Phonics Pathways...where to start...

[Tree House Academy]

I received Phonics Pathways recently for my 5 year old and I am having a tough time determining where to start him. Currently, he is reading sentences really well - and has just finished learning long vowel sounds, double consonant sounds, and is beginning to learn about consonant diagraphs (starting with sh). He does really well and I want to supplement ETC with PP since we are stopping LLATL once he finished Blue.

 

My issue is that I have no idea where to place him. I looked through the book and he would star on pg. 68 with the "y" suffix if we started where he is right now. However...he did not learn to read the PP way. He does sometimes still sound out words letter by letter (even though he will often recognize the ending and say it as a whole). PP teaches them to memorize and become fluent with all the consonants with a vowel next to it (i.e. ca, ce, co, ci). Then, they add another letter and may 3 letter basic words. It recommends fluency with all of those words before moving on...but ds KNOWS most of those words. However, when he does come to one he doesn't know right off, he will sound it out letter by letter. Can I just go ahead and start him where he is or should I really go all the way back and try to have him re-learn blending in a different way?

 

I have a call in to the author of the book (the publisher told me to call her directly with my question :001_huh:) and will definitely let you all know if/when I hear back from her.

 

But...in the meantime...what says the hive?

[LoveBaby]

:lurk5:

[dangermom]

I would probably start at the beginning and move quickly through; if he can already do most of it, then you can just zip through and make sure, pausing to learn the bits he doesn't know yet.

[sassenach]

On page 73 there is a list of nonsense words. If he can say (most of) these without having to sound out each letter, I'd probably move forward from there. If he is significantly slower on those words, I'd probably back up. Maybe focussing more on the 2 letter sounds than the 3 letter words. Once he's quick at those 2 letter combos, then I'd move through the 3-4 letter words at a steady clip. hth,

[jenL]

DS was reading sentences when we began PP too, but just to make sure I started him at the beginning (not the letter sounds, but 3 letter words). We moved through it quickly and it gave him extra confidence.

[Tree House Academy]

He is not having trouble with the letter sounds, but he will still break each letter into sounds to blend most of the time (if he doesn't know the word).

 

I think going back to the two letter combos and cementing those for him is the place to start. Once he has those, the three and four letter words are a piece of cake. He already knows a lot of them just because he reads them regularly. I just want to make sure he knows everything he needs to know before moving on. PP looks like a great program and I want us to get ALL of the benefits of using it.

 

Thanks for all your replies. :)

[Hillary in KS]

I've used Phonics Pathways with 3 children, but I've never understood that they're supposed to memorize the consonant-vowel combination and then add subsequent letters. Maybe I just didn't read closely enough? We've never done memorization as part of PP, and all 3 kids are advanced readers.

 

All those pages and pages of CA CA-T CAT,, RA RA-T RAT were, in my thinking, just teaching them how to break down the words. Or showing the reader how familiar sounds build upon each other to form words. Not encouraging memorization. If he doesn't have those words memorized, that's fine. He can decode them and blend the sounds, which was the point of those pages.

 

I don't think you need to go back and start over.

 

Start him where he's at. If he has to sound out unfamiliar words, that's fine. He's doing what he's supposed to. Eventually he will not need to sound out words quite so much. But for a 5 year old, he's doing fine.

 

We always did a page a day in PP. If one of the children had a hard time on a particular concept, we might camp on that page for a day or two. But there's no need to repeat material until he memorizes it. As long as he understands the new concept taught (oi says "Oy", etc.) you can move on.

[Tree House Academy]

That makes me feel better about starting in the middle, if this is true. I just found a lot that said, "do not sound these out letter by letter" and so on, so I assumed they were supposed to memorize those initial short vowel consonant blends. I mean, I can see how that could make reading easier, but I hate to go backwards when he does know those words and can sound them out. He gets frustrated repeating things.

[ElizabethB]

On page 73 there is a list of nonsense words. If he can say (most of) these without having to sound out each letter, I'd probably move forward from there. If he is significantly slower on those words, I'd probably back up. Maybe focussing more on the 2 letter sounds than the 3 letter words. Once he's quick at those 2 letter combos, then I'd move through the 3-4 letter words at a steady clip. hth,

:iagree:

 

I'm a big fan of nonsense words, that sounds like great advice!

 

I've never read the manual closely, but I from what I've seen of other programs that do things the same way, that's just to help them learn to blend from left to right as they're beginning, it's much easier for a young child to focus on 2 letters than 3, by the third they've forgotten the first 2!

[LanaTron]

You're right--it's not about memorization, but about left-right eye tracking and blending.

[Tree House Academy]

I went with my gut and we started with the -Y suffix today. It went GREAT! :) Thanks everyone for the advice. Ds is quite a good reader already - I just needed to get the rules of phonics nailed down for him and let him go at his pace. We are using ETC, but it is just going so painfully SLOW. Now, he can get to reading more stuff and use ETC for review and practice. :)

[JudoMom]

I went with my gut and we started with the -Y suffix today. It went GREAT! :) Thanks everyone for the advice. Ds is quite a good reader already - I just needed to get the rules of phonics nailed down for him and let him go at his pace. We are using ETC, but it is just going so painfully SLOW. Now, he can get to reading more stuff and use ETC for review and practice. :)

 

Yay! I was going to say the same thing Hillary said, but I won't since you went ahead and started him in the middle :001_smile:.