8th grade literature for an easily frustrated reader

[Blossom'sGirl]

My 8th grade ds has never been a reader.  I occasionally switch off paragraphs with him as he reads science and math books noticing he sometimes says the wrong word (what instead of that) and he doesn't slow down to force correctly pronouncing hard words.  He was taught phonics but doesn't try to apply them.

 

So I am literature hunting this year.  He did about 2/3 of Sonlight Core H last year, but complained about the book reading.  I read many of the readers aloud because I like them too.  He has a hard time following many stories.  He also did lightning lit 7 last year, but he followed along as he listened to the recorded story.  

 

Because he is studying CLE American History,  I bought Memoria Press Poetry and Short Stories American Literature.  I really like the idea of it, but the reader is so black and white with barely any space especially for the first few stories.  I was going to use this in conjunction with some American novels.  I am second guessing myself that maybe I should use something like a lit book (which I never thought I would use for this grade) like BJU for shorter passages and more interesting pages.  I am dedicating an hour of my school day to this lit. time with him, but my goal is for him to be independently comprehending his reading.

 

Does anyone else have a child like this?   What has worked for you?  Also I would love to hear how the Memoria Press Lit worked if you have used it.

 

Thanks,

Michelle

[Blossom'sGirl]

So I am replying to my own topic.  I just bought the lesson plan to the Memoria Literature, and after looking at how it is scheduled, it seems much more doable to me.  I think we may have to read the stories together, but at least now I can see the flow of the program.  I guess I will start novel hunting for him.

[OneStepAtATime]

Could he be a stealth dyslexic or have developmental vision problems (frequently do not show up during standard eye exams and a person can have 20/20 visual acuity and still have developmental vision issues)?

 

Could he use audio book versions for some of his reading so he is is still exposed to the material but is not hit with so much reading?  

[EKS]

Agreeing with OneStep--it sounds like there is more going on than just being too lazy to apply his (possibly forgotten) phonics lessons.

 

I'd spend this year doing a tune up on his reading, and if it doesn't rapidly improve, I'd consider getting him evaluated (first developmental vision and if that checks out then a dyslexia evaluation).

 

I'd couple doing REWARDS Secondary with fluency training.  

 

REWARDS teaches students a flexible strategy for sounding out long words.  It is incredibly powerful.  There are 20 lessons, the first ten or so of which can be done in a single sitting (so one lesson per day).  The last ten I like to split over two days (so one lesson per two days).  Doing it this way, it takes about 6 weeks to complete the program.

 

For fluency training, I'd have him read aloud from material that is easy for him every day.  The goal is for him to be able to read aloud for a half hour without tiring, but it may take a while to work up to this.  You want to be sure that the material is very easy for him to read aloud, so if you need to start with first grade books for this to be the case, then that's what you do.  Then gradually increase the reading level until he is able to read at grade level fluently (like 200 words per minute with very few errors) for a half hour.

 

Then the only books I would assign for him to read would be high interest ones.  The rest I'd read aloud.  I think your idea of using shorter works for comprehension practice is a good one.

Edited August 18, 2016 by EKS

[lisabees]

Agree with Kai (and OneStepAtATime).  After using REWARDS, my son jumped up at least two grade levels.  Surround your ds with wonderful language in all forms.  Audiobooks and documentaries are great for this purpose. Read Poetry.  Analyze song lyrics.

 

Spelling through Morphographs was a perfect complement to REWARDS and everything else I was doing.

 

Best of luck!

 

Edited August 18, 2016 by lisabees

[almondbutterandjelly]

I wanted to mention that we can't deal with black and white, no space, stuff at our house either.  I solve that by highlighting.  We have highlighters of every color.  If I want my dd to retain, I highlight or have her highlight.  Color makes everything better!

[Julie of KY]

I agree that it might be worthwhile looking further into why reading is hard - Dyslexia? Vision issues?

 

Meanwhile, I'd encourage you to find some audio versions of books so that the work of reading is lessened and maybe he can just focus on learning and discussing. Continue to work on reading separately.