Repost: Assisted Reading with Developing and Struggling Readers.

I always get questions about how to help students with reading.  This is one of my favorite's for helping with reading.  

I have been reading a very interesting book called The Fluent Reader by Timothy V. Rasinski.  He has an interesting chapter on how to help students learn to read who are developing readers or struggling readers.  I knew all of the methods that he mentioned, but he backed up his methods with research and more effective strategies then I have seen in the past.

He discusses Paired Reading.  Paired reading is essentially where a more proficient reader, either a parent/teacher and child, older student and child, or two children read together.  Paired reading should be about 10-20 minutes at a time at least five times a week. It is recommend that the less proficient  student should be able to read 90-95 percent of the material accurately for this instruction to be the most effective.  The student and teaching reader read to together side by side.  The student follows along with his/her finger.  It is recommended that if the text is harder the teacher should read a little louder and match your reading rate to push the student.  If the text is easier then the teacher should use a quieter voice and provide less support.  When the passage is finished the teacher and the student should chat about the reading. The student should be allowed to read independently if they would like during this process.  This is really nothing new to home educators.  But what excited me was where he talked about a research study where the majority of students who participated in paired reading at least five times a week made 6 months of reading progress in six to ten weeks. (Limbrick, McNaugthon, & Cameron, 1985).  I have a video below that demonstrates this.

   The other interesting study was that which revealed the positive gains that students made when listening to audio books while following along in the text.  Students who did not follow along in the text did not make the kind of gains as those who did.  Here is an article that discusses the gains students made and some resources for audio books.  Here is another article that discusses the benefits for all readers. With many kids at many different reading levels my students often listen to audio books.  We mostly use the public library for their audio books and downloadable digital books.  I renewed my commitment to having them follow along in the book after reading these articles.

The last intriguing idea was that students who watched closed captioned programming made gains in reading.  At my house we turn on the closed captioning because there are so many loud people in our house making it challenging to hear a movie or show.  My students were pretty excited about this!

I am hopeful this helps you with some specific ways to help your struggling or developing readers.

If you want to talk more about your student and reading please click here for more information, or to make an appointment.  

Patrica Polacco for November 2021

  I am looking forward to this month's author: Patricia Polacco.  I saw Ms. Polacco in person many years ago.  I remember her whipping out a babushka and wrapping it around her head during her presentation.  She walked around the room and everyone's eyes were glued to her.  She is an amazing story teller.   

She has an interesting personal story.  She shares her story in this video, including her challenges with her learning disability.  She has a delightful way of sharing her life.  Here is a list of her books from Amazon.

Ms. Polacco also has a wonderful web site.  It is filled with her current happenings and activities to go with each of her books. She has a Facebook page with updates as well. I created a Pinterest Board with some ideas from around the web.

Lastly, I have to end with a fun story.  I enjoy hitting resale shops and thrift stores.  I was searching through books at my favorite resell shops when I cam across this book.

I thought it was providential.  But, then I looked inside, and found this.  

Which close up looks like this.  

Which made it even more exciting!

Happy Reading!

~ Becky

September Author of the Month Ellen Stoll Walsh

The author for September is Ellen Stoll Walsh.   I remember learning about Ms. Walsh back in graduate school.  I was fascinated as another student used an overhead projector, glass jars, and colored water to enhance her telling of Mouse Paint.   I am dating myself with that overhead projector comment, but it was very fun to watch. 

Mrs. Walsh pictures are distinct and inviting.  She has a wonderful way of reviewing colors, shapes, and counting.  Here is a post by another author Tedd Arnold about Ms. Walsh.  It tells about how she became a storyteller and author. 

 I have set up a Pinterest board with some activities that I have found.   Here are some ideas I am going to try to work in this month.

~ Take a nature hike.
~ Make some shape pictures
~ Read and snuggle as much as I can.
~Do some color mixing in glasses so my kids can see it.
~Paint and mix colors.  
~Print a couple of worksheets as optional activities.

I would love to hear your ideas.  Please write them in the comments.

Happy Reading!
Becky

Author of the Month--Eric Carle

 

Spring seems to finally be coming to the Midwest.  How can you talk about spring without reading at least one Eric Carle book? Especially if you have a child under eight.

Eric Carle has many wonderful books and a great author web page.   His web page includes a list of his books, a link to his biography, and downloads.  His downloads include how to make his tissue paper illustrations and his Caterpillar Express Newsletter where he answers many questions.  Great information.  I have also created a Pinterest Board with various activities I have found around the web. We have quite a collection of his books here.

We tried our own version of making Eric Carle's tissue paper collages.  First we cut a butterfly shape out of tissue paper.  We then glued it down with watered down glue using a paint brush, and used tissue paper shapes to embellish our butterfly.   We found it helpful to paint glue around the edges of a shape to keep the tissue paper down.  Here are our results.

The tissue paper cut-outs.

Gluing tissue paper embellishments.

The final results!

Enjoy Eric this month. 

~Becky

March Author of the Month Tomie dePaola

My repost for author of the month is Tomie dePaola.  Tomie dePaola passed away last year on March 30,2020.  His books and illustrations are some of my favorites.   

I remember when I met Tomie dePaola at the International Reading Convention in Atlanta.  He was truly one of the coolest people there with his leather jacket and earing.  He  signed my book with his famous Tomie and gave me a big smile.  I was impressed.

I have always enjoyed the illustrations in Mr. dePaola's books.  His web site is filled with answers to many questions about his career, favorite books, and his current life.  He also keeps an updated blog that displays his artwork and current happenings.  He is a prolific writer and illustrator.  Here is a list of his many books.  I also have a Pinterest board filled with ideas. 

I enjoy his books about living with grandparents and the special part they play in our lives.  His book Watch Out for the Chicken Feet in Your Soup is one of the funniest books I have ever read. It is a story about a little boy who takes one of his friends to his Grandmother's house.  The little boy warns his friend about what he considers the strange things his Grandmother does.  His friend is intrigued and finds his Grandmother wonderful.  A great lesson for all of us.

To end, here is a wonderful video of an interview with Tomie dePaola on the value of  reading aloud.  It is a wonderful reminder of the gift we give our children.  Happy Reading!

 ~ Becky

Updated Post: Vocabulary: mapping a better future.

I enjoy reading to my children and listening to them read.  It is wonderful to see them engaging in text.  I have been listening to children read through my entire teaching career (over 28 years).  I often begin with the incorrect assumption that children know all words presented to them.  I have to remember to ask them if they know what certain words mean. 

I am trying to make more of a focused effort on expanding your students vocabulary.  I wanted to share some of the strategies that are currently helping.   Some familiar methods would be telling your student what a word means, looking it up in the dictionary, and trying to guess what a word means from reading it in a sentence.

Another strategy that is helpful for visual learners is Semantic mapping or word maps.  Here is a nice article that tells more. Basically, a word map is a visual organizer that promotes vocabulary.  I find it helpful to use in science or social studies, and with beginning readers.

Download this for Free on Teachers Pay Teachers

This is nice map for older elementary and middle school readers.   Here is another one that would be excellent for science for older students. This is an article that shares how to use mapping with students.   Lastly, here is one more article that discusses using this with older students up to high school.

For younger students I like this map.   It is very basic and easy to follow.  You could also just take a piece of paper and fold it in fourths to have the same vocabulary  map. 

I would recommend trying to do this 2-3 times per month as a realistic goal.  Try to focus on science and social studies for older learners and read-alouds for younger students.

There are many other methods, but hopefully these help your student to expand their vocabulary. 

Becky

Reading Non-Fiction

Teaching children to successfully read non-fiction is often a forgotten skill.  It seems like we think if they can read fiction. . . they certainly should be able to read non-fiction.  That is not necessarily true.  Learning to read non-fiction is an important skill that we need to help our children develop.
Below are a  a few ideas that may be helpful.


For preschool, kindergarten, elementary students I recommend simply reading non-fiction to them and talking to them about what you have read together.    Some further ideas to  help with comprehension would be to have your student  draw pictures of what they have read, write a one or two sentence summary, or tell you what the passage was about. (narration).

For Kindergarden/first grade students you can make a simple list of what they want to learn about a topic before they read a book.  That gets the student to actively engage their mind before reading.  Check the list at the end to see if any of the questions were answered.

A more advanced method for older students is the KWL chart.  There are different variations, but this is a basic one.  Write what you know about a topic, what you would like to know about a topic, and after you have read what you have learned.  I think it is a very good method to reading non-fiction.

Another graphic organizer for Elementary and middle school is the super six method.  The student writes down six things they have learned while reading a non-fiction text.   I would let the student know you will be asking them to do this after they finish reading a selection before they read it.

Lastly, for junior high students and high school students a great method for reading a text book is the SQR3.  SQR3 stand for Survey, Question, Read, Recite, and Review.  This article discusses the method in detail and is a great resource.  I think it is very helpful for high schoolers to have a plan when reading a text book.  We often assume our students can do this when they are not sure where to even start.  I believe this is an essential skill for older students to learn.

Hopefully this is a good place to start.  Being intentional and teaching our students how to read non-fiction is critical to their education.  It is a skill they will carry with them throughout their lives.
Becky

Concepts Of Print. ..

I get many questions every year from families about reading.  How to know if their child is ready to read, how to help their child read, and tips for struggling readers.  My Masters is in Reading, and I am currently taking a reading class to keep my teaching certificate current.  I am hoping these posts will be helpful for families.   If you have a question you would like answered in a post please write it in the comments.    

Concepts Of Print (COP) or Concepts About Print (CAP) can be defined is a set of understandings about how print works.  A child acquires CAP before they are able to read.  Children who have CAP know which way to hold a book, know text has meaning, know words are made of letters, that text is read from left to right, and that there is punctuation at the end of sentences.

Students who grow up in print rich environments and are read-aloud to will usually pick these skills up naturally.  Below is a short video that is directed to parents explaining CAP.




This video is done by a teacher assessing if a child has CAP. You can teach these to your child each time you read a book to them.  Ask them different questions each time.  "Where is the title?  Where is the first page? Where do you start?"  The video will show you more.





If you want to check if your younger student has CAP here is a checklist assessment that will help you determine that.  You ask your student some basic questions and check them off on your paper.

Here are some apps that are helpful for building CAP.

The following are based on the Bob Books.  Bob Books Reading Magic Lite which is free at Google, Amazon, and iTunes.  Bob Books Reading Magic #1 Reading Magic is 2.99 to 3.99 at Google, Amazon, and iTunes.

Disney Story-time at iTunes.

The popular online program Starfall has a free app at Google, Amazon, and iTunes.

 Let me know what you think, and any reading questions that you have!
~Becky

Guest Post: 7 Ways to Raise Kids Who Love Books by Becky Wade

I was thrilled  when one of my favorite authors, Becky Wade, agreed to write a post for Ohio Homeschool.  I love her books and  just finished her newest book True to You!   Today she is sharing how her mom influenced her love of reading in honor of Mother's Day.  Please give a warm welcome to Becky Wade.

 7 Ways to Raise Kids Who Love Books by Becky Wade

 

Abraham Lincoln once said, "All that I am, or hope to be, I owe to my angel mother."  If you were fortunate enough to have been raised by a wonderful mother, as I was, then you know how true that statement is!  It would be impossible to define or explain all the ways that my own "angel mother" influenced me, so I've decided to pinpoint just one in this post.

            My mom instilled a love of reading in me. 

            As a girl, I was an avid reader.  Later, after I married, my deep enjoyment of reading led me to become an author.

            So how did my mom do it?  How did she raise all three of her daughters to love books?  Here's how:

            1.  Before I could read, she read aloud to me.  Daily, she took the time to read.  And not just board books or picture books.  She began reading chapter books to me when I was small.  Those detailed stories filled my fledgling imagination with adventure, times long past, love, danger, honor.  I determined at a very, very young age that books were the best form of entertainment.

            2.  Even after I could read, she continued to read to me at bedtime.  Reading was a treat, a reward, a quiet time just for the two of us. "I'm going to have to take away a chapter at bedtime," may have been a punishment in our house but, "Go read for 20 minutes!" never was.

            3.  She took me to the library.  At every other stop on our list of errands (the grocery store, the department store, the post office) she'd say no to the million things I asked for.  But at the library, her answer was always an unqualified, "Yes."  I'd leave with a stack of books and a big grin.

            4.  I had plenty of unscheduled, electronics-free time in my day.  Hours of it.  If I told mom I was bored, she'd supply a few ideas.  "You can make paper dolls."  "Go knock on Allison's door and ask if she's free to play."  "Read."  Then she'd go about her business and let me figure out my own solutions.  I read.  A lot.

            5. My travel accessory was a book.  Whenever we took a road trip or a plane trip, my book was my entertainment device.  After all, books are portable, inexpensive, difficult to break, and don't need to be charged. 

            6.  She shared her books with me.  Starting in my late middle school years, when my reading tastes caught up with my mom's, she began passing the books she'd finished to me.  To this day, we talk about books and authors!  When I visit her house, I take a few of her recommendations home with me.  And vise versa when she visits me.

            7.  She modeled reading for pleasure.  My mom has always read for her own enjoyment.  Stop by her house on any ordinary week night and you'll find my dad watching sports.  You'll find my mom sitting on the end of the sofa near the lamp, reading.  It's easy for us moms to let our busy schedules squeeze our hobbies out of our lives.  But my mom protected her reading time.  And her daughters are the better for it.

Did your mom instill a love of reading in you?  Happy Mother's Day, moms!

True to You

Thank you Becky Wade for stopping by!  Becky has  a contest for her new book.    You may enter here. 

 Becky’s a California native who attended Baylor University, met and married a Texan, and settled in Dallas.  She published historical romances for the general market before putting her career on hold for several years to care for her three children.  When God called her back to writing, Becky knew He meant for her to turn her attention to Christian fiction.  She loves writing funny, modern, and inspirational contemporary romance!  She’s the Carol Award, INSPY Award, and Inspirational Reader’s Choice Award winning author of My Stubborn Heart, the Porter Family series, and the Bradford Sisters Romance series. 

Connect with Becky through her web site and social media. www.beckywade.com

Facebook: http://www.facebook.com/authorbeckywade

Twitter: http://twitter.com/beckywadewriter

Goodreads: http://www.goodreads.com/author/show/5298259.Becky_Wade

Pinterest: http://pinterest.com/beckywadewriter/

Instagram: http://instagram.com/beckywadewriter

Blog: http://inspiredbylifeandfiction.com/blog/

Ready Made Preschool 2

Some of your may remember from past posts how I have enjoyed using the Ready Made Preschool Program with my kids.  This year I bought the Seasonal ABCs's Level 2.

 The Seasonal ABC Level 2 is a 30 week program.  It is designed to be used four days a week for about 50-60 minutes.  You work with your student 3 weeks out of the month.  Also included is a Fall and Winter lesson. Each week has a book that you provide to read before each lesson.  You are learning the lower case and upper case letters.

  The kit comes in the large white box.  I moved all the art supplies into a plastic tub and moved the folders into the older Seasonal ABC's Level 1 box.   I left some of the larger items in the big box.  Three weeks of supplies are included in each manila folder.

 Every small craft item is in a small plastic bag and it is labeled for the week that it goes with.    You just pull  out the provided supplies and you have instant preschool.  All the searching your house for items, going to the store for little craft supplies is now taken care of.  For child #7 this is a good thing. as there would be no preschool otherwise.  I appreciate all the work that went into this program.

The above picture shows some of what we  accomplished this week.  Including reading  How To Make An Apple Pie and see the World.  We also wrote the letter "Aa"  in sand, shaving cream, and made it out of play dough.   This program helped us to have a great week!   I truly feel like a better mom.  I appreciate that. 

I will keep you updated!
Becky

Phonics, Phonics, Phonics. . . .

(originally published in 2011)

In college my reading teacher referred to phonics as clucking and spitting.  My classmates and I  thought that was pretty funny, and having little experience with phonics we did not realize how true that was.  I have spent many years clucking and spitting since then, and I do have more experience with phonics.

There are many phonics programs and most people are very attached to whichever one taught their child(ren) to read.  I heard Cheryl Lowe from Memoria Press share that people tend to keep trying different phonics programs with their kid, and the last one they try is their favorite.  When in reality their child was ready.   There is a great deal of truth in that.  I am going to share a few suggestions and a few programs that I know of.  The list is not all encompassing, and is just a place to start.  If you have one that is working hold on to it and stay with it.    For me it has been helpful to not rush out and buy them.  Almost all of them are available at the public library.  I have borrowed them to see if they were a good fit for my family.    In my opinion a program has to work for your child and also has to be one that you are comfortable with.  The following are some suggestions.  

  Alpha-Phonics: A Primer For Beginning Readers






This is my current favorite program.  It is very easy to follow and is very systematic.  I love the calligraphy print they use in the book.  It is your systematic intensive phonics program.  The front of the book has what your child reads and in the back they explain each lesson.


Phonics Pathways: Clear Steps to Easy Reading and Perfect Spelling



I have used this one as well.  I do like this one and it was the final program that helped my daughter learn to read.  Some people find this one hard to follow. Personally, I did not.  I liked the long lists and it was helpful for my daughter from China.  Definitely look at this one at the library before purchasing. 

The Ordinary Parent's Guide to Teaching Reading





Well, I will admit that I have this one as well.  I talked to Jessie Wise (the author) at a homeschooling convention, and she told me she wrote this for parents who have little or no experience in phonics.  She shared that she likes Phonics Pathways, but wanted something easier for parents to use.  This program also incorporates sight words nicely into the program.  This is a scripted program. 

Teach Your Child to Read in 100 Easy Lessons





I do not own this book, but know many people who like it.  Cathy Duffy has a nice review here. It is not an expensive book and has a serious following.  It is also a scripted program.

I believe magnetic letters are helpful with any of these programs.  For some children moving around the letters and building the words helps them to connect to the text.  For example, you are working on the word family "am."  Below you have the letters "h, s, r, and p."  Have the child move each letter up to "build" the word and then pronounce it.  This is especially helpful with tactile kids.

 

This is my short list of what is out there.  I know different curriculum programs like Memoria Press, ABEKA , The  Phonics Museum (Veritas Press) , and Sonlight have phonics incorporated into their kindergarten programs.   So there are many options.

My last thought on any phonics program you choose is to work on it consistently.  It can be painful to sit with a child to which this is not an easy task.   I would recommend taking 10-15 minutes every morning working on a phonics program with them.  When the time is up stop, and move on to something else.  I think short consistent times are better than longer inconsistent ones.
 
Becky

Callie Grant: An author worth taking note of.

Over the last year I have learned about the author Callie Grant.  It has been a wonderful discovery.  Callie Grant writes board books for children up to seven years old.  Her company is called Graham Blanchard books.  Her website is filled with parenting trips, reading ideas, and ways to support parents.

Her books combine beautiful pictures with Biblical concepts. I appreciate their quality and how much my children enjoy reading them with me.  They are engaging and enjoyable.  If you have not checked them out I would highly recommend them.  Here is a collection of her books.  She also has a collection of Grown-up Tips that go along with them.

I just finished reading All of Me That You Can't See.  It is a sweet story that introduces the concept of our inner self that grows along with our outer self.  It talks to children about their heart and soul and how they nourish them through seeking truth and their faith.  The pictures and quality of the book are amazing.  I love that this book has a good story, a good message, and is visually engaging.  I highly recommend this book.
I got this book free through Bookfun.org for my honest review.

~Becky

This post contains affiliate links

Learning the top 50 words!

A balanced reading program consists of phonics and sight words.  I have found it helpful to review sight words with my beginning readers.  I have included a file that has the 50 most used  words in the English language.  By teaching your student these words you will help them to be successful readers.

You can also use this list to track progress.  Use a different color pen and see how many words your student knows every 5-8 weeks.  It is exciting to track the progress of your student.  This is a great work sample to keep throughout the year. 

Hope this is helpful!
Becky

Free Printable Worksheets~ A Guest Post by Christy Gould

 Today's guest post is from my friend Christy Gould.  She is the mom to 4 boys under 6.  I asked her what she was into lately and she told me about her wonderful worksheet resources.  I am thrilled she has compiled them all for us!  Enjoy. 

I have four boys, two of them school-age, plus a toddler and a baby. You’d expect my house to be a noisy, messy place with constant running and tackling – and sometimes, especially around the dinner hour, you’d be right.

For the most part, though, my quieter-than-average oldest boys are very content to sit at the kitchen table and write, draw, and color. And they love worksheets. Easy mazes, word searches, dot-to-dots, DO-a-dots, matching . . . you name it, they love it. It defies everything I ever heard about raising and schooling boys!

I’ve spent the past three years or so amassing quite the collection, and I have a few favorite sites for free printables that I want to share with you today:

Mommy School at Oopsey Daisy Blog. These are arranged by letter (A is for Apples, etc.). She doesn’t have the entire alphabet completed, but the packets that are there have been a hit in our house.

Adding dots to a ladybug so the wings match.

Homeschool Creations. We’ve used her materials to enrich favorite stories, from old Corduroy to  The Little Mouse, the Red Ripe Strawberry, and the Big Hungry Bear.

Matching rhyming words from a Blueberries for Sal printable.

Royal Baloo, 3 Dinosaurs, and This Reading Mama. These three sites are fairly similar in content, and they often work together to make whole units, such as the ocean month we did last summer. They also teamed up to do sets of worksheets for the ever-popular BOB books, which were a huge success. (For about six months in the middle of this school year, he’d do anything as long as it used a Do-a-Dot marker!)

Using a Do-a-Dot marker to complete a “word path.”

Last but not least, I’ve gotten tons of thematic material from Gift of Curiosity. Her printables require e-mail subscription (unlike the others listed here, which you can print directly from the website), but they’re worth it. Most of the packets are enormous (100+ pages), geared to a wider range of ages (usually 2-7). She also has whole packs of themed Do-a-Dot pages, much to my children’s delight!

So, you might be asking yourself, how do you find all of these when you need them? The answer: I get daily e-mails from Free Homeschool Deals and Money Saving Mom (and, now, Gift of Curiosity, in order to have access to her printables). Whenever anything looks like it might be something I might ever use, I grab it. For example, I’ve known for some time that my kids would be studying botany this spring, so I’ve been downloading every freebie on plants I’ve seen. I plan to do a unit on the armor of God this summer, so when some free castle-themed coloring pages showed up on the Free Homeschool Deals e-mail, I downloaded it. You get the picture.

And now you’re probably asking yourself, what do you do with hundreds of pages of worksheets?! The answer: I have very intentional document storage on my computer. Within “My Documents,” I have a folder called “Homeschooling.” Within “Homeschooling,” there are many, many folders. I started out saving by age range (tot, preschool, pre-K, etc.). But when some of the packets ended up being for multiple ages, I switched to subject: holidays, science, transportation, phonics, math and numbers, handwriting, etc.

Are worksheets for everyone? Probably not. My current almost-three-year-old is much less interested in working at the table than the older two were at his age, and that’s fine. But for kids who love to learn on paper, let me assure you that it can be done for free!

Christy Gould is the wife of a pastor and a homeschooling stay-at-home mom to four boys under six. When she’s not refereeing little-boy disputes, you can find her in the kitchen, whipping up real-food meals and toiletries in equal measure. She chronicles her adventures in homeschooling and life at www.workbepraise.blogspot.com.