Update and When to start independent reading with a struggling reader?

[TheAttachedMama]

If you have been following any of my posts (there are many!)--you might remember that we were working on some guessing problems and word skipping with my 8.5 year old son.

 

I just wanted to give an update on how things were going:

 

I followed ElizabethB's advice and took him off of texts for several weeks and had him just read through word lists.  That finally broke his guessing habit!   I think it helped him to learn to sound out the word instead of relying on context clues so much.   After the word lists, we have been doing two shorter reading lessons per day.   In the morning, we are doing a phonics review using AAR.   And in the afternoon, I have him read a story from the "I see Sam Books".    

 

He has been making A LOT of progress.   A LOT.

 

He is halfway through set 6 now.   I'm not sure what 'grade level' he is reading at, but this is what the inside of the book looks like.   (I See Sam's website lists the book at a Reading level of 2.3 - 2.6.  I'm not sure if that is accurate since various reading levels seem to be all over the place in terms of difficulty.)  

 

Anyway, my next question has to do with independent reading.    At what point do I start encouraging him to read silently to himself?  Up until now, everything he has read has been aloud to me.  He has done absolutely ZERO silent reading. 

 

I have no experience teaching a child to read.   (And my oldest child has been a doozy to teach!)   So, I don't really know what I am doing.   I am concerned about encouraging independent reading too soon because he might start guessing again.  

 

(My question was triggered this week when he checked out these easy chapter books from the library about Lego Ninjago characters.   He BEGS me everynight to read these books, but I really don't like to read them.   UGH...they are painful to read!   I would love to try to encourage him to try and read the books to himself since he is so motivated....but not sure if that is the right thing to do.  I know they will have words he will likely want to skip, etc.  LIke character names, etc.)  

 

ETA:   Just in case I wasn't clear, I still plan to continue having him read aloud to me everyday.   I'm just wondering when I can say something like, "OK, everyone go pick a book.   We are going to all read quietly for 20 minutes."  (Or something like that.) 

[OneStepAtATime]

If he wants to read silently to himself, then I would let him do so.  Even with our dyslexia remediation program, while there should only be controlled out loud reading from very specific sources until you reach a certain level, if a child shows interest in reading a book silently then sure, let 'em do so.  

[TheAttachedMama]

If he wants to read silently to himself, then I would let him do so.  Even with our dyslexia remediation program, while there should only be controlled out loud reading from very specific sources until you reach a certain level, if a child shows interest in reading a book silently then sure, let 'em do so.  

 

Hmmmm, I'm not sure if he wants to read to himself.   He just wants to have the lego-twaddle-books read to him.  And I was thinking of asking him to try to read them to himself and see what happens?   Or maybe I should start with a book that is VERY easy for him? 

[OneStepAtATime]

If he is not yet volunteering to read silently to himself I would wait until you are further along with what you are doing.  Give him a chance to solidify his reading skills to a point he feels more confident.  What you might consider doing is have him read a little of what you are doing for reading skills, but silently, then read out loud to you afterwards.  Get him more comfortable with reading silently but still be providing the scaffolding he needs at the moment...

[MistyMountain]

My oldest was able to silent read when she got to around the 4th grade reading level and when she had the stamina to manage chapters.

[EKS]

I got my dyslexic son to want to read silently by telling him that he could stay up later to do so.  Within a week he had read The Boxcar Children to himself.  He read before he went to sleep until he was an older teen (and then I stopped enforcing computer abstinence and the reading thing was history).

[displace]

I agree if he doesn't want to read silently to not force him. But having a reward system set up is fine: like staying up late. Any books you let him read at first I'd prescreen to see if he knows the majority of the rules for decoding. Have his assigned reading out loud to you so you can correct errors. Limit your need to read what you don't want to by saying just 1-2 of the fluff books. Many libraries have audiobook Ebooks that are great fluff material. Consider learning ally or another read aloud book program. He can explore many books by computer, and you can save your voice.

[1shortmomto4]

When reading for fun the books should be below his reading level.  This builds fluency and speed and enjoyment of reading.  I have yet to meet a kid that enjoys reading if it is above his level.  Savae the hard stuff for lesson time and grow the love for reading.  If it is twaddle for now, it is twaddle.  What are his interests?  Legos - then take a trip to the library and find the easy reader Lego books but also look in the building/art books for Lego.  Try the comic book section for Lego.  Sometimes it is just enough interest to pull them over the hump to reading on their own.  My ds is a severe dyslexic but I required free reading every day (bought a timer) and he started with easy stuff and books on tape but now he's reading books for pleasure at or above his reading level - just had to find the subject that made him want to read.  Our subject is WW2 and I've about run out of books to keep him going before we hit the adult section!  Go figure.  Remember, slow and steady.

[Lecka]

If you want to have a time when kids are looking at books, you can get him those non-fiction Lego books (Lego Harry Potter, Lego Star Wars, The Lego Book, etc).  Look in children's non-fiction.  Or, look for some other book.  There are making-of-the-movie books about a lot of kid movies, also in non-fiction.  Or just other books that he would like to look at the pictures.  

 

Then he can be engaged with a book for 20 minutes, it is very reasonable.  

 

For the longest time, my son just looked at the pictures.  But then he did start to read some words and ask me some words.  

 

I think -- even if he is looking at the pictures, he is still engaged, he is still liking a book, he is still on his own and choosing how he will engage and how long he wants to look at each picture.  I think those are really good things.  

 

But I do not think it is possible to make a child read silently.  You can have time set aside to spend with a book.  During that time ----- kids might be day dreaming or resting ----- or they may be looking at the pictures.  

 

There is a lot to learn from looking at pictures, and it is engaging with books.  

 

My son did first read, on his own and of his own volition, captions under pictures.  It was not "too long" to him.  

 

Also look for really easy comics with larger print, like Garfield.  Garfield was another of the first things he read on his own.  He told me he was just looking at the pictures, until one day he wanted to know the word "lasagna."  I think they are the dumbest books ever, but they do have larger block print and not much writing, and a lot of kids do think they are funny.  I also read them when I was in elementary school, and I thought they were hilarious at the time.  

 

Personally I would say not to push it at all, if it is too hard, it will be overwhelming.  But I do think it is good to have him spend independent time with books, and have some books he might be able to read, and some books that have really cool pictures.  I am also fine with books like Where's Waldo, I Spy, the books where you stare at a space and then the picture moves, magazines, etc.  They are all books.  They all have words, even if they don't have many words.  I think it is a lot less threatening with those kinds of books.  And, you might not see the pay-off for a while, the pay-off might be down the road, but I think it is a good thing.  

 

http://www.amazon.com/Rhyming-Dust-Bunnies-Jan-Thomas-ebook/dp/B0069BZHOS/ref=sr_1_4?s=books&ie=UTF8&qid=1427464702&sr=1-4&keywords=jan+thomas  My son liked this book even though it was for little kids, and it has bubbles that have just one word each.  He liked the pictures and it was the kind of thing he could look at and probably be willing to read some of the words.  

 

http://www.amazon.com/s/ref=nb_sb_ss_i_0_5?url=search-alias%3Dstripbooks&field-keywords=elephant%20and%20piggie&sprefix=eleph%2Cstripbooks%2C184 My son did not get into these, but I have heard of kids getting into them.  

 

http://www.amazon.com/s/ref=nb_sb_noss_1?url=search-alias%3Dstripbooks&field-keywords=fly+guy&rh=n%3A283155%2Ck%3Afly+guy All my kids love Fly Guy.

 

These books might be too young, but they might not be.  These are ones that I think are nice to have around, though, b/c they do have fun pictures.  

 

But overall, books with less text were less threatening and those were the first ones he would try with, on his own.  He was very reluctant to try on his own, but he was willing to "look at the pictures."  I think he found me over-involved and did not want me so involved.  I think that was good for him to have a time when it was books but I was not so involved in determining how he did everything.  

 

Another thing, was that I would read him the same little books (like the Lego ones, or Henry and Mudge) several times, and then those were ones he might look at.  Those would be harder for him, but he would still like the pictures.  If there are any of those books, keep them around, and they will be ones he might pick to look through on his own, and he might try to read some b/c he has heard it a few times and knows the story and things.  This is a really good thing to do, I have seen it recommended as a thing to try.  But there was a time when he liked these books, but they were just ones that he considered way too hard to try on his own.  He built up his confidence and skill with much easier books or books where he might read one line of a caption.  

 

I was working with him at other times of the day.  He really wanted to have some time "left alone."  He could look at some books without me intrusively (to him) going "oh, look at this word," or "look, you can read this word" all the time.  He had a period at bedtime when I would not ask him any questions, also (which I found I needed to do after he got upset I was asking him questions too much).  There were plenty of other times in the day when it was about what I wanted him to do and him following my directions.  

 

I did also feel like he was very hesitant to start trying on his own, even when he was doing well enough I thought he should be able to.  It just took time.  

 

But do read him his Lego books a few times, but then have a time when you are busy, oh no, you just happen to be busy, but the books are there and you tell him to look through his books for a few minutes (maybe setting the timer) and he can look through the Lego book you have read him a few times.  That kind of thing went a long way.  It was different to him if I refused to read to him b/c I was irritated and sick of reading certain books, and thought he could do it himself.  That was not helpful.  But ----- "Mommy is doing dishes," "Mommy is folding laundry," went a long way.  I would either just be like "I am setting the timer and this is happening."  Or I would be like "time to help me do this chore" but let him talk me into letting him look at books instead.  

 

He was a little fragile for a while about whether or not he even cared about reading, so I would say to keep things positive.  Nothing is worth him saying, "well, if you won't read it to me, whatever, I don't even care about books anyway."  But that doesn't mean you have to read to him all the time.  But really -- if he likes a dumb book, tell yourself he might read it on his own later, and read it some.  But I think it is fine to say "x times is enough" or "only for 5-10 minutes" or things like that.  But if it is one he likes enough to hear a few times, it is one where he really might try to read it on his own, and he might be more likely to try if you have read it to him a few times.  Then one day he will want you to read to him, you will say you are a little busy but can do it in a little while, and he will say "oh, fine, I will just read it myself."  And, maybe just manage to read a few pages, but that kind of thing is really good.  

[Pen]

My ds started reading to himself pretty much when he reached the Rick Riordan Red Pyramid stage, age 10.  I gave him $20 and let him pick out whatever he wanted from a Scholastic book fair to raise money at the local public school, it was a bit of a level jump for him from Hank the Cowdog and Magic Tree House, but he was motivated to read it--not really harder in terms of individual words than what he had done before, but way longer.  He had already started in before leaving the fair--probably before paying for the book.  Also he had the okay to stay up a little later when reading quietly rule introduced at that time.  I didn't tell him to do reading to himself, it just started happening.  I also had some books reserved that I thought he'd like, such as Harry Potter, which he had to read (whether aloud or silently, but not me reading to him) and we have no TV or video games, so reading is one of forms of entertainment that exists in our home.

[Incognito]

Ha- I feel your pain on those Ninjago books!  I'm no expert, but perhaps you could let him read them himself, and if you see problems cropping up in your out loud reading with him just after, go back to reading them to him (but if not, enjoy the respite).

 

[rachelpants]

That finally broke his guessing habit!

 

He has been making A LOT of progress. A LOT.

 

!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!! HOOOOOOOOOOOOOOOORAY!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!

 

This made my day!!!!!!! :) :) :) :)

[geodob]

Though the term 'read silently' could confuse a child?

As it is really, reading the words and hearing them in our mind, without saying them out loud.

It is only silent to anyone else in the room, who can't hear us reading.

 

This needs to be looked more broadly, as the development of the 'inner voice'.

While we use for reading, no doubt you also use it when writing?

Where you would hear the words in your mind, as you go to write them.

Also use your inner voice, to rehearse different ways to write a sentence?

 

But a perhaps more important use of inner voice, is for 'reflecting thinking'?

So that we can talk through something in our mind, and come to a conclusion.

 

With reading, we use a visual image of the word, to retrieve its sound from memory.

But with writing and thinking, we have to retrieve the word directly from memory.

 

Though another aspect of inner voice, is to be able to use it 'creatively'?

For example, when we come across a new word when reading, we can rehearse different ways that it could said?

 

So that while we use inner voice for reading, for people born with hearing?

It is also the primary way of thinking.

[alisoncooks]

My oldest is a struggling reader -- I've posted a lot about her. :)

She's about the same age as your son. For Christmas, I bought her a book she was really interested in...and she really wanted to read it on her own. I had her read a page or two to me...and she did okay...so I set her free with it. It took her about 2 weeks to finish it (Magic Treehouse-length book, so very sloooow.)

 

I think her nightly reading has helped her sooooo much! She reads for at least an hour at bedtime, now. This is my kid who moaned and groaned over having to read a few sentences to me! She also is reading much faster -- a Rainbow Magic Fairy book in one sitting, for example.

 

We still do reading together during school time, as well as focused remediation-type stuff. I encourage her to use Post Its to mark any words she cannot figure out when she reads alone.