Reading and Spelling used in Public Schools K - 3

[ElizabethB]

So as to not derail the math thread!

 

 

[greenbeanmama]

My kindergartener has been taught a number of "sight words" that "can't be sounded out", including "am," "can," and "and".  Fortunately, we're still doing reading and math at home, and she is far beyond identifying the first letter of a word.  When she's coloring and says, "Hey!  This crayon isn't yellow, it's called dandelion!", I think she can handle kindergarten sight words.

 

 

 

[Stibalfamily]

I'm pretty sure its just word lists from dolch or fry. Like 10 a week. I see so much of that on Teachers Pay Teachers. 

[Arcadia]

It’s 7 years ago and I am too lazy to check what the school district are supposedly using now. The district buys a copy for each student but the teachers may use their own stuff which they have used for the past decade instead of the district’s approved curriculum.

 

Spelling - Sitton Spelling and Word Skills http://eps.schoolspecialty.com/products/literacy/spelling/sitton-spelling-and-word-skills/about-the-program

Reading - 7 Keys to Comprehension: How to Help Your Kids Read It and Get It! https://www.amazon.com/Keys-Comprehension-Help-Your-Kids/dp/0761515496

 

My oldest was the only kid in his cohort of 120 that did not attend an academic style preschool. Kids had finished phonics in preschool and were writing short sentences on the first day of Kindergarten. There were some ESL students when he was in 1st grade and the ESL classmates have pullouts for English with the ESL specialist.

[Lecka]

I don't really know, they do different things it seems.

 

I know Zoo Phonics in Kindergarten.

 

Other than that it seems like they would have different reading groups and do something different in every group, and use different materials they put together.

 

It's not like math where I can say "here's what they use."

Edited November 2, 2017 by Lecka

[YodaGirl]

Our public schools use Houghton Mifflin's Journeys.

[sweet2ndchance]

Sight words here too.

 

I went to a Spalding/Writing Road to Reading school district as a child. That's what I used to teach all my kids as well though I did make my own little changes as so many of the spinoffs do. I don't always agree with the changes some of the spinoff programs make but there are some parts of pure Spalding I don't exactly agree with either so I just do what makes sense to me. All six of my kids have learned to read and spell with Spalding/WRTR methods. Sight words make me cringe and twitch.

[Meadowlark]

Ours uses Imaginet for phonics and Lead21 for reading.

[EmilyGF]

My K-er is using the word family approach in spelling each week at a breakneck speed. (It is an accelerated school; they are supposed to be two years ahead by the end of K.)

 

I'm glad that they at least have word families. Other families in the district have  reported being sent home lists of "sight words" for spelling each week that include things like "on" and "and".

 

My son gets a list of word types each week (this week was words that end in -ist, -ing, -ink, -ith, -ish, and -ick). They don't know what will be on the test except that it'll related to the word family. They then have extensive word building and reading to do with them over the course of the week which familiarizes them with the pattern. By extensive, I mean they have more writing to do for homework each day than a 1st grader in my homeschool would write in the entire day.

 

Emily

 

 

[Insertcreativenamehere]

Our district kindergartens use Jolly Phonics.

[Arcadia]

My district’s list as of 2015, I didn’t copy the titles of all curriculum. The two books I listed in earlier post are still in use.

 

Words Their Way: Word Study In Action ©2005 https://www.pearsonschool.com/index.cfm?locator=PSZvXy&PMDbSiteId=2781&PMDbSolutionId=6724&PMDbSubSolutionId=&PMDbCategoryId=3289&PMDbSubCategoryId=28139&PMDbSubjectAreaId=&PMDbProgramId=18082

The Primary Comprehension Toolkit, Second Edition Language and Lessons for K-2 https://www.heinemann.com/products/e06183.aspx

Phonics and Word Study Lessons https://www.heinemann.com/pd/firsthand/products/phonics.aspx

The Fountas & Pinnell Leveled Literacy Intervention System (LLI) http://www.fountasandpinnell.com/lli/

Unit of Study - Reading https://www.heinemann.com/unitsofstudy/reading/

Units of Study - Writing https://www.heinemann.com/unitsofstudy/writing/

 

Bilingual

Buenos hábitos, grandes lectores https://www.pearsonschool.com/index.cfm?locator=PSZu68&PMDbSiteId=2781&PMDbSolutionId=6724&PMDbSubSolutionId=&PMDbCategoryId=3289&PMDbSubCategoryId=24805&PMDbSubjectAreaId=&PMDbProgramId=87801

Imaginalo! Equipo de Taller, SRA/McGraw-Hill (2009)

Edited November 2, 2017 by Arcadia

[Crimson Wife]

My child is in a Special Day Class for students with language-based learning disabilities. They are using the SonDay system, which claims to be an Orton-Gillingham based multi-sensory program. The school also has the kids doing the Lexia software, which is also O-G based.

 

Not sure what the general ed classrooms use but based on the kids I tutor in the school's Reading Lab, I don't think it's a true phonics program. I'm having to teach 3rd and 4th graders basic phonics rules like which vowels soft c and soft g come before.

[Tokyomarie]

The Sonday System is definitely O-G! Arlene Sonday was one of the first Orton Gillingham fellows and the first president of the academy. A number of the tutors in my tutor group were trained on the Sonday System years ago through the school district where they taught. I have seen the materials but do not own them myself. 

 

 

My child is in a Special Day Class for students with language-based learning disabilities. They are using the SonDay system, which claims to be an Orton-Gillingham based multi-sensory program. The school also has the kids doing the Lexia software, which is also O-G based.

 

 

[Tokyomarie]

I'm not sure if it's consistent throughout the district, but I was pleased when I learned last year that at least some primary classrooms in my district are using Wilson Fundations.

[kiwik]

My child is in a Special Day Class for students with language-based learning disabilities. They are using the SonDay system, which claims to be an Orton-Gillingham based multi-sensory program. The school also has the kids doing the Lexia software, which is also O-G based.

 

Not sure what the general ed classrooms use but based on the kids I tutor in the school's Reading Lab, I don't think it's a true phonics program. I'm having to teach 3rd and 4th graders basic phonics rules like which vowels soft c and soft g come before.

I don't know that though and I manage to read without trouble.

[Sneezyone]

I don't know that though and I manage to read without trouble.

Natural readers intuit those rules. DS has but DD needed explicit instruction.

[Crimson Wife]

I don't know that though and I manage to read without trouble.

 

I never encountered the phonics rules until I was an adult (my mom says I taught myself to read when I was 3) but they were all things I *KNEW*.

 

However, many kids actually DO need that explicit instruction. The students I work with in the Reading Lab are all reading 1 grade below level (those who fall 2+ grades below qualify for special education). A few strike me as probably dyslexic but most I think just need better instruction.

[....]

The school here basically taught reading through a method that I can best label as "hunt and peck."  Lots of guessing based on pictures and the shape of the word.  Then, when that didn't work, they sent DD to "reading recovery" which wasn't much better....just more focused on the "shape" of the word. 

 

 

Yeah, here, too.  Reading is actually why I started looking into homeschooling.  My oldest two teens started off in public school and they were learning to read by memorizing these little booklets.  They would recite the little booklets over and over again in class and then bring them home.  It was really bizarre.  There was very little phonics instruction.  Dd15 learned how to read with this method, but ds14 couldn't figure it out, so they were pulling him out of class every day and putting him in the special education class.  At the end of the school year, I was shocked when I realized that he didn't even know his letter sounds!!  

 

Not to mention the constant, "I'm stupid.  I'm so stupid," he would chant every day when he got off the school bus...and the crying/fighting when it was time to get ready to catch the school bus.   :sad:  

 

He was just getting left in the dust in that classroom.  So, I looked into just homeschooling him and ended up pulling her out of school as well.

 

And the one kid who learned how to read like this (dd15) is the worst speller out of my 4 oldest kids.  *sigh*

[Bluegoat]

I don't know the program - my kids have never gone at that age, so I am going by the kids I babysit.  But it's essentially a sight word program.

 

Kids sent to reading recovery do phonics, but not very in depth.

 

It seems difficult to figure out the programs for a lot of subjects as the teachers are just going the kids pages of photocopies.

[MistyMountain]

I believe they use Houghten Mifflen which seems very sight word heavy.

[kiwik]

I never encountered the phonics rules until I was an adult (my mom says I taught myself to read when I was 3) but they were all things I *KNEW*.

 

However, many kids actually DO need that explicit instruction. The students I work with in the Reading Lab are all reading 1 grade below level (those who fall 2+ grades below qualify for special education). A few strike me as probably dyslexic but most I think just need better instruction.

True. I also had parents who corrected errors in speech and read to me heaps. If I hadn't I probably would have needed more direct instruction.

 

US English is a lot more phonetic than NZ English too.

Edited November 3, 2017 by kiwik

[MinivanMom]

Here they use the "Daily Five" as their overall approach to language arts. These are the 5 things that kids are supposed to do everyday: read to self, work on writing, read to someone, listen to reading, and word work. The word work portion is where teachers cover phonics, spelling, and grammar. My understanding is that much of the actual material covered is written at the district level rather than using textbooks or a specific curriculum. Every classroom in every school across the district is supposed to be teaching the same lesson on the same day. They teach both phonics and dolch sight words in kindergarten. In higher grades they have spelling words each week and a dolch list that has to be mastered by all kids in that grade level.

 

Many of my friends deliberately teach their kids to read with phonics prior to kindergarten so the dolch lists don't mess them up. This is an upper-class area with lots of bright kids who read early, so that's an achievable goal for many families. For kids who aren't ready to read early, the dolch lists can cause lots of damage, because you aren't allowed to "sound out" any of the words; you have to say them instantly. There are a number of "good" teachers who bend that rule, and there are a number of teachers who use their daily "word work" time to teach more phonics than what is written in the district instructional guides.

 

Reading intervention teachers deliberately teach phonics and phonemic awareness, but I don't know what specific curriculum they use. It could just be district-written materials like so many other areas. Now I'm curious.

[scoutingmom]

I am not sure. I know they are doing sight words in K because a friend of my step-daughter had s child in K struggling with it. They were wondering if I had anything to help over summer before grade 1.

 

I asked if they wanted something to help them learn how to read, or something to help memorize the sight words.

 

They just wanted help on memorizing the sight words. [emoji52]

 

Sent from my SM-G903W using Tapatalk

[homemommy83]

I am not sure. I know they are doing sight words in K because a friend of my step-daughter had s child in K struggling with it. They were wondering if I had anything to help over summer before grade 1.

 

I asked if they wanted something to help them learn how to read, or something to help memorize the sight words.

 

They just wanted help on memorizing the sight words. [emoji52]

 

Sent from my SM-G903W using Tapatalk

Maybe in teaching her to read, she would pick up sight words quicker though.  So that might be worth mentioning to them.

[Arcadia]

I am not sure. I know they are doing sight words in K because a friend of my step-daughter had s child in K struggling with it. They were wondering if I had anything to help over summer before grade 1.

 

I asked if they wanted something to help them learn how to read, or something to help memorize the sight words.

 

They just wanted help on memorizing the sight words. [emoji52]

My younger boy did the leapfrog alphabet dvd and then is too antsy to do any more phonics. Knowing the 220 dolch sight words and the 1000 Fry words somehow got him willing to learn to read. This kid learn phonics from German at 5 years old and then use them for English. When the public charter teacher test him at 6 years old, he cleared all the English nonsense words without problems. My kids are quirky. My oldest has a photographic memory and knows the Fry 1000 words before kindergarten and has no problem with the nonsense words test at start of kindergarten.

 

Both my kids hate phonics readers. We bought and gave those away to friends. They read children encyclopedias instead gleefully. It’s really not a one size fit all. They hate the German phonics readers too. Chinese does not have phonics readers or they would have probably hate those too. Their public school teachers let them bring their own book from home for reading.

 

ETA:

Their k-8 public school does teach phonics but let those that test above grade level read their own books or books from the school library. The school library is K-8 but my oldest exhaust that too as he reads for hours daily.

Edited November 4, 2017 by Arcadia