Tips for Using Word Cards in Reading Instruction

1) Don’t use word cards with words the student has never encountered. Word cards are for practicing words used in instruction, not for long lists of words never encountered before.

2) Create word cards with words from a reader or book that your student is working through with you right now. Reading words in context (with pictures, sentence rhythm, etc.) is easier than isolated words. I like to be sure my student knows the words out of context. You can test to see if the word needs added to your word card stack by writing the word on the board. If there is instant recognition, then it probably doesn’t need to go on a card. If there is guessing or cues needed, then it could go in the word card stack.

CLICK TO WATCH!

3) Once many words are added to your stack of cards, divide them into difficulty level so that the student has a pretty successful pack; a needs some help pack; etc. And don’t do all of them at once—this will be too many word cards at once and can get discouraging.

4) Add words from one family all to the same stack. For example, all at words in one stack together (as opposed to dividing into different stacks/collections). This gives the student a chance to practice the same family at once—and you have the one family all together to use as needed for further instruction.

5) Add sight words from the books you are reading. Do not add random sight words or too many at one time. We call these Remember Words because she has to remember them—but I still point out any phonetic components to them as we work through them. Give all the tricks, cues, and tools that you can.

6) I like to do the cards after she reads a book or two to me. (We are still in Bob Books for this student, so the books are short.) This way she has had success in context before using isolated words.

7) Develop a protocol for guessing words. In the video, I use my “punishment time” approach—which is a little joke that we have. When she guesses a word that does not at least begin with the first letter of the word on the card, I say, “Punishment time…what is this letter?” She has to say the letter then I say, “What sound does it make?” And she has to say the sound. BOTH things. This makes her not want to randomly guess the words because it annoys her to have to say the letter then its sound. It is a quick way to break a student from guessing the word—the student at least should guess a word that starts with that sound!  🙂 It’s not real punishment—just our joke. But if the word punishment bothers you (or your student), you could call it “First Letter Rule” or “No Guess Rule” or something like that. Guessing is fine, but if the student isn’t at least looking at the first letter in guessing, it can become a really bad habit.

Hope these tips help! What else can I help you with in your language arts, reading, writing, grammar, spelling, speech, or word analysis teaching?

The post Using Word Cards in Reading Instruction appeared first on Character Ink.

One of the best ways you can help a child become good in language arts (which carries over to all of his school work–since all school work involves reading, comprehending, organizing, etc.) is to help him become a good reader.

Over the past month, I have focused on teaching reading, reading aloud, reading instruction, phonics, and more.

(Check out some of those posts here:

Read Aloud Tips (with video!)

Reading Aloud Together…Builds Memories Forever!

Using Word Cards in Reading Instruction

Preparing a Child to Learn to Read

Phonics Program Round Up for Reading Instruction )

If your child is still learning to read, be careful that you don’t get caught up in the “do everything” part of language arts too soon. In the early elementary grades, your child’s primary focus should be on reaching reading fluency.

(This is why I have “reading” benchmarks in place for students who want to come to my complete language arts classes or purchase CQLA: (1) Pre A students should be able to read non-vocabulary-controlled picture books; (2) A students should be able to read easy chapter books.)

If you are still working on reading fluency, let me refresh you with some tips for that before I delve into teaching beginning writing:

1. Be sure he reads from a book every day. So much reading instruction nowadays is workbook oriented. This is like taking piano lessons while only doing theory books–with no actual playing time. Check out my readability info for choosing readers here!

2. Try the “you read, I’ll read” approach. Have him read a page or paragraph then you read a page or paragraph.

3. If he gets stuck on a word that you think he knows, remind him of what he knows about it:

a. Remember, this rhymes with light and bright. You had this word before.
b. Do you remember what the e at the end of the word makes the first vowel say?
c. How do you think Rabbit feels? Would that word be sad or silly based on how he probably feels?

4. If he is stuck too long or you do not think he knows a word, tell him what it is (and anything about it that might help him in the future) and move on. Do not get bogged down on each word.

5. Ask your librarian for help getting a reader that is truly at his level (or check out these vocabulary controlled readers). Do not believe those readers that say K level in the corner but contain two syllable words!

6. Read aloud to him from a chapter book or other book that he enjoys to make the reading experience pleasant for him.

7. Reward him for practicing reading–stickers, coins, candy–it’s worth bribing for!

I am going to move into beginning writing for a while here on the blog–sentences, sentences vs. clauses, writing sentences, verbs, etc.

Here are some tips for taking your child from a reader to a writer:

1. Teach him/her the five parts of a sentence—CAVES—Capital; All makes sense; Verb; End mark; Subject. Help the student find these things in his sentences or in sentences that he reads. Learn more about CAVES here.

2. Teach anything about the writing process informally that can be taught informally. Point out that a sentence begins with a capital letter as he reads to you. Ask him what the (?) at the end of the sentence means. Talk about why a word is capitalized in a sentence (it’s at the beginning or is someone’s name). These informal teaching times will carry over to his real writing.

3. Understand the difference between penmanship and writing. Penmanship is art. Pure and simple. I would almost say (but can’t bring myself to do so since I have a degree in elementary education and a two hour credit in penmanship!) that “you either have it or you don’t.” Writing is putting words together to form sentences then paragraphs, then stories/reports/essays/letters—anything! If your child has penmanship difficulties (as many young boys do), do not let this distract him from writing. Pen for him as he dictates to you. Teach him to type. Remember, penmanship is not writing. Writing is writing.

4. Show him that writing is just the spoken word written down. Have him talk slowly to you while you type. Read it back to him. Tell him that if he can speak, he can write (even if the penmanship and spelling are not there yet!).

5. When he is first learning to write sentences, do not make him sound out every word. Just tell him how to spell the tough ones and move on. There is even research out there now strongly suggesting that when it comes to spelling, “you either got it or you don’t.” Nowadays with computers and spell check, no person should be uneducated or feel stupid because of spelling problems.

6. Have him dictate sentences about anything (his day; his favorite show; his favorite game; etc.) and write them in large letters with a highlighter. Have him write over the highlighter with his pencil. Have him read the sentences back to you. Then make a big deal out of it—your child can write!

When starting to read and starting to write, a child needs a great measure of success to keep going and feel confident in what he is learning. Making the reading and writing connection in the elementary grades can help do that for your child.

The post From Reader to Writer appeared first on Character Ink.

An Introduction to Readability Levels

I began homeschooling over thirty years ago when Ray and I taught my younger sister (who was in eighth grade at the time) in our home. During my first several years of homeschooling, I used early readers when my children were first learning to read, but I did not care for “readers” for older children. I always felt that abridged or excerpted stories were inferior—and that children should read whole books.

This worked wonderfully for my first two (the ones who learned to read at age eight and nine). They didn’t like abridgements and excerpts very much anyway—and could easily read a couple of chapter books a week from ages ten and up. (I should note that they are both real literature buffs as adults, and our son teaches literary analysis of many novels to homeschooled students every semester. All of that reading really paid off!)

Then along came our third child, who begged for everything that I did not think was “best” for learning—workbooks (the more, the merrier, in her opinion); readers with excerpts and short stories; tons of what I had thought were useless pages of worksheets and coloring pages; and more. She was a different type of learner than Joshua and Kayla had been—and desired different learning tools.

So I began my hunt for “older” readers—readers for children beyond the phonetically-controlled ones that I had utilized to teach reading. I found many that I liked—and actually used some of them to read aloud to the kids since we found the stories and excerpts interesting and fun. They even caused my kids to go on and read entire books for themselves that they might have otherwise not known about or read (after reading an excerpted portion in their readers).

So…the moral of this story? Every child is different. Each child has his own learning style, likes, dislikes, etc. And we need to cater to those as much as possible in their learning. In order to choose reading materials for your children, a basic knowledge of readability levels will be a great help. I will detail readability levels and determinations in this month’s newsletter (March) and next month’s. 

When a child is in school, he is likely in a “reading group,” that is a group of children from his class in which all of the students read at about the same reading level. The child’s teacher chooses readers/stories for each group of children based on that group’s (the children in that group’s) reading level.

To practice with your child at home, you will want to do the same thing—but in a one on one, rather than small group, situation. How do you know what level is appropriate for your child?

I will enumerate some tips for choosing books at your child’s reading level, primarily for word-calling purposes. First, though, a small peek at readability levels will help you in determining your child’s reading level.

Readability is based on many factors. Many readability scales use one of a few simple formulae in which the number of words in a passage or story is divided by the number of words—and a readability level is derived based on the number of words each sentence contains (on an average). Other formulae use the number of syllables, considering that a sentence that contains twenty “one-syllable” words is certainly easier to word call than a sentence that contains twenty “three-syllable” words.

In both of those cases, the readability level is based on word calling, which is an accurate portrayal of early readers since children do not focus much on comprehension at that level of reading. (And if a class does focus on comprehension, it is usually just literal comprehension—what happened, who the characters were, etc.)

As students progress in their reading, we want them to not only be able to sound out words in a passage or story, but we want them to derive meaning from those words. Formulae for readability of a text based on comprehension is much more difficult to assess (though definitely counting number of words with longer syllables demonstrates a higher comprehension level than just merely counting the number of words).

So many things come into play when considering readability of, say, a chapter book of 150 pages. A book might be short but extremely difficult to comprehend due to the vocabulary used (which some formulae do not consider). Likewise, a book can be very long but have extremely immature vocabulary and not be difficult to comprehend at all.

In our language arts and composition books, we give students passages to write from at least half of the time for factual writing in the early grades, lessening as students learn to find appropriate sources themselves, etc. In choosing these passages to write from, comprehension is extremely important. In order to write from source material, a much higher level of comprehension must be realized than merely that of sounding out the words. In choosing passages for students to read, take notes from, and write from, we consider readability in terms of word calling first, then we consider sentence structure. Sentence structure includes the length of the sentence, the type of sentence (i.e. what we learned as compound, compound-complex, etc.), the type of and length of sentence openers a sentence contains (prepositional phrase openers, adverb openers, etc.), and finally, the vocabulary of the passage.

How does this apply to your reading with your student? Consider the list of ascending skills below concerning readability and readers:

Readability and Readers

1. In the early grades, you will be concerned with readability in terms of decoding, phonics, sight words, etc. That is, can your student read the words?

2. If your child already reads well in terms of decoding (sounding out words), and can “pick up anything and ‘read’ it,” you will want to focus on content—comprehending what he reads, discussing it, etc.

3. As students progress in reading, homeschooling moms and teachers in school often forsake the practice of reading aloud with children, noting that the child can word call anything, so there is no need to check for word calling skills/application of phonics. However, we advocate reading aloud with your child for some years, at least a couple of times a week. No, you will not be checking for word calling anymore (though my older boys will still say something like, “How do you pronounce this word—m-y-r-i-a-d?” when they are reading something to themselves), but reading involves word calling AND comprehension. A child who can “read anything” but not comprehend it is like a child reading “There’s a Wocket in My Pocket.” To say that a child in fourth grade can read at a ninth grade level because he can decode all of the words in a passage that is rated at a ninth grade readability level is like saying he can read the “Wocket” tale by Dr. Seuss. He might be able to word call it, but is he “reading” if he cannot comprehend what he reads?

4. Oral reading together with Mom or Dad at upper elementary grades is for comprehension—you will not necessarily be checking on the application of his decoding skills, but you will be checking on his comprehension, vocabulary recognition, etc. You will hopefully be guiding him through his reading, discussing it, answering questions about vocabulary words (i.e. words he can easily sound out but does not know the meaning of), etc.

5. If your child is beyond the beginning phonics instruction, you may not need books that are “graded” in terms of readability. Perhaps he already enjoys reading a certain picture book series or early junior fiction series. These can then become his “readers” to read with you.

6. Consider the differences in “readability” in the materials he reads with you vs the materials he reads to himself:

 
a. Be sure the material he reads aloud with you is somewhat challenging (i.e. he needs some help with words here and there but the books do not leave him in tears).

 
b. Be sure that what he is reading to himself is not so difficult that he needs cueing or instruction as he reads it.
 

 
c. Keep in mind that there are other things that affect readability besides syllable count, numbers of pages, sentence structure, and vocabulary. Interest is a strong factor in determining readability. (That is why I recommended the Saxon Bold Intervention+ for older students who need remedial reading on our Positive Parenting blog.The materials that they read from are high interest for older students—not childish or primary stories.) This is the reason that children who would not read their science or history book in fifth grade are picking up huge books of Harry Potter and these vampire books (not sure of their titles). Whether we like them or not, many children out there are reading these tomes simply because they are interested in them—despite the fact that those kids are not “at that reading level” and would never have picked up a book over two hundred pages prior to these books being released. (If you have an older student who is working on remedial reading, ask your librarian specifically for high interest/low readability materials for older students. Some of the adult literacy materials are extremely high interest with lower readability levels, as well.)

Other reading links:

Phonics Program Roundup for Reading Instruction

Using Word Cards for Reading Instruction

Reading Round Up: Tips for Teaching Your Child How to Read

Save

Save

The post Readability Levels and Formulas for Homeschooling Parents appeared first on Character Ink.

I have a lot of material at the blog about reading aloud to your kids—unit studies, morning read aloud, Bible time, story time, family read aloud, and more. We did them all…nearly every day for twenty-five years….and I wouldn’t trade those hours for anything!

But there are logistics…especially if you are trying to do this with a large family…multiple ages and interests, etc.

Those are some of the things that I tackled in my latest Facebook Live video about Read Aloud Time!

Check it out…..and check out the links below for some fun readers and a darling chapter book!

Click on the pictures below to see my Sound it Out, and Read a Chapter beginning reader books!

PIN IT FOR LATER!

Sound It Out, Baloo!

PIN IT FOR LATER!

Read a Chapter, Mowgli!

Save

Save

The post Read Aloud Tips (Video!) appeared first on Character Ink.

One of the great things about teaching children in a homeschool or one-on-one setting is that we can easily see when readiness simply isn’t there. And one of the greatest benefits is that we can wait for the child’s readiness to be there before moving on. (Sweet babies…let’s be patient with them!)

Patience is often hard for a homeschooling mom. We are prone to comparisons. We are prone to worry. We are prone to low self confidence when our kids aren’t learning quickly.

But we don’t have to simply sit by and “wait.” There are things we can do to help prepare our kids to learn, especially in the area of phonics and early reading. That is what this podcast I did a few years ago is all about–being proactive while we wait for “reading readiness.” (Be sure to print off and use the outline included!)

So enjoy these days without pressure to achieve…..and watch your little one develop the readiness that is needed to tackle the hard work of learning to read (later!)…. 🙂  

Click HERE to download the handout!

Love and hope,

Donna

The post Preparing a Child to Learn to Read (Podcast and More!) appeared first on Character Ink.

“I would be most content if my children grew up to be the kind of people who think decorating consists mostly of building enough bookshelves.” ~Anna Quindlen, “Enough Bookshelves”

During my graduate studies (in Reading Specialist) at Ball State University, I did a master’s thesis about children who learn to read without any reading instruction. That is, the kids just suddenly started reading books without ever having phonics lessons, basal readers, or other “formal instruction.” It was a challenging thesis simply because there is so little data about it because of our “early school attendance age.” Seldom does a child learn to read “naturally” before age six or seven, and with kids going to school at age five (and often beginning reading instruction in kindergarten), the research was sparse concerning these “instruction-less” readers.

I did find enough, however, and I was also blessed to find a family who had a natural reader to compare the printed data with. My observations, coupled with the studies in teaching journals, etc., led me to find what I called the “environment” in which natural readers are raised. This led me to other lines of thinking—if a child can learn to read with absolutely no instruction in a literary-saturated environment, wouldn’t this environment be conducive to helping those who DO receive instruction learn to read better, more easily, and more naturally?

The answer, of course, was yes. Study after study shows the type of environment that causes kids to learn better. Duplicating the “natural reader’s” environment can only help our kids learn better. Maybe our creating this “literary atmosphere” will not automatically make our six year old pick up a book and begin reading, but if it makes the learning process (actually any/all learning processes) easier, more enjoyable, and less stressful, why wouldn’t we want to duplicate it in our homes for all of our kids?

So what were the commonalities I found in studying the environment of “natural readers”?

Common Characteristics of Natural Readers

1. Interaction with adults—these kids were with adults a lot—and definitely not around peers more than adults. They had adults on hand to discuss things with, to answer their questions, and to provide examples of proper speech patterns, etc.

2. Much book handling by the child—these children were surrounded with books that they were permitted to interact with. They were often found at very young ages with stacks of books around them, just looking at the pictures, making stories in their minds from the pictures, etc.

3. Print abounds and interest in print is evident by itself—not only did the homes of natural readers contain books themselves, but they also contained all type of print. The parents of these children read magazines, journals, newspapers, etc. I think the “interest in print” part probably began with something like a parent saying, “Honey, look at this whale they found beached on the coast of Florida,” as he or she brought the little one up on to her lap to see the picture that was provided with the article in today’s newspaper, etc. This type of activity causes a child to become interested in print.

4. Audios and books are used—This is the reason why I began using book and tape sets a few times a week for my preschoolers and elementary children—and why we have used audios (talking books, radio dramas, etc.) every week of our lives since our oldest was one year old. Audios and books show our children the benefits and “fun” that reading provides.

5. Memorization takes place—these natural readers often followed a certain pattern—they memorized a picture book (usually many), then through the memorization, they began making print-sound-word connections. That is, when they turned the page and recited, “If you give a mouse a cookie,” they began to understand that i-f says if and y-o-u says you. Natural readers were experts at memorizing large portions of text.

6. Interest in writing words and “language experience” activities—many years ago, there was a movement in education to replace phonics instruction with “language experience” activities (also called a “whole language approach”). Phonics proponents everywhere were up in arms at the thought of “activities” of writing what the child said (dictation) for him, making little homemade books, etc. taking the place of phonics instruction. While I am a strong phonics proponent, I believe that these “language experiences” and “whole language” activities augment reading instruction greatly. And, of course, the natural readers in the research were exposed to these types of activities early and often. These kids were the ones who dictated thank-you notes to Mom to go to grandparents and colored a picture to send along with it; they were the ones who had a chalk board in the kitchen in which Mom or Dad wrote the day of the week each morning; they were those who “said” stories aloud and parents copied it in little “journal” books for the child. And on and on. Why wouldn’t these types of experiences and activities increase a child’s relationship with print and love for learning?

7. Experiences related to literacy and books—these obviously include the types of activities listed in number six, but these kids knew from birth that books and reading were important. They were the ones in a double stroller at the library lawn sale as toddlers—child in front seat with back seat full of picture books. They were the ones who had their own “book basket” in the corner of the nursery almost from birth. In other words, they were immersed in literacy and books from an early age.

8. Self-regulated behavior and risk taking—This characteristic related to how they “organize” their little lives. These kids would pull all of the Curious George books off the shelf and stack them up to look at after lunch. They often had little learning systems in place at ages four and five. And they were not afraid to be wrong. This, of course, stems from not being talked down to or made fun of when they did ask questions. These kids were risk takers because taking risks in learning (“Mommy, is this word (dapper) ‘Daddy’?”) yielded information that helped them in their quest to learn. The questions did not yield put downs or “you should already know this.”

9. Read to often—Obviously, a link has to be made from the squiggles on the page to the sounds that those squiggles make in order for a young child to teach himself to read. Thus, a child must be read to (or follow along with books and tapes) in order to learn to read without formal instruction. Now, this is not to say that a child who is read to will automatically learn to read early and on his own. I read aloud to our first three kids three to five hours everyday for years and years—and not one of the three was a natural, or early, reader! But it certainly created a love for print and learning in my children!

Children who learn to read naturally, without reading instruction, are raised in an environment that is conducive to learning to read naturally—an environment that creates a love for learning and a very perceived need to learn.

While I have never had a natural reader myself, I tried all throughout my children’s learning days to create this type of environment. It has created outstanding learners and avid readers in the Reish home.

One of the “rules” that Ray and I had for our children’s early education was that if something could be taught informally (and painlessly), we would teach it that way (as opposed to using workbooks or “curriculum” for something that can just as easily be learned while driving down the road or snuggling on the sofa).

That is one thing that I truly loved about the “natural reader learning environment.” Why get a workbook to teach capital letters when you can teach them while you are running errands (from all of the store signs)? Why get a program for rhyming words when nursery rhymes, silly songs, and I spy games on the road can do the job without the stress? The “natural reader learning environment” fit how we thought young children should be taught—regardless of whether our kids truly became natural readers or not.

Here are just a few of the skills that the research on natural readers indicated are learned/enjoyed by kids in this environment:

1. Contact with print

2. Thinking skills

3. Comprehension (especially when a wide variety of materials is presented and discussion follows)

4. Expanded vocabulary

5. Enunciation and pronunciation

6. Love of and need for reading

7. Sentence patterns

8. Relationship between parent and child—the most important one of all, of course!

Create a “natural reader learning environment” in your home—regardless of your kids’ ages….and watch the interaction with print increase; the love for learning grow; and the positive relationships bloom.

Whether you have a five year old who taught herself to read or an eight year old still struggling with primers, I encourage you to create a reading environment–and build life-long readers and learners! Blessings on your teaching and children!

The post Back to School Tip III of XII: Create Reading Environment appeared first on Character Ink.

School is well underway for most homeschoolers—and there are lots of kinks to work out here and there. That is fine. Just solve one problem and then move on to another. Tackle the thing that is the most bothersome, then the next most bothersome.

Don’t do everything at once. And don’t expect perfection!

There are a lot of things that you can do to solve reading problems…here are my top several tips, but most of these tips are spread out in the blog posts, products, audios, and videos that I have listed below for a sort of “reading round up” for you. Hope this helps your reading struggles!

Be sure to contact me with questions—I can answer you via a blog post, a freebie product (!), video, or audio! I love to help homeschoolers!!

Top Tips for Teaching Your Child to Read

(1) Be sure your child is ready! The reading readiness will often break down at the point of “chunking”—putting the sounds together. I talk about this a lot in my reading workshops, but this workshop will especially help you determine readiness (as well as choose phonics programs, readers, and more).

Link: [Podcast] Summer Reading Help for Young Students

(2) Wait for readiness! There are many things you can do while waiting for your child to be ready to learn to read—including read alouds, audios, and more. The pre-reading time is not wasted time!

a. Prepare them: [Podcast] How Do I Prepare My Child to Learn to Read?

b. Reading aloud: [Article] Reading Aloud Together

c. Using audios: [Podcast] Using Audios With Children

d. Story time: [Podcast] Story Time Questions

(3) Use readers widely! Your child should be reading aloud to someone twice a day while he is learning to read.  Use books that are just a little challenging for your child to read aloud to you. This is his instructional level, the level at which he is LEARNING. (For silent reading, have him use independent level readers (books he can read without any coaching from you). 

a. Using the Bob books [Article]

b. My new vocabulary-controlled readers (not phonetically-controlled—listen to number one; these are controlled in the NUMBER of words they contain) [Sound It Out Readers]

(4) Move your child to chapter books by reading aloud together from SHORT chapter books, like this one: Read a Chapter, Mowgli!

(5) Be sure your child recognizes the letters and the typical sounds of each letter on sight—using songs, mnemonics, etc. He shouldn’t have to think too much when trying to recollect a sound

a. Teaching letter recognition with clue word cards:[Product Preview] Letters and Sounds ABC Cards

b. Teaching sounds with clue word cards and song: [Product Preview] ABC Sounds Song Packet

(6) Get advice from those who have taught several children to read (they have a wider experience to draw from). Here’s a recent video I did for reading difficulty helps.

The post Reading Round Up: Tips for Teaching Your Child How to Read! appeared first on Character Ink.

I know Thanksgiving is a full month away, but in order to get all of my holiday book reviews in before Christmas, I thought I should get started. (Plus, I like to have my students start writing their holiday stories and essays early!)  And…I want to help you help your students do some holiday writing as well. (Hint: Free downloads and ideas below!)

One of my favorite Thanksgiving picture books is a simple little paperback book called Liberty B. Mouse Goes to a Party. It is one of a few about Liberty B. Mouse. Young children love this re-telling of the first Thanksgiving—since it’s through the eyes of a mischievous mouse!

I have such fond memories of reading this story to all of my children—especially the part where Liberty sneezes a mouth full of corn and butter he is eating right into the campfire only to have some of the kernels “pop”—the first popcorn! (If I close my eyes super tightly, I can see the little boys’ faces as I read that page!)

Below are a couple of notes about the two Liberty B Mouse books I recommend, but I also thought I would share a few ways to use these stories as writing springboards for elementary kids:

1. Divide a paper into several boxes and number the boxes (depending on your child’s level), and write in each box a few words about what happened in each “scene” or page or couple of pages (“Liberty sneezed popcorn & butter in fire”). Then have your child write sentences in each box using your notes (or have him dictate them to you): “Liberty B. Mouse put a lot of butter and popcorn kernels in his mouth, and then he sneezed them right into the fire!” Do this for each “scene box” that you have created. Afterwards, help him put those sentences together to create his own Liberty B Mouse story.

2. Draw a rectangle (or a house—see my Paragraph House Outline on page 15 of this sample) As you read the story aloud, have your child fill in a box every time they hear a physical characteristic of Liberty. When you are done reading, help them turn those boxes into sentences for a paragraph.

3. For older elementary kids, take a paragraph or two from the book and create outlining lines to go with that paragraph(s). Have your child create a Sentence-by-Sentence (S-by-S) outline of the paragraph(s) and then rewrite them in their own words. (See a sample S-by-S Outlining space on download pages 1, 8, and 9)

4. Write a series of questions about the book or about Liberty B Mouse (or the Pilgrims). Have your student answer the in note form then write sentences using their notes to create a complete paragraph. (See Q and A outlining sample here starting on page 11)

5. For older students, use this book report lesson (tweaked for your story) to outline and write a book report.

Okay….back to the two books I recommend the most. Can’t promise that either of the titles is available—but I found some used ones online, and many libraries have them.

(Please note that I am an affiliate for Amazon. I receive a small commission when you click on my links below. Thanks so much for your support of this blog!)

“Liberty B. Mouse Goes to a Party” by Pauline C. Peck (my favorite and the one the writing ideas above are based on) is available used at Amazon.

The second one, which is also very cute, Liberty B. Mouse Comes To America, is a classic retelling of the traditional Thanksgiving story through the eyes of a Mayflower Mouse. It tells the whole story of the Mayflower journey, the long winter, and the first Thanksgiving in simple terms that the young children can understand while still being interesting enough to the attention of older kids. It’s no longer in print, but is available at Amazon.

P.S. What types of writing projects for elementary kids would you like for me to teach you how to teach? I have over 50,000 pages of curriculum, so I am sure I have it somewhere to pull out and create a download for you! ?

Love and hope,

The post Liberty B. Mouse Thanksgiving Book Review (And Writing Projects With Downloads!) appeared first on Character Ink.

Summer is here and the livin’ is easy. Or something like that.

And there’s a lot of truth to it. My husband and I were just talking last night about how one of our favorite things is going to concerts and movies (mostly with our kids!) in the summer because it feels so easy. Sitting in my lawn chair at an outdoor concert just listening to old 50’s and 60’s tunes (some of our favorite swing music!) just makes me feel relaxed. Like I don’t have anything to do, so just sit there. (I have a LOT of trouble sitting….unless I’m doing!)

But the reality is that fall comes after summer. And we can’t forget that all together.

One way we can be help fall be better is to put a little effort into our summer—not a lot—just a little….in the areas that we want to keep strong. (Check out last week’s newsletter for more summer tips!)

I recorded a FB Live this week in which I describe some very simple tasks that you can do to help your new reader continue to learn and grow this summer (or at the very least keep the skills he has!). You can watch the video below.

I made reference to several things in that video, so I am going to do a quick outline/list of the tips with links to the products that I recommend.

Oh, and let me know what you would like to learn more about—teaching a specific writing type, reading help, organization and productivity, cool East Coast swing moves…I can fix you up in future video! 🙂

Below are some affiliate links as I am an affiliate for Amazon.com.  By clicking on these links you are helping to support this blog.  Thank you!

1. Reading Baskets: The ORAL reading basket (for books that the student still needs cues and help with) and SILENT reading basket (books that he can read without any help….I moved them from ORAL to SILENT after we worked on them for a while.

• Bob Books
• Hear Me Read readers
• Sound It Out (Mowgli, Baloo, and Brother Wolf)
• Read a Chapter, Mowgli

2. Read Every Day: Have your student read once or twice a day to you from a reader that is phonetically controlled and/or vocabulary-controlled. Don’t trust the age or grade level written in the upper corner of department store books! (Get help from your librarian, if needed.)

Recommended Reading—to learn about readability levels, phonetically-controlled books, and vocabulary-controlled books.

3. Make a Reading Chart. Have summer charts that are simple to manage (i.e. a smile each day he reads aloud) with built in prizes that are easy to carry out.

Recommendations: Charts for older kids and younger kids for homeschooling and other tasks.

4. Use Audio Books or Book/Audio Sets to Build Listening Comprehension. Your child’s listening comprehension level actually tells you a lot about what level he could comprehend at if he knew how to word-call that level. (Remember, reading is word calling AND comprehending.) I always liked to expand my students’ listening comprehension levels, knowing that they had a huge impact on their comprehension later. Additionally, students will desire to learn to read better if they listen and/or follow along with books that they cannot read—the motivation will become stronger to learn to read (and this also helps develop a love for learning in children.) The picture book and audio sets from the library are great for this.

Recommendations; I can’t say enough about these amazing audio and book sets. One device plays all the books in the set. Easy to follow and learn to control themselves. Not a lot of other pieces, wands, devices, etc. Easy peasy. My students and grandson love these! (Plus, they are familiar movie and tv characters.) There are about a dozen sets floating around. I get mine from Sam’s and Costco at Christmastime, but here’s an Amazon link for one set…check them all out!

5. Do follow up activities that are related to the book he just read—confusing word games, word cards, etc. The beauty of using the words and text that he is currently working on reading is two fold: it is easy for the parent to make word cards or create a confusing word sheet or play with magnetic words AND the activities will contain the very words that he just got stuck on when you read. Quick, easy, pain-free. (You will see what I am referring to in the video embedded in this post.)

Recommendations:

• Dice for rolling to see which word he should read
• Magnetic words
• Magnetic letters for creating words
• Blank word cards to customize
• Dab a Dot Markers for Marking the Word You Read to Him

6. For readers who can write, consider adding in some fun writing this summer! Be sure it is DIRECTED (i.e. not a writing idea book) and fun! 🙂

Recommendations:

• Write On, Mowgli Level I
• Write On, Peter Pan, Level I
• Write On, Beauty and Beast, Level I

7. Go back to beginning sounds if your student still can’t say in a snap that p says puh, etc. If you are still working on beginning letter sounds (i.e. not reading yet), use something that teaches them painlessly AND has true, consistent (not blended) sounds.

Recommendations;

• ABC Word and Picture Cards
• Sound Song Packet
• Video of me explaining what to look for in beginning sound materials

8. Check out my other posts, videos, and audios to help you with reading this summer!

Recommendations:

• Reading Roundup Tips
• Podcast: Summer Reading Help for Young Students

What are you working on this summer? What is your favorite reader set? How can I help you with reading, writing, and grammar?

Save

The post Simple Summer Reading Practice Tips appeared first on Character Ink.

One of the greatest homeschooling joys—and greatest challenges—during my thirty-two years of homeschooling has definitely been teaching my kids to read. My undergraduate degree is in elementary education, and my master’s work is in reading specialist. So, um, yeah, I should have been a specialist.

But learning to read is hard work. And teaching a child to read is hard work. And well, it is really just hard sometimes. (Those amazing four year olds who just start reading road signs along the road, notwithstanding!)

(If your reader is struggling, you might want to watch my video on Solving Reading Difficulties)

I was blessed with a program that taught me more about phonetic instruction than six years of college did! And my kids were blessed to be taught using what was touted as “the Cadillac of reading programs—Play ‘n Talk. It helped my dyslexics become truly accomplished readers (even my three super late readers), and I am forever grateful for the visionary and genius lady who invented this program.

But today programs are a dime a dozen. Seriously, they are everywhere. So how can you know what to turn to in teaching your child to read?

I have some personal benchmarks that I talk about in this video:

1) It must be phonetic-based (not sight word based)

2) It must be word-family based (at family; ad family; ag family ) vs ladder letter based (ba, be, bi, bo)

3) It must have a lot of real reading built into it (preferably a reader with each sound that is introduced)

4) It must be incremental—one skill upon another

5) It must have the option of going slowly (with extra practice as needed) whenever necessary

So here are some thoughts about four programs that I recommend (or those whom I trust recommend):

Phonics Tutor

a. Two options:

(1) Phonics Tutor; good for all ages; lots of practice.

(2) Frequent Words Program by Phonics Tutor; especially good remediation for older students since it moves quickly.

b. No-nonsense program that works with all learning styles; has auditory, kinesthetic (students types in letters on the keyboard), and visual exercises

c. Is a cd-rom for the computer; appeals to struggling children because it isn’t “another phonics book”

d. No bells or whistles—as Timberdoodle says, “no dancing bears”—but a solid program with sequential learning, based on true phonetic components

e. May move at own pace or follow easy to understand lessons

f. Can literally load it on the computer and begin—the least teacher preparation I have ever seen in any curriculum

g. Multiple students may use it at the same time (i.e. multiple log ins allowed)

h. Non-consumable, so may be resold

i. Excellent spelling foundation; may also be used for spelling after reading instruction is completed

j. Does have child “spell” words he is learning, but only once words are mastered at the reading level

k. Timberdoodle describes this program: “With no dancing bears or racing bunnies, PhonicsTutor seems uniquely designed to meet the needs of the reluctant or non-reading older child. PhonicsTutor is a step-by-step computerized teaching tool with 128 lessons and seven activities within each lesson to instruct and reinforce the main topic. All 3,500 words are presented orally along with associated spelling rules. Phonetic analysis, reading, word spelling and diction activities make PhonicsTutor appealing to all learning modalities. No other program we examined has matched PhonicsTutor for thoroughness and ease of use. It is a perfect format for the older non-reader or special need child.”

l. Concerning Frequent Words (listed above with link), Timberdoodle says: “A young child who is already reading but needs additional phonics work may find Frequent Words, (see software), more appropriate.”

m. TRY BEFORE YOU BUY! Timberdoodle (at the link above) has “try before you buy” portions of this program available at their site; you can try it out with your child to see if it is what you are looking for

n. When Ray and I dream of how we want our ministry to grow and reach people, we have a crazy, unrealistic dream of being able to give this program to families with dyslexic students to give them the gift of reading—that’s how much I love this program.

o. Downfalls:

(1) Will want to purchase readers to practice sounds; however, this phonics program has more “built in” reading of words and sentences within it than most programs I have seen

(2) Students must type all of the letters/families in the blanks. Some might see this as a downfall; I think it is a blessing as many children who struggle with writing also struggle with the “penning” process of writing

(3) Must have computer to use it; there is a workbook available, but I didn’t find it that helpful compared to the cd’s, which are loaded with exercises.

Saxon Publishers

Saxon has three options to teach phonics to young children and struggling/older students. I will detail the three separately since they are uniquely designed for different purposes.

1. Saxon Phonics and Spelling

a. Complete phonics program graded for each grade kindergarten through third grade

b. Concepts are introduced incrementally

c. Easy to use lesson scripts

d. Has remediation strategies and activities emphasized throughout

e. Contains little readers that go with each lesson (no need to purchase separate readers); this would also save you from trying to figure out which reader out of your collection is appropriate for your child following each lesson

f. Includes a good blend of high frequency words and phonemic awareness

g. Good for spelling instruction too; strong foundation for spelling later too

h. Daily practice and review

i. Downfalls:

(1) Pricey for remediation—might be more “stuff” than a summer remediation really needs

(2) Contains handwriting practice within it, which many might consider a benefit, but my struggling readers were not ready to do a lot of writing too, so I would consider that a downside or just omit that portion

(3) Created for the classroom (like Saxon Math); thus, it has “more” than a tutor might need; contains some busy work because of this

(4) Looks overwhelming when you open the package AND you have to assemble all of those great little readers I just described above!

(5) Since it is a “graded” program, you will likely not get what you need in a remediation situation; you will either get all of the first grade skills (if you purchase grade one) or all of the second grade skills (if you purchase grade two), etc.

2. Phonics Intervention

a. Created specifically for remediation, targeting fourth grade and up, though a second or third grader would also benefit from it

b. Clear, well-paced lessons at more of a tutorial speed than a regular classroom speed

c. No training needed; just open and begin

d. Skills are introduced and repeated as needed

e. Comes with colorful, controlled-vocabulary reading material, so you do not need to purchase readers

f. Not too childish for older students

g. Downfalls: I’ve never used or seen this program first hand, but I have heard a lot of good about it. The downside I would think could be that it is not a Christian publisher, so the readers will likely be secular. However, I think the benefits (tutoring approach, easy to use, reading material provided, intensive phonics, etc.) would outweigh that for a short tutoring situation

3. Bold Intervention

a. Saxon says this program is THE program to put your older struggling students on the path to progress

b. Systematic, explicit phonics programs—a real plus for an older child’s remediation program as many times older children’s (and adults’) programs have a tendency to forget the phonics in favor of memorization techniques)

c. Definitely made for older kids—magazine style books, older topics in the reading materials, not childish looking, etc.

d. Claims to get results in just one semester—so seems very tutor-friendly, not focusing on superfluous skills but just getting down to the bare bones of making a reader our of a non reader

e. Easy to teach

f. “Readers” are magazine style with full color graphics and a variety of types of materials—if you have an older child who need phonics remediation, this would be a real plus because it would not have the student reading “Mat sat” at age eleven or twelve, which can be demoralizing

g. Downsides: Again, I have not seen this program, but it is rare to find a strong phonetically based program for older students—with high interest/low readability materials such as those contained within this. Again, the content is secular, and I imagine that all of the reading material would not be up to my liking, but the topics (extreme sports, wild animals, legends, etc.) are extremely interesting to older kids

In A Nutshell….

In a nutshell, I wouldn’t hesitate to use one of the last two programs listed here for remediation (or the Saxon Phonics and Spelling for my first or second grader as a homeschooler). I would probably go with the Intervention for struggling second through fourth graders and Bold Intervention for fifth graders and up who are still word calling at a primary level.

This Reading Mama—video here

This inexpensive phonics program is better than any of the expensive ones I’ve seen through the years (except Play ‘n Talk, which isn’t available any more AND is not as great on practice pages and activities as this one is). Seriously, don’t let the ten bucks make you think it’s not great…because it is! 🙂 She has word family books for all five vowels (for short vowels) for beginning readers…plus tons of other great products.

All About Reading

I have to stick this program in here even though I have never personally used it. It gets rave reviews and seems to meet my qualifications (plus is consistent with methodology for dyslexic user). Here’s a review I found for this program.

Save

The post Phonics Program Round Up for Reading Instruction appeared first on Character Ink.