I See Sam Online

[eloquacious]

There is a new web site in development which presents the 52 "I See Sam" stories in a pseudo-animated way. It's been done by the same people who put out those books in a nice printable format, and so far they've got the first few stories up. It's a bit late for us with #1, but I'm excited to have it in a few years for #2. :)

 

http://www.readingteacher.com

[ElizabethB]

They claim it is synthetic phonics--and the original stories are when taught as such, the stories are decodable.

 

But, they have done several things that encourage whole word reading and guessing.

 

1. They teach the phonetic words "see," "me," and "I" as sight words.

 

2. They tell about the stories before reading them--this encourages guessing.

 

3. They allow the student to hear the stories before sounding them out, you are not forced to try to read the story before listening.

 

4. When you are reading it yourself, when you click on a word, they only say the word as a whole, even "Sam," which they at least did previously teach phonetically. (Starfall will sound them out for you one letter at a time when you click on a word.)

 

I do like their printable books and the video instruction about how to put them together, that is nicely done!

[eloquacious]

I agree with what you have said, and I think I would only use the web site version after the child had read the printed book, as a "reward" or a second reading. Nevertheless, it's cute, and a nice option.

[ElizabethB]

I agree with what you have said, and I think I would only use the web site version after the child had read the printed book, as a "reward" or a second reading. Nevertheless, it's cute, and a nice option.

 

They are cute if used that way...but the kids I remediated all were subjected to practices like this, and most of them were miserable because of it. It doesn't take many sight words and whole word leanings to push children into reading failure.

 

It is a shame that they have taken such a great program and corrupted it into a program with whole word practices.

 

I just found the scope and sequence...these are all the perfectly phonetic words they call "special words" and teach by sight:

 

see, meet

 

me, we, she, he, I

 

that, them, with

[morosophe]

They are cute if used that way...but the kids I remediated all were subjected to practices like this, and most of them were miserable because of it. It doesn't take many sight words and whole word leanings to push children into reading failure.

 

It is a shame that they have taken such a great program and corrupted it into a program with whole word practices.

 

I just found the scope and sequence...these are all the perfectly phonetic words they call "special words" and teach by sight:

 

see, meet

 

me, we, she, he, I

 

that, them, with

 

Wow, that does seem like a lot of sight words that can be taught using phonics fairly early on.

 

I used 100EZ with my oldest, and that uses "sight words," but it didn't seem like it had that many, and most of them were phonetically irregular (at least at the level of phonics you're teaching kindergarteners), like "said" and "to." It did do "I" and "his" as sight words, but "he," "with," etc., were certainly taught as phonics. (Actually, I think they were concerned about the "s at the end of the word being pronounced z" thing for "his," which is the reason they included it as a sight word.) The list above looks really strange to do as sight words.

[boscopup]

Yeah, I'm using the books right now for DS2, and he LOVES them (though he was confused when in book 3, Sam's holding a book until he falls in a hole, and then the book is not in the picture anymore - not even in the hole with him... He notices that sort of thing). We've done Webster's, so open syllable words are easy. I had to teach him that "ee" says /E/, but that's it. Definitely no need to teach them as sight words. I thought that was odd about the online version too.

 

I'll just stick with the books for now. They are helping DS get past the need to sound out every single little word. :D

[eloquacious]

In defense of the people who made this, "special" word does not automatically equal sight word. They are words which are not yet decodable given what the student has already been taught according to the readinglessons.com framework.

 

That being said, I agree that they can and should be taught. A good classic reader to use alongside Sam, at least the first few pages, is Deane's Phonetic Reader.

http://books.google.com/books/about/The_phonetic_reader.html?id=_UkXAAAAIAAJ

 

The sentence "I see Sam" even appears, and more importantly, "ee" is taught as a sound.

[BatmansWife]

Will these all eventually be on the website for free to watch?

[ElizabethB]

I used 100EZ with my oldest, and that uses "sight words," but it didn't seem like it had that many, and most of them were phonetically irregular (at least at the level of phonics you're teaching kindergarteners), like "said" and "to." It did do "I" and "his" as sight words, but "he," "with," etc., were certainly taught as phonics. (Actually, I think they were concerned about the "s at the end of the word being pronounced z" thing for "his," which is the reason they included it as a sight word.) The list above looks really strange to do as sight words.

 

100EZ lessons only teaches a few sight words and it has a big emphasis on sounding out words from left to right. It teaches a few more words as sight words than I would, but the amount is not excessive, especially when countered with a strong focus on sounding out words from left to right.

 

My sight word page shows how to teach all but 2 of the most commonly taught sight words phonetically:

 

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