What does lesson "mastery" look like in OPGTR?

[smoore530]

My DS is in first grade.  We used MFW for K and I wanted to pick up phonics this year with Lesson 27 of OPGTR (Short-vowel words).  For starters, he hates it and throws a fit when I grab the book.  I have changed to a mix of ETC, word family practice and Usborne Very First Reading books.  He seems to have matured and I want to go back to OPGTR after Christmas.  What I don't understand is the pacing of the lessons.  What does "mastery" look like for these lessons?  Should he be able to read the word without sounding them out?  Or is it just that he can sound them out without hesitancy?  He is very good at sounding words out, but does not recognize very many simple words yet.  I'm not sure if I was moving too fast before or if he just didn't like the hard work of it.  Any thoughts on when an OPGTR lesson is "mastered"?

Thanks.

[Walking-Iris]

My DS is in first grade.  We used MFW for K and I wanted to pick up phonics this year with Lesson 27 of OPGTR (Short-vowel words).  For starters, he hates it and throws a fit when I grab the book.  I have changed to a mix of ETC, word family practice and Usborne Very First Reading books.  He seems to have matured and I want to go back to OPGTR after Christmas.  What I don't understand is the pacing of the lessons.  What does "mastery" look like for these lessons?  Should he be able to read the word without sounding them out?  Or is it just that he can sound them out without hesitancy?  He is very good at sounding words out, but does not recognize very many simple words yet.  I'm not sure if I was moving too fast before or if he just didn't like the hard work of it.  Any thoughts on when an OPGTR lesson is "mastered"?

Thanks.

 

Listening in. My 1st grader has been having issues with OPGTR as well. We do work in ETC workbooks along with it. 

 

For me mastery is when he can read the previous lessons without any hiccups. But it's slow getting there because he also hates that book. I try to do the 2 review and 1 new, but he can't stand being near that book that long. (even if I space the lesson out during the day).

 

We've recently added a MCP Plaid workbook to his phonics routine. He does better when he's writing while learning to read. That's my main issue with OPGTR, there's no student work to go with it, and the smaller text meant for the teacher distracts him, even if I cover it up. So I have been writing out the lessons and using moveable alphabets so he can do the lessons out of the book---which is a pain. 

 

It really needs a student workbook component to it I think. And some illustrated readers and slim the book down to a simple teacher's guide. 

 

I honestly feel that book killed my child's desire to read. I think the lessons have a good sequence, but I have had  to change how they are presented to my kiddo. 

 

Looking at it from a child's perspective the book just seems like a dull chore.

[IHaveNoIdeawhatIAmDoing]

I honestly feel that book killed my child's desire to read. I think the lessons have a good sequence, but I have had  to change how they are presented to my kiddo. 

 

Looking at it from a child's perspective the book just seems like a dull chore.

 

We feel the same way about it. Phonics ended in tears today. My daughter's made so much progress with it, but she doesn't like reading at all. I'm seriously considering jumping ship even thought I keep hearing how important it is to stick with something.

 

OP, we usually read one lesson a day. If the next day, she could go back and read the words without help, we would move on. If she couldn't, we would redo the lesson.

[socody]

I have thought the same thing about OPGTR, that I wish it had a workbook with it. But I have just been making up my own games & activities to go with it. Search on Pinterest for whatever topic it is that the book is covering: "short vowel activities," or "phonics blends activities" or "long vowel activities". There are a lot of free things out there. I rarely ever make my dd read out of the book, as she hates it too! Sometimes I type up the stories in the OPGTR book onto a Power Point document, add a clip art and let her read it on the IPad; for some reason it's much easier that way. I feel like if she can just sound out the words in the lesson, she's "mastered" it and we move on.

[T'smom]

My ds also hates it. I used to write the words out on a white board. That helped a little. He does really like the little review activities that she puts in there sometimes. There was one where it was like pictionary, you took a bunch of long o words written on index cards and laid out 4 of them. You would take turns choosing oneto draw and then the other person would guess what you were drawing (they could also look at the cards....they just didn't know which one you were drawing.) he loved that so much I've tried doing it with other words.

[SwallowTail]

We have been struggling with OPGTTR for years, and I recently had this revelation that I have been going too slowly, awaiting 100% mastery before moving on to another lesson.  In speech therapy, we have been doing an intensive reading program called LiPS, and the therapist covered the equivalent of 60 lessons in OPGTTR in a few weeks.  Of course she hasn't mastered it, but i have been shocked at how well she is assimilating all of this new information and how she improves daily with practice applying the new skills.  I believe I was making it worse by going so slowly - it was as if I was keeping it too abstract.

 

So now we try to group things and do multiple lessons at once, such as all the ways to say the long vowel sound of a,  then just review and practice, review andpractice.

[The Way of My People]

I don't worry about "mastery" with each lesson in OPGTR. At the beginning of each lesson, I have DS read a handful of words from the word lists in the previous 2-3 lessons. He doesn't have to be perfectly fluent on all of them (sounding-out is okay), but I want to see that he can figure out the words on his own. If he can, we move on to the new lesson. If he can't we re-do the lesson with the troublesome concept. Occasionally, we spend an entire lesson just reading word lists from earlier sections of the book. I never have him re-read any of the stories; they're so boring.

[MeaganS]

This is exactly what we do too, except I haven't really played games for it since right at the beginning.  My daughter has never read out of the book, only off the iPad or whiteboard.  I do wish that there was a book that you could get that just had the child part of the lessons in a good format, but typing them up isn't a big deal for me.

 

As for pacing, we just power through it.  So far, there is enough internal review that we almost never have to slow down.  At first, we'd take a few days to get through one lesson, but now we're at a pace of about a lesson and a half per day.  And by "at first," I mean for the first year.

 

I have thought the same thing about OPGTR, that I wish it had a workbook with it. But I have just been making up my own games & activities to go with it. Search on Pinterest for whatever topic it is that the book is covering: "short vowel activities," or "phonics blends activities" or "long vowel activities". There are a lot of free things out there. I rarely ever make my dd read out of the book, as she hates it too! Sometimes I type up the stories in the OPGTR book onto a Power Point document, add a clip art and let her read it on the IPad; for some reason it's much easier that way. I feel like if she can just sound out the words in the lesson, she's "mastered" it and we move on.

 

[SeaConquest]

My son hated it too. We switched to Progressive Phonics and AAS1. A much better combo for us.