Reading program

[Eupatobe1]

Hello. Last year I used all about reading with both of my children (1st and 2nd grade). Both of them have now completely taken off with reading on their own. My youngest had only learned the letter sounds, and is now reading little house on the prairie! She only went half way through level 1 AAR. I’m looking for advice as to what to do now- I realize that they still need instruction, but I’m not convinced that AAR is the right program for them now. I’m thinking something more succinct? Switch to something like explode the code instead? My older daughter was a reluctant reader and had more difficulty, but is now able to read some chapter books like boxcar children, encyclopedia brown, etc. She was half way through level 2 AAR. 
Thanks in advance. 

Edited July 17, 2021 by Eupatobe1

[Kiara.I]

Why do they need instruction? They're reading. Let them read. They'll pick bits up along the way, and occasionally you can take turns reading aloud with them and they'll be able to correct any errors that way.

 

Generally a phonetic spelling curriculum should take care of anything else, if they need it.

[Eupatobe1]

Thank you. I wasn’t sure if abandoning AAR altogether was the right thing to do, but it sounds like moving to phonetic spelling is the way to go. 

[mathmarm]

We continue reading instruction until a child can fluently and accurately read 5 syllable words. You don't need to purchase a program for this though, you can continue reading instruction on this level with 2 steps.

1) You can find lists of multisyllable words online for the kids to practice reading.

2) Use an article from a book that you want the kids to read. Pre-teach all of the longer words in that passage on a sheet of paper then have them read the article until they're reading that passage fluently. (Decoding + Punctuation).

[mathmarm]

2 hours ago, Eupatobe1 said:

Thank you. I wasn’t sure if abandoning AAR altogether was the right thing to do, but it sounds like moving to phonetic spelling is the way to go. 

For what it's worth to you, the reason that we continued teaching and practicing phonetic reading until they're reading 5-syllable words easily and fluently is because phonics based spelling programs lag significantly behind phonics based reading. 

Spelling programs that are phonics-based tend to focus on phonics skills and concepts below the current grade level because the conventional thought is that spelling should be practice on words that kids can read.

When you start a phonetic spelling program, you're starting with 1syllable words again.

We use and love Spelling by Sound and Structure, it's a steady, systematic phonics based spelling program which starts in grade 2 and works for our kids. The exercises are recycled and re-used on various categories of words and the skills seem to transfer quite well into their writing.
 

Quote

 

SbSS 2 has students working with 1-syllable words and the most common suffixes like -s, -es, -ed, -er, -est and -ing.

SbSS 3 has students working with 1- and 2- syllable words
The majority of the early levels work with short-vowels. Silent E- is introduced early on and then letter combinations are taught in groups. All on 1 and 2 syllable words.

SbSS 4 has students working with 1-, 2- and 3-syllable words. Mostly this level focuses on 2-syllable words.

SbSS 5 has students working with 1-4 syllable words. This level gives most of it's emphasis to 2 and 3 syllable words.

 

 

In my experience, many older kids are found to be poor readers because they lack the ability to fluently read upper-grade material as easily as they could read lower-grade material. That's why many educators describe it as "the kids hit a wall" after ___ grade.

The kids decoding isn't automatic--often phonics have been abondoned too soon or they did so well with 1 and 2 syllable words that people just assumed that they didn't need any help with 3-5 syllable words. Some kids don't wind up needing any help with longer words, but many of them do.

 

Upper grade material is composed of multi-syllable words embedded in parts of phrases, sentences, paragraphs and passages.

OP, I want to encourage you to extend their phonics practice another 6 months or so so that they master longer words and can read them easily and accurately aloud or silently.

[Eupatobe1]

Thanks so much. This was my concern for my older daughter, too. She doesn’t have a good, strong foundation in phonics at this point. She’s reading, but when she comes to a word she doesn’t know, she’s just skipping it. I don’t think continuing with AAR is the right answer, either- it’s not what she needs (and she doesn’t like the program at all). I like your idea of continuing to work on phonics on our own, then adding the spelling program. 

When you described pre-teaching the harder words from a passage, do you just show the child how to sound out the words?

[mathmarm]

So, we teach phonics "all the way through" for our kids.
We use this Ultimate Phonics List because the font is large and easy for beginning readers and the words + sentences make it super easy to use.
As the kids are progressing we pull in the free resources from OnTrack Reading for 3-Syllallble and 4-Syllable words, and for a free resource of 5-syllable words we created a list from a the website Wordnik, we discounted the more obscure words.

So, we continue the phonics process until the kids can easily read 5 syllable words as easily as they can read a 5-syllable sentence.

As quickly and clearly as our kids read Tom ran very fast. is as quickly and clearly as they should read affiliation, curiosity, and intracranial.

3 hours ago, Eupatobe1 said:

When you described pre-teaching the harder words from a passage, do you just show the child how to sound out the words?

No. We do not. While our children are on the path of "Learning to Read" to the level that we desire, when there is an article or book that we want them to read, we skim the material for words the child can't yet sound out fluently and write them on the whiteboard or a piece of paper.

We syllabicate the word with the child, but then the child must sound out the word. It's our thought that if we tell the child how to sound it out, it doesn't grow their decoding ability.

[goldenecho]

Possibly start them up with All About Spelling.  Spelling is a slightly different process and going through the phonics for spelling is usually necessary even if they pick up reading quickly.   And if they are missing any phonics concepts, it's likely to be caught through teaching the spelling concepts.