Xpost: Dancing Bears Fast Track vs Rewards Intermediate

[mothergooseof4]

I have an almost 10yo ds that still struggles with reading. We have used O-G methods for reading instruction. He knows all of the phonograms. He knows syllable division rules. His handwriting is perfect, spelling awesome, copywork excellent. He has no interest in reading. When sounding out a word, he either guesses or, if made to slow down and sound it out via phonograms and syllable rules, does not go from the phonetic sound to an actual word if they are not exactly the same. He does not reverse letters in either reading or writing. He has excellent reading comprehension when reading aloud or to himself. He says that he has a much easier time reading to himself and that he just has a hard time sounding the words out loud. But, that concerns me that he really isn't when reading to himself either.

 

I am looking at Dancing Bears FastTrack, but it almost seems too easy. Or, Rewards Intermediate. Which one would be better for him? Or, do I just need to continue searching until I find something that actually inspires him to read.

[ElizabethB]

Have you tried nonsense words?

 

I like the book for We All Can Read, 3rd grade and above. It is packed with nonsense words. Their free online sample lessons are the same as the lessons in the book. You can try them out, have him read them before listening to the audio.

 

http://weallcanread.com/Online.html

 

He also has different sample pages from the book:

 

http://weallcanread.com/pdf%20files/Sample%20Pages%205th%20Ed..pdf

Edited July 11, 2012 by ElizabethB

[Lecka]

Have you looked at things for fluency?

 

It is just a thought.

 

If you are wanting him to do better at reading out loud it seems like maybe that is fluency?

 

I am working on fluency right now (at a lower level) and my son does the thing where he sounds out a word, is saying it a little odd and doesn't recognize what word it is, then finishes the sentence, then goes back and knows what the word was.

 

And -- it is words that he has the skills to decode.

 

I read something in Intermediate Grade Phonics by Wiley Blevins that I have taken to heart: "Expecting children to read fluently when they are not capable of it only encourages guessing." So -- it is okay for them to struggle some like that, when they are working on fluency, is how I take that statement.

 

I am doing the thing of trying to target his independent level and instructional level for fluency, and doing repeated reading, and reading together with him, etc. But he is at a late 1st/early 2nd grade level right now. So donig fluency on that level.

 

But that is on my mind b/c it is what I am doing, lol. I am eager to see what other people say.

 

Oh, when my son does this -- he will be saying a word basically right but just saying it very slightly odd... but he is sounding out. He just doesn't know what the word is without the context. But I feel like that (going through that process of sounding out and then figuring out what the word is) is what it takes for him to learn. Maybe it is not quite the same thing. I don't think my son has word-finding difficulty and I think that is a different issue.

 

edit -- an example with my son would be "learn" he might say leearn and he basically has it and knows "ear" makes "er" sound... he is just saying it very slightly odd. Then when he has read the sentence he is like "ah ha! it is learn!" But he will do this exact, exact same thing for 5 times (or more). But then all of a sudden -- he starts reading it "learn."

 

 

My son basically reads aloud to me and when he guesses I cover the word and partially uncover it, or I model it for him. But I read the words he might guess on, so he knows, if I am not reading it, he should be able to read it. But I think if he is guessing, maybe he is not fluent, but he wants to be fluent, and if he worked on fluency maybe he wouldn't want to guess on so many words, b/c he would only be coming to a very few words he might be tempted to guess on, if he was reading at his instructional level. This is what I am thinking with my son. And -- we are hanging out at his current level for now until this gets better.

 

He is fine with nonsense words, too. But I am going to think about trying nonsense words. Maybe it would help -- I haven't done them very recently.

Edited July 11, 2012 by Lecka