Helping a struggling reader

[Phoebe]

I am posting on the fly, but I wanted to respond quickly. Plus, I am not a teacher or a mother of a kindergartener (yet). But, I think kid's learn at their own pace. I know several kids who didn't pick up reading very well in kindergarten and improved by leaps and bounds through first grade and came out at the top of their class.

I suggest doing what you are doing and encourage it, but not pressure Ben. It may turn him off even more. Maybe set up a little rewards system?

He is a smart kid and will get it!

Jennifer

[Phoebe]

ps. Try http://www.starfall.com

[PrincessFiona]

ITA with what has been said already.

Amanda wasn't even interested in the actual letters by the end of Kindergarten She was even placed in summer school and there was a discussion about letting her move on to first grade.

Within weeks of starting first grade, she went from telling me that a p was the number 3 to reading...and now she is in the 5th grade and was recently tested as reading at the 8th grade level.

It all evens itself out.

Kris

[ellie]

Laura -

Some ideas off the top of my head...

Scholastic "Bob" books and the Wright Group have excellent little phonics books for young readers.

There is also a phonics program called, "The Reading Lesson," that I've used very successfully in the classroom too... http://www.readinglesson.com You can download sample pages from their website to see if your son likes them. The accompanying CD-ROM is also done very well.

My favorite phonics flashcards for blending are from the McClanahan Book Company. The word is broken up into two parts, and when the two parts are blended together, the accompanying picture for the word is on the back.

Games can make the process a lot more fun..."sight word" bingo, where the bingo spaces are sight words instead of numbers or pictures, dice or spinner games with sight words...

Environmental print -- look and talk about words/print around the house and outside... for example, restaurant signs, billboards, cereal boxes, labels at the grocery store...you can play "I Spy" with those words...

The best thing is to read, read, read to your son -- which you're already doing. Reading is one of those skills that clicks for some kids later than others.

Those are some of the things I can think of right now. I'll try to post more later. If you'd like, I can send you some copies of the games and ideas that I have. Just send me a pm.

We have really enjoyed the Wright Group books too. It is so hard to find early reading level appropriate books that aren't booooring.

I agree with what everyone has said so far. Bryn came out of kindergarten just barely meeting the benchmarks (that list of words, I think?). She has just taken off over first grade. I think that was the right time for her.

To make up for some of those un-interesting stories, I read "chapter books" to her every night. Maybe Kelly can suggest some titles more interesting for boys. We read Because of Winn-Dixie, Charlotte's Webb, Tales of Despereaux (boys might like that), little house on the prairie books, etc. We kept up some reading over the summer but it was pretty low-key. She can be pretty stubborn and so I didn't want to make a big deal of it and her dig her heels in and not want to read.

We've had very similar problems this year w/Jacob. At the half-way year point he was only on level 2 in the "baggie books", and most of the class was at level 4, and a few were up at 12,13, 14! He only knew 17 of his 50 sight words ... I was frustrated. I've always been such a voracious reader that I kind of assumed this would come naturally and I was really shocked. So, I bribed him. I paid him to learn his sight words, and he did - quickly. The idea of earning a $ award thrilled him (my little capitalist). He's on level 5 now of the baggie books. He still has to push through w/phonics - a lot - but it's clear he's made good progress and is on the right path.

She can be pretty stubborn and so I didn't want to make a big deal of it and her dig her heels in and not want to read.

ITA w/this. And sadly, until I took the different approach after conferences, this is where we were.

I also agree w/Tara. I might try a book a week or something, with a reward to the "fun pool" (the one w/the slide) -- but nothing heavy during the summer.

[Rapunzel]

He may just not be ready to read.

There is no set age by which a child "MUST" be reading X material. Yes, they say that for public school - but that is because they have to, well, average things because they have so many children to deal with at once.

My five year old will be entering kindergarten next year. She has told me point-blank recently that she doesn't want to learn to read. She wants to be read TO - just not do it herself.

That was hard for me to hear - my first impulse was that she WILL learn to read, darn it!

And, then I calmed down and really thought about it. Of course she will learn to read - when she is ready. So, I have backed off. We read together. She asks me how to spell things and I help her. We sometimes work on phonics casually.

But, I'm going to have to be less intense with this one - she is going to go at her own pace and if I start imposing my will on this one she's going to hate reading.

Now, what has really helped me be more relaxed in this attitude is the realization, after teaching three of my children to read proficiently, that she WILL learn to read. She WILL. If I compare her to her siblings I would despair. But, she's not them. And, so I don't compare anymore.

The other thing that has helped me is that I actually know several individuals who did not learn to read until they were over the age of ten - and all are in college today (one is at Hahvahd, actually).

When your child really starts to "get" reading does NOT reflect on his intelligence - at all. Some of the most intelligent people in the world just haven't learned to read at the age of five or six.

I won't tell you what I think YOU should do over the summer but I will tell you what I will be doing with this reluctant reader:

-reading to her whenever she wants - literally drop everything and read
-read to her at the LEVEL she wants - if that means we're reading chapter books then so be it
-encourage her spontaneous language pursuits (such as this sudden impulse to want to make her own signs - and she wants help spelling out the words)
-casually play phonics games (such as "Let's find all of the words that start with the letter "H".)

And, most of all, I'm backing off.

Now, when my daughter DOES decide to tentatively start to read I do have a very good, incremental reading program that worked well for her older siblings (the Wright Group Wright Skills program). I listed it with the link in my blog here. But, there again, I've known children who have just started reading spontaneously at, say, the age of eight - and they start on reading Harry Potter - not phonics books!

I think it is a good thing the teacher is not pushing your son. So far it sounds like he does enjoy reading - and that is a very good thing.

My five year old will be entering kindergarten next year. She has told me point-blank recently that she doesn't want to learn to read. She wants to be read TO - just not do it herself.

we had a similar conversation. "Jacob - aren't you excited about learning to read stories all by yourself?" reply "No. I like it when you read to me, mama."

Of course we sat down and read right then! I honestly think once he realized that his ability wouldn't make me say "no more from me!" he opened up to it more. The money helped, too. FTR: it was $5 for all 50 sight words. I didn't take out a loan or anything.

A couple more considerations:

Ditch the flash cards. If Ben sees reading as pointless, flash cards will only reinforce that notion.

There's a program called "Read Naturally" that I loved using in my classroom. It's a bit expensive, but the idea can be recreated at home. Its premise is this:

The child listens to a non-fiction story on cd that is slightly above his own independent reading level. After repeated readings of the story (which he silently tracks with his finger) he is then usually able to read the story independently. The motivation kicks in because he gets to graph his success. After a 1-minute timed reading, the child gets to graph how many words he read by himself. If he listens to the story again a few more times, he can usually improve his fluency rate during a second timed reading and color in an even TALLER bar graph line next to the first one (my students were usually salivating at this point).

One last seemingly worthless suggestion when you're looking for that magical wand but worth mentioning:

Let him see you reading (newspapers, books, recipes, billboards...)
Also, put your reasons for reading into words; think out loud.

"If it rains today we won't be able to got the park. I'm going to read the weather report in the newspaper."

"I need to read this recipe so I don't forget any ingredients to make cookies"

"I'm laughing at one of the characters in my book because..."

You'll feel like a dork but hey, parenting is a humbling experience all the way around.

Jodi

[PrincessFiona]

Wow, Jodi...great suggestions!

kris

[Flynn]

Wow, Jodi...great suggestions!

kris

Awesome suggestions Jodi!!!!!

[houseelf]

Kelly can suggest some titles more interesting for boys.

I learned about the necessity of providing ample "boy" topics the hard way. DS was my first born and I wanted him to be "classically educated". In retrospect, attempting to get him to read titles like Black Beauty and the like were kind of ridiculous.

Now, I'm all about reading whatever violent, lame piece of crap that will actually prompt him to pick up a book and read. Seriously, we have the novelization of Batman, Spiderman, What is a Wookie?, TMNT, Starwars, Captain Underpants, etc. I think that I have too much estrogen to understand the finer redeeming points of this stuff.

Now I'm getting him interested in "non-fiction" books like "Aliens and UFOs" or "Bigfoot-Is he real?". With these titles, I'm pretty sure that Harvard may be out.

Even though he is a very proficient reader now, he still prefers me reading to him. If I read, I do try to make it something I can stomach. I started with Harry Potter. At the beginning, I simply made him read only the most basic words to give him confidence: The, Ron, Elf, etc. Eventually as his skills improved, I'd get to half way through an exciting chapter and realize, "Oh, dinner needs to be made!" and he'd try to work out the ending for himself.

My biggest challenge now is getting him to choose reading (as opposed to me "suggesting" reading) as an activity. I *hate* to admit it, but the only success that I've had with getting him to choose reading is to severely limit his screen time (games or tv or computer).

Best of luck, I know (from a completely different standpoint) how scary it can be when a professional says, "you're kid is outside the normal range that we expect for such an age". Ah, parenting, not for the faint of heart.

Kelly

Re: Helping a struggling reader

Ben, my kindergartener is wrapping up the school year. I have not been impressed with his reading progress. He can use phonics, but struggles with it more than he should, imo. We have been working on a sight word list for a few months and he still has difficulty with about 25% of the words. I am not sure what to do. I seriously read, and have read, to my kids since I brought them home from the hospital, but he has no love of reading and he is quick to tell you that. He occasionally shows a flicker of interest, which I try to encourage along.

I spoke to his teacher this morning, she was not much help. She just finished assessments and says Ben is just right under the class average. "No big deal" - to her anyway.

We have worked with flash cards, supplemental work books, etc. We go to the library and browse thru the early readers - but he is not interested in "baby" books.

Any suggestions for things I could do over the summer to help the guy out?

Laura (SnowWhite), I thought of something else to try.

The Language Theory Approach is used for beginning readers. The theory behind it is that Ben would dictate a story to you, and you would write it down verbatim; exactly as he says it, grammatical errors and all. (You're using his language, and it will be easier for him to read it if it's in his own language). Then you both read the story together until he's able to read it independently. (It's always motivating and fun to bind the stories in a creative way as well.)

Another idea: because it's sometimes easier for kids to write than it is to read, you could encourage him to sound out the words in his own stories. I did this today for the first time with my 3-year olds and they actually did very well. The kicker is that they didn't write anything; they stamped it. I bought alphabet stamps and they were excited to figure out the sounds so they could stamp out a letter to their Grammy. I was surprised at how well it worked.

Here are a couple resources that sell alphabet stamps. I just bought new ones from the Yellow Bus, they are dotted so eventually Ryan & Kyle can trace over the dots and practice their handwriting after they've stamped out the words. Plus they include 8 punctuation stamps... Does anything in life get any more exciting than that?!?!

http://backtobasicsandyellowbus.com/

http://www.lakeshorelearning.com/

Good luck this summer. Have fun!