Question for Nancy re: materials for 3rd-5th graders

Submitted by an LD OnLine user on

Hi, I posted this within another thread, so I don’t think you have seen it. I thought you might find it more easily here!

Nancy,

I really appreciate your contributions on this list. I carefully read before I add new programs to my collection, so that I hopefully make wise choices.

I need to understand something, though. I was under the impression that REWARDS and MegaWords were similar but now you are suggesting STM as a preference over MegaWords. I believe you also like REWARDS, though. So my question is, do you recommend completing REWARDS before STM?

I have a couple of students who will be entering 4th grade next year. They are fine on basic decoding skills after being taught with PG instructional methods. But one still has great difficulty with word reading accuracy and fluency. So we are doing a lot of oral text reading as well as some Seeing Stars decoding practice. Besides that, would you say he would be ready for REWARDS? I don’t have his scores handy, but I think word attack is at about 3.3 grade and words ID is maybe 2.8. I was thinking that was a little low for any of the above mentioned programs. But I am feeling like we need to move on if there is something that would benefit him in developing fluency and automatic word recognition.

Just in general, is there anything that you find especially good for 4th and 5th graders? It seems from your post that STM is best for middle schoolers. But if I can teach decoding at 2nd or 3rd grade (by the time they come to me), it seems that there should be something to use for that 3rd-5th grade group who are still not up to speed on basic reading and spelling skills.

Thanks,
Janis

Submitted by Anonymous on Wed, 04/14/2004 - 4:10 AM

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Sorry, I didn’t see your other post.

Rewards, STM and Megawords are completely different approaches. I’ll try to explain the differences so you have a better idea of why I recommend one over the other.

Rewards combines the best aspects of PG (sounds instead of lettter names, chunking, elimination of rules) and OG (mechanical aids: underlining vowel sounds to determine chunks, looping under chunks, circling prefixes and suffixes) so that the drawbacks of each approach are eliminated. The program as a whole teaches a sophisticated overt strategy for attacking multi-syllable words, and then helps to make this strategy covert (and eventually automatic).

Megawords is basically an OG approach to developing word attack skills. It lacks the streamlining of Rewards that comes from adopting the PG philosophy. Many, many workbook pages are spent on learning the rules of syllabication and applying the rules of syllabication. The speed aspect of fluency work is all spent on timed readings of lists of words, starting with lesson 1. Rewards doesn’t start speed work until lesson 13, and then it is all timed readings of text rather than word lists. Megawords incorporates the usual OG focus on spelling right away; Rewards spends only a tiny amount of time on spelling and this only as a tool to further cement aspects of the word analysis strategy it is teaching.

Although the word attack and word ID scores are less than I like to see for a student starting Rewards, I think this would still be the best program to use with your student. The first 10 to 12 lessons of Rewards are easily adaptable to younger students if you just take it a little more slowly and spend extra time on discussions of word meanings. The text readings starting in lesson 13 would be worth trying, but you might have to find more grade-appropriate texts for speed work at that point. Still, it wouldn’t be too hard to adapt the lessons that way. Personally, I would like to see the authors come out with the same program designed for the vocabularies of 4th and 5th graders!

If Rewards doesn’t work, then I would try Megawords. Even wonderful programs don’t work with every single child. Some children may need the slower pace and many workbook pages of Megawords to plod their way through multi-syllable words.

I don’t recommend STM as a reading program at all. It is a wonderful spelling program that *may* have a side effect of improving multi-syllable word attack skills. However, that would be purely a by-product of the program and is not its main emphasis. It has no reading fluency exercises at all in it — text or word lists.

Hope this is the type of information you wanted!

Nancy

Submitted by Janis on Wed, 04/14/2004 - 1:04 PM

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Thanks Nancy, That was most helpful! Yes, I understand that STM is spelling, but I wondered whether it should be done simultaneously with REWARDS or whether perhaps it has harder words which would necessitate it being used after REWARDS?

I am also wondering if Anita Archer’s Phonics for Reading book C might be a good bridge between PG and REWARDS. Have you by chance seen it? At least it is inexpensive, so I might just order it and see!

It really helped me to hear the descriptions of REWARDS and MegaWords, though. You are the first one to clarify exactly how they differ. And it sounds like REWARDS is perfect for those of us who use a PG type method for decoding.

Thanks again!
Janis

Submitted by Anonymous on Sat, 04/17/2004 - 6:15 AM

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I’m glad the info was helpful.

I have used the stories in Phonics for Reading Level 3, but not the whole program. I think it would make a reasonable bridge between PG and Rewards, especially since the vocabulary and text are much easier than Rewards. Actually, the program even contains some exercises that are similar to those in Rewards.

Overall I just don’t care for the approach as much as that of PG and Rewards. However, it looks better than anything else I have seen for students who have finished PG but are not ready for Rewards. It provides good review of advanced code sounds, with accompanying stories to practice reading the code in text.

STM could be used simultaneously with Rewards. The vocabulary in Rewards is actually more challenging than that in STM.

Nancy

Submitted by Janis on Sat, 04/17/2004 - 2:27 PM

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Excellent, Nancy. It helps so much to hear from someone who has actually seen and tried these materials. I have spent so much on materials and most of them have been wise purchases. But I try to learn carefully from others who seem to have the same instructional philosophy that I do before I buy. (My school hasn’t given me ANY money for instructional materials for the last two years!!!) Until now, I have had third graders and under, so I haven’t had to deal with REWARDS or STM yet. But I have a student moving into that level next year, so I am trying to get prepared. He is a classic dyslexic, and in spite of learning PG code at the 90% level, he still hesitates in blending single syllable words. So I feel he needs some bridge work before starting REWARDS. I am using some Seeing Stars with him and will also order the Phonics for Reading.

Thanks again!
Janis

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