1st grade/reading Teachers?

[luvmyfam444]

I have a question...had a newsletter come in from dd's 1st grade teacher that I was kinda surprised by - so I just wanted to know what you thought...

" we are practicing what good readers do, if when reading, something doesn't sound right or make sense, good readers go back & read the sentence again.
-If a word doesn't sound right, 1st check the vowel to help decode it quickly.

-If a word is unknown, read ahead in the sentence, then start back @ the start of the senentece to find the missing word in cotext.

-We are moving away from sounding out unknown words letter by letter & moving into more comprehension based strategies. "


What surprised me most what the last statment - moving away from phonetics.....isn't it a little early -the start of 1st grade? I know some kids last year still didn't know all the sounds letters make

My dd can read - but I have her sound out all her words she stumbles over instead of looking @ the pics or the story 'cause there are often several words that could fit -

I can understand it maybe the 2nd 1/2 of 1st grade once they are stronger @ sounding out....

What do you think? Is this the way their teaching now with just an intro to phonics & thats it?

 

[KAMKIM]

My DD8 is in 3rd grade thsi year but her school uses the same method. THey started in kindergarten, she is a very strong reader so it must work. I questioned it too at first but once I saw that she actually learned how to read very quickly I guess it's a good thing.

 

[Sorsha]

I have a question...had a newsletter come in from dd's 1st grade teacher that I was kinda surprised by - so I just wanted to know what you thought...

" we are practicing what good readers do, if when reading, something doesn't sound right or make sense, good readers go back & read the sentence again.
-If a word doesn't sound right, 1st check the vowel to help decode it quickly.

-If a word is unknown, read ahead in the sentence, then start back @ the start of the senentece to find the missing word in cotext.

-We are moving away from sounding out unknown words letter by letter & moving into more comprehension based strategies. "


What surprised me most what the last statment - moving away from phonetics.....isn't it a little early -the start of 1st grade? I know some kids last year still didn't know all the sounds letters make

My dd can read - but I have her sound out all her words she stumbles over instead of looking @ the pics or the story 'cause there are often several words that could fit -

I can understand it maybe the 2nd 1/2 of 1st grade once they are stronger @ sounding out....

What do you think? Is this the way their teaching now with just an intro to phonics & thats it?

That's the way my youngest 2 have been/are being taught to read and it drives me NUTS. I am a firm believer in phonics and sounding words out, but apparently this isn't how kids are being taught anymore. My DD9, in 3rd grade, is a pretty good reader, but has developed the habit of randomly guessing at words she doesn't know based on the beginning letter of the word. Yesterday, reading the breakfast menu, she informed me that they were being served waffles with "sugar" patties (instead of sausage patties), and then got a look on her face like "EEEUW! What's a sugar patty!?!" I made her go back and sound it out and she got it just fine.

I guess I will have to keep working on phonics with my kids at home. I think phonics are important, and kids need to know how to sound out words. I think this "take a stab at the word and move on" theory encourages laziness and poor reading skills. JMHO! YMMV!

 

[HsvTeacher]

I have a question...had a newsletter come in from dd's 1st grade teacher that I was kinda surprised by - so I just wanted to know what you thought...

" we are practicing what good readers do, if when reading, something doesn't sound right or make sense, good readers go back & read the sentence again.
-If a word doesn't sound right, 1st check the vowel to help decode it quickly.

-If a word is unknown, read ahead in the sentence, then start back @ the start of the senentece to find the missing word in cotext.

-We are moving away from sounding out unknown words letter by letter & moving into more comprehension based strategies. "


What surprised me most what the last statment - moving away from phonetics.....isn't it a little early -the start of 1st grade? I know some kids last year still didn't know all the sounds letters make

My dd can read - but I have her sound out all her words she stumbles over instead of looking @ the pics or the story 'cause there are often several words that could fit -

I can understand it maybe the 2nd 1/2 of 1st grade once they are stronger @ sounding out....

What do you think? Is this the way their teaching now with just an intro to phonics & thats it?

I am a firm believer that K-3 students need phonics instruction. You can still teach phonics and use the above strategies for comprehension. Our school is really strong in phonemic awareness. We teach phonics, then fluency, and then comprehension. If a child can't read fluently, they are more likely to have problems with comprehension.

It really works for our kids! Last year, 100% of our K-1 students could read fluently and comprehend what was read. 93% of our 2nd graders and 87% of our 3rd graders could do the same. (Percentages based on DIBELS testing, which is a 1-minute timed on-level reading passage and a 1-minute timed comprehension portion.)

 

[luvmyfam444]

we have the Dibels testing - but the 1st one dd did waay better than the goals - so I'm not sure how realistic it is for 1st grade...LOL cause surely she's not that much higher than the rest of the 1st graders....

I'm highly concerned about it 'cause my mom wan't taught phonics & she can't spell @ all - she was taught with sight words.

I took education classes but that was 15yrs ago....so I;m not up to date on the newest teachings -

the school went to the new reading program last year...so I'm guessing this is part of it


HSV teacher - when do you move into the other stages of fluency & comprehension?

But there's not a thing I can do about it can I other than teach it to her at home? She knows how to sound it out - but just tries not to - so I'm sure that's what she's being told at school to NOT sound it out....so I'm afraid its a lost cause?

 

[Ember]

You have stumbled onto THE debate of reading instruction. On the research/academic side of this there are research papers being flung back and forth about the benefit of phonics instructions vs. what's usually termed balanced literacy or whole language instruction. Entire education faculties have come out on one side or the other depending on who is doing their research. It's like a quiet war.

From my own personal reading on the subject I am a believer in phonics. I see nothing wrong with including whole language elements, but I would never accept cutting phonics out completely. This is only my opinion, though.

Interestingly, I was taught to read using the whole language approach. When I was tested in grade 8, I was at a university level for reading and comprehension and a grade 4 level for spelling. I am still terrible at spelling and I find it completely humiliating.

 

[Sorsha]

Interestingly, I was taught to read using the whole language approach. When I was tested in grade 8, I was at a university level for reading and comprehension and a grade 4 level for spelling. I am still terrible at spelling and I find it completely humiliating.

And I truely think there is a connection there. Eldest DD, whose education far favored whole language over phonics, is a FANTASTIC reader. She has a huge vocabulary, too. But cannot spell worth a darn. How can we expect children to learn to spell if they don't know what sounds letters make?

 

[K and K's Mommy]

I have a question...had a newsletter come in from dd's 1st grade teacher that I was kinda surprised by - so I just wanted to know what you thought...

" we are practicing what good readers do, if when reading, something doesn't sound right or make sense, good readers go back & read the sentence again.
-If a word doesn't sound right, 1st check the vowel to help decode it quickly.

-If a word is unknown, read ahead in the sentence, then start back @ the start of the senentece to find the missing word in cotext.

-We are moving away from sounding out unknown words letter by letter & moving into more comprehension based strategies. "


What surprised me most what the last statment - moving away from phonetics.....isn't it a little early -the start of 1st grade? I know some kids last year still didn't know all the sounds letters make

My dd can read - but I have her sound out all her words she stumbles over instead of looking @ the pics or the story 'cause there are often several words that could fit -

I can understand it maybe the 2nd 1/2 of 1st grade once they are stronger @ sounding out....

What do you think? Is this the way their teaching now with just an intro to phonics & thats it?

I taught for 8 years but have been out of the class for 8 years so I am somewhat out of the loop, BUT from what I remember learning a lot of kids can learn to read with this method. The problem is that some kids can't, especially learning disabled kids. They really need phonics. I can't remember the exact percentage, but phonics accounts for a high percentage of our words so kids who have a phonics background can usually sound out most words. It is when you stumble across the other 10% of words where you need the above strategies.

I once took a class for teaching dyslexics to read, and it is very intensive phonics. I learned rules I didn't even know as an adult!

My oldest two had a kindergarten teacher who used phonics. But, I do think it needs to go through second grade. My now second grader spelled friend wrong. I told her to use the i before e rule, and she looked at me like I was crazy. My fifth grader did recite it to her so I guess he learned it somewhere.

 

[EthansMom]

I taught both of my kids their phonics before they went to Kindergarten... and good thing too because our school doesn't stress phonics as much as I would hope/expect. I've found that a combination of being taught phonics at home and having the kids encouraged to read words by sight and guessing words based on the pictures at school has worked well for both kids.

For basic phonics, both my kids did well with the Leapfrog video "Letter Factory" which is available as a DVD but which my kids have as a "game" for their Leapsters. To reinforce what they learned from that video, I wanted some traditional phonics readers (books). I did a pretty good search to find ones I liked and ended up getting the "Now I'm Reading" books by Nora Gaydos. I'm very happy with them! I hope this helps.

 

[HsvTeacher]

we have the Dibels testing - but the 1st one dd did waay better than the goals - so I'm not sure how realistic it is for 1st grade...LOL cause surely she's not that much higher than the rest of the 1st graders....

I'm highly concerned about it 'cause my mom wan't taught phonics & she can't spell @ all - she was taught with sight words.

I took education classes but that was 15yrs ago....so I;m not up to date on the newest teachings -

the school went to the new reading program last year...so I'm guessing this is part of it


HSV teacher - when do you move into the other stages of fluency & comprehension?

But there's not a thing I can do about it can I other than teach it to her at home? She knows how to sound it out - but just tries not to - so I'm sure that's what she's being told at school to NOT sound it out....so I'm afraid its a lost cause?

In 1st grade, DIBELS is just nonsense words ("words" that need to be sounded out) on the first test. In our 1st grades, the teachers focus on fluency the first semester and then start to build comprehension during the second semester. In second grade, which is what I teach, we fine-tune the fluency and focus more on comprehension. We expect our students to be able to retell at least 60% of what they have read. By the 3rd grade, the teachers expect fluency (although they still fine-tune when needed) and work to master comprehension.

Each grade teaches a language core from 8:15 to 10:30 every morning. This includes whole group reading, small group reading, phonics/spelling, and grammar. We also have additional 30-minute intervention groups daily for our struggling readers.

(I wanted to add that I'm not posting while my kids are in the room. We had PE earlier, and now they're in Music. Gotta have my DIS break while they're gone!)

 

[CJBaby]

Well, this is making me feel bad for telling my 1st grader today to "slow down and stop guessing the words!" as she was reading her AR book. I WAS sort of thinking "maybe I should butt out," so I should have trusted my instinct. She actually must be doing something right to be at a 2.3-3.3 level and 100% on her 1st AR test. I just thought she was rushing through it. I never thought she might be taught to do that!

 

[luvmyfam444]

In 1st grade, DIBELS is just nonsense words ("words" that need to be sounded out) on the first test. In our 1st grades, the teachers focus on fluency the first semester and then start to build comprehension during the second semester. In second grade, which is what I teach, we fine-tune the fluency and focus more on comprehension. We expect our students to be able to retell at least 60% of what they have read. By the 3rd grade, the teachers expect fluency (although they still fine-tune when needed) and work to master comprehension.

Each grade teaches a language core from 8:15 to 10:30 every morning. This includes whole group reading, small group reading, phonics/spelling, and grammar. We also have additional 30-minute intervention groups daily for our struggling readers.

(I wanted to add that I'm not posting while my kids are in the room. We had PE earlier, and now they're in Music. Gotta have my DIS break while they're gone!)

SO at your school then it would be on track for teachers to not be going over phonics @ all in 1st grade - the learn it in K & that's it?
Well dd's Dibels was

letter naming fluency Aug goal 37+ (dec goal blank) dd scored 51
phomeme segmentation fluency Aug goal 35+ (dec goal same) dd got 61
nonsense fluency Aug goal 24+ (dec goal 50+) dd got 38

So she did better on the sounds then on the nonsense words - but scored well on both -

 

[luvmyfam444]

Well, this is making me feel bad for telling my 1st grader today to "slow down and stop guessing the words!" as she was reading her AR book. I WAS sort of thinking "maybe I should butt out," so I should have trusted my instinct. She actually must be doing something right to be at a 2.3-3.3 level and 100% on her 1st AR test. I just thought she was rushing through it. I never thought she might be taught to do that!

Wow you've already started AR? I DREAD starting it! We had such a bad experience with my older child that I'd rather just skip it all together!

I still have a problem though with them guessing the words though 'cause there are often several words that could fit in the sentence to make sense - She took the green duck to the doctor
She took the gray dog to the doctor
so if they dont sound it out I don't get how they can get it right - most of the time it would be a wrong guess - unless of course there's a picture to clue them into it.

I was talking to a gf about it & she said her dh skims just like that - he read a billboard the other day that he asked her why it was about such & such when it was truly advertising about ________ (I've completly forgotten her example - its late - I'll have to ask her tomorrow) he just looked @ the first letters & assumed what it was about

 

[luvmyfam444]

My oldest two had a kindergarten teacher who used phonics. But, I do think it needs to go through second grade. My now second grader spelled friend wrong. I told her to use the i before e rule, and she looked at me like I was crazy. My fifth grader did recite it to her so I guess he learned it somewhere.

I was thinking the same that phonics should go on - when I worked as a teacher tutor in a low income school (Chapter 1) 15 yrs ago we were teaching the 4th graders the rules - but many of them didn't know how to read so that may not have been the norm.

My dd has never learned the phonics rules - she's in 6th grade.

 

[HsvTeacher]

SO at your school then it would be on track for teachers to not be going over phonics @ all in 1st grade - the learn it in K & that's it?
Well dd's Dibels was

letter naming fluency Aug goal 37+ (dec goal blank) dd scored 51
phomeme segmentation fluency Aug goal 35+ (dec goal same) dd got 61
nonsense fluency Aug goal 24+ (dec goal 50+) dd got 38

So she did better on the sounds then on the nonsense words - but scored well on both -

No, we have phonics instruction in grades K-3. The phonics instruction helps build fluency.

 

[luvmyfam444]

So do you think I should approach the teacher & ask her about it? Maybe they still teach some phonics - but I'm just going from the letter - that it sounds like its not being taught anymore at all.
Or should I just plan on teaching her phonics at home?

 

[kangareaux]

I have a question...had a newsletter come in from dd's 1st grade teacher that I was kinda surprised by - so I just wanted to know what you thought...

" we are practicing what good readers do, if when reading, something doesn't sound right or make sense, good readers go back & read the sentence again.
-If a word doesn't sound right, 1st check the vowel to help decode it quickly.

-If a word is unknown, read ahead in the sentence, then start back @ the start of the senentece to find the missing word in cotext.

-We are moving away from sounding out unknown words letter by letter & moving into more comprehension based strategies. "


What surprised me most what the last statment - moving away from phonetics.....isn't it a little early -the start of 1st grade? I know some kids last year still didn't know all the sounds letters make

My dd can read - but I have her sound out all her words she stumbles over instead of looking @ the pics or the story 'cause there are often several words that could fit -

I can understand it maybe the 2nd 1/2 of 1st grade once they are stronger @ sounding out....

What do you think? Is this the way their teaching now with just an intro to phonics & thats it?

My kids are all EXCELLENT readers and love to read. They were taught *AT SCHOOL* to do what yours are being taught. That being said...I don't buy itno the method. AT HOME they were taught to look at a word they didn't know and SOUND IT OUT. My theory is that when they are adults, there won't be pictures to get clues from. My husband CAN NOT read using phonics. He just *sees* the word and knows what it is. Therefore when he gets a new *kind of difficult* word, he sometimes butchers it. (We won't even go into names, cause face it...sometimes those are like reading nonsense words! LOL!) I'm a big phonics based reader and wanted my kids to be able to look at JUST A WORD and not have to rely on the context or pictures to be able to read the word. Granted...DH is a FASTER reader than me.....as long as they aren't throwing in any new words.

Point is, I think a mix of BOTH methods works best...or at least has for my children.