Barton...

I suppose I am supposed to post on this. :-) I am a certified Barton tutor. Anyway I started using it in a private practice (I couldn’t afford to keep tutoring, long story). Anyway, it is a really good program, awesome in some ways.

First of all, you get training (that is unless you are thinking about finding a Barton tutor). This is important. It is very hard to do a good job of teaching reading without training. Reading manuals isn’t really workable. Training a la video tape gives you the background. I think they are very well done, though a little stiff (she is MUCH better in person). She covers everything very well.

I think she has simplified some of the more arcane aspects of Orton Gillingham and given them more sense. She has added useful elements from Lindamood’s programs (like visualizing, imagery, etc.). My tough HS kids really liked Q as the “mafia” letter with it’s “u” body guard. (Not to worry it is a queen to grade school kids). For the spellling rules she uses “names” rather descriptions. For example, the doubling of f, l, and s at the end of single syllable words (well, stuff, etc.) is the “floss rule”. (One of student this became sort of joke and he reworded the rules, “This is the Floss Boss rule”. We had a lot of fun laughing at them sometimes
as he would imagine what they would be.) I think it is an effective spelling program. I’ve had kids shoot up from Cs and Ds to As and Bs in spelling.

She does a really good job with fluency, etc. and she rewrites the book on explicit, going into great detail on everything which can be a problem too.

Problems:
explicit, sometimes way too explicit and detailed.

I don’t think this is a little kid’s program. She gives a broad age of between 5 1/2 to adult. The vocabulary gets difficult very fast.

Some of the sequence is questionable. I understand why silent e is introduced so late, as it is confusing. But you get the kids reading four syllable words before they are reading “lake, mate, etc”. Vowel diagraphs are even later. This might be a general problem with OG, though some of the OG programs introduce some of this earlier.

As for your son “knowing” the rules, but still spelling phonetically. Well it is likely that he hasn’t been explicitly taught things like which letters are doubled, when c or ck is used, etc. If he really knew all that something like 85% of the language is completely rule bound and spellable.
I think people generally think it is not that high.

If the problem were just spelling, I would not use Barton. It is just too intensive for that. OTOH, being youngish, spelling may be the first way dyslexia shows up. And that he will have problems with multisyllable words unless he gets the intervention.

—des

According to the qualitative reading inventory my child’s frustration level was 2nd grade, independent at 1st grade level at the beginning of 6th grade 10/04. I started Barton in 2/05. She was just tested 8/05 and was at a third grade reading level with STAR. We are just finishing the third level of Barton. The next level does have a franklin speller in it and that should help her to get use to using it. She is spelling alot better and knows the few rules, but it will be awhile before we get to those silent e, and vowel teams that will throw her. My child has a problem with working memory and saying multisyllable words is hard for her and other language issues. I am seeing this program help her with these issues and am eager to get to the next level as it has multisyllable words. They have the child write down what you dictate and I am impressed with how much she has improved from when we started and I am sure that is improving her working memory (to hold words in her head long enough to write it down). I don’t have to repeat the sentence as much, so I see improvement. You might inquire about the AVKO spelling and see how that is going for others. My school did it,but the educational assistant did not do it correctly (my child was to write the word down and correct it and there were alot of mistakes that were not corrected).

Ah yes, the Franklin Speller. The kids I have gotten to that point were very excited by this. There are also games on it which the kids want. OTOH, I tried to encourage one set of parents to buy the speller and why, and they were not interested, feeling she should look up everything in a dictionary (hey we did it it was good for us). I think the other will.

The other really motivating thing was the schwa. Tell the kid that they are going to learn something their friends and maybe even their teacher doesn’t know. They are very excited about that.

Level 4 is very intensive and very tedious so be sure to break it up with games. I have some ideas on this if you like. I wouldn’t try to go faster than one lesson in three days (or even 4). Maybe get some of the decodable text from Barton. It is really well done. Humorous and not at all dull. Do some comprehension with reading to her and asking about what you have read, that kind of thing. I am going thru it rather quickly now as this student is not so severe and really doesn’t need it. You can also review older/ easier spelling rules.

Though it is tedious and all, you and your kid should see a BIG jump in reading skill and confidence after 4.

—des

Heck, I tell my students I’m going to teach them what most people don’t know - the difference between vowels and consonants. Most people know which are which - but if you ask them why, they don’t know.