities, severe mental illness

Simply Classical: A Beautiful Education for Any Child