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Advice on When to Stop Formal Reading Lessons
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My daughter, Lottie, is 6.5 and we’ve been working our way through Delightful Reading with a solid half left. We had switched over from All About Reading, beginning of level 2. Over the month of December I put away most school work, and we focus on Christmas stuff, but used the Pathway Readers to keep up with things on a more informal basis. She was enjoying this so much, I thought I’d just get her to finish out the grade 1 level ones for fun before we start back up with DR. She’ll be done them tomorrow and I already have the grade 2 ones. My question is, is that really necessary to go back to DR (we’ve enjoyed it, so I’m not eager to get out of it)? If she’s reading progressively more challenging stuff everyday, is there a reason to continue with formal lessons? I always get her to read out loud, right beside me, so that we can go over stuff as needed. I’m happy to continue with DR, but I’m also happy to not have another subject where I have to pull out a bunch of small pieces while trying to keep my little guys out of the letter tiles…
Would love any advice on when you all stopped formal reading lessons. Thank you kindly,
Rachel
I stopped reading instruction when my daughter was able to read easy reader-type books. We just practiced reading together every day after that. It worked well for us. 🙂
I recommend fully covering phonics and syllabication. I stopped formal lessons with dd14 and ds11 when they were reading easy readers. What I found was they managed that just fine. Several years later, they had issues attacking multi-syllable words. We are doing some remedial phonics/reading instruction beginning next week. I don’t expect it to take a lot of work as both kids read well above grade level, but they need the tools to deal with longer unknown words. I also recommend that you have kids continue to read aloud to you long past when you think it necessary.
Christie, I’d love to know what you’re going to use in the way of a resource for the remedial reading/phonics that you’re planning with your two eldest. I’m in the same situation here – my two DS (almost 12 and 10.5) – are both reading well above grade level but struggle with unknown (and especially multi-syllable) words. Would you mind sharing a few details about how you plan to tackle this? Many thanks, Angie
Angelina, I taught ds11 and dd14 to read using intensive phonics and rules (SWR), but simply stopped too soon. We stopped because the lessons just took too long each day and they were each reading very well. At this point, I have 4 kids – dd14, ds11, dd7, and ds5. I can’t spend massive amounts of time on reading for each of them. (dd7 taught herself at 4 and figures out all words easily.) I have just signed up for a trial through Reading Horizons online. We have not used it yet, but my plan is to use it for 30-45 minutes per day at least 4 days per week. I am hopeful that it fills in the gaps that were left for us when we stopped SWR.
Christie, thank you for your response. The situation with my children is much the same – perhaps I’ll look into the online trial with Reading Horizons that you mention.
To the OP – like others, we stopped formal reading instruction (via phonics) when my boys were around grade 3 level. I continued to have them read orally to me from graded readers, approx. 3x per week, for about another year. After this, it seemed reassuring that they were consistently reading above grade level and so, when life got busy with my youngest two, the oral reading with my older boys was the first thing cut from the schedule. I regret it now.
Back to your main question – perhaps you would be okay to stop reading “lessons” via a curriculum, but like Christie, I would recommend you keep going with daily oral reading (and stay strongly committed to it) until your children are well into sixth or even seventh grade reading level (or until you are seeing clear evidence that they have NO problem with complex, unknown, multi-syllable words). The other advice I can give you is to really encourage your children not to shy away from coming to you when they are reading (whether for pleasure or school) and face an unknown word. Let them know that you will help them (quickly and painlessly) to figure out a word they don’t know. I made this kind of “helping my kids” a bit too painful, lol, and they quickly became word skippers….that is not a problem you want.
HTH some. Angie
Thank you ladies for the advice! I likely will continue with DR, because we’ve enjoyed it, but it’s good to hear recommendations on how long to read out loud for.
Take care,
Rachel
I am in the same boat with my 10 y/o. She was much happier when I dropped the aloud reading, and I instead had her narrate what she was reading quietly. Most recently, I had her start reading a book and found that there are a number of words that she would gloss over b/c she could not read them. Not only were they difficult to read, but they were not part of her vocabulary. So, for now, we will finish the book, but we are taking turns reading so that she still gets the practice reading but it is not quite so daunting for her, and she can learn some new words too. I really want to finish the book with her b/c it is a good one. After we finish it we will go back to Pathway Readers.
Christy, please report back about how the phonics curriculum is going. I feel like this is where my daughter struggles. My (almost) 8 y/o taught himself to read at age 3. He was sounding out CVC words which blew me away. He is also a natural speller b/c he is so good with phonics. While my daughter is a good reader, she struggles with new words b/c of her lack of phonics.Having a 10 yr old, I totally agree with missceegee about the syllabication need. My son reads great to himself but would rather skip words than take the time to sound them out. I didn’t teach phonics rules but now wish I had. We used a CM style plan by Jennifer for my now 6yr old which was great but didn’t teach him how to read longer words. He is reading easy readers but I really think he could benefit from more phonic instruction. Im getting Reading Lessons Through Literature by Kathy DeVore which is CM style to further assist him with that.
Thanks, Rachel, for posting this, because I have been wondering the same thing. My 7 year old has only been reading the Pathway Readers and easy readers lately, but I’m wondering if I stopped phonics lessons too early. I think he might enjoy if we go back to reading lessons (same as Delightful Reading, I just made up my own).
Christie and Angie, I appreciate the advice about keeping up having emerging readers continue reading aloud for several years. We’ll keep on keeping on!
I am glad to have read this as well. I have a 7 year old who has just started taking off in his reading. We started out using Phonics Road to Reading and Spelling when he was five before I learned about CM. He was frustrated and just wanted to read. It was hard for me to stick with Phonics Road because it was overwhelming (we had three other younger boys). We switched to Phonics a Pathways, have done some AAS, and finally switched to Pathway Readers. However, I see that there are a lot of things he learned from Phonics Road and even though he wasn’t “reading” many of the things we did have stuck with him. Now that he is reading, I see him struggling with more difficult words and he is guessing a lot, and it is easy for him to get the words right in Pathway Readers, but if he switches to other books, it is harder for him. So, I am trying to decide the best path. Delightful Reading? Go back to a more intense Phonics Program now that he is older, I am more comfortable adjusting curriculum, and he feels like he is progressing in reading. What would you veterans suggest? Would you have stuck with SWR, Missceegee? Do you have any other advice? Anyone else able to weigh in? Phobo, are you enjoying DR after AAR? Have any advice about that? I will also be teaching my soon to be six year old as well. Then we have two more boys ages 3,1 and a baby girl due in May. Time is limited, but I want him to be comfortable and do well reading
After becoming a stronger reader what about addressing phonics in spelling? My DD is using Spelling Wisdom this year (3td grade). On the first day I review it with her (after she copied the selection) and we mark phonograms.
I tried SWR and RLTL that were heavy phonics, but memorizing just to memorize was not “sticking”. Words, just words, not in context were frustrating her. I saw similar with my ODS. (Should add it could have been me that struggled too, phonics and I never “clicked” and being homeschooled growing up my mom had to think outside the box for me 🙂 )
MY ODS is doing Spelling U See (1st grade) so he is getting the phonics in context of copy work and writing spelling words, and it has really improved his ability to decode words in reading.
Sarah2106- thank you!! That is exactly what I was thinking of doing. You have been so helpful with the Spelling You See post I made as well. I really appreciate It!
Lindykay99, we LOVE Delightful Reading after switching from AAR. AAR was fine, but I had to switch so much to have it not be intense and overwhelming. It is so expensive that I found by the time I had changed as much as I had I wasn’t sure what I was paying for any longer. Now DR has been as advertised – delightful! I would be lying though if I did not admit to still having some fears that we aren’t covering the “rules” enough.
I think I plan to go start up DR again, and if in the future I see her stumbling over the larger words, adding in some more rule-based lessons as needed.
I greatly appreciate everyone’s advice!
Rachel
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