Upper elementary phonics?

[Calizzy]

Ds will be in 5th grade next fall and still struggle with reading a bit. We did All About Reading levels 1-3 1st through 3rd grade. This year he has been reading aloud to me for about 20 minutes a day. His reading has improved this year. At the beginning of the year I would say he could hardly read. Now, he just finished reading The Sign of the Beaver to me (took about 2 months of reading 3 pages per day). I could just keep him reading out loud for next year,  but I wasn't sure if there were other options for more phonics lessons for upper elementary grades? Any suggestions?

[countrymum]

Why didn't you do AAR 4? I've used that level 2x and think it's best for 3rd grade or up. My struggling ds did it in like 3rd and I thought it helpful. Then he read Alice and Jerry readers aloud to me and that really helped with fluency. They are vocabulary controlled readers...more interesting than Dick and Jane IMHO. Start with one that he can read fluently then go on as needed. I may try like Friendly Village and Neighbors on the Hill. The controlled vocab that he was totally capable of sounding out really seemed to help. Rainbow resource sells reprints.

My Dd who did AAR 4 in like early 2nd grade whizzing through didn't get as much out of it I don't think. (Incidentally, I really like AAR pre-4. After trying out several other phonics programs, I plan to use AAR several more times;)

Another thing I did was institute a quiet reading time on the summer for like 30 min and provide lots of easy books for the kids to read. Like level 1 and 2 readers that were about stuff they were interested in. Also reading picture books aloud to little siblings helps a ton of he has any to do this with.

[Nm.]

All about reading 4.  It is a big step up from all about reading 3.  For fluency I used emerging readers from heart of Dakota, followed by their DITHOR 2 pack, and will just keep going from there.  I get most from the library.  When I tried picking out my own books it was just not gradual enough in difficulty.

Emerging readers

Dithor book packs

If you’ll notice- sign of the beaver is in their 4/5 boy pack.  Starting with the lower level books might boost his confidence and speed up his reading.

Edited May 13, 2023 by Nm.

[mathmarm]

14 hours ago, Calizzy said:

Ds will be in 5th grade next fall and still struggle with reading a bit. We did All About Reading levels 1-3 1st through 3rd grade. This year he has been reading aloud to me for about 20 minutes a day. His reading has improved this year. At the beginning of the year I would say he could hardly read. Now, he just finished reading The Sign of the Beaver to me (took about 2 months of reading 3 pages per day). I could just keep him reading out loud for next year,  but I wasn't sure if there were other options for more phonics lessons for upper elementary grades? Any suggestions?

How was his oral reading at the end of Sign of the Beaver?

I'm not familiar with All About Reading, but it does have a 4th level. If that's not a good fit for you, then I found that after getting the basics down, focusing on building fluency at the syllable level and loads of easier readers for a concentrated time really helped to develop fluency.

Both the old fashioned Open Court Basic Readers and Ultimate Phonics can be downloaded for free off the internet--I've used them to remediate reading and improve spelling and confidence in my older nephews (11-13 years old) over the summer as an Intensive. It was a big success for them.

There are also programs like REWARDS and MEGAWORDS that are targeted at remediating and improving reading for older students if you want something open and go.

[HomeAgain]

Have you thought about bringing in phonic games for constant review?  I know PhonicBooks has some card games, and Kendore has several.  But I might be more inclined to do something steady like Dancing Bears/Apples & Pears or Phonetic Zoo at the same time.

[Calizzy]

12 hours ago, countrymum said:

Why didn't you do AAR 4? I've used that level 2x and think it's best for 3rd grade or up. My struggling ds did it in like 3rd and I thought it helpful. Then he read Alice and Jerry readers aloud to me and that really helped with fluency. They are vocabulary controlled readers...more interesting than Dick and Jane IMHO. Start with one that he can read fluently then go on as needed. I may try like Friendly Village and Neighbors on the Hill. The controlled vocab that he was totally capable of sounding out really seemed to help. Rainbow resource sells reprints.

My Dd who did AAR 4 in like early 2nd grade whizzing through didn't get as much out of it I don't think. (Incidentally, I really like AAR pre-4. After trying out several other phonics programs, I plan to use AAR several more times;)

Another thing I did was institute a quiet reading time on the summer for like 30 min and provide lots of easy books for the kids to read. Like level 1 and 2 readers that were about stuff they were interested in. Also reading picture books aloud to little siblings helps a ton of he has any to do this with.

After I posted this I thought, “Why don’t I just try level 4?” That makes sense. We do 30 min of quiet reading, but I never thought of making it easier books. That’s a great idea, especially for the summer. Thank you

[Calizzy]

12 hours ago, Nm. said:

All about reading 4.  It is a big step up from all about reading 3.  For fluency I used emerging readers from heart of Dakota, followed by their DITHOR 2 pack, and will just keep going from there.  I get most from the library.  When I tried picking out my own books it was just not gradual enough in difficulty.

Emerging readers

Dithor book packs

If you’ll notice- sign of the beaver is in their 4/5 boy pack.  Starting with the lower level books might boost his confidence and speed up his reading.

These are very helpful, thank you.