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Dancing Bears - am I using the cursor right?


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Do I use the cursor for every word on the decoding power pages or let ds try to read the whole word first and then back up if he misses? It's weird to use the cursor when I don't see what the word is so I don't know if it's "e" or "ee" or "er". 

 

I love Apples and Pears but don't know how I feel about Dancing Bears. It just feels like drilling. 

 

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I remember reading somewhere to use the cursor for every word but move it across the word quickly, only moving back if necessary. Continuing to use it improves tracking. The book is definitely drilling, we eventually hit a wall where my ds just burnt out with it but I think it does improve fluency.

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I remember reading somewhere to use the cursor for every word but move it across the word quickly, only moving back if necessary. Continuing to use it improves tracking. The book is definitely drilling, we eventually hit a wall where my ds just burnt out with it but I think it does improve fluency.

 

Did you switch to something else?

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I use the cursor for every word. The only time I don’t use it is when ds is reading the Mark stories, because those are supposed to be a reward for all of the drilling. For everything else I just take a quick look at the line so I know what the words are and can uncover one phonogram (or affix) at a time. It still goes quickly. I don’t know that an onlooker would even notice that the cursor is not revealing one letter at a time but jumping a bit to uncover phonograms and affixes, but it does help ds a lot.

Edited by mellifera33
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I use the cursor for every word. The only time I don’t use it is when ds is reading the Mark stories, because those are supposed to be a reward for all of the drilling. For everything else I just take a quick look at the line so I know what the words are and can uncover one phonogram (or affix) at a time. It still goes quickly. I don’t know that an onlooker would even notice that the cursor is not revealing one letter at a time but jumping a bit to uncover phonograms and affixes, but it does help ds a lot.

 

Ok, so giving a check for the line is really for him reading the phonograms or affixes quickly, not necessarily the whole word?

 

Do you use other readers for additional practice?

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In the process of reading the affixes and phonograms he reads the word. It’s still a very quick movement of the cursor. If he has trouble he says the pieces slowly, then puts the word together. We have used several different readers, including Bob books, some Scholastic sets, High Noon decodable readers, etc. At this point he choses his free-reading books. Sometimes we buddy read, or I read a page then he reads it to work on fluency.

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Did you switch to something else?

We switched to Barton but I strongly suspected dyslexia or we wouldn't have gone to such an intensive program. We moved through level 1 and 2 quickly and have slowed down for level 3. It has addressed his b/d confusion and eliminated guessing issues. It break things down so that I can see where his difficulties are occurring and target problem areas.

 

If Dancing Bears is working I would stick with it; it's a much faster program if it's doable for your son. Also, we definitely added in readers for interest to the DB program.

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