Tell me how to use the Victory Drill Book...

[Allearia]

My dh's coworker gave us a sack of books and the Victory Drill Book was in it. I think he used it as a child. There is some teacher/parent information in it but I am wondering if there is more out there. I want to use it with my ds5, who reads at a high level but isn't quite as fluent at reading out loud. For example, he read the first Harry Potter book silently and reads other chapter books, but I know he doesn't know how to pronounce all the words. His speech also isn't as clear as it could be though he did not qualify for any sort of speech therapy when tested a year ago.

 

So given this background info... Should we start the book at the beginning, or where he can't pronounce all the words? Maybe somewhere in between? I was thinking I should also do additional phonics instruction, is the information in the book enough for a strong reader?

[kalanamak]

I used it after the phonograms were solid in kiddo (we used SWR for that). Kiddo could sound out and spell before he could read. I introduced the syllables via PP, and once that was flying, we used the Drill as, well, drill. I'd do half a page every other day until kiddo was fluent enough to do whole pages. Once that was down pat, I'd move to the next set of problems (like long vowels). We took almost a year to wander through it, and I put a hold on it for awhile before going for the last, hardest, pages. I continued with PP and then Reading Pathways for the reading-a-sentence practice. A "natural reader" could plow through it much faster, but the last few pages are much more advanced.

 

 

We have now graduated to going through McGuffey's Eclectic Speller, and I gave to a happy, young GM at work.

 

HTH