Ok I’ve been looking everywhere- hopefully some of you can help.
I teach children identified as LD. I am soon going to have a new student- 2nd grade- hasn’t learned to read. I have never taught a beginning reader, and have NO materials for such. I am also working with 3 other students who are older at the same time. Please don’t waste my time telling me how things should be- I know this is less than Ideal, but it’s what I have to work with. No budget, no materials, but I do have access to the internet. I need suggestions for things that work! I won’t get a lot of direct 1 on 1 time with this kid- I need to make every minute count!! What’s out there that is working? Is there anything online that is not too expensive- that I could afford to buy out of my own pocket? HELP. Thanks.
Re: reading instruction
Should clarify that *any* easy reader books will do. I do *not* recommend buying the readamerica.net stories. They are all in the book anyway.
Nancy
Re: reading instruction
Some suggestions from my always looking for the cheap alternative world….
Actually, if you have the time you can just make many of the manipulatives you need initially by photocopying the relevant pages of Reading Reflex onto cardstock and using them. It’s not until you reach the multisyllable level that the book begins to have major holes. I found the PGX training invaluable after the basic and advance code levels, but the book sufficient up to that level.
Also, when I was teaching in the classroom I rarely used the white boards. I found it was much easier (and cheaper) to mark places on a kidney table (or as close as you can appropriate in your building) for each sound (or chunk) using a vis-a-vis (overhead) marker. I had the children use dry erase markers to write on the table and 3” squares of felt or Kleenex tissues as erasers. Strangely enough, permanent markers are erased by dry erase markers, but vis-a-vis markers are not. Must be the chemical make-up of the ink! When your table starts looking icky, Fantastic can make it look as good as new. I usually cleaned my table about once a week.
I second the Nancy’s opinion to avoid buying the readamerica.net stories. There are many other options available to that will be more interesting to your students. starfall.com is a free, fun site that is a terrific initial supplement, although they do introduce sounds somewhat differently than PGX.
Karyn
Re: reading instruction
You can also laminate white sheets of cardstock or poster board to make indiv. dry erase boards.
Oh, and I use Phono-Graphix (Reading Reflex), too!
$9.19 plus $1.40 shipping at Overstock.com
http://www.overstock.com/cgi-bin/d2.cgi?PAGE=PROFRAME&PROD_ID=176728
Often available on ebay for even less than that. (There is a British version, so you may want to check the IBSN number on Amazon for the American hardback and paperback versions.)
Reference for Phono-Graphix from this site:
http://www.ldonline.org/ld_indepth/reading/reading_approaches.html
Janis
another source is Valder Phonics
It is free and available on the web. . I like their approach too. Try and hook up with a mentor teacher or the SLP at school to help you with the decoding aspect. I collaborate with all the teachers at my school who have kids on my caseload. I learn so much from them. Also another fun site is by the author of Capitain Underpants, Dav Pilkey. It is interactive and makes books fun.
This is the link to Valder phonics
http://www.angelfire.com/biz/valderbooks/complete.html
Good luck! If we can help you with some particular problems just holler again!
I recommend getting the book “Reading Reflex” and using that. http://www.buy.com has it for under $11 with free shipping if your order is $25 or more. This approach usually works really well with beginning readers. It is written for parents who want to tutor a child at home, so it does not require a lot of study (although reading the first three chapters before doing anything is an absolute necessity!).
Also check out http://www.starfall.com . I believe you can still get a free reading packet from them.
Yet another inexpensive supplement is http://www.readinga-z.com . For a $25 one-year subscription you can print all the little decodable books you want. Some people print them all, put them into 3-ring binders, and then copy off what they want as needed.
But, if I could do nothing else, I would get “Reading Reflex”. That is the meat and bones of a wonderful approach to reading that works very well for most children. You might want to invest in a set of cardstock manipulatives from the company ($15 or so), http://www.readamerica.net , and a small white board and marker. You don’t need anything else, except for some easy readers.
Nancy