OPGTR vs 100 EZ Lessons

[CelticHaiku]

Anyone tried both and care to share their preference?

[WahM]

I looked at, but couldn't being myself to try 100 EZ Lessons. But hands down OPGTR is a much, much better program and the only phonics instruction you'll need.

[mom2bee]

I've read through (but not used) both of these texts. I have used 100 EZ with a struggling reader* and I have read through OPGtTR.

*100EZ is not MEANT for struggling readers, but I was specifically tasked with using that book with that student to completion by his mom, so I did.*

 

Both are basic, barebones phonetic approaches to teaching reading and both have some strong draws and some strong drawbacks. I'd say the biggest "con" of them both is that they aren't entertaining. They are both pretty boring, but pretty effective. If you are comfortable adding "fun" on your own, then I can't see how you can possibly go wrong with either choice.

 

Now, it was beneficial, to me, to read 100 EZ, even if I hadn't wound up using it. That book breaks down how to teach a child to read using their mouth, breath and syllables as strange as that sounds. I really like that 100 EZ explicitly teaches kids to "blend" sounds which is developmental to a point, but also a skill so it stands to reason that the skill of blending can be taught in a developmentally appropriate way. I feel that the lessons in 100 EZ are developmentally appropriate for young children who are learning to blend.

 

I like that 100 EZ teaches sounds on an "as needed" basis. If my kid, a beginning reader, is going to be reading the word "see" using phonics then all he needs to know is 1) how to blend sounds and 2) the sounds that 's' and 'ee' make. Knowing the other 20 consonants and 11-15 vowel sounds doesn't do him a lick of good if the word that he's trying to read is "see".

 

Using 100 EZ Kids learn specific sounds, how to blend those sounds and then blend sounds into words and then learn to gradually read words, then phrases, then sentences and paragraphs until you are reading the whole story on a page by yourself. 100EZ teaches about the basic punctuation and includes graded, simple comprehension exercises all along the way with little illustrations. The blending exercises increase so that prior to reading writtens words of a greater complexity, kids are blending them orally and aurally.

 

I can see how and why 100EZ would work, but I can also see how it could be a brick wall for some. Some kids will have a very hard time to transition from the special orthography used in the text. (Though the text does wean kids off of that orthography fully before the end of the program.). I think that if a parent isn't willing to pre-read/ablib their part then a child might get annoyed if they feel the parents script "talks down to them". (Some kids won't care, others will.)

 

Personally I think many people are put off by the wonky-font or its "boringness" I know that I was initially, but I do like that book and I think that there was value in my reading it. If I wanted to use 100EZ but didn't like their orthography, I would re-write the lessons in regular text, underlining digraphs and vowel teams as needed and do the lessons from that book without the wonky-font because I want my kids to be able to read real, regular looking latin alphabet without hesitation. The child that I used 100EZ with got good benefit from its blending practices and exercises.

 

Now, 100EZ isn't as extensive in its scope and sequence as I would like, there will still be several phonic rules to learn when you are done (I'll have to look to see what it doesn't cover explicitly), but your child should be able to read everything up to a 2nd gradish level and if you are reading books outside of phonic lessons then your reader should be even that much further along. I also like that 100EZ includes writing instruction/practice built in that you can skip or do depending on your student. You can do them with fingers in sand pan, shaving cream, the air, paint or with paper and pen.

 

I have not read OPGtTR as thoroughly or as recently as 100EZ, so I will say less about it in an effort to refrain from misrepresenting the book.

OPGtTR is more straight up, traditional phonics. You learn the letter and sounds of the 5 short vowels and the 21 consonants, then you learn to read by starting "at the beginning" and proceding systematically on through to the end.

So, you start with short a words, then short e, i, o and u. You learn "the" "I" and "a" as sight words as you go through the short vowels.

 

Using only short vowel sounds you learn to blend consonsants (ie reading 'sc' 'sm' 'pl' words) and you learn consonant digraphs. (ch, sh, th, gh, ph--consonant pairings that make up a NEW sound that isn't related to the sounds of the individual letters.) then 3-consonant blends "sch" or "spl") You are 60+ lessons into the book before you teach long vowels. I didn't like this, because a lot of common, simple words that kids need to be able to read are long vowel words "me, see, be, she, he, we) for example. But the lessons are systematic, and the lessons are absolutely logical, just maybe not as practical as I would have liked.

 

Once you learn to read long vowels, the book exposes kids to virtually all of the ways that the long vowels are read/spelled and there are practice word lists and sentences (passages?) to read for each lesson. After the long vowels are covered thoroughly, kids learn the tricky spellings of some of the short vowel sounds (such as "ea" saying short 'e' sound in "bread" and "read" *(the past tense of "to read"). Then you learn other vowel combinations and silent letters and multisyllable words etc...Before you are done, your kids will have been exposed to and taught to read pretty much everything in the English language.

 

OPGtTR also includes a bit of grammar because it teaches possessives and contractions directly, not through exposure and it touches on some basic spelling because it teaches about how happy goes to happiness and under what conditions and the like. Then it teaches 3 syllable words, suffixes, prefixes and verb endings like '-ed' '-ing' '-s'. I think that it also teachers homophones vs homonyms but don't hold me to it. I don't own the book and only read it once.

 

Note that with most if not all of the "plain jane" Lessons in OPGtTR here are optional "activities" recommended for families/teachers/kids who want to do something more than just stare at words on a page or whiteboard. OPGtTR is scripted and can be done from the book, but I don't recommend that. I suggest using a white board or typing the lessons up. I don't like the small print for new or very young readers, but thats my personal preference.

 

OPGtTR will gradually have your child read everything from things like "Meg is at Bobs"  to "Catherine is tremendously excited about the evenings activities" and "supercalifragilisticexpealodocious" (or how ever you spell it.).. Its been a while, I *think* that the last lesson in OPGtTR has supercalifragilisticexpealdocious as the very last lesson.

 

 

[CelticHaiku]

Thank you for your replies! I am trying to make a decision on one of these programs and unfortunately we love a bit to remotely to preview them.

[mom2bee]

Feel free to hunt around this forum for more threads, its a popular enough topic. You can (and probably should) read product reviews on Amazon also--pay close attention to the 2-4 star reviews for each, they tend to give a better "feel" of a products flaws than the 1 and 5 star reviews usually do.

 

YouTube can also be helpful, here is a video of a woman using 100EZ as a demonstration with her 4yo son. Its ~21 min, so I haven't seen it all the way through yet. Here is a clip of Ordinary Parents Guide to Teaching Reading. Again, I haven't seen it all.

[PentecostalMom]

I have used both and I really think it depends on the child. My 8yodd was brought to tears with OPGTR, but went through 100EZ with no qualms. After completion of 100EZ, we went back and worked through about the last 1/3 of OPGTR, but ended up preferring Reading Pathways. She only needed to work on breaking down multi-syllable words and RP worked like a charm.

 

For 5yodd, 100EZ was a flop. She just wasn't following. OPGTR has been a much better fit for her. *I* have issues trying to slog through OPGTR, so I ordered AAR. They have an excellent return policy, so I figured the loss is minimal to try it.

[Wholesomemomma]

I used 100EZ with my first DS and it got him reading quickly, but I soon found it wasn't thorough enough and he struggled. He's now reading fine 2 years later but it took him a while to *love* reading. 

 

On the other hand, I started my 2nd DS on OPGTR and it's going splendidly. Very thorough and gentle. Just good ol' phonics instruction. He looks forward to reading every day, he's proud of himself, and it only takes 10 min a day :)

[mumto2]

Both my dc's refused to continue with 100EZ at roughly lesson 10. They did the first blending lesson very successfully and refused to go on. Over the years I have met a few other mom's whose dc's quit in the same place so if you can borrow a copy I would until you are into it a bit further.

 

My dd quickly went on to reading using BOB books and other phonics resources but my ds refused to continue for over a year. I accumulated tons of phonics curriculum out of desperation while trying to get him to read. At that point the Ordinary Parent's Guide had been published and I bought a copy. DS already knew more than I realized so we moved through very quickly but I loved the book. I think it takes the best of all the curriculums I tried to use and puts them in one book.

[RootAnn]

Both my dc's refused to continue with 100EZ at roughly lesson 10. 

 

Wow, it usually starts to go south at our house much later on - like Lesson 30 or 50. I'm at Lesson 15 or so with ds#2 and it is still going very well.

 

My kids usually make it through all 100 but we usually have to restart a few times or go to other things & then come back to 100EL. DS#1 didn't make it through. We went onto other things. Each kid is different & I don't use the lessons exactly as written.

 

I've gotten my money's worth out of the book. There are definitely better things out there now, although I really like how quickly it gets the kids reading (theoretically) & how well it teaches blending & long vowel sounds. You really won't know what works until you try it, unfortunately. If you can, see if someone else in your (remote) area has one or both so you can try them. I find that people are willing to give away their 100EL if it didn't work for them. They can't wait to get it out of their house.  :lol:

 

I mentioned outloud that my falling-apart 100EL book could be sacrificed to the fire once this ds is done with it. A couple of my kids (who were sure not overly fond of it at times) protested loudly. It was a  :huh: moment for me. 

[amiesmom]

I used 100EZ for my oldest, and OPGTR for my next. I think OPGTR does a better job overall of teaching phonics. I felt like 100EZ got us so far, and then it was just guess work, where OPGTR really goes through a lot of different sound combinations and toward the end adds in much higher reading than 100EZ ever gets to.

 

Our library system had both books, you might check if yours does so you can see them before you buy.

[WahM]

I forgot to mention, my kids like/liked some of the games sticking cards different places, pretending to talk on the phone, etc. it is very thourough and teaches all the phonograms without just a bunch of site words.

[Maela]

We use OPGTR.  I haven't used 100EZ with my own kids, but I did use it when I worked with kids with high-functioning autism.  I like OPGTR better (it seems more thorough), but 100EZ wasn't awful.  It worked for the couple of kids I used it with.

[cottonmama]

I used both with Savannah.  100 EZ Lessons drove me crazy 0_o.   OPGTR is organized much better (I can see where we're going) and the formatting is not nearly as visually noisy as 100 EZ lessons.

 

The cartoons in 100 EZ lessons were funny.  Sometimes OPGTR is a little silly, but never as much as 100 EZ lessons.  But we have made OPGTR more fun by writing the words on a white board.  (With Savannah it was a big sheet of melamine from Home Depot, and with Indie it has been a handheld white board.)  The kids love choosing what color marker I write it in, and if there are younger siblings around, they enjoy coloring with dry erase crayons or erasing the board when I need it.