1st grade reading

[athena1277]

I still can't figure this out. Dd will finish OPGTTR this summer. She is in K now. I don't know if I'm to brain-washed from my days in ps, but I feel like she needs a reading program for 1st. Like the ones many of us did as kids where you read a story (or an exert from a book) and discuss it, answer questions about it, etc. I know this is part of "language arts", but the LA programs I look at only seem to deal with grammer and writing.

 

Does anyone use are reading program like this? Does it even exist? I am the kind who needs a plan layed out, not just a book list or reading guide. I need something so that I know she is reading enough grade level learning stuff. We will still do the read-alouds and quiet reading times, but I don't feel like that will neccessarily cover everything she needs.

 

Thanks for your input!

[melissel]

Oh brother, I read the question totally wrong the first time. So much for reading comprehension! :lol:

 

I feel the same way you do about this, mainly because I feel like this was sorely lacking in my own education and am striving to correct it. We use Suppose the Wolf Were an Octopus for this (though it's not the book's main goal), and I love it. Five in a Row is also a great tool, depending on what else you might be doing for 1st grade. You could use it just for this purpose, and ignore all the rest of the segments in each unit. There's also the Junior Great Books program (you can order samples for that to see if you like it, but it's pretty pricy).

 

Many would tell you that you don't need to worry about this at her age, which is fine. Some would also say that you could just do it yourself, through natural questions and discussion. You might check out the book Deconstructing Penguins. It's great for walking you through the process of literary analysis and understanding.

 

HTH!

 

Edited to add a little more: The Wolf book (we're using the K-2 version) includes 50 or so books, mostly picture books but increasing ever so slightly in reading level to include some chapter books at the end. Each week we curl up on the couch and read one book twice. On the first day, we read together and I ask her questions from the first three levels, and we have some general discussion. A day or so later, we settle in and read the book again, and then we discuss the questions from the second three levels. This part may also include a project, if I have the time. For example, this week we read the original Babar, and tomorrow we'll read it again. There's a time line project in the next set of questions, and we'll do that as part of it. This is also a good way to sneak schoolwork into bedtime reading :lol: The books are terrific generally (though we're going to pass on the Junie B and Amber Brown options), so I sometimes do read them as bedtime fare, and then we lay in her bed and discuss as needed. She likes it because she gets to stay up a little later, with me all to herself, and I like that it does double duty. This is about as stringent as I'd want a reading comp. and analysis program to be at this age, so it works for us.

Edited February 1, 2009 by melissel

[AnnetteB]

BJU Readers having workbooks to accompany them in the early years. They are colorful and fun. We use them in 2nd through 3rd or 4th grades.

[TN Mama]

We used BJU for Reading this year and my daughter really enjoyed it. I thought some of it was a bit much, but she never complained. I have a daughter who will start 1st next year and am considering using Christian Light for her Reading program.

 

I am thinking of not using a formal Reading program for my 3rd grader next year. I'd like to just read books, but feel like I need some kind of GUIDE to help me. :)

[Mandy in TN]

CLE reading is just such an animal.:D

 

Pathways readers are another.

 

HTH-

Mandy

[Mountain View Academy]

My ds loved R&S reading and workbooks. I used the phonics and reading workbooks. He enjoyed doing the workbooks. He read to me and then had independent study to do the workbook (2 pages each lesson). Really helped me gage what he comprehended and could do on his own.

 

In August 08 he hated reading and was behind and now he's reading Nate the Great, The Boxcar Children and his Bible on his own and loving it.

[amsunshine]

The Wolf book (we're using the K-2 version) includes 50 or so books, mostly picture books but increasing ever so slightly in reading level to include some chapter books at the end.

 

This program intrigues me -- the price is very reasonable. Are you saying that the K-2 book actually includes all of the text of the stories referenced in addition to the questions? That would be really convenient.:)

[tuckabella]

This program intrigues me -- the price is very reasonable. Are you saying that the K-2 book actually includes all of the text of the stories referenced in addition to the questions? That would be really convenient.:)

 

I looked up the book on Amazon and it says that it has 128 pages. I am not sure it could cover all those stories. Maybe, because they're just snippets of the stories, right?

[melissel]

This program intrigues me -- the price is very reasonable. Are you saying that the K-2 book actually includes all of the text of the stories referenced in addition to the questions? That would be really convenient.:)

 

Oh my gosh, I'm so sorry! No, I guess I should have said "covers" 50 or so books. The guide devotes 2 pages to each book, giving the title, author, and synopsis, and then listing the questions you could ask along the taxonomy. It doesn't include any of the text of the picture/chapter books. We happen to own quite a few of them (or have an anthology that includes them), but the rest we just get at the library or through interlibrary loan.

 

Sorry I confused you!

[phathui5]

I really like the Christian Light readers.

 

www.clp.org

[Lovedtodeath]

I am very happy with books from Goodwill that our school system used for reading last year. :) I have first and second grade. (but I had to ask PS people which was which, it doesn't say) McGraw Hill and Houghton Mifflin. I was pleasantly surprised to see entire books inside. Little Bear, etc. along with poems, comprehension questions, discussion, and projects. I couldn't beat the price or the convenience.

[LadyAberlin]

On the PS textbooks, if you type in the ISBN number for the text in google it will pull up the book and tell you what grade it is.

[Beach Mom]

Another option is the Veritas Press First Favorites guides. There are 2 of them that cover 25 books between them. They go in order of difficulty and cover books such as Blueberries for Sal, The Little Engine that Could, Madeline etc. We found them perfect for our early readers and used them after we finished 100 Easy Lessons. If you look on Rainbow Resources you can see the tables of contents and sample pages.

[amsunshine]

Oh my gosh, I'm so sorry! No, I guess I should have said "covers" 50 or so books. The guide devotes 2 pages to each book, giving the title, author, and synopsis, and then listing the questions you could ask along the taxonomy. It doesn't include any of the text of the picture/chapter books. We happen to own quite a few of them (or have an anthology that includes them), but the rest we just get at the library or through interlibrary loan.

 

Oh, bummer! I thought it was too good to be true.:)

 

So, does the guide specify which versions of the fairy tales they recommend, or, for instance, can one read any version of say, Hansel and Gretel, and then use the guide's questions?

 

Thanks!

[melissel]

Oh, bummer! I thought it was too good to be true.:)

 

So, does the guide specify which versions of the fairy tales they recommend, or, for instance, can one read any version of say, Hansel and Gretel, and then use the guide's questions?

 

Thanks!

 

:D Yeah, that kind of deal usually is! The book doesn'ty explicitly say that you need to find those exact versions, but does give you an author's or illustrator's name for each book. For example, the book listed the Marcia Brown versions of Cinderella and The Three Billy Goats Gruff, so I stuck to those, partly because I love her illustrations and partly because I didn't want to have to figure out which questions might not apply. I'm willing to bet that the differences in most classic versions of the fairy tales would be very small, but our interlibrary loan is so good that I just order each subsequent book when I'm ordering all the other books we want each week or two.

 

OK, I just went and got the book and looked again. I don't see any instructions to use the specified versions, but in scanning through the book, I found this for The Three Little Pigs:

 

In Paul Galdone's version of this familiar children's story, the three little pigs are sent away from home to gain independence. The third little pig is finally left alone to outwit and triumph over the wolf.

 

So it does seem like they are aware of differences between some versions and others. For Jack and the Beanstalk, though, there's no author/publisher information listed at all. If you did decide you wanted it, you could probably just preread and determine which questions aren't viable for the version you read.

 

If you're really interested, you could pick a book from the list on the site and let me know, and I could tell you the questions listed for that book, so you can get an idea of how it would work. I hate when you can't see a sample page from a book before you buy it!

 

HTH!

[amsunshine]

If you're really interested, you could pick a book from the list on the site and let me know, and I could tell you the questions listed for that book, so you can get an idea of how it would work. I hate when you can't see a sample page from a book before you buy it!

 

I would really love that! Many thanks! It is really frustrating not being able to see a sample, but this sounds like the perfect program to use for my dds 7 and 5.5 in that it has three different levels of questions. It would be nice to have just one guide to use with both of them -- to save both money and time.

 

I think our library should have books I don't already have, so if you don't mind, could you post, say one question for each level on Cinderella? That should give me a pretty good idea of what the program is like, I think...

 

TIA!

[amsunshine]

melissal:

 

No need to post sample questions:

 

I just found a sample page on Rainbow Resource -- they have sample questions for Hansel and Gretel. This looks perfect for my dc -- thanks so much for the recommendation!

[Ellie]

I still can't figure this out. Dd will finish OPGTTR this summer. She is in K now. I don't know if I'm to brain-washed from my days in ps, but I feel like she needs a reading program for 1st. Like the ones many of us did as kids where you read a story (or an exert from a book) and discuss it, answer questions about it, etc. I know this is part of "language arts", but the LA programs I look at only seem to deal with grammer and writing.

That's 'cuz you are looking at English materials and not reading materials. Such is the problem with using the term "language arts." And yes, you are brainwashed. :D

 

Does anyone use are reading program like this? Does it even exist? I am the kind who needs a plan layed out, not just a book list or reading guide. I need something so that I know she is reading enough grade level learning stuff. We will still do the read-alouds and quiet reading times, but I don't feel like that will neccessarily cover everything she needs.

 

Thanks for your input!

Most traditional school publishers do have readers with accompanying workbooks that do what you're looking for--ABeka, BJUP, Alpha Omega, CLE, Christian Liberty Press, McGuffy, and so on.

 

The way you know if your dd is reading at grade level (or above...above is better) is that she is capable of reading the grade-level books you give her. And narration. Isn't that what narration is about? She reads and then tells you what she reads. Honestly, that's much, much better for her than reading vocabulary-controlled basal readers and answering questions in a workbook...not that readers aren't interesting (some of us will read anything with words and enjoy it, lol), but for true educational purposes, reading good literature that focuses on content is better than reading vocabulary-controlled basal readers.

 

You could also have your dd do the book reports from the Love to Learn Place.

[melissel]

melissal:

 

No need to post sample questions:

 

I just found a sample page on Rainbow Resource -- they have sample questions for Hansel and Gretel. This looks perfect for my dc -- thanks so much for the recommendation!

 

Oh terrific! I always forget about RR for books--I'm so used to checking Amazon for everything. I hope it works for you. We've enjoyed it, and it's just the right level for us. My DD6 has been reading fluently since she was four, so I'm lucky that I don't need to focus on reading level so much anymore. I'm free to focus on higher level comprehension and analysis (such as it is at age 6 :D).

 

Good luck!

[Haiku]

Can I be the voice of dissent and say that you really don't need a reading curriculum? If you read with your first grader, you will know whether he/she understands what is being read. It's not difficult to come up with "comprehension questions," if you feel the need for that, but my feeling has always been that narration is the way to check comprehension. TWTM and CM have different ideas about narration; TWTM's is for identifying main points, while CM's is for completeness. I use TWTM-style narrations for history and science, but for lit (which means whatever book we happen to be reading) I use CM-style narrations.

 

Imo, reading curriculums are for schools, where you have 20 kids and the teacher can't read with them all. In a homeschool environment, it seems much more likely that a parent is going to have a good idea about a child's comprehension.

 

Tara

[amsunshine]

Can I be the voice of dissent and say that you really don't need a reading curriculum? If you read with your first grader, you will know whether he/she understands what is being read. It's not difficult to come up with "comprehension questions," if you feel the need for that, but my feeling has always been that narration is the way to check comprehension. TWTM and CM have different ideas about narration; TWTM's is for identifying main points, while CM's is for completeness. I use TWTM-style narrations for history and science, but for lit (which means whatever book we happen to be reading) I use CM-style narrations.

 

Imo, reading curriculums are for schools, where you have 20 kids and the teacher can't read with them all. In a homeschool environment, it seems much more likely that a parent is going to have a good idea about a child's comprehension.

 

Interesting point. Maybe I'm obsessing too much about depth of understanding? My older dd already does WWE1 and my younger will start this summer. I suppose, though, that I've had this nagging feeling that the questions were not probing enough -- more of regurgitation of facts than thinking a little deeper about content. Am I overthinking this for grammar stage?

[Lovedtodeath]

Interesting point. Maybe I'm obsessing too much about depth of understanding? My older dd already does WWE1 and my younger will start this summer. I suppose, though, that I've had this nagging feeling that the questions were not probing enough -- more of regurgitation of facts than thinking a little deeper about content. Am I overthinking this for grammar stage?

Yes. Have child read a book. Ask child, what did you read about? They remember something... anything and you are satisfied that they actually read it, then great.

 

Matter of fact in WWE 1 the child is only to remember one thing about the story. In WWE 2 they are to start learning how to pick out the main points. I think that the main text is good for us as teachers to know what to expect of our children at what stages. I was using the workbook for WWE 1 and trying to get DD to pick out the main point. I pulled out the text for WWE and found that I should in no way be expecting that from her at this point.

 

HTH some.

 

P.S. What I failed to mention is that when DD uses the PS reading book, all she does is read the story and then we talk about it. Unless she gets really interested in a story about bats and wants to make one out of cardboard and tissue paper, I don't use the questions and etc. ;)

[Haiku]

the questions were not probing enough -- more of regurgitation of facts than thinking a little deeper about content. Am I overthinking this for grammar stage?

 

I'd say yes, because the grammar stage is basically about foundations and facts. I don't worry too much about my kids getting into deeper meanings in the things that they are reading, but I do find that in history they do make all sorts of connections, such as "It seems like every civilization starts small, gets big, and then falls apart."

 

I remember in school I had to do comprehension worksheets about snippets of books presented in a reader. I hated it and felt like it was the worst sort of busywork. Perhaps for a child who is really struggling with reading comprehension they would be beneficial, but other than that, reading curricula and comprehension sheets don't seem necessary in a homeschool environment.

 

Tara

[Annabel Lee]

An idea... You could read the entire books that WWE takes snippets from. That way the kiddos are writing about something they're reading too. One whole book would obviously take longer than would be spent on it in WWE (usually 1 week), but it's an idea.

 

Another idea... What I do is just make up my own list for my kid's reading lit. I get ideas from Veritas Press, AO, WP, TWTM, Sonlight, etc. and I pick and choose what I like from each for my kid's reading levels and make up my own list. I've used the VP workbooks and they're good for teaching a kid to find particular things in a book, that is, how to look for them. They're pretty much just Q & A workbooks with lines for student writing. There are some lit.-related crossword puzzles, recipes, coloring pages, etc. in the 1st and 2nd grade levels. We used just the first bit of one and shelved them. We just do oral Q & A and when I think of a cool project/recipe/etc. that goes with schoo, we do it. But I homeschool by the seat of my pants... :)