How to teach Phonographix at school

PS. I found Step Up to Writing which I just love. This has sent me on this mission to find a better writing program which is how I found this board. Do you think I should get O-G trained in addition to PG or is PG enough?

I am considering writing a certified letter to my public school district telling them I do not feel all students are making adequate progress in Reading Mastery and that I would like them to give me the tools to be a more effictive reading teacher. I am going to ask them to get me trained.

I have on child in particular who I am extremely concerned with making almost no progress. I may ask the district to send him to a private school or some place that can help him. I have not helped him and I don’t think he’ll get help next year in junior high. I bet if there is no intervention soon, it will be too late. I AM SO FRUSTRATED. These kids don’t have parents who know how to advocate for their children like many moms and dads on this board.

How can I help this kid. I am learning PG as fast as I can but this student will soon move on to junior high. He can not be retained again.

Have any of you convinced your district to pay for PG or OG training?

Michelle

Dear Michelle,

I am a recently certified PG tutor. I went through the training after seeing what a difference PG made for my son. I took the weeklong course in Washington, DC run by 3 speech-language pathologists through Washington Reads. It was excellent and fun too! I don’t know if other trainers do as good a job as they do. If you can’t get your district to pay for training, you could pay for it yourself (I think some of it might be tax-deductible) and you could pay yourself back through a few months of after school tutoring.

I don’t know much about Read America’s on-line courses–maybe someone else could answer that. I will say that after tutoring a handful of students, I am amazed at how well it works! Of course I already knew that, but to see it in practice over and over again…kids really grasp the logic of it and their self-confidence grows pretty quickly.

Even if you can’t get any official training soon, people on this board will help you out. Another idea is to find a certified teacher or tutor in your area who would spend a little time with you helping you get set up. On several occasions, I have coached parents on how to do PG with their own children.

The workbooks are very good. If you have Reading Reflex and a workbook for each student (and an extra one for yourself for preparation purposes), you will do fine.

If you take the course, you get a binder filled with the same material in the workbooks (in reproducible form) and some other helpful things. There’s a checklist chart of all the lessons and exercises they recommend. I have come to rely on that to keep track of what my students have mastered, what I have introduced, what’s next, etc.

Good luck! I think you will find this quite rewarding!

Dear Michelle
I am interested in your program with helping special ed. students to read who haven’t made a great deal of progress. I have one such student,LD in an inclusive 5th grade class. Any suggestions would be helpful.
Thanks so much, Barbara Engelke

Barbara,
I am no expert on Phono-graphix. I bought the book Reading Reflex after reading about the success on this board. You can do a search on Phono-graphix or PG for short on this board to get more details. I read the book and it sounds good. I need to try it for myself before I can really brag about it as so many here seem to have good success. I’m desperate to help this kid and the others I will have in the future.

I have a student who is in 6th grade and can only read CVC short words. It is my best shot. I need a crash cousrs. I have considered going to Florida for training but when I saw the online course I thought I might try it plus it would be cheaper online without airfare etc.. Maybe I don’t even need the course but bigger materials worksheet size would be enough. I’m am ld teacher always looking for better ways to help my students. I am feeling major guilty sending my student to junior high with no reading skills. I know he will end up in jail like his brother. His mom said it today and I believe her.

You know, it would be cheaper to pay the $15,000 for the private LD school for the next three years instead of the $20,000 for the jail term each year. I am waiting to read about him in the paper. It makes me sick. If I could afford it I’d pay for it. I feel frustrated. Sorry I got off topic a bit but it feels good to talk to you people out there who understand it. I have not been given the right tools to help remediate sever LD’s. I am caring and understanding, BUT I’m not helping this child.

I even talked to my supervisor today to see if our district has any other program. NOPE.

Good luck,
Michelle.

i hate to post as most times PG people get blasted on this bulletin board,

i use PG exclusively, i tutor all ages, all abilities, PG has never failed to teach each and every kid that walks through my door, every kid, i never test, we just start working the minute they come, i never look at any testing done by the school, it is meaningless to me

i am now working with an 11 yo, came to me reading on the preprimer, i have had him about 15 times, tonight he was reading on the 3rd grade level from various IRI’s that i have, and said it was easy

we spent one session in CVCC,CCVC and were into advanced code by week two, we did oe,ow ir ae ee oo, and of course MS words as we went along,

i push him very hard, he is on Adderal, and i have him at 7:30 at night and often we go until 9,

i never let any medications or poor home life interfere, we work hard no matter what, i don’t really care what goes on at home as i cannot control that, i do have mom in attendence at ALL sessions, she looks tired, but she comes and she pays attention, some parents fall asleep, but not this mom,

i told the boy tonight that next week we are on to 4th grade level reading,

i gave him about 10 stories from various IRI’s and told him to read them all to his mother,

so please by all means, use PG, take a training and get going,

i have trained many people over the yrs, i love it, it is all i do, libby

Use the search button on the top of the page and read what shay has to say, all of it relevant.

Hi, my name is Teresa Sewell, I have a 10 year old son who has been recently diagnosed with Asperger’s Syndrome, Hunter can read on a 5th grade level but his comprehension level is 2 grades behind, I have already bought the book Reading Reflex, I am wanting to learn how to teach Hunter to read where it is fun to read I also have a 5 year old that is just starting to learn to read in kindergarten, would you suggest I start both of the boys at the same level with phonographix or where should I start Hunter the 10 yr. old. I would also like to know where you got your training to teach phonographix, I have had several parents ask to go and get certified to teach this so that I can help their children but I work full time, I would be interested in becoming certified if I could take a course of something at night. I know they are offering an online course but I was looking for a more personal approach to training, also I cannot afford the cost of the online training. Any information you can give me will be greatly appreciated.

WOW, Libby and the rest of you, that sounds great. I can’t wait. I want to get certified. I don’t know anyone in Arizona doing it. Thanks for the information. It is so hard to sift through all the tons of stuff I find online and in my teacher box. This board has been a nice find for me. I think I am a better teacher because of it.
Michelle

Libby-Where are you located? Do you know any way to track down PG tutors? I live in the Pittsburgh area. Thanks

Hi Laura and everyone,
If you go to the Read America website or call them, they can give you the name of the closest tutor in your area. As Victoria said, I have posted quite extensively on PG here. We have had many threads on the subject and I do recommend that you do a search. As Libby said in a previous post, I only use PG as well for teaching decoding skills and have never had it fail me. I just started a third grade student yesterday whose psychologist couldn’t understand why she has already lost 20 IQ points in two years. He was puzzled because it seemed like all her problem was decoding deficiencies! All? I will probably have to do 10 hours and she will then have to read. LMB and OG are both good programs but they seem to take longer and are therefore more costly. Try using Reading Reflex before being trained, it really isn’t hard to present. If you need help, email me directly and I will help you. I have used it very successfully for older kids in a classroom situation.

Shay, this is Teresa Sewell, I contacted ReadAmerica and was told there were no tutors located near me do you know of anyone I could correspond with on the internet that could instruct me in how to use PG. We have an awful special education system here in Talladega, Ala. we have 1 special ed. teacher who spends at the most 15 minutes with each child, by the time the child gets their books out and gets settled the 15 minutes are over, my son has been in special ed. for 2 years now and has gotten virtually nothing out of it. As I have said in my previous post many parents who have special education children want me to get certified to teach PG but I work full time so I would need to take the training on the weekends or at night over the internet or elsewhere, but no tutors are found anywhere near where I live. If you could advise me what to do next I would appreciate it greatly, PG is greatly needed here in Talladega. Thanks Teresa

Please email me directly.