Phonics Road to Spelling and Reading- Sight Words? Not Systematic?

[Annie Laurie]

I read a review that said the spelling words in Phonics Road have sight words mixed in and that the sounds are not taught systematically. By not systematic, it was said that a lot of sounds were introduced at once with the spelling words having a mix of words with all the different sounds, instead of introducing a few sounds at a time and learning to spell those ones before going on.

 

Thoughts?

[siloam]

I read a review that said the spelling words in Phonics Road have sight words mixed in and that the sounds are not taught systematically. By not systematic, it was said that a lot of sounds were introduced at once with the spelling words having a mix of words with all the different sounds, instead of introducing a few sounds at a time and learning to spell those ones before going on.

 

Thoughts?

 

I haven't seen Phonics Road, just SWR, but both are supposed to be based on Writing Road to Reading (also called vertical phonics). I can talk philosophy between that and o/g programs. BTW the first list of SWR can be seen here. Note you have both long and short vowel sounds, and two 3rd sounds in all and do. You also have several rules, doubling l, using y for I at the end of a word and a child must reason through why you use C for cat instead of K.

 

Vertical phonics generally introduces all letter sounds up front. So the child learns a says /a/ as in apple, /A or ae/ as in ape and /ah/ as in father. Where with o/g programs the child will generally learn /a/ as in apple and only use that. Because Vertical phonics programs introduce all the sounds up front you generally don't teach sight words at all. There is no need to because you can explain them. Most sight words are words that are high frequency with phonics the child hasn't learned yet. Given the child has been taught all the sounds, you no longer have sight words, just rule breakers.

 

O/G program generally assume a child knows their consonant sounds. They begin by teaching short vowels and closed syllables. When a rule is taught, C says /s/ before e, i and y for example, all the words will start with /k/ or /s/. All the words in the spelling list will start with k or c and the child has to apply the rule to figure out which to use. Now while the focus is learning the rule, when the child later does review you shuffle the word cards and do them outside of their nice neat word lists, so the child still has to be able to apply the rules outside of context. Here is the sample of the AAS lesson I mentioned above.

 

BTW AAS is somewhat a hybrid, because it suggests you introduce all the vowel sounds up front with all the consonant sounds. It does hold back vowel teams and other combinations till they are introduced in the books (so you don't get some cards till later levels). It is mostly o/g though, because it will have lessons on short vowels, then later on long vowels and open syllables.

 

Vertical phonics programs introduce a variety of sounds and rules in a word list. The focus is to look at each independently, and not be able to memorize patterns. For example when my kids were doing SL spelling, which is word family based, it was easy for them the get all the words right. That didn't mean they remembered how to spell the word later because it wasn't surrounded by other words of the same type. :001_huh:

 

O/G programs generally have to teach some sight words because they limit the child's exposure to sounds. Then later the phonics are explained.

 

Does that help? Generally o/g and traditional programs follow a similar sequence.

 

Personally my oldest two did fine with vertical phonics. Honey Dew was totally overwhelmed. It was for her benefit that I bought AAS, and then the other kids through AAS looked like fun so everyone moved over. We stay because it is easier for me to teach AAS.

 

Heather

[Heidi]

Siloam--- thank you for explaining the difference between the two methods. I had no idea. I've been using OPGTR and I just got PR in the mail today and I was trying to figure out where to start my dd5 who knows how to read now. It helps to know that these are two different methods. I suppose I'll start her at the very beginning. Thanks!!!

[lovinmomma]

Did you join the WTM subgroup that another user just made? I'd check that out.

[Ellie]

Oh please.

 

Whoever wrote the review...didn't do a good job of actually *reviewing* the method. How she can say it isn't "systematic" is beyond me.:confused:

 

Phonics Road doesn't teach children to memorize words, which is what "sight reading" means. It, like SWR and the mother of them all, Spalding, teaches all the sounds that phonograms make at once, and the rules that go with them, and how to analyze words so they know how to read and spell them. Most phonics methods teach short-vowel sounds first, which restricts children to reading vocabulary-controlled basal readers; Phonics Road and the others give children the tools they need so they can read *real* books much earlier. (In the end, of course, phonics is phonics, and children will learn to read with methods other than PR, SWR, and Spalding.)

[siloam]

Siloam--- thank you for explaining the difference between the two methods. I had no idea. I've been using OPGTR and I just got PR in the mail today and I was trying to figure out where to start my dd5 who knows how to read now. It helps to know that these are two different methods. I suppose I'll start her at the very beginning. Thanks!!!

 

Glad I could help! Starting at the beginning is probably the best idea. There will be some stuff that is easy and some that is new. If she picks of up things quickly then just more a little faster through the earlier material.

 

Heather