Re-evaluating how I teach reading & what I use to teach it.

[Sue G in PA]

What we have tried: OPG (big time fail...I just couldn't handle the scripting), PR (liked it, but had to sell due to financial hardships), The Reading Lesson (having some success, a keeper so far). Many of you saw my post about my struggling almost 9yo reader. I also have a 6yo who is very advanced. She is a very good reader. As I am researching ways to help ds8, I am also re-evaluating the best WAY to teach reading PERIOD. To a struggling reader or whoever. Does that make sense? I have looked at Websters Speller, WRTR, the Spalding method in general, etc. I am CONFUSED and OVERWHELMED! :confused: I don't know where to even start remediating my 8yo OR where to continue with my dd6. I can't wrap my brain around Websters and the syllable approach. I'm trying. :tongue_smilie: I purchased WRTR on the sale board and will look through it when it comes. I made up my own phonogram cards to drill those. I get overwhelmed very easily. I need simple. Simple and effective. Can anyone help me sort this out?

[abrightmom]

:grouphug: Sue. I understand as I am easily overwhelmed also.

 

For the record, I loved OPGTR :001_smile: and we like The Reading Lesson too (DD5 is using it now).

 

If you don't like scripts then how about Phonics Pathways! It is excellent, thorough, systematic phonics with LOTS of helps built into the text. It is also NOT scripted. It has a long track record and is loved by many. In my experience, the Moms who didn't click with PP prefer a script.

 

IMHO, the WRTR and Webster's speller are not "simple". They are both excellent programs but I wouldn't classify them as simple to use. Phonics Pathways is both excellent and simple to use if you don't like scripts.

[Ellie]

What we have tried: OPG (big time fail...I just couldn't handle the scripting), PR (liked it, but had to sell due to financial hardships), The Reading Lesson (having some success, a keeper so far). Many of you saw my post about my struggling almost 9yo reader. I also have a 6yo who is very advanced. She is a very good reader. As I am researching ways to help ds8, I am also re-evaluating the best WAY to teach reading PERIOD. To a struggling reader or whoever. Does that make sense? I have looked at Websters Speller, WRTR, the Spalding method in general, etc. I am CONFUSED and OVERWHELMED! :confused: I don't know where to even start remediating my 8yo OR where to continue with my dd6. I can't wrap my brain around Websters and the syllable approach. I'm trying. :tongue_smilie: I purchased WRTR on the sale board and will look through it when it comes. I made up my own phonogram cards to drill those. I get overwhelmed very easily. I need simple. Simple and effective. Can anyone help me sort this out?

I confess to being a Spalding geek :D so of course, that would be my recommendation. Do you know which edition of the manual you bought? (Spalding is the method; WRTR is the manual.) The phonogram cards aren't just for drill; they are part of the method. :)

 

Spalding is simple. Really. You teach the first 45 (or 54, if you have the 4th edition) phonograms; drill the phonograms daily; begin teaching the words in the Extended Ayres List; continue teaching and drilling phonograms; repeat. Simple and effective. No worksheets, no vocabulary-controlled basal readers (although there are some Spalding readers, which are used for the writing lessons as well as the reading lessons), just do the next thing. The lead time in learning the method weirds out some people, but once you're over that hump, you're up and running.

[Sue G in PA]

Thanks, both of you. Ellie, it is the 5th ed. I have been poring over the Webster speller threads, Spalding method (and the WRTR manual) threads, have considered PP (even tried to use it once but forget why I gave up...it was a library loan). For my dd6 who just "gets" reading...I can seriously use anything but I want her to have a good foundation for spelling. For ds8 who is struggling...I have to try something new. And honestly, I have a tentative plan in place...one that included some book work using ETC (backing up to the beginning to build confidence), easy readers (some old K12 phonics readers we have that he CAN read) to build confidence and fluency, continue with The Reading Lesson, backing up a few lessons, and...(this is where I need help). I do want him to learn a systematic approach to reading and spelling. Webster AND Spalding method seem to accomplish that.

[Critterfixer]

So how do YOU teach reading?

 

I started out with a copy of OPGTR and high hopes. I was an early reader, and expected to go through the book in Kindergarten so as to set my boys on a path of Classical Education by the first grade. Boy was I in for a rude awakening.

 

It's taken all of three years to teach them to read. As for a method that is better than anything else, I'd say the method that gives them the tools they need to read is the best. I've taken some of those tools from different sources, and I find new ones all the time. I'm sure there is a list somewhere, but the most important tools for my most delayed reader have been:

 

1) Drilling the blends. We did this a bunch when he was six. When he got to where he could "see" them in a word he knew them cold.

 

2) Don't guess: spell. No sense in asking him to sound it out. He had to spell the word then take it by parts. I did not ask him to write it out as in WRTR. He could handle it now, but he gets enough of writing as it is. He could not have handled it at age six.

 

3) Good practice makes perfect. Bad practice makes everyone mad. A little bit taken at a time is helpful. If you push to get through a page or through a particular rule you will have to teach it the next day to a child who is already at odds with it. Better to break a lesson down into three sections and have a piece for breakfast, lunch and dinner. You'll get it all done that way with considerably less distress.

 

4) Take the mystery out of it. My ds did much better with his reading when we went through Webster's syllabary and then Word Mastery. He's not into Webster's proper--that comes after he finishes Word Mastery. I've got the same plan in mind for his twin brother who is very near that mile-mark. What helped him from the Speller was to see and hear that words are really made up of little bites. He saw that if he could see a word in it's pieces he could figure it out.

Addendum to the mystery part--give him a reason for exceptions. My other ds enjoyed the crazy exceptions, this ds had to know why. Blame the Anglo-Saxons, the Vikings, the French, the Greeks. Blame somebody!

 

5) Having a particular goal in mind with a concrete reward is not bribery. My ds8 does not see any particular point in books to read for pleasure. He takes more interest in being able to read the instructions to his math workbook. (Guess who gets to read almost all the math instructions?)

But he does have things he wants, and a reward for finishing a particular book does interest him. He knows I won't rush him to get there. He can go at his own pace, but is motivated to stay at it. In this child's case, the motivation is a large fan so that he can have a constant source of wind to run his power windmill.

 

Nearly all of the tools he needed fall into the visualization and analysis of words, and some phonetic training early on. He also needed some understanding of why words behave the way they do. Not every kid needs a repeated explanation of why the vowel is long because there is only one consonant between it and a suffix, but this one does.

 

I hope there may be something helpful in there for you. I'm sure others will chime in with other suggestions. My son was never baffled or frustrated by reading difficulty as he considered the whole thing to be more of a irritation that got in the way of his math time. But I understand that there are probably some other tools needed to help a child overcome the fear of not being able to read or the sense that they are somehow not smart enough to do it. Mine just didn't because he didn't, and doesn't give a fig about what I or anyone else thinks!

 

Most of this is from teaching my ds (Engineer) who is hFA. My other son, Ping-pong has been faster to learn because he wants to write his own stories, when he isn't telling them to his brother and getting his analytical sibling to imagine a thing or two. His problems lay in getting in a hurry, trying to guess when he needed to be sounding out. I do have him spell when he gets in a hurry. He hates to do this because it slows him down, but it is what is needed. He will try to read anything, so having him sit with me for a good practice session is important. I have liked Word Mastery for him because it will focus on things that are similar so that he can get a feel for how something works well before he encounters it in reading. I have a bunch of old Abeka readers for him, because he really needs to drill the words in a story to get them down. This would be useless for Engineer. He does better if he encounters them a few at a time, so that he can stop, reflect and pick them apart.

Edited January 4, 2012 by Critterfixer

[Critterfixer]

Duplicate--I'm not sure what happened!

Edited January 4, 2012 by Critterfixer
Duplicate post-crazy computer

[Samiam]

I think I read your post about your 9 year old. I remember thinking we were in the same boat. My DS8 turns 9 in Feb, and is just barely reading. As in we are able to do "The Fat cat is hot"...type of things. Very basic reading and that has been a huge struggle. I've used several programs as well, including OPGTR, HoP, even bought Barton, and resold.

 

We've been using Phonics Pathways for about a year, and it's so far been the best. It's not scripted, but it's so easy for ME to teach, so it's something we can do every day, for 10-15 minutes a day, it's getting done, and it's getting the job done.

 

I also got the Pyramid book that goes with it. It's just simple reading, but it has built up his confidence so much.

 

I'm using it with DS5 as well, who is not struggling at all, and coming up quickly right behind DS9. So it's not just for struggling readers.

 

I really think PP is going to be the crown jewel for us. I am thinking that DS9's brain is just ready to "click" now too....I hoping he is just one of those late bloomers (he has been with almost everything else in his life), so I see "clicks' happening at a more rapid pace lately then before.

[Sue G in PA]

Part of me is wondering if things will just start "clicking" for ds8 as well...regardless of WHAT curriculum or method I use. I do think that writing AND reading for him might help cement the rules and phograms he already knows. I don't know. Just overhwhelmed with choices and not willing to spend more money. I have downloaded Websters, I have The Reading Lesson, WRTR will be arriving shortly. I guess it's just a matter of doing "something". :)