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What do I use if OPGTR is not working for my son?


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It was great for my oldest! She started reading early and is an advanced reader now. My son is just not getting it and he HATES when I pull out the OPGTR book. He can read short, short-vowel words pretty well but still has to sound them out s-l-o-w-l-y. He is struggling with blends and digraphs though I am seeing a slight (very slight) improvement even these last two weeks.

 

We have been doing OPGTR since last fall when we started Kindy but now I am thinking I should try something else. What else is there? Does anyone know of something that might help him?

 

I have him reading some BOB books. He is almost done with Set 2 - Advancing Beginners (the orange box). He still has a difficult time with d,b and p and often writes his numbers backwards.

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We went to Memoria Press's First Start Reading when OPGTR was going too fast for ds. FSR does combine reading/writing, which worked fine for my 1st ds, but my 2nd ds is just doing the reading without the writing, and that is working well too, so I don't think it has to be combined. After completing FSR, we jumped back into OPGTR after the short vowels section and basically finished the book.

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Ordinary Parents Guide didn't work very well here; we ended up with Phonics Pathways & Reading Pathways. Button usually complained about them, but we did it for 5-ish minutes a day, with games where possible & running around the house every minute or so (after a little section of reading).

 

I note that ETC, and also Apples and Pears/Dancing Bears, are both very popular on the board these days.

 

For readers, I've preferred the Free and Treadwell readers (start with Primer) to Bob. You can find them online for free, they are vintage. In primer I would read 1 page to Button and have him read it back, then repeat 'till he had it down. Then on to the next, until he read the story; then the next story. Some deal quite matter-of-factly with farm animals being killed, though that's not until the first or second reader I think.

 

Also, reversals will prob. be common until the child is in 2nd or 3rd grade, and shouldn't be a concern.

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Some things I'm doing with my DD:

~Reading Bear website

~Starfall

~Bob books

~Evan Moor's Take it to Your Seat Phonics Centers (they're a lot of work to get ready but they're good and pretty similar to a lot of the games you get with AAR)

~have you seen these?

~we have a set of letter tiles in a tub that are pretty handy for word building

 

HTH. :)

Edited by alisoncooks
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OPGTR didn't work so well here either. I switched DS to A Beka's A Handbook for Reading and used the workbook and readers that go with it. Worked wonders for DS, who went from (at just turned 7) struggling with sounding out words, to reading strongly and is now above grade level (at 7y8m).

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I've used OPGTR and Phonics Pathways. Sometimes one works better than another depending on child, and with my last we started with OPGTR and switched to Phonics Pathways.

I've used real books, Pathway readers, Bob Books and the Nora Gaydos readers. Haven't used but All About Reading looks good, too.

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This is a wonderful resource:

http://www.fcrr.org/Curriculum/studentCenterActivities.shtm

 

I thought about dropping OPGTR, but I'm just going to rethink how I teach it. Maybe alternating teaching from the book with a day of fun phonics games to reinforce the concept (like from the site above).

 

I also typed out all the student parts from the OPG lessons in Pages and printed them out so DD could mark on them (i.e. find the vowel and underline, draw a picture to go with 1 sentence, etc). And -- motivated by looking at AAR -- I made progress charts to go with each section in OPGTR. As we fully master a lesson, I'll let her put a sticker on the chart.

 

(Just thought I'd share, in case someone else was struggling with OPGTR but wanted to keep trying it...)

 

ETA: OPGTR incentive charts are on my blog now (see below).

Edited by alisoncooks
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OPGTR didn't work for us either.

We switched back to Hooked on Phonics and DD is really thriving on that.

She won't be happy if she doesn't get her sticker each day

HOP introduce a set of sound and the have a short story (and pretty good ones) and every few sounds it has a story book to go with it. DD loves it

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This is a wonderful resource:

http://www.fcrr.org/Curriculum/studentCenterActivities.shtm

 

I thought about dropping OPGTR, but I'm just going to rethink how I teach it. Maybe alternating teaching from the book with a day of fun phonics games to reinforce the concept (like from the site above).

 

I also typed out all the student parts from the OPG lessons in Pages and printed them out so DD could mark on them (i.e. find the vowel and underline, draw a picture to go with 1 sentence, etc). And -- motivated by looking at AAR -- I made progress charts to go with each section in OPGTR. As we fully master a lesson, I'll let her put a sticker on the chart.

 

(Just thought I'd share, in case someone else was struggling with OPGTR but wanted to keep trying it...)

 

ETA: OPGTR incentive charts are on my blog now (see below).

 

 

Thank you for this! (I am just now seeing it.:D)

 

I LOVE your idea of typing out the student parts for him to use. I think that would make a difference for my ds. I am heading over to your blog now to check out your incentive charts.

 

I don't suppose you have a file for the student parts you could share? :001_smile:

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It was great for my oldest! She started reading early and is an advanced reader now. My son is just not getting it and he HATES when I pull out the OPGTR book. He can read short, short-vowel words pretty well but still has to sound them out s-l-o-w-l-y. He is struggling with blends and digraphs though I am seeing a slight (very slight) improvement even these last two weeks.

 

We have been doing OPGTR since last fall when we started Kindy but now I am thinking I should try something else. What else is there? Does anyone know of something that might help him?

 

I have him reading some BOB books. He is almost done with Set 2 - Advancing Beginners (the orange box). He still has a difficult time with d,b and p and often writes his numbers backwards.

 

I have had very much the same experience with Phonics Pathways. DS was starting to hate it. He is also at the same point at yours, sounding out slowly, struggling with d, b, p, etc.

 

I decided to try the All About Reading samples online and he loves them! I went ahead and ordered it and just got it in the mail yesterday:001_smile:!

 

About half the book will be review, but I figured if he loves it and we can move through things quickly or skip them it will will be worth it. Also love that the reading instruction is not tied to writing. It is great for my wriggly boy!

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