You know that saying, "If you always do what you've always done, you'll always get what you've always got." Well, this sprung out at me this morning when talking to my husband about Evan's reading. He is highly intelligent and takes on new skills fairly quickly, and very much a self starter. Where reading is concerned this doesn't seem to be happening, despite the many hours on Reading Eggs, Teach your monster to read, reading books at home, and words in the environment. During my teacher training I learned all sorts of ways to engage children in the beginning stages of reading, and support them with a variety of strategies. Despite this, Evan still really struggles with developing in this area, and lacks motivation to persist. It is possible it just isn't the time for him, but in the back of my mind it does come to me that he may be one of those people who masks their inability to read with a variety of strategies - all too easy in this technology filled world.
Sat down with Pat we discussed this, and I explained the areas where he seems to struggle, and he mentioned that we should play to his strengths, and the key one of those is his amazing capacity for remembering things. Which clearly points to using whole word reading strategies. Pat himself doesn't get Phonics and I cringe when he tries to support the kids with this, as he doesn't get it. Yet he reads very well, and has a number of degrees under his belt, so he must have done something right. Most people reading this area probably screaming at the screen saying - well of course... we only relatively recently began using Phonics as a key way of reading. Most of us parents these days learned to read via whole word reading strategies, with books such as Peter and Jane, and my favourite, Jennifer Yellow Hat. I recall having lectures during my Education degree looking at the evolution of literacy education in the UK, and learning that the reason Phonics came on the agenda at the time was due to the fact that (I think this is correct, but my memory is not quite as fool proof as my son's so I may have a few things slightly muddled) the education secretary at the time was married to an educational consultant who was heavily involved in the development of Phonics reading programs. I know that phonics can support the learning of reading, and breaking words down so that you can decode new words, but to be honest, I don't think that I ever really use it. I think I may look at different parts of words that are similar to words I know and see the make up of them, but certainly not in the synthetic phonetic way.
Anyway, back to my reason for blogging this morning. After this revalation of a new way of looking at evan learning to read, Pat suggested a good way in would be either through Minecraft - his current obsession (more info in another blog coming soon no doubt) or board games which he really enjoys. I agreed, but was definitely a little concerned at the bland nature of decontextualised words on flashcards as a motivator to learn new stuff. Pat said try Pinterest, so I did. A few ideas popped up, but none which leapt out at me, so I began google searches, which appeared more fruitful, I think as many of the things that were suggested actually involved some interactive games (without the prerequiste .jpg for pinterest). Unsure of where to put all the information I was gathering I decided to turn to this blog and post them all here. So after that ridiculously long introduction here are my findings. [please note: I have not tested or tried ANY of these things out with Evan, merely looked and maybe played some of the games to test their suitability for our purpose, I will add to the blog when we've tried some things out, maybe with some pictures if I get lucky]
_______________
[updated 6th October]
Progress so far. Evan and Autumn have been responding positively to the concept of whole word reading, and liked a number of these links we explored. The main one of interest seems to have been Starfall, and they like loads of the different games on there. It is an American site, but
despite that seems to have plenty of relevant stuff on it. I have been scouring charity shops for "look and say" type books, as I am reluctant to spend loads of money on something that may fall flat, like everything else so far. We found some, and some simple picture books with repetitive common word text. Books include:
Pip and Posy, Julia Donaldson
The Radish Robber, Peter Rabbit - Ladybird "Read it Yourself" series Level 1
Sam at the Seaside, Ladybird "Read with me" series.
Rosie's Walk, Pat Hutchins
Yes No, Jan Pienkowski
"Slowly, Slowly, Slowly," Said the Sloth, Eric Carle
We have been looking at the books, reading them, and I've been encouraging the children to get involved looking at the pictures, tell the story (understand the context) whilst also following the text. We have been progressing by literally reading it together, all three of us interjecting with the next word.
The most popular book was the Peter Rabbit one, as they just love Peter Rabbit. This was useful motivation. I kept finding however that Evan was still not retaining the words he had read many times in each sitting - "said" being the most common in this book. Additionally, I asked him about a sentence he had got mixed up with, and he said, "it doesn't make sense", and I said well of course it doesn't if you only read the beginning and end of the sentence, but he then referred back to a collection of words in the middle and identified that the third word didn't make sense so he didn't read it. (I started wondering at this point, is he reading it in his head first, and only saying the words he is more sure of? ) The sentence was this:
Peter and Benjamin went to get Lily.
He was reading, Peter and Benjamin... Lily
He was mis-reading (in his head) get as something else (I don't know what) but had successfully read went to, in his head.
I asked him if he was reading words in his head. I explained that if he said out loud what he thought a word might be, I could help him, rather than me hearing a confused jumble. I was excited at the prospect that we have just been missing something, and that by unravelling his thought processes a bit we might be nearly there.
A while after that, being a little impatient, and plenty frustrated I stopped our reading session and asked them both why they thought it was useful to read. Evan said, so that he could read his Minecraft book that we recently bought him. Meanwhile, Autumn said so she could read newspapers! I decided that making a stronger link between the books we were reading and the things they wanted to be able to read would be helpful, and provide a stronger motivating force. Being that we are focusing on the most common words I thought it might help to show them how many of the words in any given paragraph in their books, or my books contained the common words. So I went through a few paragraphs pointing at each of the words which was a common word that he would learn at this very beginning period. Thankfully, most of them were, and I added that the other words were often relevant to the context, and you could work them out easily using the beginning letter and pictures, or simply ask me. I then went on to underline that by learning the key words via the the books and methods we were using was the key that he needed to be able to read anything. There seemed to be a wave of realisation come over him at that time, and he drew his attention straight back to "The Radish Robber" and began reading fluidly. A few stumbles here and there and mis-reads,but he kept going and accepted my help, and read right the way to the end with little help from me.
WOW. This is the breakthrough we have been hoping that would happen. For a long time now, I have known that his ability at reading over reached what he was making audible to be. I feel now my ears have been opened to his ways of thinking about reading, and that he doesn't need to spend too much time getting caught up in unnecessary phonics learning, rather just keep going with developing his experience reading the main common words through books and games.
PHEW :)
Here is a site with links to others with Sight Word games
Interactive Game with Roy the Zebra
Interactive Game with flowers
Interactive Game with Dinosaur Eggs
Interactive Starwords game (from BBC) - needs shockwave player
Interactive Word Game - matching pairs
Interactive Flash Cards (pick words from high frequency list to practice with words read out
Interactive Word dragger game - drag words into sentence - uses pictures for uncommon words
Interactive recognition game - slow game play & easy to click and not pay attention to real answer unless supervised by adult. Words read by american child, can be a little unclear at times - switch off the music for greater clarity. No end point. A little dull.
Interactive game - best suited to classroom setting - as a spelling test type program. Ability to add your own words, but time consuming for supportive adult and little motivating features
Starfall - matching game
Bingo game - with downloadable bingo cards
Interactive flash cards with test (no speech)
Look-cover-write-check game
Read a sentence (with speech) then check word recognition
MORE challenging stuff (300 word list)
Spelling game
Writing frames
Non computer-based games
Bank Street College - reading rockets - including Monopoly style game
Bristol Council Website - reading game ideas
BANG! game instructions
Other Resources
High frequency words flashcards - PDF download
First 100 words flashcards
Variety of word cards and flashcard - same words but different backing types e.g. rocket, raindrops, bricks etc.
Word bank books - mini word book which can be added to
More theming ideas with HFW
Places to buy some useful flash cards etc.
Sat down with Pat we discussed this, and I explained the areas where he seems to struggle, and he mentioned that we should play to his strengths, and the key one of those is his amazing capacity for remembering things. Which clearly points to using whole word reading strategies. Pat himself doesn't get Phonics and I cringe when he tries to support the kids with this, as he doesn't get it. Yet he reads very well, and has a number of degrees under his belt, so he must have done something right. Most people reading this area probably screaming at the screen saying - well of course... we only relatively recently began using Phonics as a key way of reading. Most of us parents these days learned to read via whole word reading strategies, with books such as Peter and Jane, and my favourite, Jennifer Yellow Hat. I recall having lectures during my Education degree looking at the evolution of literacy education in the UK, and learning that the reason Phonics came on the agenda at the time was due to the fact that (I think this is correct, but my memory is not quite as fool proof as my son's so I may have a few things slightly muddled) the education secretary at the time was married to an educational consultant who was heavily involved in the development of Phonics reading programs. I know that phonics can support the learning of reading, and breaking words down so that you can decode new words, but to be honest, I don't think that I ever really use it. I think I may look at different parts of words that are similar to words I know and see the make up of them, but certainly not in the synthetic phonetic way.
Anyway, back to my reason for blogging this morning. After this revalation of a new way of looking at evan learning to read, Pat suggested a good way in would be either through Minecraft - his current obsession (more info in another blog coming soon no doubt) or board games which he really enjoys. I agreed, but was definitely a little concerned at the bland nature of decontextualised words on flashcards as a motivator to learn new stuff. Pat said try Pinterest, so I did. A few ideas popped up, but none which leapt out at me, so I began google searches, which appeared more fruitful, I think as many of the things that were suggested actually involved some interactive games (without the prerequiste .jpg for pinterest). Unsure of where to put all the information I was gathering I decided to turn to this blog and post them all here. So after that ridiculously long introduction here are my findings. [please note: I have not tested or tried ANY of these things out with Evan, merely looked and maybe played some of the games to test their suitability for our purpose, I will add to the blog when we've tried some things out, maybe with some pictures if I get lucky]
_______________
[updated 6th October]
Progress so far. Evan and Autumn have been responding positively to the concept of whole word reading, and liked a number of these links we explored. The main one of interest seems to have been Starfall, and they like loads of the different games on there. It is an American site, but
despite that seems to have plenty of relevant stuff on it. I have been scouring charity shops for "look and say" type books, as I am reluctant to spend loads of money on something that may fall flat, like everything else so far. We found some, and some simple picture books with repetitive common word text. Books include:
Pip and Posy, Julia Donaldson
The Radish Robber, Peter Rabbit - Ladybird "Read it Yourself" series Level 1
Sam at the Seaside, Ladybird "Read with me" series.
Rosie's Walk, Pat Hutchins
Yes No, Jan Pienkowski
"Slowly, Slowly, Slowly," Said the Sloth, Eric Carle
We have been looking at the books, reading them, and I've been encouraging the children to get involved looking at the pictures, tell the story (understand the context) whilst also following the text. We have been progressing by literally reading it together, all three of us interjecting with the next word.
The most popular book was the Peter Rabbit one, as they just love Peter Rabbit. This was useful motivation. I kept finding however that Evan was still not retaining the words he had read many times in each sitting - "said" being the most common in this book. Additionally, I asked him about a sentence he had got mixed up with, and he said, "it doesn't make sense", and I said well of course it doesn't if you only read the beginning and end of the sentence, but he then referred back to a collection of words in the middle and identified that the third word didn't make sense so he didn't read it. (I started wondering at this point, is he reading it in his head first, and only saying the words he is more sure of? ) The sentence was this:
Peter and Benjamin went to get Lily.
He was reading, Peter and Benjamin... Lily
He was mis-reading (in his head) get as something else (I don't know what) but had successfully read went to, in his head.
I asked him if he was reading words in his head. I explained that if he said out loud what he thought a word might be, I could help him, rather than me hearing a confused jumble. I was excited at the prospect that we have just been missing something, and that by unravelling his thought processes a bit we might be nearly there.
A while after that, being a little impatient, and plenty frustrated I stopped our reading session and asked them both why they thought it was useful to read. Evan said, so that he could read his Minecraft book that we recently bought him. Meanwhile, Autumn said so she could read newspapers! I decided that making a stronger link between the books we were reading and the things they wanted to be able to read would be helpful, and provide a stronger motivating force. Being that we are focusing on the most common words I thought it might help to show them how many of the words in any given paragraph in their books, or my books contained the common words. So I went through a few paragraphs pointing at each of the words which was a common word that he would learn at this very beginning period. Thankfully, most of them were, and I added that the other words were often relevant to the context, and you could work them out easily using the beginning letter and pictures, or simply ask me. I then went on to underline that by learning the key words via the the books and methods we were using was the key that he needed to be able to read anything. There seemed to be a wave of realisation come over him at that time, and he drew his attention straight back to "The Radish Robber" and began reading fluidly. A few stumbles here and there and mis-reads,but he kept going and accepted my help, and read right the way to the end with little help from me.
WOW. This is the breakthrough we have been hoping that would happen. For a long time now, I have known that his ability at reading over reached what he was making audible to be. I feel now my ears have been opened to his ways of thinking about reading, and that he doesn't need to spend too much time getting caught up in unnecessary phonics learning, rather just keep going with developing his experience reading the main common words through books and games.
PHEW :)
Here is a site with links to others with Sight Word games
Interactive Game with Roy the Zebra
Interactive Game with flowers
Interactive Game with Dinosaur Eggs
Interactive Starwords game (from BBC) - needs shockwave player
Interactive Word Game - matching pairs
Interactive Flash Cards (pick words from high frequency list to practice with words read out
Interactive Word dragger game - drag words into sentence - uses pictures for uncommon words
Interactive recognition game - slow game play & easy to click and not pay attention to real answer unless supervised by adult. Words read by american child, can be a little unclear at times - switch off the music for greater clarity. No end point. A little dull.
Interactive game - best suited to classroom setting - as a spelling test type program. Ability to add your own words, but time consuming for supportive adult and little motivating features
Starfall - matching game
Bingo game - with downloadable bingo cards
Interactive flash cards with test (no speech)
Look-cover-write-check game
Read a sentence (with speech) then check word recognition
MORE challenging stuff (300 word list)
Spelling game
Writing frames
Non computer-based games
Bank Street College - reading rockets - including Monopoly style game
Bristol Council Website - reading game ideas
BANG! game instructions
Other Resources
High frequency words flashcards - PDF download
First 100 words flashcards
Variety of word cards and flashcard - same words but different backing types e.g. rocket, raindrops, bricks etc.
Word bank books - mini word book which can be added to
More theming ideas with HFW
Places to buy some useful flash cards etc.
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