1 year of phonics

[Moncha]

I'm babysitting and "tutoring" a 1st grader who I think is a fairly good reader... I did the AAR placement test with her and she places into level 2. However, when Covid dies down she will be put back in public school, she's medically fragile so maybe next fall??  I really like AAR but she is not what I would call a "struggling" reader (I'm kind of blown away by her ability as the only experience I have is with my dyslexic kiddo) so I was wondering if there are any recommendations for a quicker phonics program that I could put her through. Her mom was just having her read leveled books and doing an ABC Mouse phonics workbook that it looks like she picked up at Walmart.... 

[lulalu]

Phonics Pathways is great and easy. I think this goes to about a 3rd grade reading level. 

Webster's is free online and great once you spend a little time figuring out how you want to use it. This will go to a 12th grade reading level. 

Explode the Code workbooks are great to use if reading well. 

 

Then just add in reading aloud daily at an increasing level. 

[Ellie]

Explode the Code might do the trick. Direct and to the point, no twaddle. 🙂 If she does ETC, I would recommend dropping booklets she picked up at Walmart and only do ETC. Also, instead of vocabulary-controlled readers, give her some good books to read. They'll be more interesting to her, and yes, she may have to work harder to read them, but she'll be motivated to read them because they are good.

[Moncha]

@Ellie or anyone else who is familiar with Explode the Code: I was curious if you have any idea which booklet she might place in for ETC... I will buy the test if I have to, but would like to get going on this sooner rather than later.  She is really good at sounding out most words but struggles a bit with long vowel sounds: knowing when they're long. 

Also is the teacher's manual necessary? I don't mind, just don't want to spend unnecessarily.

Edited November 18, 2020 by Moncha

[Moncha]

@lulalu I'm looking into phonics pathways too, thankyou. Can you make any comment about my above question as well? 

[Ellie]

2 hours ago, Moncha said:

@Ellie or anyone else who is familiar with Explode the Code: I was curious if you have any idea which booklet she might place in for ETC... I will buy the test if I have to, but would like to get going on this sooner rather than later.  She is really good at sounding out most words but struggles a bit with long vowel sounds: knowing when they're long. 

Also is the teacher's manual necessary? I don't mind, just don't want to spend unnecessarily.

I would just start at the beginning.

If the teacher guide isn't expensive, I would go ahead and get it. 

[lulalu]

You don't need the TM. The workbooks are very self explaining. 

The skills are listed on each workbook. The first one covers cvc words. 

I would buy them a few at a time. We didn't end up needing 7 or 8 as ds was reading fine by that time. 

[caffeineandbooks]

On 11/19/2020 at 5:08 AM, Moncha said:

@Ellie or anyone else who is familiar with Explode the Code: I was curious if you have any idea which booklet she might place in for ETC... I will buy the test if I have to, but would like to get going on this sooner rather than later.  She is really good at sounding out most words but struggles a bit with long vowel sounds: knowing when they're long. 

Also is the teacher's manual necessary? I don't mind, just don't want to spend unnecessarily.

Book one is cvc words.  Book two is consonant blends.  If she's fine with these but not quite solid on long vowels, start at book 3.  Book 4 teaches how to break a word into syllables so they can read longer ones and covers whether a vowel sound is long or short.  Agree with lulalu that you don't need the TM - it mainly contains ideas for how to turn a five minute workbook exercise into a "lesson" for a class full of kids.

[Moncha]

On 11/20/2020 at 9:47 PM, caffeineandbooks said:

 If she's fine with these but not quite solid on long vowels, start at book 3. 

This is what I decided to do, thank you everyone. She's doing great 🙂 

[goldenecho]

ProgressivePhonics.com is something you can move through really fast if you want to...and it's free (you just print out the readers).   I also suggest adding nonsense words that use the concept suggested to test whether your child really understands the concept.   This is really important with a child who can already read many words by sight, because you want to see if she understands the concepts behind the worlds too.   But you have to be careful when making nonsense words that you don't use any words that have other phonics rules your child hasn't covered yet that apply to it, or that are real words that are rule breakers.  

Syllables Spell Success has a free list of nonsense words here that can be used along with progressivePhonics (you just sort of have to match each section of the list to the right lesson in PP).   To find what I'm talking about, search the page for the text "Blend Phonics nonsense words document"
http://www.thephonicspage.org/On Reading/syllablesspellsu.html

Edited January 18, 2021 by goldenecho