OPGTR question

[bttrflyvld]

Is the manual meant to leach a new lesson everyday? or should I be staying on a lesson (repeated) a few times then move on? What did you do?

[BinahYeteirah]

It depends entirely on the child. If your child understands the previous lesson well, then a lesson a day can be a good pace. Sometimes you might need to slow down and review the previous material in different ways (games, reading various readers, etc.) until it sticks. Right now my child is doing a couple lessons per day, but she is older and a lot of it is review for her. I expect we will slow down once we get to lessons that are primarily new material.

[StartingOver]

My children do better if we push ahead to where it is difficult for a bit, then back off and review easier things, the back to some challenging work. We do the same with reading for example...... Bob Books. We will read through set 1 twice, then set 2 once, then go back to set 1, then set three, and back to set 2... Sometimes we get to a real wall so we go ball the way back to reading set 1 twice. I want my to have the tools to decode words, but then those words should be committed to memory by reading them over and over, the cycles help the boredom.

[RoundAbout]

We're nearly done with OPGTR. I move on if he gets 80% of the lesson and just incorporate review if it looks like he's having trouble with something. Stamina is still our biggest issue so if there are a ton of sentences in a lesson I stretch it out over two days.

[spaceman]

I think in the beginning (maybe lesson 80 or 90, I'm going by memory - before the different combinations of long vowels are introduced), one lesson per day is great.

 

I write down words they had trouble with on index cards (instead of writing in the book). Before we begin the lesson, I shuffle those cards and pick 3. We review any pertinent rules (such as the c/g soft sound rules, or the digraph "ph", etc.) for those 3 cards and then the child reads those 3. I make a mark on the back of the card if they didn't have trouble with that word after reviewing the rule. If we pick a card that has a mark, the child attempts to read the card without a rule review. If he/she can do it, the child gets to keep the card (my kids have notebooks they put their "won" cards from a variety of subjects they like to show off and review on their own).

 

I also schedule two 15 minute segments in the day for OPGTR. If the child finishes the lesson in the first segment (as happens almost all the time), they get the other time "free". Very occasionally, we will use both 15 minutes and not complete the lesson. In that case, we'd still be on that lesson the next day, but starting where we left off. I think it's important for the child to feel like they are moving forward.

 

Once we got to the long vowels combination section, I introduced a visual chart we use as a poster and reference. That, along with the index card review we do has been plenty. I do think the poster reference was instrumental for us at that point though.

 

 

 

In the beginning though, you go through all the blends, etc., which (IMO) ends up being blending review while giving the impression of moving forward to the child. Worked great for us to just keep at it.

[TXMary2]

OPGTR suggests each day to do "Two Review and One New." That's how we did it.

[Kathleen in LV]

I started a new lesson each day, and reviewed one or more prior lessons if my ds had any issues. I didn't always review the two immediately preceding lessons -- sometimes I would jump back 10 or more lessons if there was a particularly difficult vowel or consanant combo that he wasn't remembering. Now we're almost done (about 20 lessons left), so we're covering 4-syllable words. But I still go back to review an earlier lesson each time based on some of the vowel combos he still misses.

 

The beauty of OPGTR is that subsequent lessons incorporate concepts from earlier lessons, so you can continue to practice older concepts & evaluate if additional review is necessary. Frankly, sometimes it appeared that he really got the concept after the lesson, but a month or two later when it would pop up again, he would struggle. Follow your child's lead, and you should do just fine.

 

Good luck!

[hollyh]

I found that it would take my dd about 2 days to get through a lesson after around lesson 60 (I think that is when the passages got longer). Some days the lessons were short but sometimes they are pretty long!

[bttrflyvld]

I found that it would take my dd about 2 days to get through a lesson after around lesson 60 (I think that is when the passages got longer). Some days the lessons were short but sometimes they are pretty long!

 

So we are on lesson 38. Not too far into it. My daughter is sounding out words really well, but not reading the words right off. If she can sound them out should I be moving on the next day or should I do reviews till she can read the word?

[warriormom]

:bigear: wondering about this as well....