Read Naturally level to buy

Do they offer one sample of their “levels?” If this is the case, you will find that of the 24 selections at each level, they are not all equally difficult. Several are significantly more difficult and several significantly less difficult, most somewhere between the two. I never draw conclusions about reading level from one sample.

If he reads Harry Potter, then he is reading above the levels you are considering, wouldn’t you think?

Any reason not to just promote wide reading of materials of interest to him? What kinds of words does he struggle with? Vocabulary development might be a good direction to go at this stage……maybe.

Last year we got books on tape for the express reason of working on vocabulary development. He was reading books below his oral vocabulary. He loves them and listens for hours.

On Harry Potter—he isn’t independent reading it—we read every other page. It is what he is interested in reading (and the only thing he is interested in reading!!).

On level, there is only one sample.

On decoding, he makes errors on one syllable words he is not familiar with (not in vocabulary) or not obvious from context. He will correctly decode at other times three syllable words. He is very bad at decoding out of context or with nonsense words—and with words he hasn’t seen often. His letter ID score from Woodcock Johnson was 93 SS—only a 3.1 level. Passage comprehension was 110 SS.

On doing it at all, I don’t know. You and Pattim recommended it—and I see you both as on top of things—that is why I am looking into it.

Beth

My instinct would be to go with level 4. Why don’t you email Shay and get her opinion—she’s a big user of this program. She hasn’t posted recently, but her old posts included her email and she encouraged people to get in touch with her for further guidance.

Beth,
Another thought for summer would be to have your ds do the Sound Reading Solutions CD instead. It has a number of phoenemic awareness games on it, as well as a lot of sound/symbol association games. It is supposed to take about 15 hours to complete.

Having him do the CD, which is designed so the child can pretty much self-administer (supposedly—I haven’t received my CD yet), could take the heat off the mother/son thing for the summer while giving him more reinforcement on decoding basics. Also, SRS is more gamelike and fun (ergo, more summer-like) than Read Naturally, which after all requires the child to do the thing he really doesn’t want to do—read aloud. You could pick up on Read Naturally after summer, when he may some progress and would test differently.

The CD is $59. Take a look at the website—if you have DSL you can view the demo there. If not you can order a demo disc for free. (Be sure to call up for the demo instead of placing a web order—apparently there is glitch in the web function.)

:P Hi Everyone! I have been just a little busy lately and haven’t been on the lists. I will be on and off all summer because I will be doing extensive tutoring starting next week and my daughter is coming down for a week in August, so goes summer. I want to comment on fluency. There used to be a rule of thumb when it came to reading. First and second grade the student learned to decode; third and fourth grade he worked on fluency. I still think that this applies. I also adhere to the belief that a child should really only be expected to understand all of the basic code and some of the advanced code in first grade and all of the advanced code and MS words by the end of second grade. My advise to you, Beth, is to let your son read all of the pages in the book so that he can practice his skills and give him a break from teaching. It really breaks up his reading when he only reads one page and then you read the next. This certainly won’t help his fluidity. I think that maturity will also help him with his not only remembering the code but also his fluidity.

Shay,

Do you think I should wait on Read Naturally, given what you know about my son? I am correct in inferring that you think that I should just have him read every page, to work on fluency? The only issue is that every page is hard for him—he gets tired—but maybe that is the real issue that I need to work on.

It is frustrating with the code with him. He seems to improve for awhile—in remembering—then forgets it again. Yesterday, was not decoding ea correctly—and not even one of the options. Last round of going over the code improved his vocabulary—it is like he adds more words to his sight vocabulary but after awhile forgets what he has learned.

I plan to try again at the end of the summer—in the meanwhile I am doing just a bit each day on multisyllable words. I see that helping—learning prefixes, for example.

Beth

Beth, our kids do seem to have a lot in common. I went to the read naturally website and my 11 yr old breezed through 4.0(and decoded ‘reputation’). I couldnt talk him into doing more(it was 10PM) but I bet, just like yours, he will struggle with 3.5 simply because of the names

My question-what do the terms at the bottom refer to? Im thinking cold reading? And what determines repeated reading-twice or more?

What about errors? Are they subtracted from the WPM one for one? My son does a lot of little meaningless errors-‘to’ instead of ‘for’. They dont seem to change comprehension and I have stopped picking at it-I realized that I too make those mistakes when I read aloud. Its like Im predicting the next word as Im reading and, if it sort of fits, it comes out of my mouth before I can stop it;I know Ive done it but I seem compelled to go on unless it changes the meaning.

And yes, we too are reading a Harry potter book together-# 3 -we saw the movies for #1 and #2. We split it by me reading for 15 minutes and then him reading for 15. More tiring for him, but it probably does break the flow less. Honestly, I have trouble following Potter-we did Deltoras Quest book 1 earlier this summer and I wish hed stuck with that series. But, motivation is everything and Potter is in the news!!!

Honestly, Beth, it sounds like your son is doing well. I dont want to diminish your concerns but I also wanted to give you an outside view in case you were so wrapped up in the process, you couldnt see it!!!

Of course you want him on grade level across the board-so do I-but realize he is very close and thats awesome!

My struggle seems to be vocab these days. I know listening to audio books would be a big help but he is reluctant and Ive let it fall by the wayside-time for bribery, perhaps?

Did you ever check your sons comprehension on the audiobooks? Thats another concern-since mine is ADD inattentive, I worry he will ‘listen’ to the tape without being at all engaged and I will never even know. My dh does audio books on vacation drives and my mind wanders. I can do better at home with headphones but even then……..

BTW, I am an excellent reader and have been all my life. Rereading this post about all my ‘peculiarities’, I thought Id best mention that ;)

Mary Cas,
On word counting for Read Naturally please see the post entitled “Need Help Interpreting” on the Parenting LD Board. It shows up on the second page—last post was June 12. I wrote down the guidance given in the booklet that accompanies the CDs. (I wish they did a much better job on the website in guiding parents as to the appropriate level to buy. You really want to get it right because the CDs are not returnable once they’ve been opened.)

You might want to investigate Soliloquy Reading Assistant.
http://www.reading-assistant.com
This is a voice recognition software package to practice reading fluency for grades 2 thru 5.
The child works with a headset and microphone and listens, reads and re-reads passages until mastered. At the end there is a comprehension quiz.
I learned about this new software from the “Overcoming Dyslexia” book by Dr. Shaywitz.
This would be another alternative to Read Naturally.
http://www.readnaturally.com/
After you have de-coding and phonemic awareness going, you need to work with your child on fluency. Fluency training is the key to making reading easier for your child so they want to do it more.
Of course we also read every night in unison and taking turns as well.

Marycas,

I think the audiobooks are great for vocabulary. In fact that is why we got them—kids whose reading is behind don’t get the vocabulary practice either.

My son was somewhat disinterested in books on tapes—did one and liked it and then we struggled through a few more. It made a difference when he found a series he liked. He has liked the Series of Misfortunate Events, Holes, and Harry Potter the best. I’d try having him listen to the first Harry Potter book for example. Do all the Harry Potter (my son has listened to some of them twice) and you’ll have him hooked. Then he will be able to differentiate between “I don’t like this book” and I don’t like books on tape.

I think Shay is right about the fluency with reading. I started having him read every page—which made him really mad. But, you know, his reading got worse on the second page and then recovered and he managed to read about 6 pages. I do recall he was reading a book for a book report and I made him read every page. His reading jumped up with it.

My son desp. wants to read the fifth book, so maybe that will keep him going.

Beth

Beth, If he likes Lemony Snicket you can also try the Spiderwick Chronicles, which are in the same vein. (Kids don’t seem to mind if a book is derivative of something else they’ve read and enjoyed as it helps the wait for the next installment of the original.) My dd who is a big HP fan (I think I get good mother points for having read all four of the previous HP’s aloud to her three times each) also likes Eva Ibbotson a lot.

Marie,

I nominate you for mother of the year…each book…three times each! My son started listening to books on tape when I told him quite firmly that I wasn’t reading the third book to him.

That fifth book is sitting in our house…my 12 year is reading it now. My son wants to read it desperately….he just finished the fourth book on tape. But it is sooooo long…….wonder when it will come out on tape?

Beth

are already available. We bought a set at Sam’s Club at the same time that we bought the book, on the first day the book was available.

aNGIE

Thanks for that information!!

Beth