elah Posted February 2, 2015 Share Posted February 2, 2015 My DD in 1st grade just finished both Hooked on Phonics 1st and 2nd grade this year. She really is doing well w/ reading. I was thinking about just letting her read books from the library out loud to me for the rest of the year instead of adding another level on. But I was not sure if that would be okay. Also, is she done with phonics? What do we do next year? I'm a newbie to this. :) BTW, she is also doing explode the code online. She completed book 1 and is about 2 weeks away from finishing book 2 level. She really does NOT like this and I am thinking about stopping it once she is done with book 2 level. Thoughts? Quote Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
Ellie Posted February 2, 2015 Share Posted February 2, 2015 My DD in 1st grade just finished both Hooked on Phonics 1st and 2nd grade this year. She really is doing well w/ reading. I was thinking about just letting her read books from the library out loud to me for the rest of the year instead of adding another level on. But I was not sure if that would be okay. Also, is she done with phonics? What do we do next year? I'm a newbie to this. :) BTW, she is also doing explode the code online. She completed book 1 and is about 2 weeks away from finishing book 2 level. She really does NOT like this and I am thinking about stopping it once she is done with book 2 level. Thoughts? Reading aloud from good trade books (books you'd find at the library, as opposed to textbooks) would be a good thing. :-) You could think about spelling. And of course my recommendation would be Spalding, which would simultaneously cover penmanship, capitalization and punctuation, and simple writing, as well as filling in any gaps in her phonics knowledge---a whole English course in one fell swoop. :-) Quote Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
pitterpatter Posted February 3, 2015 Share Posted February 3, 2015 We used HOP K-2 (and some early ETC). I would not let it be your only phonics instruction. There will be gaps, trust me. We took the just read approach and that was not the right thing to do. It's not that DD can't read. She can, but regrettably I molded her into a sight reader in large part due to HOP. Now we are taking time out to remediate so she reads from left to right and her brain reads phonetically instead of looking for shapes, patterns, etc. I suppose it's possible your DD won't have any problems in the future, but no, HOP is not a complete phonics program. It doesn't actually teach much phonics at all, IMHO. Take a look at All About Reading to see what complete phonics instruction looks like. There's a night and day difference. Sorry to be such a downer. I'm just not in a good place in regard to HOP right now. Quote Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
SparklyUnicorn Posted February 3, 2015 Share Posted February 3, 2015 I didn't do any level past 2. Both kids were well on their way after that. Quote Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
SparklyUnicorn Posted February 3, 2015 Share Posted February 3, 2015 We used HOP K-2 (and some early ETC). I would not let it be your only phonics instruction. There will be gaps, trust me. We took the just read approach and that was not the right thing to do. It's not that DD can't read. She can, but regrettably I molded her into a sight reader in large part due to HOP. Now we are taking time out to remediate so she reads from left to right and her brain reads phonetically instead of looking for shapes, patterns, etc. I suppose it's possible your DD won't have any problems in the future, but no, HOP is not a complete phonics program. It doesn't actually teach much phonics at all, IMHO. Take a look at All About Reading to see what complete phonics instruction looks like. There's a night and day difference. Sorry to be such a downer. I'm just not in a good place in regard to HOP right now. HOP is not a sight word method. There are a handful of words they treat as such, but not many at all. Really words such as "the" which occur very frequently. I had great success with HOP. Obviously no one thing is perfect for everyone. Quote Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
.... Posted February 3, 2015 Share Posted February 3, 2015 My daughter finished most of her 1st grade stuff in December, so we decided to just move on. She also wanted to start reading "real books" (her request), so I've been checking out easy readers from the library and everyday, she reads aloud to me. If she is stumped on a word, I just explain the phonics to her so she can figure it out. She also started a phonics-based spelling program (All About Spelling) and she's learning to write (I was waiting for her reading to improve before we started writing, too). If you want more phonics, there's PHP's Ordinary Parents' Guide to Teaching Reading - sooo much cheaper than other phonics programs. About Hooked on Phonics...I used an old version of HOP with my kids and they turned out fine. I'm sure it's not for everyone and I don't know what the difference is between the newer versions and the old version. Maybe the newer versions are different?? I bought it the year my oldest went to public school and they REALLY weren't teaching phonics - at ALL. I mean, I'm OK with dropping phonics if they're reading/spelling well (not every kid needs to be beaten relentlessly with phonics), but the school was teaching them to memorize these little books and "read" them over and over again without even explaining how the letters sounded together. It's like they were memorizing the "shape" of the words. :ohmy: Sorry for rambling... Quote Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
melmichigan Posted February 3, 2015 Share Posted February 3, 2015 I have used HOP to teach all my kids to read (starting in 2002, so the old old version), but I do follow that up with phonics instruction. I taught all the words phonetically, including the "sight words". My oldest three then went through The Phonics Road to Reading and Spelling. My DS1 wasn't quite ready for that and did IEW PAL Reading with PR markings. My youngest is using HOP and AAS. You can achieve the same instruction in different ways. Quote Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
pitterpatter Posted February 3, 2015 Share Posted February 3, 2015 I realize everyone has differing opinions. I'm just saying that as a first-time homeschooling parent teaching my only child, I pretty well taught HOP (new version) as it was laid out. If you have never taught reading before, I think HOP can be a bit deceiving in what it's actually teaching. With phonics being in the name, it's easy to think that if you complete the program, your child will be set...have all the tools she needs to be a good reader. This is not necessarily the case. (Not even close, IMO.) Sure, many children may not need to know all the rules to take off reading, but why not provide a complete set of tools instead of leaving them to make do when they finally do get to a point where the specialty tools are needed. HOP relies heavily on word chunks/word families. If you're not careful, I think these word chunks essentially turn into sight word chunks. A child who has a penchant for memorization may simply memorize the chunks instead of learning to read them phonetically left to right. It's easy for a child to simply change the first sound on all of those rhyming lists and whiz through. After a few times through, she may even have the list memorized, even when the words are mixed up. Just saying it's important to study up and pay close attention. If something is nagging at you, just doesn't seem right in the future, there's probably a reason for it. I've posted and read many HOP threads over the years. I've even posted positive reviews within them. It's easy to dismiss viewpoints that come across at being fanatical or don't fit the scope of what you really want to do. I ignored them and wish I hadn't. In any event, more than one person has posted that they used something else with or after HOP or taught HOP in a slightly different way. My suggestion is to continue phonics instruction to eliminate gaps. You might also be surprised how powerful context can be when just reading, especially if a child has a large vocabulary base. Again, easy to be fooled. Jumping off my soap box now... Quote Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
SparklyUnicorn Posted February 3, 2015 Share Posted February 3, 2015 Huh....well like I said it worked great for my kids. I was taught with sight words. I think it's a lousy method, but I was still always a good reader. So I don't know, maybe some people just pick up on things either way while others need to be more explicitly taught. Quote Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
pitterpatter Posted February 3, 2015 Share Posted February 3, 2015 Like I said, it's not that she can't read. She's not struggling and enjoys reading (she has no clue anything is "wrong"), but I'm noticing deficits when she reads aloud. It's my understanding that many sight readers start struggling when they get to more complex words in higher grades that they don't have the tools to decode and with technical material where context is not as clear. I'm pretty sure I primarily read by sight as well. I adapted by just skipping over words I don't know how to pronounce or created my own pronunciation in my head. DH adapted the same way. I want better for DD, so I'm remediating. I don't want her to top out at a fourth, fifth, sixth grade reading level because I didn't take the time to complete her phonics instruction. Of course, every child is different and I have none to compare her to. Huh....well like I said it worked great for my kids. I was taught with sight words. I think it's a lousy method, but I was still always a good reader. So I don't know, maybe some people just pick up on things either way while others need to be more explicitly taught. Quote Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
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