Need Help With Reading Fluency

[HSmama]

My dd is 2nd grade and will be 8 in January.

 

I feel bad but she doesn't read all that well. Her fluency is poor. And she is constantly asking me how to spell words. I mean simple words like make. She spelled it "mack".

 

What is sad is that she feels bad about it. Her brother reads at above level. (4th grade.) She has other hs friends who read chapter books. Btw, I don't point this out to her. She notices it and tells me.

 

I feel that I have failed her. This past year was a very stressful year due to family illness. Now that things are settled, I really want to focus on her reading.

 

I am my wit's end. I don't want to push her. But I don't want her to feel bad about herself. I would like to help her to read better. She's a darling little girl. I don't want her to have a low self-esteem.

 

Any advice/help would be greatly appreciated!!

 

Thank you!

[Penelope]

What phonics has she had in the past?

 

You could look at thephonicspage.com, ElizabethB (from this board)'s site. If she has had phonics and just needs to build fluency and learn to read multisyllable words better, you could use Webster's speller. That's what I used to get my son over the hump into reading harder books, after we used OPGTR.

[Sherry in OH]

Try Reading Pathways http://www.amazon.com/Reading-Pathways-Exercises-Improve-Jossey-Bass/dp/0787992895/ref=sr_1_1?ie=UTF8&qid=1290542097&sr=8-1

 

It is designed to improve reading fluency.

[RootAnn]

My dd is 2nd grade and will be 8 in January.

 

I feel bad but she doesn't read all that well. Her fluency is poor. And she is constantly asking me how to spell words. I mean simple words like make. She spelled it "mack".

 

 

It would help if you told us what you've already used with her (if anything) for phonics/reading/spelling.

 

Aside from that, I wanted to let you know that sometimes you just have to keep having your daughter practice reading every day. Work on phonics & spelling every school day. If it is frustrating, maybe it is only 15-20 minutes at a time several times a day (trying for 45-60 minutes per day for reading & spelling combined).

 

My 2nd grader misspelled "make" on a spelling test earlier this year. We go over the rules for misspelled words (for example, "ck" is used only after a single vowel that says its short sound) or in my daughter's example - she spelled it "mace" ("c" says /s/ before e, i, or y). We go over the words again & again in fun ways & formally requiz 5-10 of them each week on our weekly spelling test.

 

I have found that reading is like potty training. You keep working on the process & the fundamentals so when it finally "clicks" in their brain, they have all the tools they need to be successful. Good luck! :grouphug:

[merry gardens]

My dd is 2nd grade and will be 8 in January.

 

I feel bad but she doesn't read all that well. Her fluency is poor. And she is constantly asking me how to spell words. I mean simple words like make. She spelled it "mack".

 

What is sad is that she feels bad about it. Her brother reads at above level. (4th grade.) She has other hs friends who read chapter books. Btw, I don't point this out to her. She notices it and tells me.

 

I feel that I have failed her. This past year was a very stressful year due to family illness. Now that things are settled, I really want to focus on her reading.

 

I am my wit's end. I don't want to push her. But I don't want her to feel bad about herself. I would like to help her to read better. She's a darling little girl. I don't want her to have a low self-esteem.

 

Any advice/help would be greatly appreciated!!

 

Thank you!

:grouphug:

I second the advice to look at ElizabethB's phonics page. There's a recent discussion on the Special Needs board about slow readers and fluency that might be helpful to you also.

 

Simple words like "make" contain sounds that can be spelled a variety of ways. Your daughter knew there was more than one way to make the /k/ sound and she chose the wrong one. Her spelling was wrong but it was phonetic. She used an "a" to represent the long a, which can be spelled with ai, ay, ae, even ea (in great) etc. and she used "ck" to spell the /k/ sound, (which can be spelled c, k, ck, ch in Greek words and are even in the qu and x sound.)

 

I suggest working with your daughter on rapid reading and spelling of the most common words. ElizabethB has a webpage on how to teach them phonetically.

[gingersmom]

At that age I used Plaid Phonics, sequential spelling and Megawords. Sequential Spelling and Plaid Phonics worked out best for us.

 

We did read alouds every single day. In addition my son read every single day. I did not care if the books looked below grade level, the idea was to just read and read and read.

 

I got a set of brightly colored laminated cards from Lakeshore Learning that work on reading (they are one page stories that you can practice reading with, they come in different levels). There are other similar programs that use a one page story and you just have them practice reading over and over.

[FO4UR]

My ds will be 8 in Jan too...and is a slow reader.

 

He is reading to me 3x per day, every day.

 

I try to make sure one reading session is at his instructional level, and two are easier. We go to the library and load up on easy readers. Sometimes I have him read the first paragraph of our read aloud.

[mothergooseof4]

You just described my son. He is 8 and in 2nd and is feeling bad because he says all of his Sunday school class can read. He can, just with time and patience.

 

I just started him with Phonics Road, but am listening for ideas here as well. I am starting to see the same pattern with my 6yo dd 1st grade as well. She is already complaining of the same thing. I used CLE Learning to Read with both of them.