Need reviews for Sing, Spell, Read and Write

I use SSR&W in my kindergarten classroom. My kids really like it. I add a lot to it,though. Don’t know how it would be on a one-to-one tutoring. At the kindergarten level, we sing the ABC Phonics song every day for about 5 months while a student points to the letters. I stretch the writing in the workbook to two days & send the rest for homework. The phonemic matching page is good for one day. I supplement the other days with an art activity focusing on the letter sound we are working on. There is The Short Vowel Song we learn out of the SSR&W sequence. I teach the short vowels first rather than in the abc order as presented by the curriculum. Then we learn the Short Vowel Song. After the children know that really well, I try to make variations of the song “to try to fool them;” they think it’s great. As we learn about a consonant letter, I introduce a blending chart to practice the consonant with the vowels. We do that as a group 1st semester, then later get into individual blending of letters. SSR&W has a really cute “Ferris Wheel Song” that teaches blending of consonants & vowels; however, after a while the kids get bored with it. That’s why I do the blending chart, only a few combinations a day rather than a lot of blending at once. There is a Bingo-type game that is played once a week to reinforce phonic sounds. After we have covered all the sounds of the alphabet, there is a card game that is similar to Go Fish where the children ask for cards with sounds on them.

SSR&W, kindergarten level, has a 2nd semester book that has 10 black /white story books, 2 for each vowel. Word lists for each story are practiced with blending before introducing the stories. The books have to be ripped-out & stapled before using. I do reading groups, so while I am reading with my groups, I have the others work in a phonics book by a different publisher.SSR&W is mostly oral work, so I supplement it with other things to connect the writing with the sounds.

The first grade SSR&W is good, but needs something added to it for classroom use. . It covers more phonic sounds. Our first grade teacher uses the 2nd semester book as a supplement to the reading program she already has. The children learn the songs and orally practice reading the words for the target sound. Again, she picks the stuff that works well for her class.

I have used the word lists to help struggling readers, but I find that more intensive comparison of words needs to be done by the therapist. If your son already knows the songs before the therapist works with him, he will have an understanding of what pictures associate with the sounds for that program.

I see that Kay suggests supplementing the program with other phonics work.

My favourite basic phonics program is Check and Double-Check Phonics (as thorough as the title implies) which is good, clear, complete, and varied enough in its activities to keep kids engaged. Also inexpensive. The only warning is that you have to *teach* it, and that means *out loud* (silent phonics is a contradiction in terms.) Available from scholarschoice.ca (note that’s .ca, not .com), Delivery throughout North America is quite fast. I would definitely recommend this as a sound work-at-home book that can be used with any reading system. Start with Book 1; in several months (3 to 6 months average, but if it takes a year you’re still ahead of almost all the schools) move into Book 2; spend time on Book 2 which is what *most* students of all ages are missing.

Another good resource: consonant and vowel charts from Phonovisual (Phonovisual.com) You have to buy a packet of the individual ones, but they are still cheap. Sounds arranged in order by the way they are produced in the mouth. This is an excellent reference for both you and the child.
PV also has some workbooks; duller than SC but a good backup if you relly need extra practice, nice colour and also reasonably priced. Delivery from PV is not fast but they get there. Startt with consonant book, then vowel book; road to power and confidence is a nice review for later.

Hi Diane, do yourself and your son a huge favor and buy “Reading Reflex.” I’ve been a reading tutor for nearly 20 years and started using the “Phono-Graphix” (PG)program 3 years ago(it’s explained in the book).I had never experienced the incredible results I now take for granted using PG. The avg. remediation time for kids who read, but are struggling, is 12 hours; Yes, it’s that fast! You will be fascinated and will learn a lot. Your child will experience success from the first lesson.
If you don’t feel comfortable doing the teaching yourself, you can find a PG therapist in your area by going to ReadAmerica.net
There are many teachers, tutors,and centers out there, all doing THE SAME THING(I was, too, before I found out about PG)…giving kids more of what they they have already shown they “don’t get.” PG takes phonics to a new level. If you read the book and have any trouble getting started, E me and I’ll help by this method or phone. Nothing gives me greater pleasure than turning someone on to the simplicity of reading, when they thought it was difficult. (ps…I just spent my 15th hour with a 19 year old who was told he would never read. He came in not being able to decode simple words like “word,” “come,” “her.” He’s at a 4th grade level now and he, myself, and his parents are going to the district with a video diary I’ve made of his lessons. Wow! I truly hope this helps. Sincerely, Leslie

I used parts of SSRW in my classroom for the last dozen years I taught. As someone mentioned, the charts are excellent, especially the Ferris Wheel Song for blending. I felt that the storybooks were probably the best decodable books on the market at the time. The management system is excellent and one can easily keep track of what a child has learned and what s/he still needs to learn.

I did supplement, though, with multi-sensory spelling activities so gave the children much more practice that varied from day to day instead of constant repeating of all the elements.

The combination of structured systematic spelling lessons with the decodable text really helped my students learn.

However, the program has now been purhased by Pearson Learning and they are making some major changes. The stories in the storybooks are shorter and have less story line to them. The storybooks now have full color illustrations and I think that detracts from the emphasis on words to carry the story. They’ve now included expensive phonics workbooks. As long as Sue Dickson was in total control, she offered an excellent program at a reasonable price. It’s now moving to the use of a lot of consumable materials and will be much more expensive. One needs to know what to use and what can be left out.

I finally devised my own spelling program and used it with the 1980s SSRW storybooks.

Grace at http://www.spellangtree.org.