Jump to content

Menu

Phonics/Reading Program with clear objectives?


GoFigure
 Share

Recommended Posts

What phonics/reading curricula have very clear objectives or skills laid out before every lesson?

 

Right now I'm looking at LOE because it is research-based and the online samples seem to have very clear objectives. This is important to me; I want to know what the goals of the lesson are so that I can tweak the lesson or supplement with practice and still meet the systematic learning objectives.

 

I looked at AAR but the lack of clear objectives was frustrating. e.g. Why are we counting words? What's the point? Is it just so that she knows that sentences are made up of words or what? 

 

Any other curricula that spell out "the reasons why" for every lesson?

Link to comment
Share on other sites

Teach Your Child To Read In 100 Easy Lessons.  It's really simple on the objective: learn this sound.  Apply this sound.  Practice these sounds and words.  Read for practice.  Read for information. Answer questions. 

 

I actually have that book. I'll have to look at it again. I put it away very quickly because I didn't like the scripted approach. I would like to think a script could make a good tool, but the introduction seemed to say, "the script is necessary because reading is very complicated and teachers will screw it up left to their own devices."

 

My children will not be engaged with me while I read a script verbatim.

 

So the hunt is on for a program that trusts the teacher with the purpose of the lessons and not so much, "trust the process. this is gonna work."

Link to comment
Share on other sites

I actually have that book. I'll have to look at it again. I put it away very quickly because I didn't like the scripted approach. I would like to think a script could make a good tool, but the introduction seemed to say, "the script is necessary because reading is very complicated and teachers will screw it up left to their own devices."

 

My children will not be engaged with me while I read a script verbatim.

 

So the hunt is on for a program that trusts the teacher with the purpose of the lessons and not so much, "trust the process. this is gonna work."

 

I didn't read the script.  We did it our own way:

-tracing tactile letters while saying the sound

-sliding tactile letters on a tray to blend

-building words with red/blue letters

 

I looked at the objectives, copied the stories, and sat down with our own method, just using the book as a guide.  It worked, at least for us. :D

Link to comment
Share on other sites

LOE, as you've already noted, is really amazing at what you are describing. When you have a review lesson it even tells you which activities from previous lessons to keep working on if your child struggles in a specific area. Really well done.

 

 

Link to comment
Share on other sites

We like AAR and AAS . I also use rtlt , and phonics pathways.

 

Phonics pathways maybe sounds like what you're looking for.

It's not scripted, it's O-G, and has a really cute funny encouraging guy who every page gives cutsie lil encouraging sayings :)

 

I've used phonics pathways with all 5 of my kids. I and they love it :)

 

It's not that expensive and the O-G method is proven timeless method.

Actually, all I recommended ate O-G.

We like the rtlt alot too . it has the elson readers in it which again, a proven timeless set of phonics readers.

She does word analysis in it too.

 

Phonics pathways has lots of word family practice .

I dont think you can beat it :)

Link to comment
Share on other sites

LOE is really easy to tweak, and it does lay out exactly what you need to be focusing on in each lesson.  It's rare that I do it exactly as written, so I like this :)  It also has little boxes on speech pronunciation which I find very helpful!  Since I've already used it, and know what is coming, we are already playing some of the games before they are introduced.  I like that it has a lot of movement, games and interaction verses reading pages of words (AAR- we tried that, too.  UGH!)

Link to comment
Share on other sites

I looked at AAR but the lack of clear objectives was frustrating. e.g. Why are we counting words? What's the point? Is it just so that she knows that sentences are made up of words or what? 

 

Which lesson? For example, in Pre-reading lesson 4, it does state the reason for counting words in a picture book you are reading to your child--so that the child understands that each grouping of letters is a word. See the bottom of page 24.

 

Or, in lesson 13, where the student counts oral words, the note on the side in the gray box (page 44) explains that you want your child to understand that sentences can be broken up (segmented) into individual words. "This is the most basic segmenting activity, and future segmenting activities will build on it..." (and the explanation goes on). 

 

The "why" and other teaching tips are usually in a gray box so as not to interrupt the flow of the lesson--that way you don't accidentally end up reading that part to your child as you are going through the scripting. HTH!

  • Like 2
Link to comment
Share on other sites

I can't say enough about how great AAR is. I think there are very clear objectives. Each lesson is modeled after teaching one phonogram and then the next lesson is reading a story with that phonogram. Have you looked at the samples? The table of contents lists the phonogram being taught for each lesson. It's super easy to teach and easy to speed up or slow down depending on how quickly the student is understanding it.

Link to comment
Share on other sites

I'm a Phonics Pathways fan.  It does not explicitly state objectives, but at the top of a page, you might see in large print   "- ing"

 

You'll then have a whole page of -ing words to work on.  It's obvious what the goal is.  There are no lessons, you move through at your own pace, which is a huge advantage, assuming you feel comfortable gauging your child's level of engagement/fatigue with the lesson.  

Link to comment
Share on other sites

Join the conversation

You can post now and register later. If you have an account, sign in now to post with your account.

Guest
Reply to this topic...

×   Pasted as rich text.   Paste as plain text instead

  Only 75 emoji are allowed.

×   Your link has been automatically embedded.   Display as a link instead

×   Your previous content has been restored.   Clear editor

×   You cannot paste images directly. Upload or insert images from URL.

 Share

×
×
  • Create New...