Thoughts on PAL?

[amyc78]

I am still researching reading programs for my K-er next year, this week I'm looking at PAL. I read Cathy Duffy's review but I'm looking for some real life opinions… What did you like/not like about it? Did your child like it? What did a typical kindergarten lesson look like? Did you do the Reading and the Writing programs? Any other thoughts or opinions is appreciated!

[AimeeM]

We're using the reading program now, with my almost-5 year old son. I like it quite a bit, actually. I'm not sold on "pure phonics", so I really like the blended sight/sound approach in PAL. It has a TON of games, so that's a definite perk for my bouncy boy :)

A typical lesson for us (kindergarten-ish/whatever grade he is, lol) looks like this: right now we're speeding through the first many lessons, as he already knows his letter sounds; each lesson introduces one or two letter sounds, AND one or more sight words - since my boy knows his letter sounds, we're just going through those lessons for the sight words.

 

1) Read the poem - the same poem for a while (a week, I think). First poem is "September".

2) Make sure you have your materials together.

3) Introduce new concept (in the first part of the book, this involves one or two letter sounds, plus one or more sight words). The program seems to preference that you write the new letter sound/sight word on the card IN FRONT of your child, showing them where you underline the "helpers" in the sight words.

4) Once I've introduced the new words, we play the games associated with those words - right now that's the color game and the monster game (it's supposed to be the dog bones game, but my son prefers the monster, lol).

5) We then do the activity sheets associated with the lessons.

6) We put our sticks on the phonics farm.

7) We review today's lesson (and the previous sight words).

 

We deviate from the scripted plans a bit, since Nico was already reading some before coming into the program (letter sounds and CVC words), but if you're starting from the very beginning the lesson plans are COMPLETELY scripted and I think that's fantastic - no guess work for you. Definitely watch the DVD! I organized all of the games BEFORE we started the program, even though the program suggests putting them together with your child. I also do not do the "spelling tests" at the end of the lessons.

 

I am holding off on the writing program. I plan to use it in the second semester of this year (we started our new year a couple weeks ago), or next year. DS' writing skills aren't up to par with his reading right now, and I don't want to overwhelm him.

[Butter]

She described it well.  My son was not reading more than half a dozen sight words when we started it (though he did know his letters and the sounds they make).  He's reading now, and much more than my other kids did after a similar number of lessons with things I used to teach them to read.  This one really does get them decoding more difficult things faster because it teaches letter combinations and their sounds along with just the letters.  We did lesson 45 today.  I did a blog post on it several weeks ago: http://thefamilywho.wordpress.com/2014/02/28/learning-to-read-with-pal/  After I did that post, when we got the IEW magalog in the mail, Adrian saw PAL: Writing and begged me to get it so I did.  He's on lesson 31 of that and just finished step 4 of All About Spelling Level 1.  I wish I had had this for when I was teaching my 14 and 7 year olds to read.  I'm not sure how it would've worked for my 12 year old (orthographic processing disorder - similar to dyslexia and dysgraphia combined).  I love it for my 5 year old!

[Freedom]

Ditto to others...I started PAL reading with my begging to learn how to read 4 yo and we are on lesson 33. I break up each lesson into 2 days. My son is already decoding words and this was his first intro to phonics. He is almost ready to write so I haven't pulled out the writing yet but plan to start this summer...he turns 5 in June so soon after that I'll start. I also agree with the first poster that it's easier to put the folder games together first. I usually cut the game pieces out with him though. It will look overwhelming at first but once you just jump in, you'll get it. It takes us about 10 minutes per day for each 1/2 lesson because my son is wiggly! It's a great program. I wouldn't think of doing another program.

[amazzie]

It's a super time consuming way to teach reading and writing, IMHO. I found it OK until younger sister started to sleep less, LOL. I think I liked it more than ds, actually. We spent about 45min- an hour to do one lesson a day. Sadly, my son did not like the farm, games or poetry. He didn't mind the handwriting or sight word readers.

[~Victoria~]

I used pal reading with my son and started the lessons very slowly when he was 4. We stretched it over pk and K and he finished up about a month ago. At first I didn't love it, but now I am so glad we used it. It was easy to complete everyday. We bought AAS 1 when we were nearing the end and he has done fantastic with it, we finished that last week. He is also reading easy readers and lots of picture books from the library. It gave a great foundation and now we will continue with phonics from our AAS lessons along with reading good easy readers.

I followed the teacher manual from the top of the page to the bottom, skipping the writing insert. I would just print off the workbook pages in advance and pull what I needed for the day. I have found out that I highly prefer open and go curriculum, and this wasn't much work at all.