Shred Betty Posted September 3, 2016 Share Posted September 3, 2016 My DD7 is loving AAS 1. The mastery approach, the small chucks of a variety of activities, she is quickly making big strides in her skills and we are just on step 5. I honestly wasn't even sure if we needed a reading program but I'm considering adding AAR 2, 3, or 4. She is a great reader so I will be using the placement tests and reading samples to decide which level of AAR we should start at, Does AAR come just as highly recommended as AAS? What are some of the similarities / differences with AAS? How much overlap is there? I know from calling them today I already have tiles and just need to buy the books and box, but I mean more curriculum or concept overlap. I also know reading and spelling are "different" skill sets but really, do they overlap quite a bit? Thanks! Quote Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
Shred Betty Posted September 3, 2016 Author Share Posted September 3, 2016 Oh my goodness now I'm really really confused! I just reviewed AAR lvl 2 teachers guide sample. It looks like if I match up the AAR and AAS by topic covered we will save a lot of time or there will be a ton of duplicate work required if we don't match them up by topic. For example AAs1 step 5 we are about to start teaches the short vowel sounds which I can tell we need to cover or at least practice. However the first chapter I just saw of AAR2 is a "review" of short vowels, because they were covered in AAR 1. Also AAR2 expects prerequisites of mastering what a syllable is, open / closed, etc. I will have to see what she knows about it tomorrow, but I think she did not cover this in public school gr 1 so we would need to cover on our own if I go with lvl 2... I'm having a really hard time because a) I don't know what my dd7 covered or missed in gr1 at public school :( and b) I'm not sure if identifying a gap means I should back up a level or not. Thanks! Quote Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
MerryAtHope Posted September 3, 2016 Share Posted September 3, 2016 Hi Betty, I'd start by looking at this article on the differences between the reading and spelling programs--I think that will really help as you consider how to proceed. While there is some overlap (they both teach phonograms and syllable types), there are a lot of differences too. AAR teaches decoding skills, vocabulary, fluency, comprehension, and includes lots and lots of reading practice. AAS focuses instead on encoding skills, spelling rules and other strategies that help children become good spellers. There's really not that much overlap--when a phonogram is review, just quickly review it and move on with the lesson. For most kids, you don't really want to match up the skills (she'd be stuck reading at her spelling level, which is likely too easy for her, or she'd be trying to speed up her spelling ability to match what she can read). AALP has reading and spelling separate so you can work on each one at your child's pace. This article explains more about why they are separate. Anyway, see how she does on the placement tests and reading samples. If she can read the suggested sample stories from the end of the previous level easily, she likely doesn't need to do the previous level. If there are some phonograms where she doesn't know the additional sounds (like some of the vowels), or if there are a few syllable rules she doesn't know, you can often fill those gaps in with the next level. You'll get the phonogram cards from all earlier levels, and the appendix has all of the syllable rules. Email AALP after you do the placement tests if you have any questions about whether to go with one level or another, and they'll help with placement. HTH some! 1 Quote Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
Shred Betty Posted September 3, 2016 Author Share Posted September 3, 2016 Thanks Merry, I did extensive reading on it last night and you confirmed my understanding of how it will work, thanks very much for that! 1 Quote Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
deerforest Posted September 3, 2016 Share Posted September 3, 2016 Just wanted to add a tip that you might want to post in the main K-12 curriculum forum one level up. This subforum mostly has folks in grades 5-8 who probably don't have much advice as those in the main forum. AAR wasn't even available when DD started to read, for example! 2 Quote Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
Shred Betty Posted September 3, 2016 Author Share Posted September 3, 2016 Just wanted to add a tip that you might want to post in the main K-12 curriculum forum one level up. This subforum mostly has folks in grades 5-8 who probably don't have much advice as those in the main forum. AAR wasn't even available when DD started to read, for example!Lol! I didn't have any idea I had posted in this subforum, thanks!! Oops! Quote Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
Momto6inIN Posted September 5, 2016 Share Posted September 5, 2016 We loved AAR, but once DD was reading easy chapter books well, we flew through levels 3 & 4 very quickly at a pace of about one step/day, skipping everything in the activity books. As Merry mentioned, we didn't want to hold back her reading because her spelling wasn't at the same level. We began AAS right after she was done with AAR level 1. We didn't find it to be very redundant at all because although the phonograms are the same and there are similarities to the steps, each program is coming at the skill from a very different angle - decoding vs encoding. We're still doing AAS, and she's in the middle of level 3 and a very good reader. Quote Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
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