Kindergarten Reading Question

[lindblomnest]

I started OPGTR with my daughter last year, when she was 4. She sailed through the beginning section that goes over letter sounds. The beginning of this year, I reviewed letter sounds with her and then we picked up where we left off in the book. She is great at sounding out small words, but has trouble remembering the words she's just read by the end of a long sentence. I am teaching her to go back to the beginning after she sounds out each word and read what she knows so far just to help her remember, but with longer sentences it's still a struggle. 
She can read the first Bob books with short sentences very easily. Does anyone have any other suggestions of ways to help her move along or activities we could use to build on? I have lots of easy readers, but she still isn't quite read for anything beyond a Bob Book. I don't want to move forward in the book when she's still struggling with the longer sentences. 
She is 5. 

[....]

I've taught 4 kids to read now and they all did that.  I think it's just a developmental stage.  Sometimes, I'll reread the BOB book to my daughter, so she gets the story afterwards.  The only thing you can do is just keep having her read every day.  If she's 5 and she's reading BOB books and working on OPGTR, she's doing great.  My kids always hit some kind of plateau with reading and then something *clicks* and they take off again.  I have a big box of easy readers, Hooked on Phonics readers, Bob books and McGuffey readers.  So, when that happens, I let them tread water with whatever they're comfortable reading.  

 

I have a daughter the same age.  She goes outside every morning and reads BOB books to the neighbor's cat.    :D   That cat is awesome.  Thanks, Kitty!    

[lindblomnest]

Ha! I love that she read to the cat! Too cute! 
Thanks for the suggestions. 

[Tanikit]

How long a sentence can your child repeat after you? I'd check this first - its unfair to expect her to remember a long sentence if she cannot even do it orally. The idea obviously is to actually read the sentence, but then she will probably have to keep sounding it out as the fluency with this comes far more slowly. You can however get her to read longer sentences - get her to sound out a few of the words (3-5 at a time) and then read that section back to you before the next 3-5 words and then when she has managed that put it all together for her (don't make her do it initially).

 

As for the reading itself you will probably just have to keep reinforcing and sounding out the same words over and over again. You can also teach this so that it happens faster by writing a word big and covering it with a piece of paper and by slowly uncovering it get her to sound it out. Then ask her if she thinks she can do it faster and can uncover the word a bit faster - make it into a race to see how fast she can uncover the word while still sounding it out - always saying the word at the end, then she can try doing it by saying the letters under her breath and only giving you the final word and lastly uncover it so fast that she almost sees all the letters simultaneously and just says the word to you (you will need smaller print for this). You can also do two word phrases like this and then a short sentence.

 

The other thing you can do is choose a few readers that you will not expect her to read all by herself - read part of a sentence and then get her to sound out a couple of words and read only that part to you - thank her and repeat the sentence with her part added to what you first read and gradually increase the length that she is reading. You can repeat the same books numerous times so that she does get to every word with you reading different parts each time.

 

Write her a morning message that is only one word longer than the longest of the Bob book sentences she can read and that she should be able to read by herself (you may need to brain storm this one as it needs to be exciting too so she will be keen) and get her to read that in the morning - since it is just one sentence it is often less initimidating than a whole book and she can strive to read the whole thing and recite it to you.

 

Finally just patience and practice, practice, practice. 

 

 

[boscopup]

It will come with time and lots of practice.

 

My son really likes Reading Pathways, which is a bunch of triangles that start with one word at the time and build up to a long sentence at the bottom. Each line, you're adding one or two words, but the rest of the words are repeated. This makes longer sentences less intimidating.

 

At this stage, it's fine to have her sound out each word. She's learning to decode, and later the comprehension will come. She sounds like she's doing great. :)

[MeaganS]

My daughter did that and basically I didn't worry about it.  I figured that reading comprehension was of a lesser importance than the mechanics of reading at this point.  In fact, I usually read the sentence back to her after she sounded it out.  I didn't want to frustrate her with a second skill, and remembering what she read is a second skill in my mind.  DD is just now getting to where she is reading fast enough that she is picking up on the meaning of the sentences, and we are on Lesson 106.  My thought is that if by the end of OPGTR, she still has trouble remembering what she is reading, we can do practice specifically on that skill without worrying about sounding words out.  If it is a major concern for you, though, I second Reading Pathways.  I just bought it for dd (last week, in fact), but we haven't used it yet.  It looks like it would work on exactly this issue, though.

[mohop]

If you want more reading practice, you can try the Blend Phonics storybooks, that are available online for free here:  http://donpotter.net/pdf/bplitebooks.pdf

[msjones]

Sounds like a normal still-learning-to-read behavior.  Just keep at it with lots of patience and encouragement and she'll continue to progress!

[lindblomnest]

Thanks so much, everyone! 

[StartingOver]

Yes! Of my 5 all of them hit that stage for varying amounts of time, just keep at it. Occasionally try something else. When mine first start books above Bob, I give them the words they don't know, but we don't continue long if they don't get it pretty soon. A lot of repetition goes on sometimes.

[Miss Tick]

I've been mixing in printable readers from Progressive Phonics. Their format is parent-read/child-read so it is easy to re-read the sentence up to that point for flow. Also, the early ones rhyme. Sounds like you have a lot of readers already, but they are free-ish, so you could check them out. For the variety, if nothing else.

[KristenR]

I agree with the sentiment expressed by the other hive members.  Really it's just a part of the learning process for such young kids.  I remember thinking the same thing about my early reader but honestly- it's just a phase where they are learning and still processing.  That phase was one I struggled with and also the phase where they read like robots.   But again- it's fleeting and part of the learning.  Just sit back and enjoy the ride! 
 

But eventually you get to this point and it reminds you how beautiful the ride has been. 

[Persephone]

Something that might help quite a bit:  

Alternate reading every other word with your child.  [You can do this either before she reads the book/page/sentence on her own, or after.] I recently began doing this with tutoring students, and wish I had begun years ago.  It definitely helps build their fluency in a less-stressful way than plowing through the sentences/pages/book on their own.  Plus, it has the neat side effect of increasing their accuracy.  

 

I find the student really focuses on the word I read (sometimes the student can't help but vocalize it!), whereas if I read a whole sentence, the student might not follow along well (or at all).