I need some suggestions for a struggling learner

[modest-mama]

My son is almost six and is really struggling with phonics. We are going REALLY slowly through Sound Beginnings. We also practice some sight words each day. We do hands-on activities with word families. He reads a little Dick and Jane and some word family readers I downloaded from the internet.

 

I need some suggestions that will boost his reading confidence as well as help him master skills. I am not really into the "Teach your child in 100 lessons" series and so any other suggestions are appreciated.

[Closeacademy]

Yes, teaching reading can be hard and take a long, long, long, long time. Some things we have done to liven up the experience:

 

made sight word cards and made sentences and such

had the child listen to a book on tape (CD) with the book in their hand

made a word wall to write words they want to know

read books like Dick and Jane

played sight word games

talked about the phonograms and made colorful illustrated notebooking pages

did worksheets for the phonograms

word sorts for letter and phonogram sounds

I spy games with letter sounds

banged my head against a wall

played games on the computer like Webkinz or jumpstart CDs

Starfall.com

made little books

had her do copywork from stories she told me

talked about the phonograms in unfamiliar words we come across when learning about something else

 

These are a few ideas of things that we have done to get creative. I also have used mainly: Rod and Staff, Spell to Write and Read and Sight Words for teaching reading.

 

Hope these help.:001_smile:

[Ottakee]

Check out the I See Sam books.

 

http://www.teacherweb.com/CA/PomeloDriveElementary/Mrssakamoto/printap2.stm has free printable ones.

 

http://www.3rsplus.com and http://www.iseesam.com both have a lot more information on the books, how to use them, etc.---as well as the upper sets.

 

This is a super easy way to teach reading and the kids love it as they get to read BOOKS right away.

[ondreeuh]

For some kids (including my son) sight words make phonics more confusing because a lot of sight words do not follow the "rules" or follow very complicated rules. My kiddo didn't really read until his 8th birthday so I understand the frustration. He had to reach a level of brain maturity before he could really master phonological awareness and everything before that just bounced off him.

 

After going through that whole maddening experience, I have a pretty well-outlined approach for how I'm going to teach my toddler when he's ready. I'll teach him the phonograms (with LeapFrog Letter Factory and flashcards), really focus on segmenting words and syllabication, and then work on blending. No sight words until it's absolutely needed. I actually find myself segmenting already - that's a cat! /k/ /a/ /t/! I figure I can't start too early.

 

I just discovered Progressive Phonics. It's free! The stories are clever (a la Dr. Seuss) and the child reads the words in red while the parent reads the rest - this keeps the stories from being totally inane! PP includes worksheets and flashcards too. I'm going all-out, supplementing with Evan-Moor phonics worksheets and file folder games because my son is quite dyslexic and needs the help. There are so many programs & supplements available.

 

Six isn't very old to learn to read - your kiddo will get it :) I promise.

Edited October 7, 2009 by ondreeuh

[siloam]

Check out the I See Sam books.

 

http://www.teacherweb.com/CA/PomeloDriveElementary/Mrssakamoto/printap2.stm has free printable ones.

 

http://www.3rsplus.com and http://www.iseesam.com both have a lot more information on the books, how to use them, etc.---as well as the upper sets.

 

This is a super easy way to teach reading and the kids love it as they get to read BOOKS right away.

 

I agree with Ottakee.

 

On the more expensive side full Orton/Gillingham programs are known to work well for struggling learners. Preventing Academic Failure, Horizons Reading, Seeing Stars, Wilson Reading and Barton have all been created to target LD students.

 

Heather

 

[Sue G in PA]

No advice really, just sympathy b/c my ds6 (7 in Jan.) is struggling with reading as well. He knows letter sounds, can sound out CVC words with difficulty and will often "guess" at the word or memorize them instead of actually sounding them out. My other children were reading by this point and so this worries me, but I have to tell myself that all children are different developmentally. Just keep at it slowly, at his pace. Some kids just don't "get it" until age 8 or 9 and then they take off. Note to self: take own advice. :D

[helena]

To help your child feel as though he's mastered something can you make small groupings of word flash cards? That way it doesn't feel like an endless list of words. On the 2nd list add 2 or 3 words from the last list so he automatically feels a little successful, each week always adding a few familiar words from previous groups. Maybe Fri. can be review day. I would keep it short and sweet.

In Montessori we have something called object boxes, there are 5 for a, e, i, o, u. Starting with a, the child will find small objects inside that are all spelled with the short a sound mat, cat, rat etc. The child will use sand paper letters to spell out the words.

Here is a pic where they use word cards, which is probably a better place for you to start. It takes the pressure off the child to spell it out (that might be to much for him at first).

http://images.google.com/imgres?imgurl=http://cdn-write.demandstudios.com/upload//2000/300/70/4/52374.jpg&imgrefurl=http://nassaim.net/forum/showthread.php%3Fp%3D23682&usg=__n2vDEjs_ARXfN2YlWJ8iBmrCETo=&h=302&w=450&sz=25&hl=en&start=13&um=1&tbnid=DhTSRgWtdDSsyM:&tbnh=85&tbnw=127&prev=/images%3Fq%3Dobject%2Bbox%2Bmontessori%26hl%3Den%26safe%3Doff%26client%3Dsafari%26rls%3Den%26sa%3DN%26um%3D1

hth

[ElizabethB]

Both word families and sight words can cause students to guess--and this is especially a problem for students who struggle with reading, it makes their problems worse.

 

How and why not to teach sight words (how to teach all but 5 of the most commonly taught sight words phonetically)

 

http://www.thephonicspage.org/On%20Reading/sightwords.html

 

I've been a volunteer remedial literacy tutor since 1994 and have taught a lot of students and also given hundreds of grade level tests in the various states where we have been stationed. I've found a big difference in the reading abilities of children taught without sight words and those taught with a mix of phonics and the Dolch sight words, and all of my remedial students have been taught with sight words.

 

Word families are fine for many students, but a few of my students have started to guess using word families, making them like sight words.

 

Some children just need a lot of extra repetition in some subjects. For my daughter, it's math. For many others, it's phonics. Here's a fun game to help get some more repetition in:

 

http://www.thephonicspage.org/On%20Phonics/concentrationgam.html

 

Also, you want to make sure you're using a good sound method, OG methods are good for struggling students, but I've had success with all my students with Blend Phonics and Webster's Speller on a white board. I also used Phonics Pathways successfully with many of them before I found Blend Phonics and Webster's Speller--I've found the mix of those 2 to be the most efficient and effective in my tutoring.

 

My how to tutor page has step by step instructions on how to use Blend Phonics with added syllables and syllable division exercises, in exactly the way I taught it to a group of elementary students with the help of volunteers from my church. When you finish, you should be able to tackle Webster's Speller, it teaches the syllables needed to teach the Speller.

 

I've found that the use of sight words makes learning the phonics more difficult. If you just focus on phonics for a while--no stories or sentences, just sounding out words, that may help, I've also found that stories and sentences can lead to guessing, especially in students who have learned too many sight words.

Edited October 8, 2009 by ElizabethB

[modest-mama]

All this adivce is so helpful! Many, many thanks. Now all I need is the patience to go with the knowledge! :)

[LibraryLover]

It's not at all unusual for a 5 yr old not to get reading. So I would be a careful about thinking of him as a 'struggling leaner". He may be, or he just might be normal little 5 yr old boy.

[Kathleen in VA]

It's not at all unusual for a 5 yr old not to get reading. So I would be a careful about thinking of him as a 'struggling leaner". He may be, or he just might be normal little 5 yr old boy.

 

:iagree:I wouldn't be the least bit concerned at this point if I were you. My dd10 knew all of her letter sounds when she was 3 but didn't start putting it all together until she was around 7. I taught all of my children using Pathway readers and their Learning Through Sounds workbooks. Three of them got it at around age 6; two of them needed more time.

 

I would just set the workbooks aside for a few months and come back to them later. If it was still a struggle, I did that again.

 

All my children are excellent readers now and LOVE to read - which I think is really, really important.

[Ellie]

My son is almost six and is really struggling with phonics. We are going REALLY slowly through Sound Beginnings. We also practice some sight words each day. We do hands-on activities with word families. He reads a little Dick and Jane and some word family readers I downloaded from the internet.

 

I need some suggestions that will boost his reading confidence as well as help him master skills. I am not really into the "Teach your child in 100 lessons" series and so any other suggestions are appreciated.

I would expect a child who is not yet 6yo to "struggle" with learning to read. Other than drop the sight words, I can't think of anything else you could do except continue working with Sound Beginnings. Really.

[kalanamak]

It's not at all unusual for a 5 yr old not to get reading. So I would be a careful about thinking of him as a 'struggling leaner". He may be, or he just might be normal little 5 yr old boy.

 

:iagree:

 

Since my fellow was better at writing than reading at that age, we did ETC for fun, and phonics pathways. It was slow. Next we added in SWR, and his ability to spell the words I said were far, far above his reading ability. This reassured me, rightly or wrongly, that it was a developmental (eye?) thing, and took away my anxiety. I only got to post my "he's reeeeeeading" post last April. Take your time and don't turn him against school.

[NoPlaceLikeHome]

I second ElizabethB's post and recommend her website:)

 

I also had my ds watch 2 shows of Between the Lions every day for about 3 years from the age of 3 -6ish. It is on PBS. You can also find it online at pbs.org and the library may have many of the DVDs. It is excellent and fun for learning reading.

 

Next, I recommend http://starfall.com

 

It is free and a complete, fun reading program:)

 

I also used closed captioning since I had some difficulty hearing, and, in retrospect, I think it helped him as well;)

 

Lastly, I read many, many books with him and occasionally sounded out words.

[siloam]

I wanted to add that i have been covering phonics with my ds for 1.5 years and he is just now can hear the first sound of a word with consistency, and the last sound about 60% of the time. The middle sound in CVC words is till totally lost on him.

 

He will get there, it is just going to take some more time.

 

Just keep swimming...

 

Heather

[thowell]

I also agree with Elizabeth's website it has helped us along great! I am also using progressive phonics and it is working great! We actually break the books into sections and dd6 will only cover a few blends a week ex. sl, cl, bl and so on. We also do starfall a few times a week and lots of games. I would really recommend the file folder games she has really enjoyed those and has learned alot. Otherwise I would not worry. All of my children learned at different levels but are all now good readers. Just keep practicing at his speed and keep reading out loud to him. Keep up the good work!

[Elizabeth Conley]

Have you tried the Bob books?

 

My kids really took off with them. I stopped using them, because my kids' teachers thought they were the most terrible thing in the world. Then the kids kinda stalled in reading, so we went back to them. After the Bob books the kids started reading whatever they wanted to. They haven't had any problems whatsoever.

Edited October 12, 2009 by Elizabeth Conley

[Elizabeth Conley]

PS - Some people complain about the black and white illustrations in Bob books. I allowed my kids to color the illustrations in the books they had mastered. This was part of the reward. This made the B&W illustrations a plus for us.

[Kathleen in VA]

PS - Some people complain about the black and white illustrations in Bob books. I allowed my kids to color the illustrations in the books they had mastered. This was part of the reward. This made the B&W illustrations a plus for us.

 

What a great idea! I supplemented with Bob books, too. My kids loved the silly stories.

[Alison in KY]

My ds didn't care at all about letters or numbers at the age of 5...he just wanted to play and watch some TV...so Leap Frog really did teach him his letter sounds:D. I also used Saxon phonics K, which really worked well. There's some weird stuff in there that I didn't use, but the workbook and some of the simple ideas from there worked great (there are some learning exercises that involved body movement, rolling a ball, etc). I didn't get into coding with my other two kids, but I started my son off doing it. Since teaching him, my other two kids have also watched Leap Frog and then went on to use Saxon phonics K...mostly the workbook.

 

HTH,

Alison

[Alison in KY]

Also, Nora Gaydos has a great series of beginning readers, but there just weren't enough real beginning readers in there....like "A hot pot". Saxon phonics has it's own readers...not good illustrations though...the women look rather manly.