MandyPandy170 Posted June 24, 2017 Share Posted June 24, 2017 (edited) A friend's daughter was diagnosed with dyslexia within the past year. Her doctor recommended a tutor who used the Barton Reading and Spelling program, and she has had great success with it. She has completed the first four levels. That tutor is unable to continue working with her, and the family asked if I would pick up where she left off. Before becoming a stay at home mom, I taught title I and was a reading tutor, and I have some experience teaching Wilson fundamentals. This girl was actually one of my students. I watched the training DVDs for level 5 and started tutoring her in this program a few weeks ago. I feel everything is going great, although sometimes it takes me a few seconds to recall the unique name Barton has given the spelling rules, or figure out which bag of tiles I need. However, I recently saw a page on Barton's website that says no one, not even a person with a doctorate in reading education, could pick up at level five and be successful. I am now worried that my inexperience with the program will set her up for failure, even though it hasn't been an issue yet. At the same time, there is nobody else in our rural area who has experience with this program. Can someone who has worked through this program tell me more about how necessary it is to have experience teaching the earlier levels? Or offer some advice? Edited June 24, 2017 by MandyPandy170 1 Quote Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
OneStepAtATime Posted June 25, 2017 Share Posted June 25, 2017 O.k. here is my 2 cents, for what it is worth... 1. If your student already worked through Level 1-4 and you are using the DVDs to get used to the hand gestures (so the tutor isn't doing unnecessary talking) and you are using the terms already familiar to the student, I don't see why you can't tutor with this program. 2. The program is VERY well laid out so everything you need should be in the TM and the DVDs. There are also support materials on the website to help and to provide practice as needed. 3. What I could see being a problem is if the student had not used this program before and was starting at Level 5. I think that would be a nightmare, TBH. Or if a tutor started using this program at Level 5 but had no understanding of dyslexia and decided to radically change the system through lack of understanding, that could damage the efficacy of the program and really frustrate the student. Or the tutor started with Level 4, which is honestly a bear for many students and tutors. Seasoned veterans sometimes struggle with Level 4. It can be the hardest level in the entire system for many. 4. What you describe seems absolutely fine to me. And if you run into snags just hop on here. There are many of us who have used the system and can advise you. No worries. You'll be fine. :) 1 Quote Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
PeterPan Posted June 25, 2017 Share Posted June 25, 2017 (edited) Mandy, you're clearly fine. You're doing the work to come up to speed on Barton's tweaks, but as you're seeing the basics are the basics, whether it's Wilson or Barton or OG or whatever. The basics are still the same. You were trained in Wilson so it was an easy slide over. I think it's very gracious of you to pick up the methodology the student was taught in and continue it for her! That was really a lot of effort on your part, where it would have been more convenient for you to continue with the system you already knew. You have no issues and are fine. If something worries you or is unclear, pick up the phone and call Barton. She's really a stellar person and she'd help you out. I doubt she'd have anything negative to say about what you're doing, only good. :) Btw, have you looked the Spelling Success games? They're helpful for reinforcing the rules and prefixes and things. My ds enjoys them. :) SaveSave Edited June 25, 2017 by OhElizabeth 1 Quote Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
MandyPandy170 Posted June 25, 2017 Author Share Posted June 25, 2017 Thank you! I feel I need to clarify two things. I mistyped, and should have put that I'm starting with Level 6 with this student. She has done all the previous levels...I'm the one who is new to this. Also, I am watching as many videos on Barton's site as I can, but I'm not watching the training videos for levels 1-5. I don't have access to them, or I would. The previous tutor owned those levels, but the parents have levels 6 and above. The previous tutor adjusted how the sight words are taught for this student, and I'm trying to merge what she's done (basically just one deck for reading and spelling), with the Barton way. Barton's separate word piles seems a bit tedious to manage, but that may be because I'm just not used to it yet. This girl has a lot of sight words! I will look into the games. Thank you!! 1 Quote Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
OneStepAtATime Posted June 25, 2017 Share Posted June 25, 2017 Thank you! I feel I need to clarify two things. I mistyped, and should have put that I'm starting with Level 6 with this student. She has done all the previous levels...I'm the one who is new to this. Also, I am watching as many videos on Barton's site as I can, but I'm not watching the training videos for levels 1-5. I don't have access to them, or I would. The previous tutor owned those levels, but the parents have levels 6 and above. The previous tutor adjusted how the sight words are taught for this student, and I'm trying to merge what she's done (basically just one deck for reading and spelling), with the Barton way. Barton's separate word piles seems a bit tedious to manage, but that may be because I'm just not used to it yet. This girl has a lot of sight words! I will look into the games. Thank you!! Do you mean that with every lesson your student has to go through a pile of site words for reading and a pile of sight words for spelling? That really isn't how the system works so if that is how it was being done, that may need some adjusting. And actually you don't have to make them separate word piles. I combined them. You mark on the card and the checklist if it is a reading or a spelling word that needs reviewing or if it is both but a student should only be working on 3 words at a time until mastery. While we worked on those three words I had the kids do both reading and spelling for those three words whether they were a word the child struggled to spell or to read. We did both. And only those three. Once a word was mastered, I put it into a long rotation, meaning every couple of weeks I would rotate a couple of older words through just to confirm the student could still read and spell the word. I would also periodically review old sight word lists from previous levels. You might be able to get those lists or make lists yourself based on the sight word deck. But normally we are only reviewing 3 words at a time. Quote Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
PeterPan Posted June 25, 2017 Share Posted June 25, 2017 I put my ds' lists in Quizlet. LOVE Quizlet. :) 2 Quote Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
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