To Susan L re SPIRE

Reader One actually contains blocks 1 & 2. It is over 100 pages of words, sentences, and passages. Since I don’t teach preschool, I don’t have the Pre-Primer book. Reader One begins with CVC words (and assumes that all consonant sounds have been introduced). Introduces one vowel sound at a time.

When working with young students, I introduce three consonant pairs (p/b, t/d, k/g) and one short vowel sound—sometimes only two consonant pairs and one vowel sound. Depends on how they fare with feeling the sounds. I never introduce /i/ or /e/ until later. /o/ or /a/ are okay. I use cards or tiles for word reading activities until all the consonants are introduced. Then, I move into the SPIRE readers. The Pre-Primer Book might have different ideas.

I’m not sure what Sheila has done in the Pre-Primer book, but I know she’s using a LmBell base. Why don’t you call her and ask her?

Yes, decodable text is what’s missing in LmB (and Seeing Stars, for that matter). Kids need lots of practice to become automatic. Having things lined out in the materials helps us to not forget things. :-)

You could order SPIRE and return it if unsuitable to your needs. They will let you return it (as long as you don’t spill coffee on it like I’m inclined to do…)

Susan, whenever I see your name on the board, I always look in to see what you’re saying, no matter what the text is about.

I note that you discussed that there is “no decodable text” in LMB. Is that why the follow up with OG is so important for the MS words.

BTW, did you get my email on the list of OG tutors in Jax?

For most young students (below grade 4), pure OG moves too quickly away from the connection of sound to symbol. Yet, Lindamood-Bell doesn’t have a tight scope & sequence past introduction of the sounds. SPIRE does a nice job of blending both at a pace that is just right for younger students.

Many children need much more practice reading and applying what they learn before they are ready to move on to a new skill. Some instructors can handle this and have developed their own materials (collected or written stories, phrases, sentences, and word). Personally, I just like to pay someone to do that part.

The best blending of the two methods that I’ve yet found is SPIRE. She (Sheila Edmands, author) introduces sounds ala LmB. The lesson is basically Orton with a slower pace and some tracking (about 5 changes) of LmB inserted into the lesson. If kids can process sounds, I skip the tracking and include a little more spelling. I also do some Elkonian in place of tracking and/or a blending game with cards for some kids.

Yes, I got your list. I haven’t been able to do anything with it yet. While I’m waiting for folks to get back from the holidays, you might call the people on the list and find out:

1. From whom they took their OG training. How long was the course? Did it include a supervised practicum?

2. Are they certified? From whom? What programs do they use?

Let me know what you discover.

Some kids with memory or reasoning problems need to spend more time on single syllable words until their reading is at about a 3rd grade level. Then, hopefully, their mental processing has gelled enough to handle multi-syllable words.

With bright kids who read at about 3rd grade level, one can often show them the single syllable patterns and then move right into multi-syllable words. I don’t use SPIRE with this group. I like Wilson Language better. But I don’t spend time laboring over the first 4 books, either. Fill the holes (if any)…Show the syllable patterns using one-syllable words…move on to syllabication of multi-syllable words. That’s also the beauty of 1:1 tutorial. Feedback is immediate and personal, and instruction is geared to individual needs.

The decodable early reader question keeps being asked, and there don’t seem to be any that people are really satisfied with. I have never seen any decodable series that I could wholeheartedly use. Personal opinion — I think the strictures are just too limiting. You want to use only fully decodable words, at first only short vowel CVC. That already makes the language very artificial and stilted. Then you need to introduce vocabulary slowly, and that makes the the stories very dull. Then you need intense repetition for the early reader to get a solid grip on things, and that makes most of them totally unreadable. Then, the artificial language does not accord with what the chilod expects orally, so he either tries to change it to sound more natural, or he decides that reading has nothing to do with normal language, a bad lesson to learn.
I have seen some “modern” decodable series that avoid the dullness trap, but they do so by introducing far too many new words far too fast, so they don’t work as stand-alone series (although nice as backup further practice.)

I have given up on finding a good decodable series, and have gone the other route. I use a series that has as natural language as possible including nice long complex sentences, gradual steady introduction of high-frequency vocabulary, and huge amounts of planned repetition. True, they are still badly lacking excitement, but we have the alternate books for a reward when each level of the basic ones is passed.
BUT, here’s the big trick — I teach the high-frequency vocabulary phonetically. I don’t believe in “sight” words at all, period, and we sound out *every* word. This is more logical and gives the student a tool to use when the teacher is not over his shoulder. True, I have to help a lot at first. The very new reader knows almost nothing so I sound out everything for him and then have him copy with me. The beginner knows the consonants but I have to help with the vowels and digraphs. By level 3 or 4 the student can sound out the regular words if I give a hint on the long/short/diphthong vowels, and I help with odd vowels and silent letters. By level 5 or 6 the student is reading relatively independently and I fade out the assistance except for very irregular or very long words.
In order to make this work, I also parallel the readers with a good phonics program. (very important, in fact vital!) The phonics program clarifies the lessons in sounding out and reading orally, and reading real stories (even if pretty repetitive) gives point to the phonics exercises.
By the time the student has finished level 5 or 6 in the reader and phonics book 1, he’s at a passable Grade 1 level of 150+ high-frequency words and able to sound out short vowel CVC and often more; usually at this point my students take off, move into other Grade 2 readers (I collect old basals and at this point read what we want to for story enjoyment and comprehension as well as skill); we continue with phonics book 2 to formalize vowel patterns and digraphs, and then it’s a race to keep up with the kid.

This approach would work with PG or OG or any other phonics program; get a good highly repetitive basal pre-primer and primer and first reader; if the child complains they’re dull, tell him he needs to do the practice in the dull ones 20 to 30 minutes a day, and his reward will be more exciting stories for fun time. Model sounding out each new word, have the student copy it with you, have the child do it alone pointing to each letter; if coordination permits, have him say the sounds while tracing and copying each letter. Practice new and old vocabulary about ten minutes a day, and read stories twenty to thirty minutes a day. As he learns the phonics patterns, back off and have him sound out those patterns that he knows and chime in with help when there is one he hasn’t formally met yet. Point out irregular sounds and silent letters; he has to meet them and they occur often in those high-frequency words, so just point them out as problems that exist and that we have to deal with. Over time the repetition will sink in and he will be reading more and more independently as he learns more skills and you fade out.

I teach Title 1 remedial reading (incl. dyslexic students) and would
highly recommend to you www.funphonics.com

Their entire set is under $50. Best decodable books I have ever seen.

BE

>I have given up on finding a good decodable series, and have gone the other route. I use a series that has as natural language as possible including nice long complex sentences, gradual steady introduction of high-frequency vocabulary, and huge amounts of planned repetition. >

What’s the name of the series that you use that has natural language? Any website? Thanks!

I recommend the Watch Me Read books from Houghton Mifflin. I first saw them at my old school. They were supplemental books in their reading series, Invitations to Literacy.

I use PG and like many of you have a hard time finding good books for kids just starting in the advanced code. These books used to come listed by reading level but now come by running record levels A- L or M, not sure of the last level. The company sells them as separate texts.

I think the ones at level 1.5, 2.0 and up the best. They use mostly advanced code words and include some MS words . The stories are good.

Kathy

Very sound advice.

I have a couple of (actually 3) suggestions for early decodable readers.

The first one is the Merrill Linguistics Readers Series by McGraw Hill. They go from Book A to Book G getting progressively more complex. They give loads and loads of practice at a very basic level so that by the time the students get to Book G, they’re pretty fluent. The names of the books are all quite short simple 2 word titles. One is Lift Off, one is I Can, one is Catch On. Book G, the last one is Take Flight. I love these readers and without them, I’d be lost - and so would almost all my students.

My second suggestion is a short series of books written by Laura Appleton Smith and put out by Flyleaf Publishing. These are beautifully written and illustrated stories made up of mostly CVC or CCVC, CVCC words. The problem is there are only 5 of them - (as far as I know, unless they’ve come out with new ones recently.) The titles are “Meg and Jim’s Sled Trip”, Jen’s Best Gift Ever, The Sunset Pond, one about Halloween that I forget the name of and “Frank the Fish Gets His Wish.” Frank the Fish is the most advanced. They are all around 35 - 40 pages long. I bought these at the IDA conference a few years ago - and got them autographed and my students love them. So do I. They are really really nice and very easily read by a beginning reader. I have one little student who knew nothing but the single consonants and short vowels and he read the entire book over long distance phone to his Grandmother in Calgary in 12 minutes.

I would also like to mention in passing The Sullivan Readers. I had heard so much about them and how they were no longer available etc. So I ordered them from a website 3 or 4 years ago without ever seeing them. When they came I was horrified. It’s page after page after page of “I am Dan. I am a man. Am I Dan? Is Dan a man?” I was so disappointed that I actually thought “no wonder some people are against phonics if this is what they’ve been exposed to” So I put the Sullivan Readers on a high shelf and tried to forget about them. Then, wouldn’t you just know, a few months ago, along came a little boy who I sensed might be right for them. I got them down, dusted them off - and sure enough - he’s just flying ahead with them. And I’m thinking of ordering the next volume in the series.

Here’s the website for the Laura Appleton Smith books:

http://www.flyleafpublishing.com/books.html

They appear to be lovely little books.

Eleanor, Do you use the supplemental materials that come with the Appleton Smith books? I used them once but found that my kids who really needed the work couldn’t do them - it was too hard for them. I love the books though for their sheer beauty and the lovely stories. I believe Appleton Smith was a Montessori teacher at one time. Her materials and approach are similar to those used by some Montessori classrooms.

The series I use for absolute beginners with no reading vocabulary at all (K to 1.5 or 1.8), or with real problems from the word go, is an old British series called “Key Word”, originally published by Ladybird and recently reprinted by Penguin; available online from Penguin.uk You have to look through the website, but they’re there. Shipping costs are a killer but the books are sturdy and last through many students.
A first caution: Ladybird tried to boost sales by going very commercial, and published a lot of trash. They also published a failed whole-language program based on magic (Puddle Lane) which is great as additional fun pre-Harry-Potter reading, but no good at all as a text series. So when I suggest the old Ladybird readers as good for those first 200 words, I mean ONLY the “Key Words” numbered 1a and 1b through 6a and 6b. The older workbooks, when available, are good too. The titles are things like “Play With Us”, “Look at This”, and so on.
Second, I will be the first to admit that these are not terribly exciting plots or great literature. They are practice books with nice realistic pictures but too much text to guess from pictures, nice long sentences, and tons and tons of planned repetition.
These books have very little phonics content and need to be parallelled with a good phonics series. But used with good phonics, I have found no better for those first 200 words.

After that level, I use old readers gleaned from school sales and used book stores. Anything with lots and lots of text and planned vocabulary development, and subject matter that is not offensive (do check!). I use two or three different series as needed.

I have noted a pattern in the local “whole-language” schools: not only are the kids reading very badly, they are hardly reading anything at all. They come home with “books” that are barely even short stories, just a bunch of bad art glued together with captions attempting to be funny. A total of less than two hundred running words just is not sufficient for a week’s work in Grade 2; a student needs to do that much in a day or two, and should be well past guessing from pictures. A student in Grade 4 should have more than two or three sentences on a page. And so on.
So look for older texts that have large blocks of words, words, words. Of course, you move into this gradually — I usually start a level or two below where the student has tested; then you can move forward at reasonable speed without stalls.
You can tell if a text has planned developmental vocabulary by looking for an organized word list and vocabulary count in the back.