Reading and phoincs instruction help please.

[hsmom]

A bit of some background. We started off in K with LLATL blue (we did not finish because I felt it was not what we needed). Then we moved on to McRuffy K. He loved it. Yet once we started first grade it was a mess, he was not learning like he did in K. He hated to even open the books, workbooks any of it. Now we are using OPGTR and ETC. Which is going alright.

 

Here is what I have come to realize about my son and his way of learning to read. When he reads he remembers words that I taught as a whole better than words he has learned using phonics. Mostly the words he learned using LLATL (yeah the program I thought that was not working was actually working). He will read smoothly when reading those words. Words like the, will, little, big, so, etc. You get the point. Now words he has learned using phonics instruction are still rough every time he comes across them. The word cat is still c-a-t. Not cat. It doesn't matter if it is the same words over and over through out the story it is still broke down into sounds.

 

So, do you think adding in a spelling program would help him? Or do you have some other great ideas? I am having a horrible time with this and cannot decide what to do or where to go.

[nukeswife]

Joanna,

I know just how you feel, my 9 year old dd is the same way. Like you McRuffy K was great (we used it when she was 8 because I was at the end of my rope) but 1st just wasn't the same great fit, I think it moves to much toward spelling and grammar instead of the blending/phonics base of K. We're also using OPGTR and ETC now. I added AAS because my dd was older and thought it might help. She loves doing AAS, it has helped a bit in her fluency, but she still sounds out words like rug, bug, dig and it can be a bit painful for me to listen to. The weird thing is that we're trying to use more real books and she worked through Magic Tree House book 1, and had no problem with words like supposed, dinosaur, probably but still had to sound out words like sat, make, and like. It's just odd to watch and listen to. We have noticed that the more we have her practice actual reading the better it gets. I'm also taking her to see a COVD.org optometrist just to rule out any issues that may not have shown up in a regular eye exam, but that's mostly because she's as old as she is and still struggling.

 

One thing I did start doing is when she is reading and stops to sound out a word, I don't leave it with the broken up word like C-a-t, I insist she then "puts it all together" and if we have a lot of those in a sentence I will make her "read it fast with all the words put together" even if it means I say the sentence and point to the words as she repeats the sentence I just said. Maybe that's something you could try if you're not already doing that.

[RachelFlores]

My dd is a bit younger, but has the exact same problem. We use OPGTR and ETC too. I recently added AAS, she spells better than she reads now, but I have seen some improvement in reading. My mom who was a ps special ed teacher for several year suggested having her reread the same books over and over to increase fluency.

 

I haven't used this next suggestion myself, but saw it listed on here and thought it made a lot of sense. If your child is not showing dislexic tendencies (the reason I've been putting off trying it myself) and really seems to work better with sight words, teach them the phonics and then drill them with phonics decodable "sight words". It was suggested doing this in the context of a specific book so that the book can be read fluently almost immeadiately, but will hopefully transfer to new books too.

 

The other advice I've gotten is to have them read, read, read everyday, but I can only get dd to read so much (which isn't very much) before I feel that I'm making her hate reading which is the opposite of what I'm going for.

[MerryAtHope]

6 is still pretty young, though I know it's hard to listen to the segmenting over and over! Have you ever practiced oral blending games? Say 3 sounds and have him blend them into a word to guess what you are saying. It can be any 3 sounds that make a word (for example, kite only has 3 sounds even though it's not a CVC word). Let him also say sounds for you to blend--my kids used to love just picking random sounds and have me try to blend them! You can also play the game the opposite way--say a word and have him segment it into sounds. Playing with our language orally in this way can help him to see that all of our words are made up of individual sounds--and writing is simply knowing what symbol or combination of symbols to write to stand for those sounds.

 

Knowing some sight words can help build up fluency and speed early on, but too many can undermine longterm reading progress--so I wouldn't give up on the phonics approach, but play more games with it.

 

Another thing you can do is to practice words he'll see in his book ahead of time. You can practice them with the oral blending game above, and also making the words with tiles and then segmenting the word into sounds again--let him really play with the sounds blended and apart. Then when he goes to the book, the words won't be all new.

 

If he reads a sentence very segmented, have him try to read it the second time smoothly as was suggested here.

 

Adding in a spelling program that focuses on phonograms could be very helpful as well. HTH! Merry :-)

[Critterfixer]

Here is what I have come to realize about my son and his way of learning to read. When he reads he remembers words that I taught as a whole better than words he has learned using phonics. Mostly the words he learned using LLATL (yeah the program I thought that was not working was actually working). He will read smoothly when reading those words. Words like the, will, little, big, so, etc. You get the point. Now words he has learned using phonics instruction are still rough every time he comes across them. The word cat is still c-a-t. Not cat. It doesn't matter if it is the same words over and over through out the story it is still broke down into sounds.

 

Sight words (and some big words) get memorized by the way they look on the page. Whenever we come to one, if my ds7(s) say the word without breaking it down, I repeat it after them, breaking it down phonetically. They get a kick out of mom having to sound it out.:001_smile:

My boys also will take a small word and blend it sound by sound when they come across it in a story. By itself they will just say the word. Seeing it in a different context makes them resort to phonics, which I think is actually good. That said, hearing c-a-t over and over again can be annoying. Sometimes I will tell them when they come across a word that they don't know, to spell the word for me. For whatever reason, just saying cat results in cat, not c-a-t. Maybe it reminds them that they have read that word before.