CrystalAnne Posted February 3, 2016 Share Posted February 3, 2016 I'm not sure where to go with my son's reading. He's 7. He flew through all of Phonics Pathways and finished that early spring last year. We went into McGuffey's Readers, but once we got to the 3rd one, although he could read the passages just fine, the vocab was topping out and he had no idea what he was reading. So we put those on hold. I had a baby last January, so I haven't been the greatest and giving him more to help him progress. On his own, he picks picture books from the library, and although he loves to listen to books we read aloud constantly, he peters out after maybe a small chapter in a chapter book. I bought a 4th grade reading comprehension workbook from Barnes and Noble, and though it looked good to me, it seemed too easy for him as he kept getting all of the answers right. I need to challenge this kid! What resources should I have around for him to keep the momentum up? Delve more into vocab? Wordly Wise? Or just get him to keep reading chapter books until he stops tiring out? I just feel like I don't know how to get him to the next level... Quote Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
CrystalAnne Posted February 3, 2016 Author Share Posted February 3, 2016 And the Rod and Staff Phonics I've been making him do seems to be like more busy work than helping him progress. So I keep debating whether we should drop it or keep it up. I was thinking it would help with spelling, but not sure it's sticking like a spelling curriculum would. Quote Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
cmarango Posted February 3, 2016 Share Posted February 3, 2016 I've found that spelling helps cement the trickier rules. Worldly Wise gets tedious imo after the K and 1st grade set (which are really lower levels than that). Other than that, I've made a list of books that I want my dd to read...and this year I've pre-read some of them so that I can talk to her about them. Quote Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
Barb_ Posted February 3, 2016 Share Posted February 3, 2016 Are you saying he can decode words and sentences at a higher level than he can comprehend them? If that is the case, I would suggest audiobooks. Look for good books at about the 4-6th grade reading level with complex plots and advanced vocabulary, print off some coloring pages or give him a pile of Legos and require that he listen to stories for an hour or two every day after lunch. 1 Quote Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
Dmmetler Posted February 4, 2016 Share Posted February 4, 2016 One thing that helped my DD make the jump from picture books and super easy chapter books to longer books was getting a bunch of old school readers at the 3rd-6th grade level. These were mostly sections from longer books, plus some nonfiction articles and a few picture books, with lots of illustrations and, often, comprehension questions immediately following the text. She loved these and read them, often then wanting to read more about the characters. Quote Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
CrystalAnne Posted February 4, 2016 Author Share Posted February 4, 2016 Are you saying he can decode words and sentences at a higher level than he can comprehend them? If that is the case, I would suggest audiobooks. Look for good books at about the 4-6th grade reading level with complex plots and advanced vocabulary, print off some coloring pages or give him a pile of Legos and require that he listen to stories for an hour or two every day after lunch. Yes, exactly! Thank you. We'll try that! Quote Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
CrystalAnne Posted February 4, 2016 Author Share Posted February 4, 2016 One thing that helped my DD make the jump from picture books and super easy chapter books to longer books was getting a bunch of old school readers at the 3rd-6th grade level. These were mostly sections from longer books, plus some nonfiction articles and a few picture books, with lots of illustrations and, often, comprehension questions immediately following the text. She loved these and read them, often then wanting to read more about the characters. I like the description, but where did you find them? Quote Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
Barb_ Posted February 4, 2016 Share Posted February 4, 2016 Yes, exactly! Thank you. We'll try that! Glad to help. Some good ones to start with at that age are the EB White books--Stuart Little, Trumpet of the Swan, Charlotte's Web. Also Roald Dahl and Beverly Cleary. If you go to Scholastic Book Wizard you can search for books by reading level and interest level as well as by subject matter. It's really handy. http://www.scholastic.com/bookwizard/ Quote Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
Black-eyed Suzan Posted February 4, 2016 Share Posted February 4, 2016 One of my children got intimidated by the size of the book. He also had a vision issue (convergence insufficiency) which made it hard for him to read smaller print. I got a kindle paper white and he was able to increase the font and not feel overwhelmed. Consequently his reading level jumped. Just an idea! Quote Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
Dmmetler Posted February 4, 2016 Share Posted February 4, 2016 Used bookstores, yard sales, Goodwill, Amazon... Here's an example. If you search reading textbook company name (Houghton-Mifflin, Holt, McGraw Hill...) you will usually get the most clear results http://smile.amazon.com/Mcgraw-Hill-Reading-4th-Grade/dp/002184738X/ref=sr_1_1?s=books&ie=UTF8&qid=1454593914&sr=1-1&keywords=3rd+grade+reading+bought+on Quote Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
pinewarbler Posted February 5, 2016 Share Posted February 5, 2016 Hitting a wall in reading comprehension/ scanning....There are many possibilities here. • is he getting tired scanning so many lines? Leading (spaces between lines) is so important at this stage. It drives me CRAZY that reprints of older books have less leading so that they can use less paper. It makes it very hard to scan from line to line.. kid is exhausted, gives up. Look for spaces! When I ordered a book from another library location, I ordered very old copy, fingers crossed. • vocab -3 things here. - learning to extrapolate meaning from a sentence... some practise in this helps. Take a risk.. guess what it might mean. Go back and check if that meaning is possible based on the context. My eldest was very adverse to doing this without help. - acquiring extra vocabulary is huge; most adults won't read a book if they don't know more than 2 or 3 words per page. We had audiobooks going non stop... also I would try to use new vocab whenever we were out... it seemed to stick if they were experiencing something new. -push non-fiction books for more vocab. • hitting the wall in general.... I have come to think of these times as consolidations. I still believe they are learning.. but taking that acquired knowledge and putting it together into a new chunk and storing it differently in their brain. During that time I would ramp up quantity at their level to help that consolidation, and wouldn't push them ahead. I used book wizard too! Quote Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
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