WWYD? Reading question

[springmama]

DD just turned 6 this month and we've been slowly working through OPGTR and have just finished the section that teaches basic blends like nt, st, xt, nk, etc......She is able to read these words, but she still takes her time sounding out all of the words she can read, even basic 2 letter words like in, is, on, etc.

 

I know she will get it, but I just don't know how to proceed from here. When we do each lesson she seems to get it and understand the lesson, but if she's not reading anything fluently yet, then part of me thinks we should take a break and keep reviewing what we have learned so far until she can easily read at least some words before moving on to more complicated phonics rules.

 

If this were your daughter, would you stop now and practice what she already knows for a month or two or would you keep going with the lessons?

[TxMama]

I've been working with these same very issues with my 6yos. What has worked for us is to stop and work on speed and fluency by reviewing what he has learned. I have also made it a point to move through the remaining lessons slowly.

 

Learning to read isn't a race! ( that reminder is for me:lol:)

 

I wrote out the stories from 100 EZ lessons and created a little reader that I have him read from several times a day. It has been a real confidence builder for him! I had thought that he could decorate it but he thought that was "girly". I'm not familiar with OPG but if there are stories or sentences with the lessons would creating a reader just for her be helpful?

[Alice]

I've only taught one kid to read and I'm still working on that so take what I say with a grain of salt. :)

 

I think the fluency is something that just clicks. My son was similar in that he would get the lessons but would sound out everything for a long time. The ability to blend and read fluently I think takes time and somewhat just takes part of their brain being ready.

 

What we did/do that seemed to work: I kept going with the lessons although we go pretty slowly. I often split one OPGTR lesson into several days. I have him read every day a book that I know is mostly words he knows well. So when we were working on blends, I had him reading the first Bob books. Now that we are farther ahead he is reading the Early Readers from the library but on a level that is below where we are in OPGTR. I think the practice has helped him get with the fluency.

 

I also made up a game that he liked a lot...we called it the Fast Game. I printed lots of words on cards. At first it was just CVC words (cat, bat, sat, sun, etc). Then I would show them to him and we would see how many he could read in a minute. If he beat his record he got a prize (something really small...like I would let him put on a temporary tattoo). We didn't play this everyday but maybe a few times a week. He LOVED it as it appealed to his competitive nature. He would still sound out the words at first but he started to get that if he didn't it was faster. As he got better, I added harder words.

 

Another game he liked a lot that I got from Peggy Kaye's Games for Reading book is called Zip/Unzip. This one helps even more with fluency. Same stack of cards as before. But you only hold up the card for a second. Then they have to tell you what it said. So it builds speed and fluency. With this one I would pick out 15-20 cards and make sure 3/4 of them were easy and there were a few hard ones. The goal isn't to get them all but to see how many you Zip (get them right). He liked seeing if he could Zip more than he Unzipped (got wrong).

 

All those things helped and were fun for us. But I do think there was also something developmental about it. At some point I could see that he just stopped saying c-a-t..cat and started just seeing the word and saying cat.

[ElizabethB]

Here's a fun game to supplement with:

 

http://www.thephonicspage.org/On%20Phonics/concentrationgam.html

 

You do need a lot of practice before it becomes automatic. You could also supplement with another program, Blend Phonics is free online at Don Potter's Page, the Blend Phonics Reader has nice big print and is easy to work through for more practice.

 

http://www.donpotter.net/education_pages/blend_phonics.html

 

I also found with my daughter that spelling the words as she was learning to read them really helped cement the sounds of the words in her brain. We also really enjoyed working through Webster's Speller on the white board, you can read about that in the link below and this thread:

 

http://www.welltrainedmind.com/forums/showthread.php?t=70153

 

Games with magnetic letters are also fun, I have suggestions for how to use them at the end of my page about teaching a beginning student to read:

 

http://www.thephonicspage.org/On%20Reading/newstudents.html

 

I would keep going with OPG, but add in daily review. You could do a bit less with OPG to give more time for review. Or, with the fun games, your daughter may beg to spend more time playing them!

 

Another thing that was fun for my daughter, but a bit expensive, is Read, Write, Type. You can download a free demo to see if you think it's worth the money:

 

http://www.talkingfingers.com/

Edited March 24, 2009 by ElizabethB

[Caroline4kids]

I have just finished getting my third boy to reading fluency stage and I have to say that following their lead has been the biggest lesson I have learned. Pushing can be a lot of stress on a little person. They all had blending become easier at different ages. One of my boys read wonderfully at five and another was nine before he could read anything on his own.

 

If it were me I would just slow down and read lots of story books. I nearly killed my eldest child's love of reading by moving at the pace I knew he could handle, but didn't appreciate.

[Lovedtodeath]

When we do each lesson she seems to get it and understand the lesson, but if she's not reading anything fluently yet, then part of me thinks we should take a break and keep reviewing what we have learned so far until she can easily read at least some words before moving on to more complicated phonics rules.

 

If this were your daughter, would you stop now and practice what she already knows for a month or two or would you keep going with the lessons?

 

We kept going. I threw all the rules at her faster than we could get through the OPG lessons. She is reading at 5th grade level now because when it clicked, boy did it click! If she remembers the sounds, don't stop. That's my opinion.

 

To help her with fluency, you might do a lot of reading aloud and taking turns, especially of poetry.