Did Dancing Bears NOT work for anyone?

[AimeeM]

I'll be honest - I do not feel like it's done anything for DS6's reading skills, other than introduce a few digraphs he didn't know before.

 

At the moment, I feel nothing but absolute dislike towards that blasted cursor. I stopped using it, but it's habit now for DS to (even if he knows the word!) sound out EACH sound twice before blending the sounds together. 

 

For example: ch-a-t, ch-a-t, ch-at, ch-at, chat

 

Every. Single. Time.

 

The only time he doesn't, is when we practice outside of the DB book. I have the Free and Treadwell Primer that we use some days, and he doesn't read haltingly out if it!

 

It's like as soon as he sees that DB book he goes into "must sound out everything painstakingly even if I've read the word a million times" mode. 

 

[FairProspects]

Us. It caused nothing but tears here. Ds *hated* it. We also had blending problems.

[AimeeM]

Thank God I'm not alone in this, lol. 

I feel like it would work beautifully if he had problems with letters... but he doesn't.

What did y'all use instead? Just move into primers once all digraphs were learned? 

Everyone recommends AAR, but my son hates crafts and coloring, so I have no clue how it would work with him. 

[KSinNS]

Oh, my son had the same problem early in Dancing Bears A. How are you using the cursor? I was moving it too slow, so he was sounding out. So, what I did was uncover the whole word (from left to right for directionality), and then if he got stuck, I moved it back, then slowly uncovered each letter. After some time with that, I found he was reading the whole word. If I remember right, there were more detailed instructions on the cursor in DB Fastrack (which I was using with another child) but that was the main point that I had missed. 

 

Also, at the same time, he was really struggling. The first third of the book, he had to do each section 2-3 times before he could pass the mastery test. It was immensely frustrating for him, but we persevered and didn't go on until he passed the Mastery test. It was usually the timed section he struggled with, relating to the sounding out problem. Once he got that, he has gone on to fly through the rest of A much more easily, and is starting to read well. With my next kid, I will almost certainly use DB again, but unless she seems to be grasping reading pretty easily, I will likely start with Bear Necessities just to avoid this problem again. 

 

I do find the cursor critical. Otherwise he gets distracted, jumps around, guesses and such. It was even more important for my older child (the fast track one) who had bad habits of skipping words and lines. 

 

Of course, not every program will work for every kid or family. This one works for us because it's quick, and deemphasizes explicit rules. Anyway, good luck. 

[Jess4879]

We tried it as a remedial program with my oldest, year before last, I believe it was.  She begged not to do it anymore.  It's the only program she's every been opposed to using. We ended up fast tracking through AAR, as I had it already and really like it.  When we started, I gave her a highlighter and had her highlight across the word as she read it.  It kept her focus on each letter and worked much better for her.  FWIW, all my kids have now used AAR and none have done the crafts.  There is only cutting/pasting in the pre-1 level, after that there are some activities and word flipper things that have to be assembled, but that is all.  We only did the activities if they needed help with the concept being taught and we never spent time coloring them or anything. 

[alisoncooks]

We use DB A to get the ball rolling (my oldest could not read above CVC at 7 yrs old until we used DB).  After that, I switched to High Noon Reading Intervention Level 1.  It made a huge difference in oldest DD's fluency.  Then we move on to REWARDS by Sopris (which is where we are now).

 

(In other words, use it while it's working, then feel free to move on to something else when it's not. :p)

 

The cursor was a big help to my guessing child...but is frustrating for my youngest.  

[TheAttachedMama]

Me!   (Raising my hands)

 

To be honest with you, I didn't think that Dancing Bears lived up to its hype.   I did LEARN so tricks for teaching reading from the program.   (Example:  The cursor technique, the flashback technique, etc.)   We borrowed the parts of Dancing Bears that worked for us and then used those in other programs.   THAT was effective for us.   

 

What ended up being effective for us personally....

1)   We also fast tracked through All About Reading because I think the phonics lessons in that program are much more thorough than Dancing Bears.   We skipped the AAR readers and the word cards though.   We used the letter tiles extensively.   We used the fluency pages extensively with the DB cursor and flashback technique.

2)  For word recognition practice, we then used the "I See Sam" readers extensively.  (Up to the end of level 6)   These are phonics based and have a TON of repetition.  Anytime a word was 'guessed' we would build it with the letter tiles and touch each letter as we made its sound (OR used the DB cursor to reveal one "sound" at at time when I wasn't near our AAR board.)  

3)   Now we are now just doing a TON (I mean a TON) of practice reading aloud per day.  I am teaching two kids to read at once.  So I try to schedule in as much individual reading practice with me as possible.  (On average, each kid reads to me 40 minutes per day throughout the curriculum and throughout the day--- Plus silent reading on their own at another time.)    I give them a mixture of easier and harder book choices.   The easier books, when read aloud, help build fluency.   The harder books help increase their reading level because they have me there to help them decode unknown words.   I also read aloud to them a lot to model fluent reading....and we use a lot of audiobooks too.

4)  We also use the "One Minute" reader app to help work on reading speed and cadence.   This is based on research of repeated modeled readings to build fluency.

5)  To give them a love for reading, I make sure that they have very little screen time and GOOD books strewed about everywhere.   In the car, in the bathroom, on the kitchen table, by their bedside table, etc.   I just make sure that they have plenty of hours to fill up and then make sure that books are an easy solution to fill those hours.  ;)   This seems to be working.  :)  They read all of the time now.   My son is still probably not at grade level...but I am happy that both of my kids LIKE to read.   A lot of remediated readers will not say that---so I consider this my biggest victory.  

 

 

[TheAttachedMama]

I'll be honest - I do not feel like it's done anything for DS6's reading skills, other than introduce a few digraphs he didn't know before.

 

At the moment, I feel nothing but absolute dislike towards that blasted cursor. I stopped using it, but it's habit now for DS to (even if he knows the word!) sound out EACH sound twice before blending the sounds together. 

 

For example: ch-a-t, ch-a-t, ch-at, ch-at, chat

 

Every. Single. Time.

 

The only time he doesn't, is when we practice outside of the DB book. I have the Free and Treadwell Primer that we use some days, and he doesn't read haltingly out if it!

 

It's like as soon as he sees that DB book he goes into "must sound out everything painstakingly even if I've read the word a million times" mode. 

 

 

I also ditto the person who said to move the cursor very quickly.   It takes a ton of practice to master this.   As soon as they say a sound, you should be revealing the next sound.   They should not wait for you.

 

And encourage the child to "hold" the sounds.   Never ever practice choppy blending.  That will lead to bad habits.   You want to always practice smooth blending.  

 

If you hear ch-a-t-------stop immediately and remind them to blend smoothly.   Explain that this is important to practice because it will allow them to sound out unknown words more quickly.    Model how to blend those sounds smoothly as you move the cursor and have them try.   ex:  Say "ccccchhhhhhhhaaaaaaaattttttt" as you reveal each letter sound combination.  

 

[Bookworm4]

Following for ideas.  We started Dancing Bears last week as a remedial program and DD8 hates it so far.  She asked to go back to AAR.  The only thing that helped the complaining today was making sure I set the timer and stop when it went off.

[Syllieann]

Aimee, I don't have experience with DB, but I wanted to address the comment about AAR with crafts and coloring. For the most part, the activity book is paper-based games. Think file folder games but without the folder. For my young readers, I did all the cutting before lesson time. When we had finished the games, ods always wanted to glue the pieces on, and dd always wanted to color them. That was totally, completely unrelated to the phonics practice. If they didn't want to, that would be fine too, and it would have taken nothing away from the reading lesson. Idk if AAR is right for you, but I'd hate for a misconception to keep you away from something you might love.

[KSinNS]

One other thing I found with DB is, at least for my kids I really need to keep the lessons very short. 10 minutes including flash cards No more, sometimes less. Especially at the beginning. For D that meant usually half a page to 1 page max at the beginning. The pages involve random words to completely eliminate guessing, so the kids have to decode quickly, in their heads with no hints. It is exhausting. Plus, the frustration of misses and the constant review. D did not like it at first (but better than TWRW) which he did before. He doesn't mind it now, and today he wanted to do 3 pages. He has broken the code, so it feels easy now. T is going from 2 pages to 3, and is also finding it easy. She reads immensely well now, but I want to finish just to make sure she can tackle big words. Anyway, not to say its a perfect program or anything, because nothing is. Just to say, keeping it short really helped to avoid the pain. Also my kids don't have dyslexia (T doesn't and D is being assessed but I don't think so). But they do have attention problems which were interfering with their reading, and I think that's why the short, focused, no explanation approach worked for them.