4Real Forums: Sight Reading

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Topic: Sight Reading

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JodieLyn
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Posted: Sept 07 2006 at 12:25am \| IP Logged

Does anyone have suggestions for teaching sight reading? Phonics simply do not work for my 9 year old. I developed our own system that worked to get her reading.. but now that she's reading at about a second grade level I'm a bit lost on what to do next. how to help her move along, and we need something to work on writing/spelling because she also can't break a word down phonetically to figure out how to spell it.

She does know a tiny bit.. letter sounds mainly but can't consistently combine them. We don't give it up altogether but I saw no reason in frustrating both of us to tears because it wasn't working in her head.. and went to a flash card, try once to sound it out then I'd say the word and then she'd say the word type of system.

And so she's now reading on her own. Something she's heard and knows well though not memorized she can even read outloud with some emotion (we shared reading How the Grinch Stole Christmas the other day)

She loves to read so it's not a question of motivation but rather one of direction for me to help her to continue to improve without jumping levels too much and having her guessing rather than knowing the words.

Thanks for any help,

Jodie - mom of 6, soon to be 7

JennyMaine
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Posted: Sept 08 2006 at 6:22am \| IP Logged

It sounds like you're doing great with her. When my daughter was struggling, we put a lot of emphasis on sight words but simultaneously worked on phonics with Explode the Code workbooks.

How many sight words does she know? You might do a Google search for lists of sight words. We have a list of 600, and worked on memorizing all. It's spelling the sight words that are a real challenge for her.

What about using Spelling Workout for spelling? Because it teaches the phonics rules, it might work well for her. Also, I believe the tm for it lists corresponding pages in the MCP Plaid Phonics workbooks (if you want to go that route).

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--JennyMaine, Mom to Catherine (17) and Sam (15) "The countenance is a reflection of the soul. You should always have a calm and serene countenance." -- Therese of Lisieux

JodieLyn
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Posted: Sept 08 2006 at 10:34am \| IP Logged

Thanks Jenny.. we've been using the Dolch sight word list.. which includes words that are so common that you want to know them "by sight". I made our own flash cards and we used the little "bob books" and I'd put all the words from those on flash cards.. and we'd put other things she wanted to be able to use.. like cooking abbreviations. So she can read most standard recipes, and is reading at a pretty solid 2nd grade level. And above that.. she's a child that can read some words that would be like 5th grade + but then turn around and can't figure out a beginning phonics word.

She will read her American Girl books for fun.. but when reading them out loud she does stumble over words quite a bit still.

That's why I would like to get her something to help us move forward somewhat by level.. so she's getting practise at the lower levels without jumping around too much. Which I'm afraid we tend to do when we're just picking out books to read.

oh and she's moving along with speed.. this time last year she was hardly reading.. and now she's reading at a 2nd-3rd grade level, starting into 4th grade. I figure she'll be at or above her grade level within a year or two. She just loves to read.

I'll check out "spelling workout" thanks.

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JennyMaine
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Posted: Sept 25 2006 at 5:10am \| IP Logged

Mega Words might be another good choice for her, published by EPS. It thoroughly covers syllabication, gets into marking short and long sounds, root words, etc. Affordable, too. It's for fourth grade and up, but I think could easily be done with a third grader. The workbooks cover spelling, reading, phonics, and vocabulary so it really helps simplify things for mom!

I think you've done the right thing with her. Getting those sight words memorized and turning her on to reading is the most important thing. Now she just needs a knowledge base for attacking the longer, unfamiliar words she'll encounter in her reading. Keep up the good work!

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--JennyMaine, Mom to Catherine (17) and Sam (15) "The countenance is a reflection of the soul. You should always have a calm and serene countenance." -- Therese of Lisieux

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