908874 Posted January 14, 2016 Share Posted January 14, 2016 I had posted before that I wasn't sure what to do after Abecedarian level A because my son is able to read stories from Frog and Toad but hasn't really been taught a lot of the phonics rules beyond simple blends and "ch", "th". He is 5.5 yrs old. Anyway, I decided to go with AAR1 and thought we would breeze through it. Well. Not at all! My son is unable to decode about half the words in one of those pages with words like "elf, watch, bend..." I figure that when they are not in context he is unable to make a guess. Which is not what I want, of course. Guessing and sight reading is how he appears to be a good reader for his age. We are spending about three days in one single lesson. I started him on the lesson that explains "th". I bought the letter tiles. When we use the tiles he tells me the sounds, one at a time and has no problem blending them. Or finding the correct sounds to spell words like "gift". But when reading a word in a page I think he wants to treat them like he does sight words: as a whole. I am in no hurry to go through the program. I just want for him to know his phonics. I know he is young and wiggly. Any advice? Just chug through AAR1? Let him continue to read whatever he wants? Even if he tends to do it as sight reading? Not that he reads very much on his own, but I encourage practice and fun TMNT readers and such. Sent from my iPhone using Tapatalk Quote Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
EmilyGF Posted January 14, 2016 Share Posted January 14, 2016 How about using an index card with a notch cut out? When you practice reading, show him only one letter (or phonogram) at a time. It forces the habit of sounding out. Outside of reading time let him do his own thing. I used this with my daughter who had L-R tracking issues, but it also helps with guessing! Emily Quote Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
forty-two Posted January 14, 2016 Share Posted January 14, 2016 The authors of AAR have an article on their blog about breaking the word guessing habit: http://blog.allaboutlearningpress.com/break-the-word-guessing-habit/. It sounds like every. single. time. your ds guesses at a word, you pull out the tiles and go through the "tell the sounds, blend the sounds" process. Maybe you are already doing that. Anyway, over time it's supposed to transfer to his reading. With my middle dd, I use a notched card like a pp mentioned to force her to work through the word left-to-right when she starts guessing. My oldest dd ended up reading largely by sight even though I taught her strictly by phonics (turned out she didn't have sufficient enough phonemic awareness skills to be able to learn to read phonetically). She's a voracious reader - I couldn't imagine not letting her read on her own until we dealt with it - and so she's kept on reading, mostly by sight, as we work on her phonetic skills, both in reading and in spelling. And I've noticed her start to use the skills we are working on in her lessons on her own :thumbup:. It seems to lag a few months behind where we are in our lessons - either that they need time to sink in, or for her to become sufficiently practiced at them, or whatever. But they *are* transferring :). Quote Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
908874 Posted January 14, 2016 Author Share Posted January 14, 2016 (edited) I love this forum - you ladies have great ideas. Thank you! I will definitely read that blog post soon. Sent from my iPhone using Tapatalk Edited January 14, 2016 by 908874 Quote Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
ElizabethB Posted January 14, 2016 Share Posted January 14, 2016 (edited) My concentration game makes both nonsense words and real words and is a fun way to help prevent guessing. http://www.thephonicspage.org/On%20Phonics/concentrationgam.html Teaching sight words can also cause guessing, here is why not to teach them as wholes and how to sound out all but 2 of the 220 Dolch sight words and the 100 Fry Instant words. http://www.thephonicspage.org/On%20Reading/sightwords.html I also like to focus on just words and word lists for a few weeks or a month to help my guessing students break out of threir guessing habits, sentences and stories are easier to guess than single words. Edited January 14, 2016 by ElizabethB Quote Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
MerryAtHope Posted January 14, 2016 Share Posted January 14, 2016 3 days on a lesson isn't bad at all. A lot of kids spend a week on instruction lessons. You might like this post on a typical day/week. Also, blends are a common place for kids to struggle, so it's not unusual for a student to need more time in those lessons. Just keep working through, he'll get it. 1 Quote Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
ByGrace3 Posted January 14, 2016 Share Posted January 14, 2016 My almost 6 yo often spends a week on the lessons in AAR1. The fluency pages are tedious for her and takes days to get through... At this stage of reading, I don't ask for any reading outside of phonics instruction. I wouldn't discourage it, I simply don't ask for it until I know they can do it well enough to not be constantly guessing.... 1 Quote Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
908874 Posted January 14, 2016 Author Share Posted January 14, 2016 Ok! Good, glad lessons take a while. Today when he gave me a panicky look when I opened the students book on a fluency page, I set a timer for 10 minutes to spend on that page and I combined it with the letter tiles (he likes those). It was more pleasant. Did not go through too many words but we did a lot of review. After his play break we will do another word flipper book and I'll call it a day for the lesson. We are still on the same lesson so four days now. We are not done. But I see it's ok. Thank you. I think I found the right fit for him. Sent from my iPhone using Tapatalk Quote Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
908874 Posted January 14, 2016 Author Share Posted January 14, 2016 My concentration game makes both nonsense words and real words and is a fun way to help prevent guessing. http://www.thephonicspage.org/On%20Phonics/concentrationgam.html Teaching sight words can also cause guessing, here is why not to teach them as wholes and how to sound out all but 2 of the 220 Dolch sight words and the 100 Fry Instant words. http://www.thephonicspage.org/On%20Reading/sightwords.html I also like to focus on just words and word lists for a few weeks or a month to help my guessing students break out of threir guessing habits, sentences and stories are easier to guess than single words. The links aren't working from the app. He knows most of the Dolch sight words already. There are maybe 20 or so he doesn't know well. We are doing homeschool through a charter and one of their goals is that in K children know how to read (and write) 84 sight words. The "write" part I doubt he will be able to do, and I am not pushing it at all. So we did the Dolch and he was good at memorizing them, liked going through a stack quickly... I was skeptical as I had read about teaching only phonics, but his sight reading sort of took off. I see now that it may not have been the smartest thing to do what the teacher suggested (well she didn't suggest we did All Dolch sight words). But you know - she is the teaching expert not me... I imagine that because he is young he will be able to learn the phonics as well. It is proven to be more laborious. But it's alright. Sent from my iPhone using Tapatalk Quote Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
lexi Posted January 14, 2016 Share Posted January 14, 2016 You've been given some great suggestions. I just want to chime in and say that I have so been there! My son took almost two years to get through AAR1. We spent more than a week per lesson usually. So much review! So much practice! I almost lost my mind. It took him some time to work through AAR2 but we made it. My son always wanted to guess and rush through it. But with all the practice sounding words out he is starting to read! Finally! I'm so glad I let him work through the levels slowly as it has given him the skills needed to sound words out. We start AAR3 soon. Quote Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
MerryAtHope Posted January 14, 2016 Share Posted January 14, 2016 Ok! Good, glad lessons take a while. Today when he gave me a panicky look when I opened the students book on a fluency page, I set a timer for 10 minutes to spend on that page and I combined it with the letter tiles (he likes those). It was more pleasant. Did not go through too many words but we did a lot of review. After his play break we will do another word flipper book and I'll call it a day for the lesson. We are still on the same lesson so four days now. We are not done. But I see it's ok. Thank you. I think I found the right fit for him. Sent from my iPhone using Tapatalk He might also like some of these ideas for the fluency pages (I like some of the dice games in the comments too!) or games for the word cards. Sometimes it helps to mix things up :-). 1 Quote Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
Recommended Posts
Join the conversation
You can post now and register later. If you have an account, sign in now to post with your account.