Anti-phonics way of teaching reading? HELP

[Koerarmoca]

If so? How do I do it? Dd7 is still struggling. I have tried 100 ez lessons, ordinary parents guide, phonics pathways..and well phonics based just isn't clicking.

 

She doesn't like to look at the whole word, she often makes guesses based on other words she knows like if the word is sometime she will say something because she is not looking at the whole word.

 

She can read some readers and stuff like dick and Jane but she complains they are babyish, boring etc. I keep telling her when she really gets reading she can start reading more exciting books.

 

I think she'd do well to learn by just memorization of words. I do believe that is how I learned.

 

My other girls just kinda picked it up and are very advanced readers I never had to work this hard to get a child to read. HELP!

[EKS]

Honestly, I'd take a look at the book Overcoming Dyslexia to see if anything resonates. I'd also have her vision checked by a developmental optometrist (not a regular vision exam).

[Koerarmoca]

I used to work for a pediatric visual therapist, I'm not seeing any signs of visual issues (or dyslexia but again I was an Ophthalmic tech and not the doc) She did have a vision test, visual fields, and depth perception testing in January and everything came back fine. I am going to talk to her peds about further testing.

 

I will see if my library has the book.

[Crimson Wife]

Phonetic readers are boring. Perhaps she'd like something along the lines of the You Read to Me, I'll Read to You series by Mary Ann Hoberman? That has a part for the parent to read and then an easy sentence or two for the child to read.

[Koerarmoca]

Phonetic readers are boring. Perhaps she'd like something along the lines of the You Read to Me, I'll Read to You series by Mary Ann Hoberman? That has a part for the parent to read and then an easy sentence or two for the child to read.

 

 

Thanks our library has a few I requested them to see how we like them.

[Wee Pip]

once I knew my dd had a firm grasp of phonics, we ditched formal phonics instruction and used the method and booklists from Teach a Child to Read with Childrens Books. The picture books were not phonetic, but started off very repetitious (ex: brown bear, what do you see?). This did it for dd, who knew her phonics sounds but couldn't put it all together for fluid, fluent reading. She needed a practical, real life way to read real books. We gradually worked up to less repetitious pic books, and eventually short chapter books. (Garfield comics may or may not have helped here, lol)

[alisoncooks]

We've been using a pure-phonics approach for the last 12 months, but my DD (nearly 7) continued to struggle. (We were stuck on CVC words for months and months. And months.) Like you mentioned, my daughter was also so tired of reading boring phonics readers. In her words, "I'm tired of reading about fat cats who sat on mats!" LOL. :D

 

Anyway, I ordered CLE's LTR (which includes a great deal of sight word instruction) and she has done *very* well with it! I definitely see benefit to teaching sight words to older readers who are struggling. It's opened up so much to her. We now keep a "word wall" with high frequency words and whenever we come across a word that's "handy to know" we put it up there and practice reading them daily.

[Farrar]

I would suggest Peggy Kaye's Games for Reading. It's a good resource book with lots of ideas. Games for Writing is also really good.

 

Obviously, you want to teach that basic phonics. But it's not a straight path. And the emotional piece - how much a child enjoys it and how many fun books they read and whether they see the point in reading are all key pieces for many kids. I second using more "real" books instead of basic readers and trying to play more games and do more activities that aren't just phonics alongside keeping up some of the phonics. And most of all, be patient.

[kiwik]

While when I read the section on phonics vs whole language learning in WTM it made sense I don't think it tells the whole story. I learnt to read without phonics and so did most people I know as it wasn't used in New Zealand for a very long time. The change from phonics based to look say to whole language was in each case made because of the concern that some kids weren't learning to read. Different methods work for different children.

 

I don't home school (wish I did though) but if I did I think I would teach sight words along with basic phonics then add a phonics based spelling programme later.

 

My youngest (nearly four) can do most of the sounds of the letters and sound out some easy works but has somehow learnt a dozen or so aight words.

[Koerarmoca]

Just for giggles I just sat down with the Dolch list with her we did pre-primer and she missed two words "come" which she pronounced comb ee and "help" which she went through a list of weird pronunciations (I was sarcastic when I should not of been but my frustration often presents as sarcasm)

 

I was shocked she didn't get come as we have many times read "Come dick come, come and see"

 

I told her we would do the next list "primer" tomorrow. She was happy to just read a list if words and not a book today.

 

Dh says just back off reading for a bit, I just feel that would be way BAD she is starting 3rd grade and will have her first formal testing (state requirement) this year and if she can't read the test that won't be good at all.

 

It's really just breaking my heart, I love to read as does dh and her sisters I want her to find her love of reading too.

 

I also sat down with her and asked her what kind of books she would like to read she responded with "Dick and Jane" and I explained that I didn't want her to just pick the easiest thing for her to read but something that would interest her. She wanted a a Zombie book so we found "zombies don't play soccer" was the lowest reading level book I found that included zombies iirc it was a 2.6 reading level which will be a challenge but maybe if we do it together she will start finding that love of reading.

[stripe]

Have you seen Thogmartin's book, Teach a Child to Read with Children's Books?

You can read it from ERIC for free af

http://www.eric.ed.gov/ERICWebPortal/search/simpleSearch.jsp?searchtype=basic&pageSize=10&ERICExtSearch_SearchValue_0=thogmartin&ERICExtSearch_SearchType_0=kw&_pageLabel=ERICSearchResult&_urlType=action&ERICExtSearch_Facet_0=facet_au&ERICExtSearch_FacetValue_0=%22Thogmartin%2C+Mark%22

He discusses how to teach phonics on the fly while using children's literature. You might find it helpful.

 

I found Reading Reflex to be a very good program. It is focused on the sounds through having the kid write the words rather than read them, and is very step by step.

 

I used the Free and Treadwell readers with my kids as they consist of folk tales and poems and are appropriately skill-building but not strictly phonics based. You can find them on google books, and they have been reprinted by Yesterday's Classics. I tracked them down once so will now quote myself

From Google Books -- where some are mislabeled --

Reading--literature: the primer

 

Reading-literature: Book 1

 

Reading Literature: Second Reader

Reading Literature: Third reader

Reading-literature fourth reader

Reading Literature: Fifth reader (took me forever to find!)

Reading-literature : sixth reader

 

And the manual -- Primary reading and literature: a manual for teachers

 

Primer through Year 3 at Main Lesson (nicely formatted for reading off a computer screen).

 

Actually it's only primer & first on main lesson

[Koerarmoca]

Thanks stripe, I loaded them all into iBooks on my iPad for bedtime reading.

[Murmer]

Does she understand what she is reading? Sense and meaning making are important parts of reading along with the visual cues. Sense can be described as grammar within reading for example I am swinging....a child not making sense may say I man swinging. In English we don't say things like that. Or I com bee to park. (for I come to the park).

 

Meaning is understanding what is happening in the story. Example from I am swinging (with a picture of a boy swinging on a swing). A child not making meaning may say I am standing.

 

The ultimate goal would be to have a child that is able to grasp the grammatical structure of the English language, makes meaning from the story and uses phonics (visual) information first to last all at the same time. This is what we as good readers do thus how we can read stories that have typos because we use the meaning and structure to fix the visual.

 

I hope this makes sense but it may be a way to help her get over the hump while still helping her understand that ultimately the visual sounds of a word are what we need to go to when structure and meaning break down (which tends to happen about 4th grade for 100 sight word readers with no phonic instruction).

[Koerarmoca]

I do think she understands what she is reading, despite not reading at level she is advanced in pretty much every other area. She is fantastic at memorization and oral dictation, and has good grammar skills and advanced math skills. Main problem being I have to read almost all directions to her...sigh.

 

Maybe it's just words/letters in general because I would consider her hand writing less than grade level along with her reading.

[kiwik]

I know it doesn't really help but she is only seven. One of my younger brothers couldn't read much at all at that age despite everyone's best efforts but by 9 was reading better than most his age.

[pitterpatter]

Maybe she just needs more practice. You can use this site to find tons of books that would be appropriate and maybe not so boring for her. Find a book that's about her level, type it in, note the reading level and search for others that are about the same level.

 

http://www.arbookfind.com/

[Tanikit]

Have you ever tried teaching her to read in ways that do not involve any books? What worked very well for my DD when she knew some phonics and some sight words was to use the words she knew and make a treasure hunt - at its most basic it said: "Look under the bed." or "Look in the oven." I made sure that every treasure hunt there would be at least one clue where she would have to struggle a bit with a word using either phonics or intuition. I would only put about five clues in a game which was enough for her to read at that stage and then hide a treat at the end of the hunt. She loved it and it helped her read. As she got better the clues got much more complex and used much more advanced words. By doing this you can check both reading, phonics, sight words and also comprehension and you can fit it to meet your DD where she is and then advance things because they get keen on finding the treasure and will struggle more to solve it.

[Pen]

We used High Noon (www.Highnoonbookscom) which specializes in high interest/low level reading materials, and combines sight words and phonics. My son went from those to things like Magic Tree House series, and though like your dd was not reading at 7, scored high on the 3rd grade year end tests. You might also want to post on Learning Challenges forum. I second your looking at the dyslexia materials and seeing if they resonate.