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"Intensive" phonics programs for beginning readers


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I started teaching my ds5.5 basic reading using HOP (we have the old school version that comes in 5 big boxes with manuals and readers and flashcards and all) and BOB books. He made slow but steady progress, but just has no heart for it, despite loving books. I concluded (at some point) that he just wasn't ready to read yet, since he's still just 5, but then I read the Logic of English book, and it really resonated with me. In particular, I could suddenly remember how many questions he'd asked me about inconsistencies ("why does 'have' have an e if the a isn't long?", "why does an ending s sometimes say s and sometimes say z?", "how do you know how to pronounce 'ed' at the end of a word?" and about a million others) that I didn't have good answers for before he seemed to really lose interest in learning how to read. I really felt the author was describing MY boy when she was talking about how boys more often like rules and consistency and often just don't intuit how to read very well. He's a bright kid, but wants clear rules and LOTS of structure (you should hear him if I do things in our daily plan "out of order" sometimes! :D)

 

So I've been looking around for what the author of LoE calls "intensive/remedial" phonics/reading curriculum that will only have the minimum number of exceptions. I've considered the actual LoE curriculum (but (a) I don't want tons of games and stuff, and (b) I've heard it's still incomplete) and Spalding (still processing on this one and really like the method, in general, but have some significant reservations about the phonograms used and how certain words are taught). I've heard a lot about alpha-phonics and aar/aas, but don't know much about them, if anyone wants to enlighten me (thought the preview of alpha-phonics on amazon looks pretty similar to HOP in that it still doesn't seem to teach clear and consistent rules and gives several exceptions early on).

 

I'd really like something that doesn't have tons of bells and whistles and games. We play alot of games at home. When it comes time to do reading lessons, I'd rather spend 10-20 minutes of focused time without all of that, and then move on. Also, I don't want to have to buy ten different books for different levels, and I don't like workbooks or methods that teach a particular style of handwriting (especially cursive... the manuscript taught in WRTR being the exception, because I really like how simple but logical it is.)

 

Thanks for all your help! I think I've spent at least 50 hours in the last month reading about phonics programs, combing threads on these boards, and reading LoE and WRTR, and I just don't feel like I know enough yet to find the right fit!

 

ETA: We tried the 100 EZ lessons and it bombed pretty bad too.

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Personally, I didn't want to do a ton of games or anything with my current 5yo either. I'm a git-er-done teacher and we also do a lot of games at home. BUT, I am really enjoying LOE Foundations with my Ker. The games are low-prep and quick. Her lessons, all in all, take about 15 min. Foundations is really well done. The handwriting is one type, but that also hasn't really been an issue. When we get to handwriting sheet, I write it, she watches and then she writes it.

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Thanks! I really like the compactness of that pdf.

 

A quick question: Under the silent e rules, it says:

Words ending in /s/ preceded by a mixed or vowel digraph must end in e.
Example: house, sense.

 

I get how "house" is an example of this, but why "sense"? It doesn't seem like the the "s" is preceded by any digraph there.

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No it's not, is it? I just looked the word up in The Writing Road to Reading (which is a more than compact resource, lol). It showed the silent e in sense as having no job.

 

There is a cute silent e book here:

http://info.allaboutlearningpress.com/newsletter

 

You might look at some basic, easy to teach reading programs like Phonics Pathways (no sight words) and and just mention the rules as they come up.

 

I'd also look at old threads on this forum about using Hooked on Phonics....look for posts from ElizabethB. I remember reading something cautionary.

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If you click on the links at the bottom of the page, one is a list of phonics and spelling rules correlated to Blend Phonics and Webster's Speller.

 

I did look at the links in your post, and I intend to go through them thoroughly- thanks! I just didn't know what you meant by "my rules" when you said "Blend phonics combined with my rules" - but looking at your siggy makes more sense since you specifically have *your* rules listed there. I thought "my rules" was maybe short for something in the posted links that I wasn't getting. :)

 

ETA: In particular, I'd run across your pages earlier in the day when browsing stuff, but I didn't realize they were yours, so I didn't make the connection that the pages you'd linked to in the post were actually your own rules! Sorry. *sheepish grin*

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This. It was much more approachable to me than Spalding as the sheer size of the book freaked me out. The rules are not at all too much for a kid that wants and needs to know them for reading to make sense. Just a few lists in, my then 6 year old K student was saying the rules during dictation before I even did. It's very gentle and definitely a get-er-done type of program. We have fun with it in our side conversations coming up with more words that match the rule. 

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Thanks for all the suggestions! I'll check them all out and figure out what I want to do for next year. The kid does like to write (though mostly just his own compositions and he wants help spelling everything) and I still really like the idea of Spalding... But I also wanted to start checking out other options if I can't make my peace with some of those phonogram sounds (e.g., "y" saying short i at the end of a word, which I know has been discussed on here ad infinitum :) )

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I was using SWR (spalding spinoff). It has a huge learning curve. We liked it but after a while my son was still not transitioning to books (even BOB books made him cry.) This was after  Phonics Pathways, Alphaphonics, AAS. We use Reading Lessons through literature and it has helped SO much because all the words they learn to write/spell (she even has helps for kids who have difficulty learning to write) are used for the stories. This is the only book my son asks to do without crying. He has gained blending and fluency. I have used Blend phonics as well to make flash cards of words with similar sounds and rules. Logic of English and All About Reading are similar and appeal to me but I haven't used them. It is amazing how well my children remember the rules and find it fun when they know it. It seems like it would be difficult but it hasn't been. Hope that helps!

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In particular, I could suddenly remember how many questions he'd asked me about inconsistencies ("why does 'have' have an e if the a isn't long?", "why does an ending s sometimes say s and sometimes say z?", "how do you know how to pronounce 'ed' at the end of a word?" and about a million others) that I didn't have good answers for before he seemed to really lose interest in learning how to read. I really felt the author was describing MY boy when she was talking about how boys more often like rules and consistency and often just don't intuit how to read very well. He's a bright kid, but wants clear rules and LOTS of structure (you should hear him if I do things in our daily plan "out of order" sometimes! :D)

 

The real answer to your question is that English borrowed words from lots of other languages and mostly took spellings from the other languages. Plus, sometimes, scribes and scholars in past ages just adopted weird spellings that they thought were practical (e.g., replacing u with o after m to more clearly distinguish the letters). See this article for a discussion of these weird spellings: http://blog.oup.com/2015/01/etymology-spelling-suds-house-antiquus-dwell/

 Be sure to read the comments, too, as one of the best explanations of the weird spellings is found there. 

 

I liked OPGTR because they had explicit lessons on many of these weird spelling patterns. So I could remind my daughter: Oh, this is a Greek ch, so it says "k" or "This is a French double s, so it says "sh".

 

You could make a game out of it by laughing at the wield patterns, for example, the word "move": Oh, this is one of those words where the monks who used to copy books by hands couldn't tell where the humps and dips of m, n, and u started and began, so that changed the u to o." 

 

This is not a perfect solution, but it might help. 

 

Looking at it from a pedological viewpoint, I came to the conclusion that ultimately you just have to tell the child that English letters and sounds don't match exactly because English borrowed words from so many languages. So the best thing to do is sound out the word using the rules we learn, and if you don't recognize the word, think about other ways that some of the letters in the word can be pronounced. 

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Thanks for all the suggestions! I'll check them all out and figure out what I want to do for next year. The kid does like to write (though mostly just his own compositions and he wants help spelling everything) and I still really like the idea of Spalding... But I also wanted to start checking out other options if I can't make my peace with some of those phonogram sounds (e.g., "y" saying short i at the end of a word, which I know has been discussed on here ad infinitum :) )

 

 

Happy Phonics is an older curric that I don't hear talked about much anymore, but it's probably the first purchase I'd make for teaching reading to a 4-7yo.  (Warning:  You will need to laminate and cut, but it's worth it!) I used it with my older 3 kids, and have saved it back for my 2yo. 

 

After playing through Happy Phonics, your child will know their phonograms and be able to apply them to common words.  It will be a much smoother transition into spelling lessons after that.  

 

 

Honestly, phonics just doesn't need to be that complicated for little ones. (It can hamper the reading process!)  YOU should learn Spalding so that you have a foundation upon which to teach, but keep your child's lessons sweet and simple. If he really wants to know why a certain word is spelled the way it is, then you can answer without inundating him with too much information.

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