AAS as primary phonics instruction?

[maptime]

 My current 2nd grader completed AAR 1 and 2 last year.  At this point I'm tempted to just put him in AAS (which we were planning to use this year anyway) and continue to have him read out loud to me in lieu of AAR3.  Do you all think AAS provides enough phonetic instruction on its own for him to continue to progress in his reading, or would he miss out on important decoding skills?   For reference, he can read books like Mercy Watson and The Bears of Hemlock Mountain with few mistakes.  Thanks for any insight you might have!

 

[acresoft]

AAS is great with continued book reading, with it.

[Targhee]

We never used AAR but got kids reading at about 2nd grade level with 100EZ, then dropped direct reading instruction and started spelling (first AAS then later LOE). I don’t think they would have liked any more decoding instruction!! Encoding through spelling was helpful, but honestly the most helpful was having them read aloud to me every day, improving fluency and confidence and allowing me to point out some things if they struggled.

Edited September 6, 2018 by Targhee

[ElizabethB]

Reading is too important to leave to chance.

I would teach all phonics skills every year for a few years, you can do it as a quick review at the beginning of the year.  I now have a short 1 hour, 1 lesson version of my 10 hour syllables course, it teaches phonics to the 12th grade level.  All free to print.  You can do it over a few days if he can't work all at once for an hour.  Then, if you spot any problem areas you can work on them with the 10 hour version or a phonics program targeted to those areas, there are a lot of free good older phonics programs out there, Word Mastery goes to a 3rd grade level and is free from Don Potter.  Phonics Pathways is cheap and goes to a 4th grade level.

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

[MerryAtHope]

AAS is a complete phonics program, so that can certainly work for some kids. Level 1 starts with important phonemic awareness activities and then moves step-by-step into spelling. With this method, anything a child can spell, he or she has the skills to sound out. One of the differences that comes into play is when and how that child moves from sounding out to reading fluently and with confidence.

Some students take off in reading on their own, and they are fine just using All About Spelling, because they tend to automatically apply what they learn without direct reading instruction. AAS focuses on encoding skills, spelling rules and other strategies that help children become good spellers. 

Students who struggle with reading or who learn at a steady pace tend to need more support in reading though, and for that type of student you would want to continue with All About Reading. AAR includes research-based instruction in decoding, fluency, automaticity, vocabulary, comprehension, and phonemic awareness, and it is truly a complete reading program. These students benefit from going through AAR to get complete reading instruction.

Marie wrote a blog article on What’s the difference between All About Reading and All About Spelling?, which I think you’ll find helpful. You can see samples of how a concept is taught for reading and then for spelling, which might make some of the differences clearer. Most students progress more quickly in reading than in spelling, which is one reason why Marie decided to create separate programs. AAS and AAR are designed to be independent of each other so students can move as quickly or as slowly as they need to with each skill.

If you do continue with just AAS, you'll still want to have your child read out loud each day so that you can catch any trouble or errors that might crop up, and so you can help with multi-syllable word-attack skills etc... Sounds like your little one is doing well!

[maptime]

Thank you for your replies, great food for thought!