Hi Sue
I want to thank you for recommending the Word Workshop for my daughter . Since summer holidays she has been working on it and has reached lesson 10. She gets 90% and above on all lessons. I usually sit beside her and make sure she does not try to guess words without using the steps they recommend
I have a question . She is constantly trying to say the words without using the steps suggested in the book. She is correct maybe 60% of the time. I am always telling her to follow the method but she insist she knows the word. I do not want to discourage her by constantly saying use the method, so I let her say the word and if she is incorrect she uses method to work the word out.and gets it correctly.. Should I do this?? How can I get her to stop guessing and follow the method automatically.? Do you think I should be doing anything else to increase her decoding of big word along side the Word Worshop?
Thanks again for all your help
Re: Thanks to Sue
I like that idea Sue about th pencil. Often if I give my daughter just the beginning of a word she gets it. That may still be guessing tho. I’m getting my pencil out for next time we read. I really appreciate all the great ideas I’m getting from teachers and parents alike. Thanks.
OKay, a sales pitch :-)`
YOu know, I only really post on this board because I hope to make my millions selling educational books :-) I’ve got a booklet that explains “pencilling” in even more detail with a few other ideas — info is at http://www.resourceroom.net/Products/tandem.asp.
Re: OKay, a sales pitch :-)`
Funny, I tried to pull that up just yesterday, but I couldn’t get the page. I’ll try again.
Re: Thanks to Sue
Hi Sue
We have always used the pencil method and yes it does slow her down and she is more accurate. Unfortunetly when reading on her own she will not do this. She seems to feel she does not need the pencil. I agree on her own she will be making lots of mistakes , but she somehow makes the incorrect word work right into the passage and the passage actually make sence . How she does this I have no idea. It’s as if she has the meaning of the passage and does not need each individual word decoded.
I tested her with 5 of the words that they give you to use for post testing. I told her it was a test and she got 4 correct out of the 5. So I know she can do it.
I will keep working on the lessons and do what you mentioned with reading and hope she will eventually realize it works so do it.
Thanks
Re: Thanks to Sue
Well, I hear similar stories very often. You can use context, guessing, pictures, the repetitiveness and predictablilty of easy reading, hints from the teacher, con-artistry, and many other non-reading tools to get “right” answers at the beginning. But there comes a level where you need details and accuracy. For some people the brick wall hits in upper elementary school, for some in high school, for some on the SAT’s, for my most recent correspondent in advanced engineering classes. It’s sometimes necessary to shock the student with harder work to make this point before it gets too late.
Re: Thanks to Sue
My daughter does the same. She was reading a story about a person named Ronald. When the tutor asked the comprehension questions she ased what the possum’s name was and my daughter looked and her dumbfounded and said, “You mean this story was about a possum?!” She still got 4 out of 5 questions right. Go figure.
The guessing habit is a habit — so the question is whether it’s worth the battle to work with her to break the habit.
I would encourage her to, say, see how accurately she can read one page or see how far she can go before she makes a mistake. This could tell you just how ingrained the habit is - if she can slow herself down and decode instead of hurrying and guessing. To convince her of the value I’d compare the errors on a page where she was using the method to a page when she didn’t… because it soudns like if you’re not there to correct her, she’s going to be making lots of mistakes.
She’ll have lots and lots of chances to read independently and make mistakes and go back and fix them with the decoding methods. I would spend at least some daily reading time being focused and accurate.
One way to correct mistakes that isn’t as discouraging or disruptive is for both of you to follow as you read with a pencil, and use the pencil to break the long words up. WHen she makes a mistake you stop your pencil and lightly mark where she went wrong. This way you can look for patterns too.