1st grade Phonics/LA for a VSL?

[LittleIzumi]

I've been piecing together LA with AAS 1 & 2, ETC 2/3/4, tried grammar but dropped it (she's also VERY whole-to-parts and hates writing, lol, so that was not fun). The AAS is nice. I like it. It works pretty well. The ETC does NOT stick. At all. I have some Happy Phonics games I could try. She's getting some copywork and minor free writing practice from our unit study pages. That's it. Is that enough for 1st grade? Anyone have a better idea?

 

We tried FLL and OPGTR, and she hated both of them (she literally ran away crying from OPGTR :001_huh:). She also hates writing, reverses a lot (finished VT and it improved from that, but still occurring), highly prefers cursive, very uneven writing/spacing, etc. She's also ADHD-Combined, if that makes a difference. She's reading at 4.4 grade level but she guesses a lot, and she's spelling at maybe 1st grade level--mostly phonetic spelling. She gets better as she learns the rules in AAS but it's been going slowly as I focused on the ETC most days, which appears to have been a lot of wasted time. Should I just move to AAS every day and drop ETC? Anything else that might work?

Edited March 10, 2012 by LittleIzumi

[lindsrae]

I am certainly no expert, but the more I learn about Spalding, the better. We are using Phonics Road, level one, and I just started reading the sample of The Logic of English on Amazon. It is parts-to-whole ...and makes SO much sense.

[smdgl]

Alpha Phonics by Sam Blumenthal. Simple, straight to the point. Inexpensive.

 

I've used it with all 4 of my children with great success. I know several people who had success with it after struggling with other programs.

[Aurelia]

Ariel is very much the same way. ETC was just a waste of time for us. OPG was about as productive as banging my head into a wall. Definitely drop ETC. I recommend doing AAS every day and possibly add Dancing Bears. DB has virtually no writing, but stops the guessing (most pages the child can't pass until they sound the words out correctly. Guessing causes them to have to redo the line again the next day.). She could probably do Fast Track if she's reading well.

[BlueTaelon]

Honestly? There is no way I would put a VSL kid though phonics, its pure torture for everyone involved and they usually still wont get it. Many can't even hear vowel sounds properly from what I understand which would guarantee failure at phonics (hence why I use Headsprout, I can't teach phonics because I can't hear those vowels).

 

She's reading 3 years above grade level which is well ahead of most kids, heck, most VSL kids dont even really start reading until around 8-10 yrs old. I'd just leave her alone and let her read what she wants, she will continue to make progress. Have you read "Right-Brained Children in a Left-Brained World" ? Awesome advice including how to teach spelling words in under a minute to VSL's as well as how to approach reading instruction but I'm willing to bet she won't need any beyond teaching her to speed read which often clears up the comprehension problems they often struggle with.

[Embassy]

I've been piecing together LA with AAS 1 & 2, ETC 2/3/4, tried grammar but dropped it (she's also VERY whole-to-parts and hates writing, lol, so that was not fun). The AAS is nice. I like it. It works pretty well. The ETC does NOT stick. At all. I have some Happy Phonics games I could try. She's getting some copywork and minor free writing practice from our unit study pages. That's it. Is that enough for 1st grade? Anyone have a better idea?

 

We tried FLL and OPGTR, and she hated both of them (she literally ran away crying from OPGTR :001_huh:). She also hates writing, reverses a lot (finished VT and it improved from that, but still occurring), highly prefers cursive, very uneven writing/spacing, etc. She's also ADHD-Combined, if that makes a difference. She's reading at 4.4 grade level but she guesses a lot, and she's spelling at maybe 1st grade level--mostly phonetic spelling. She gets better as she learns the rules in AAS but it's been going slowly as I focused on the ETC most days, which appears to have been a lot of wasted time. Should I just move to AAS every day and drop ETC? Anything else that might work?

 

My VSL was in 1st grade last year and is also a whole-to-parts learner with poorer spelling and a much higher reading level. He has always like to write though - although his handwriting is far from where it should be.

 

Anyway, I searched for programs for him last year and finally settled on Rod and Staff Phonics. I'm also doing Rod and Staff Spelling and this year I've started him on Rod and Staff Grammar. His spelling has improved greatly. The books do require a bunch of writing though. Rod and Staff grammar seems to be a good fit too. I did a bunch of phonemic awareness skills with him too (i.e. change the /t/ in hat to /d/). Rod and Staff is rather dull with no bells and whistles, but they do give lots of practice. Writing things down and completing the lessons seemed to help.

 

If ETC isn't working I would drop it. If AAS is working then I would continue on with it and maybe add in some phonemic awareness (http://teams.lacoe.edu/documentation/classrooms/patti/k-1/teacher/assessment/levels.html) activities.

[LittleIzumi]

Thanks everyone!!! I think I'm going to drop ETC completely and use AAS and Dancing Bears Fast Track daily instead. Grammar will wait a year or two.