AAR question about re-reading stories

[Lecka]

I am re-starting AAR Level 1 at Lesson 40 with my 9-year-old who has autism.

 

We took a long break for him to work on consonant blends, but now this is a really good level for him.

 

I really, really want the readers to work for him and to help him build fluency.

 

So, he has read Cobweb the Cat, and last night on his 3rd reading, he read the words accurately and he sounded okay. He didn't sound awesome, but he didn't sound horrible either.

 

So I think he could benefit from reading it more, but I also don't think he "has" to.

 

I am wondering how people decide when a story is good enough?

 

I also wonder how people incorporate re-reading review? I am thinking about having a review day every week, to just go back and review earlier stories.

 

But mainly I am wondering how good you expect kids to sound, when you decide it is enough practice.

[Lecka]

Well he read it again and I was pleased with how it sounded, so I think I have my answer.

 

I am seeing that it's going to take buddy reading a few times and then him reading it himself a few times.

[My4arrows]

I think "good enough" really depends upon you and your child.  What are you expectations and what is helping your DS best?

For my children, I typically will teach the lesson, have them read the story aloud to me.  Then the next day they will go off and read that same story to themselves, a sibling or even a stuffed animal.  Typically they will end up reading past stories again for their own enjoyment (mine enjoy reading/being read to).  The third day I will continue with the next lesson (assuming there are no major struggles with the prior lesson, but since I will have them able to decode the words correctly in the previous lesson before reading the stories, this isn't an issue).  They will also read the most recent story aloud to me again.  Usually by this time the fluency has greatly improved.  Every so often I will also choose to have them read me a story from the past aloud as well and I can see their progress and if anything needs to be retaught.  I do not expect perfect fluency, but rather my child can decode the words with ease.  My goal isn't for them to read that particular story (or any story) perfectly in the book, but rather the decoding skills and seeing they are able to apply those skills to other pieces.  Also I hope to see that words are becoming more of a sight word to them vs needing to decode it every time.

[Syllieann]

After reading a new story, I typically have the child pick a previously-read story from the same reader to read again. When we reach the end of a reader, I go back to the beginning and read everything again. Depending on the child’s fluency, we might go straight through, or two forward, then back up one, then two forward etc.

[Lecka]

That is helpful.

 

I am looking for fluency and I think the decidable readers are the way to do it. I have been working on fluency with him in other ways during the AAR break, but wanted something with more stair-step progress.

 

He needs to work on phrasing and reading with expression.

 

I like the idea of reviewing the reader before moving on to a new reader, too.

[TheAttachedMama]

My two older children have various learning challenges....so take my advice with a grain of salt.  ;)   Maybe my children were just especially difficult to teach to read.   

 

We had to re-read those AAR stories so many times that my kids had them practically MEMORIZED.   I think we read each story about 4-6 times each if memory serves?  So at that point, it wasn't really serving us to practice decoding words.   Also, I do think you have to have a certain amout of fluency in AAR 1 before moving to 2.   If I recall, the sentences become much longer and slightly more complicated in AAR 2.   So if you can't read the text fairly fluently, you start to struggle with comprehension.   

 

We ended up having to supplement with the I See Sam readers.   (See samples of the insides of the books here:   http://www.3rsplus.com/3rsplus_br1.htm) When you first open these, they are going to look like any other phonetic reader.     HOWEVER, these readers are so unique I can't even tell you!   They are like a magic bullet when it comes to teaching a child to FINALLY gain fluency.    They start out slow and then very slowly spoonfeed your child the phonograms....then they have lots and lots and lots and lots of practice decoding words with those phonograms.   But instead of practicing decoding through flashcards or drill, you get to practice through lots of stories.  You get a new story each day.   We would read one new story and then re-read the previous story.  The texts also have lots of built checks to make sure your child is really sounding out the words and not guessing.  

 

The I See Sam books do not follow the AAR phonogram introduction exactly.   For example, in the very first book, the vowel team "ee" is introduced.   However, I would just teach any new phonograms that they hadn't seen before using the magnetic tiles and the "change" a word technique.   Then I would have them read the story.   (Plus, if you are already to "cobweb the cat" you probably have covered most of what is in the first set.  

 

The first couple books are going to feel really easy.    I think that is OK.   It can build confidence and firm up those sounds.   But I highly recommend these readers.   Paired with AAR, it is like a magic 1-2 punch to teaching reading.   

[Xahm]

I'm not sure if you are there yet, but the Elephant and Piggie books are great for helping children read with interesting tone and inflection. I don't know how AAR goes, but my child could read almost every word in them after learning basic vowel teams, the "two vowels walking"rule, and the silent e rule.

[ElizabethB]

A you could add in the Blend Phonics stories:

 

http://www.donpotter.net/pdf/blend_phonics_stories.pdf

[Lecka]

I have used I See Sam with my older son :) I will check on the Blended Phonics, thanks :)

 

Okay -- I'm glad to hear other kids are reading them 4-6 times, that is nice to know.

 

We actually have used Elephant and Piggie with him. They are awesome for reading with expression, and he likes them, too. I have done a fair amount like that with him to work on -- well, just liking to read.

 

What is hard with him is I think he needs decodable, but he has a low vocabulary (its his lowest score) and comprehension is hard for him, so I need things he reads to be engaging and use common language and vocabulary words, as much as possible, so that it will make sense to him.

 

He has had a little trouble with "grab" a quick nap (because he isn't used to "grab" being used that way, so it takes him a while to get used to that) and then "fond of" was new to him and took him some time. So he can do it, but if there is too much like that it will overwhelm him.

 

But it is going well so far!

[Lecka]

https://blog.allaboutlearningpress.com/reading-fluency/

 

I found this today, it has guidelines for when decodeing is good enough to work on fluency, and my son does meet it for where we started. I originally wanted to start at the beginning of AAR 2 but then I went back to Lesson 40 of AAR 1, so I think it is a good fit for fluency.

 

He read the second story from Cobweb the Cat by himself tonight and sounded good, we had practiced it together for a couple of days.

 

Now I just hope the progression won't get too hard for him like happened before,

[MerryAtHope]

Now I just hope the progression won't get too hard for him like happened before,

 

Consonant blends are really so tricky for kids. The letter tile activities where you switch out a letter at a time (ie, pot-spot-spit-pit-pin-spin-spins...etc...) can really be a big help with this, but some kids need lots of help before they are ready to move past that point. 

 

There are extra activities you can use as you work with the word cards and fluency pages too. 

[Lecka]

Thanks, I hadn't seen those links!