Our Reading Plan

[eloquacious]

My older son (4.5) has completed: I See Sam Books, sets 1-6, Funnix and Funnix 2 (Both were "fast tracked" to basically just use the stories/reader), and though we never finished OPGTR or Phonics Pathways, I periodically quiz him with the more challenging words, and he pretty much always gets them.

 

We will be schooling at home this year (Let's call it K4), then sending him to a school (hopefully a public charter, possibly the neighborhood school) next year (K5).

 

Through months and months of visiting Savers and Goodwill 1x-2x a month, I have accumulated what can best be described as a classroom library of "easy readers." "I Can Read," "Step Into Reading," Scholastic readers, Penguin Readers, National Geographic Readers... you name them, we've got them. I've also started collecting chapter books, including nearly all of the Magic Treehouse Series, some Flat Stanley, etc.

 

Having worked through various phonics programs (and iPad apps) before "unleashing" him on the easy readers, I never really worried about what "level" they are. He will gladly read 3 level 1s, 5 level 2s, and 3 or 4 level 3s on any given day, as well as picture books, Disney storybooks, etc.

 

I used to think it was my job to get him to advance as quickly as possible...and then I realized there was no point to that, and that I'd very likely just kill his love of reading and learning. Plus, there are some really cool books to be read at this level (K-2nd/3rd text).

 

So: Our plan is to finish ARI 4 (set 7 of the "I See Sam" series) this year (K4) and ARI 5 (set 8) next year (K5), all the while dipping in and out of the final lessons of PP and OPGTR, and otherwise enjoying reading whatsoever his heart desires. I could probably encourage him to move into chapter books, but frankly the more "like the others" he is when he enters school, the better. He has been known to pick up the occasional book like Charlotte's Web, or a Junior Novelization of Monsters, Inc., but for now he's happiest reading 15 or so "short" books a day, rather than plowing through a novel. I'm totally fine with that.

 

That being said, by the time these next two years are over, I don't really see him being content with that. So, the questions I have are:

 

Assuming that by 1st grade he'll be in chapter books, do I then continue with "reading instruction," or just let him coast, knowing that he's ahead of the curve anyways?

 

My goal was to afterschool with the Literature and Grammar series from Michael Clay Thompson, but I'm not sure when we would start with those.

 

Are there any advanced phonics / reading instruction materials suitable for use with such a student? I've noticed that Angela (Satori) uses workbooks called "Reading for the Gifted Student," but I can't see any online previews. Has anyone used those or similar items?

[Uff Da!]

nm

Edited February 6, 2015 by Brightening

[Roadrunner]

 

 

Are there any advanced phonics / reading instruction materials suitable for use with such a student? I've noticed that Angela (Satori) uses workbooks called "Reading for the Gifted Student," but I can't see any online previews. Has anyone used those or similar items?

 

Don't waste your money on those gifted readers. They are terrible.

I also wouldn't start MCT until at least the age of 7.

[Irene Lynn]

Our dd was an early reader. I used Alpha Phonics and the phonetic cards from Writing Road to Reading. Those covered all you need to know to read. I also had her read aloud a little bit every day from some school readers that I had picked up. I had her read through 3 large readers at each level. That made it feel so incremental that she didn't even feel the very gentle stretching of it. Each reader had overlapping word lists, but some different words in each program from each other. The funny thing was that with just a little work each day, she read aloud 3 readers from the 2nd grade level all the way through 3 readers on the 5th grade level in one year. After that I didn't bother about reading instruction. The main thing that can hold a child back at that point is vocabulary. I kept reading books to her and discussing new vocabulary. As a little one, she preferred higher level nonfiction and lower level fiction books. She didn't like the relationship stuff in more advanced books. She read all sorts of books from picture books to The Hobbit or biographies.

 

I still had her read to me each day, but I tried to make it look like fun. I would have her read something to me, while I cooked or something like that. Also, I kept reading to her. People who read a lot can pick up all sorts of words that they will learn through reading, but sometimes they won't pronounce them correctly, since there are several ways to pronounce a lot of words, while still following phonetic guidelines.

 

What phonics you don't cover thoroughly now will be reinforced through spelling. Our dd read so well early, so some of the rules were so natural for reading, but she had to have some refreshing when it came to spelling.

 

What level of reading delights your son the most? That could be one thing for reading to himself and another for listening to you reading to him. I always tried to aim toward the light in their eyes, even if that meant higher or lower than I had thought would be best.

 

Another part that was very helpful, once my child was reading pretty well, was simply knowing the phonetic/reading rules well myself, so I could help with new words she encountered. If I could tell her the rule for the word each time she asked for help, then that cemented it into her brain. I am a very deliberate, yet wing-it sort of teacher though. I try to know as much as I can, then look for ways to introduce the next thing to her as naturally as I can. At the stage of reading that your son is, that method seemed to work well for us.

[eloquacious]

: Are you thinking of assigned readings and having him read out loud to you once he is fluent? (

 

I do think I'll keep him reading out loud to me, as well as keep reading to him, of course. At the moment, I can't keep him from it. He ran into my room this morning to read Peter Pan to me. He had wanted to read me a passage last night, but I told him it was bed time. He then proceeded to come out of his room three times over the next hour telling me about what he'd read.

 

The dude is... well, he's like his Mama.

 

I came to the U.S. when I was 7, not speaking English. That was the second half of second grade. By the time they tested me at the end of third grade, I was reading at a tenth grade reading level. I recall my third grade teacher had the SRA series, so I bought a used set last year. I'm thinking we might work through those after he finishes ARI 5 (the final set of the I See Sam series).

 

Most likely his only other "official" reading aloud will come from bedtime Bible readings, or whatever he chooses to read to me. Possibly we'll work through the Christian Liberty Nature Readers.

 

ETA: He surprised me recently, because I wasn't aware that he could read silently. I sort of thought he spent a lot of time flipping through pictures... only to have him recount the entire story of the new book he'd been handed half an hour before. Yesterday, he completed a worksheet from one of the Mead Problem solvers without reading it aloud... it contained circling and coloring directions, and he followed them to a T. Silently.

[eloquacious]

I taught the children to use the dictionary, just as it was done in my day at school (school in this area does not show a child how to use a dic.) Also, consider reading Deconstructing Penguins for ideas on how to discuss literature with wee ones.

 

Interesting idea! I did pick up a children's dictionary for him at Goodwill a while back. I used to be a Reading / Language Arts teachers, so a lot of that stuff I do without thinking about it. He knows all about Indexes, Title Pages, page numbers, etc. All the stuff that I had to explicitly teach my 6th and 7th graders because they didn't know how to handle books.

[eloquacious]

Finding suitable material once he's out of the "early chapter books" will prove challenging, too. Thankfully this board is super helpful, especially when it comes to finding vintage texts that are more challenging yet age-appropriate!

 

I was reading whatever I got my hands onto, and in some cases that wasn't too great. Anne Rice in 6th grade? Sigh.

 

But then, I also read The Scarlet Letter, though I often wonder how much I got out of it at the time.

[Roadrunner]

My little one is now almost 6, but had similar problems.

Have you taken a look at Story of Dr. Dolittle? My little one loved reading it. We now own a sequel and bunch of other Dolittle books. Nothing beats talking animals :)

He also reads "Ralph the Mouse" books at school, which he loves. I haven't seen them, so I can't comment first hand.

Just So Stories are wonderful as well. I think Jungle Book is much tougher, but you never know.

[aly9712]

I second the non-fiction. My dd loves non-fiction so she would read lots of books on animals, geology, art, historical events, etc.

It's easy to expand on those topics and hit up science museums, etc. to tye it all together. A great way to do some lite afterschooling for little ones.

 

An example might be to read a book on flowers, plant a few seed to observe, then head over to the botanical garden to play and identify flowers. My favorite book for this is Miss Rumphius :)

[jenbrdsly]

Okay OP, I'm going to sound like a total psycho mom here, but your question got me to thinking. So here is a tailor made blog post for you about making the jump from learning to read to reading to learn.

[Uff Da!]

So here is a tailor made blog post for you about making the jump from learning to read to reading to learn.

 

I liked this blog post (I like your other ones too). I bet we are all psycho when it comes to our kids education and learning. We wouldn't be here if we didn't mull it over a bit. :lol:

[eloquacious]

Jen, we've "corresponded" before on your blog. I commented on your Stanford reading plan, having been in Directed Studies at Yale. ;) I also taught in an inner-city school with many of the same challenges you had.

 

Off to go read your blog.

 

And if by "psycho" you mean you're a bit of a Tiger mom, then... aren't we all?

 

I've thought about this when I thought about local school vs. public charter. Looking at the test scores differential, I honestly think my son would be one of those who could "bring up" the scores of the local PS. But...as much as I was all about supporting PS as a teacher, I've seen it's flaws first hand, and as a mom, I've got much more of an "every family for themselves" mentality. Besides, if we support the schools that work (aka the charters around here) then more of them will come into being, and more students can "get in," and it won't be such an issue.

Edited September 6, 2012 by eloquacious

[eloquacious]

Okay, so I've followed the links and read around a bit.

 

Does it sound too weird to say that I think we could be friends? ;)

 

I should mention that just two days ago I reorganized our home library, which is when I realized that I had hundreds of books in the K-3rd grade level. I can't label the bookshelves YET because for now, they live on our bookshelves in the living room, but as my sons get older I'm hoping to migrate them to their rooms, and they have white bookshelves that could totally be labeled as you have done.

[eloquacious]

Jen, it cracks me up that you mentioned bribery. I bribed my son to do his I See Sam books and other phonics things, but once he hit a high 1st/low 2nd grade level and could read pretty much whatever books he picked up in the Easy Reader section at the library, he was hooked. I had to get him to slog through the "work" so that now he can "play."

 

According to that list, the books he picks up most frequently are in the J-L range, though also beyond. Looking at the third grade list, we just don't have too many M and up books, so there are fewer for him to choose from. Interesting to look at the "levels." As I've said before, levels hadn't really meant that much to me because he jumps around, and the main criterion for him is word size and words per page.

Edited September 6, 2012 by eloquacious

[jenbrdsly]

Okay, so I've followed the links and read around a bit.

 

Does it sound too weird to say that I think we could be friends? ;)

 

I should mention that just two days ago I reorganized our home library, which is when I realized that I had hundreds of books in the K-3rd grade level. I can't label the bookshelves YET because for now, they live on our bookshelves in the living room, but as my sons get older I'm hoping to migrate them to their rooms, and they have white bookshelves that could totally be labeled as you have done.

 

 

I think we could be friends. :)

[jenbrdsly]

Jen, we've "corresponded" before on your blog. I commented on your Stanford reading plan, having been in Directed Studies at Yale. ;) I also taught in an inner-city school with many of the same challenges you had.

 

Off to go read your blog.

 

And if by "psycho" you mean you're a bit of a Tiger mom, then... aren't we all?

 

I've thought about this when I thought about local school vs. public charter. Looking at the test scores differential, I honestly think my son would be one of those who could "bring up" the scores of the local PS. But...as much as I was all about supporting PS as a teacher, I've seen it's flaws first hand, and as a mom, I've got much more of an "every family for themselves" mentality. Besides, if we support the schools that work (aka the charters around here) then more of them will come into being, and more students can "get in," and it won't be such an issue.

 

Darn you eloquacious! Now you've given me another topic to write about! I think I need to write an "I Brake for Moms" column about charter schools. WA State doesn't allow them, but there is an initiative on the ballot this November. I used to teach at a charter school in CA, so I have a lot I could say. It's seems crazy to me that people would be against choice. Now I need to find a way to express that sentiment and be amusing at the same time...

[eloquacious]

Darn you eloquacious! Now you've given me another topic to write about! I think I need to write an "I Brake for Moms" column about charter schools. WA State doesn't allow them, but there is an initiative on the ballot this November. I used to teach at a charter school in CA, so I have a lot I could say. It's seems crazy to me that people would be against choice. Now I need to find a way to express that sentiment and be amusing at the same time...

 

Ahem, yes... and that is one of the reasons we decided against moving to Seattle at this time, though we would have loved to.

[eloquacious]

Regarding the three types of reading mentioned in this post, http://teachingmybabytoread.blog.com/2011/06/11/what-are-the-three-types-of-reading/

 

we've been known to do a version of that around here, but it looks like this:

 

a) independent reading

b) shared reading / Mama read aloud

c) audio book

 

We're currently starting this with the Jungle Book, but we've also done it for Pinocchio and A Cricket in Times Square.

 

For Pinocchio, for instance, my son would read these short Disney books, as well as an illustrated classics for children version that we own. Around the same time, we'd snuggle up and I read him an abridged version of Carlo Collodi's Pinocchio, having him read sentences here and there, sometimes even a paragraph. Then, during his play time, he listened to the audio book, which we got from Audible.com during our free trial. (There is also a Librivox version.)

 

For A Cricket in Times Square, I read the book to him while he read the Harry Cat and Tucker Mouse books (here is one: http://www.amazon.com/Harry-Cat-Tucker-Mouse-Readers/dp/031262509X/ref=sr_1_3?s=books&ie=UTF8&qid=1347051474&sr=1-3&keywords=harry+tucker) and we listened to the audio book in the car. In this instance, the book I was reading and the audio book were the same, but we listened to the audio book twice during the time that I read it aloud, and it helped to have the narrator be a male voice and a gifted performer. (That one we borrowed from the library.)

 

Since he is now very much into his little Disney Jungle Book and Jungle Book 2 books, and has seen a few scenes from the films in Disney Sing-Along Songs DVDs, we are doing that next. We are listening to the Librivox recording, reading an abridged classics version, and he is reading his "easier" books by himself. It's a system that has worked well, even if we're doing it informally. It works because he is like his parents: when he's into something, he's really into it. Earlier, the boys were playing Mowgli and friends, tracking Shere Khan the tiger and running from Kaa the snake.

 

Oh, I nearly forgot! We did this with Treasure Island, also.

 

(My son used these http://www.amazon.com/Treasure-Island-Easy-Reader-Classics/dp/140273297X/ref=sr_1_1?s=books&ie=UTF8&qid=1347051935&sr=1-1&keywords=treasure+island+easy+reader)

 

We'll start on things like Doctor Dolittle and 20,000 leagues when we get back from Germany. For Doctor Dolittle, my son will read these http://www.amazon.com/Story-Doctor-Dolittle-Animal-Classics/dp/1402732910/ref=sr_1_5?s=books&ie=UTF8&qid=1347051854&sr=1-5&keywords=doctor+dolittle+easy+reader

while I read this

http://www.amazon.com/Classic-Starts-Voyages-Doctor-Dolittle/dp/1402745745/ref=sr_1_1?s=books&ie=UTF8&qid=1347051897&sr=1-1&keywords=doctor+dolittle+abridged with him "dipping in," as described. Then in the car, we'll listen to an audio version of the original.

 

ETA: Part of what I like about this method of scaffolding is that he already knows the "plot," and that helps him to understand the more complex syntax and vocabulary of the audio books.

Edited September 7, 2012 by eloquacious

[jenbrdsly]

If you were to take a Disney story that he was familiar with, talk about the plot, and maybe even act it out... and THEN hand over the book for him to read independently. That would be considered Guided/Shared reading in the ps sense of the word. Especially if you talked about the book again after he read it. So it sounds like you are already transitioning into this.

(Sorry, that's awful punctuation on my part.)

[eloquacious]

Did I mention that he's in a Jungle Book phase right now?

 

 

The green book lying behind him is Jungle Book 2.

[jenbrdsly]

:)

[hm2009]

@ eloquacious - We had tried the Reading for the Gifted Student Grd - 1 when dd was 5-6. I can say it helped her a lot. It had a lot of non fiction in it. So it helped in building her curiosity to books which she would not have picked up on her own. Whenever we when to the library she would look for books about the Great wall of China, bacteria, germs, stuff...So I would say its a good introduction to non fiction topics...

[Nart]

Your reading plan seem well thought out, however I would come up with a writing plan. Perhaps you have, and if you did then never mind this post.

8 months ago my son was half-way through Funnix 2 after completing 100 Easy lessons. He got to a point where he could read books fluently, and reading fast enough that if we turned on the TV to the Direct TV channel guide he could quickly read what show was coming on. That's when I switched from emphasizing reading to emphasizing writing because I knew he was going to go to PS kinder. As you know, there is a lot of writing and coloring in kinder.

 

So I had him go through HWT preschool and kinder, the Kumon letters and word books, Zaner-Bloser K (to transition to getting used to three lines instead of two), finally this summer we worked on AAS and he is almost done. His fine motor skills were really delayed a year ago - he finally settled on using his left hand so we didn't have him do any writing until we really knew what hand was his dominant. Now for a boy they are great! He has no difficulty writing in lower case letters with proper formation. Even though he never colored all the practice writing has made it easy to color within the lines. He started PS kinder two weeks ago and loves it. I think because he doesn't struggle with coloring, writing his name correctly (only the first letter in caps), or printing correctly. He has brought home tons of things he colored - I think because the teacher is assessing the students and has them color for busy work. Now I am back to pushing reading again after school.