Thoughts on IEW-PAL Reading

[socody]

I am in the process of deciding what reading program to use for my kindergartener this fall. I have OPGTR and I like the order of it, but I need something a little more hands-on, a little more planned out. I have been printing games & activities things from the internet but I really just need more direction. She knows all her consonant sounds & short vowels, she's blending pretty well but I just don't know where to go from here. The 2 I keep going back to are All About Reading & IEW's PAL program. I don't know if I can stomach the cost of AAR so I'm leaning toward IEW now. If you have used it, what are your thoughts? She doesn't have great handwriting yet, so I would probably get the writing program too.

[genny]

I got both the reading and writing program. I also own aar 1 and 2. I really, really disliked PAL. It sits in a box unused. I'm a phonics junkie and own a lot of programs. This ranks at the complete bottom. I found the games really boring with the exception of mugs. The actual instruction for some reason doesn't feel thorough. Maybe it's just not my teaching style. I prefer the systematic approach of aar or phonics pathways. Phonics pathways does a good job but isn't fun. I'm impressed with the instruction in aar and the games are okay (my kids loved them). I like their readers. That being said, it's pricey. It's not a complete program and so if you go with aar you'll need to buy several levels (not a great choice if you're on a budget). I didn't like aar pre-reading level (maybe because my kids were already reading cvc words).

 

Sorry rambly....hope my post helps a bit:)

[ondreeuh]

I love PAL. What you need to know is that it is NOT an O-G inspired method (like AAS, AAR, Logic of English, etc.) It is based on the "Blended Sound-Sight System" developed by Anna Ingham. Sight words are an integral part of the program - their purpose being to kick-start fluency. Phonics are definitely a part of the program, but the program doesn't rely on only phonics. Words are introduced, phonograms are marked, and then the words are drilled/reviewed to fluency. My son is able to generalize the phonograms to new words, so it hasn't hurt him any. Poetry is used in every lesson - you read through it with your child, the child helps mark phonograms they recognize, and you call their attention to new phonograms or ones they missed. The activities are fairly repetitive, but my son needed the cutting & pasting practice. The reading practice sheets are used to practice fluency. He liked the games - they are simple, but they work.

 

My son is a fast learner and a natural reader, so he only needed a couple of exposures to a word to learn it. He only needed to read the reading practice sheets once. Because he was able to recall words from memory, I built in a lot of extra decoding practice. We went through all levels of BOB books and Nora Gaydos readers. The "magic e" game was the only one we had to play a lot. The rest I just cycled through and there were enough they didn't get boring. I have lots of other phonics file folder games, so I used some of those as well.

 

We started out doing a lesson every other day, and then started speeding up as it was clear he could accelerate. We finished the 100 lessons in December after using it for 3 months. He is now reading Henry & Mudge books and other 2nd grade readers. He was not ready for the handwriting portion until the last few weeks. Because the letter stories are familiar, he is picking up the letter formation very quickly! I can tell him that since d is the dog letter, we make the dog's head first and then it's tail. B, the bomb letter, starts out with the bomb falling straight to the ground, bouncing up and then around. You can call it the ball letter if you prefer. :)

 

I think PAL is fantastic for kids who have all the prerequisite phonemic awareness skills and look like they will pick up reading easily. It is not as incremental and systematic as an O-G inspired program, so kids who struggle may get a little lost with the order the phonograms are introduced. I think the poetry part is especially awesome and really shows them how what they are learning ties in to REAL literature.

[genny]

The letter story idea did help dd enormously with her letter formation. :thumbup:

[thegirlwhopaintedtrees]

We use only PAL Writing. My friend uses PAL Reading and loves it. Her daughter needed an approach with more games and more sight words because she was very frustrated with sounding out.

[ondreeuh]

PAL has 100 lessons, then the "Discovery" phase which is when the student builds a bank of words they can read fluently. For my son, I would go through a set of 10 cards, then write out on paper and mark up any he didn't read correctly, practice those a couple of times, and put them in a stack to review later. Other kids may need a different method. I think there are 30 sets of cards (so, 300) in Discovery. After that you just move on to 2nd grade readers like Little Bear. Since the phonograms have been introduced, you can just remind your child when he stumbles on a word. There are additional poems to use after the 100 lessons if you want.

 

I didn't love EVERYTHING about PAL - like I didn't find the phonetic farm valuable (but others love it). I used Saxon Phonics picture cards to review the phonograms instead. I made the program work for me.