What curriculum would you use to tutor a 4th grader in reading?

[school17777]

He goes to public school and is not on a 4th grade level yet. He was on a 2nd grade level at the beginning of 4th grade. Not sure where he is now. He does not enjoy reading, and I think may have comprehension issues.

 

His parents want additional help to what the school is doing. I’m hoping that you all may have suggestions for materials that the parents could use themselves with their child.

[OneStepAtATime]

Depends on what is holding him back.  Does the school use mostly whole word recognition?  In that case a phonics based program would probably help, but I don't know of anything quick and easy that is free.  You could try ElizabethB's materials.  They may be more than you need but you could contact her and see what she suggests.

 

If his issue is undiagnosed dyslexia he may need a lot more than just tutoring once a week.  He may need a daily dyslexia friendly remediation program.

 

There maybe be other issues that could be causing difficulties.  Have they considered getting an evaluation to try to determine underlying causes for his struggles?

[MerryAtHope]

Have them take a look at All About Reading . It can be done in about 20 minutes per day, doesn't require special training (it's scripted so the parents could use it) and addresses a lot of learning struggles and disabilities. 

 

I hope they can get to the bottom of his reading struggles!

[Lucy the Valiant]

A non-technical, anecdotal answer also depends on the diagnosis . . . I "tutored" a kid in similar circumstances who simply had not yet read the LEVELED readers in the 4th grade program the school was using. The kid could read just fine, but those phonics-forced leveled readers were AWFUL for a kid his age (9), so I just sat next to him at the library and read the right-hand page of an INTERESTING book while he stumbled through the left-hand page. As the story drew him in, his fluency improved like magic right before my eyes. When the book was completely finished, I revealed its (much higher) reading level, and he was thrilled.

 

Mom was also agreeable to getting some audio books going on subjects the kid was actually interested in, as well as limiting screen time, both of which did seem to help this kid past his rough spot. 

 

Your kiddo may need an entirely different approach, but . . . just throwing out (easy, non-technical) ideas (which you likely have already considered).

Edited March 14, 2018 by Lucy the Valiant

[SoCal_Bear]

Has the family had his vision checked? I would want to rule any vision issues.

[Ellie]

AlphaPhonics, Victory Drill Book. My inner self would want the whole ball of wax, i.e., Spalding, but it can be tricky to use that for tutoring, as usually you don't tutor every day, and Spalding works best if you have up to an hour, every day.

[Storygirl]

It's hard to say what will help reading comprehension without knowing that the underlying cause is. In fact, even when the cause is known, it can be hard to tackle. One of my children has a reading comprehension disability.

 

Has he been evaluated by the school for a reading disability? If he is two years behind, the school should be evaluating, and the parents can request that, if the school has not done so.

 

Comprehension troubles can be due to lagging behind with reading in general and having trouble decoding. But comprehension difficulties can be related to other issues as well, such as lack of background knowledge, not understanding vocabulary, not understanding what antecedents the pronouns refer to, not grasping inference or figures of speech. And it can be related to other issues, such as social impairments and/or autism.

 

For DS, his teachers (and us) work hard on comprehension from multiple angles every time he reads. We read things multiple times. We read them aloud instead of silently. We discuss the meaning line by line. We introduce missing background information. There is a great book that I recommend for this, but it is a book, not a program. https://www.amazon.com/Strategies-That-Work-Comprehension-Understanding/dp/1625310633/ref=sr_1_2?ie=UTF8&qid=1521002126&sr=8-2&keywords=strategies+that+work+teaching+comprehension+for+understanding&dpID=51nt-fC6L2L&preST=_SX218_BO1,204,203,200_QL40_&dpSrc=srch

 

If the comprehension issues are rooted in a lag in decoding or fluency, that would require a different approach.

[TheAttachedMama]

I really like the sopris REWARDS program for tutoring older kids in reading.   :)    

[Farrar]

I think I'd lean toward Logic of English since they have a program intended for that age that takes it back to basics. But it would really depend on the issues. Some kids really can decode okay but can't comprehend for other reasons. If that's the case, she'd need something geared toward those skills instead of an O-G type program. But if he's dyslexic, I'd use Barton because it's more intensive.

[ElizabethB]

My syllables program, free to print, the average student improves 1.7 grade levels after completion.

 

Fourth grade and older need extra nonsense words.

 

http://www.thephonicspage.org/On%20Reading/syllablesspellsu.html

 

They can watch the videos with him and do the exercises, it is simple to each because you have been immediately taught what to do.

 

My phonics lessons are also good for an older child, they just watch on their own, no accompanying exercises.

 

http://www.thephonicspage.org/Phonics%20Lsns/phonicslsnslinks.html

 

I supplement with Phonics Pathways and the entire Webster’s Speller and extra nonsense words, but my syllables program and my phonics are a good start for the first few months of work, except I would add in the extra nonsense words from my syllables program early on.

Edited March 15, 2018 by ElizabethB

[mytwomonkeys]

Hooked on Phonics Master Reader. It’s for older students that read but struggle with larger words and syllabication. I absolutely love this program.

[Tanaqui]

I'd want to rule out vision and hearing issues - and not just the obvious ones! - as well as dyslexia, but while you're waiting for that to come through you can do worse than to start with basic phonics remediation.

[school17777]

Thanks everyone for the suggestions! This thread didn’t show up in my recent threads, so I didn’t realize that I had any responses until I noticed the number of notifications had gone up.

 

My neighbor found a tutor for the summer for her ds, but I will pass on the recommendations to her.