reading series

[Guest guest]

Thank you for your answers.....here's another question for those of you that

have kids in school...... What is the reading series that your kids are

using?? like Open Court or Scholastic Literacy or the Program or

son

or McGraw Hill or Silver Burdett and Ginn, etc etc....Along with the company

my district uses I and the other Kindergarten teacher supplement with

PAF--preventing academic failure----i believe it was really meant for more of a

spec ed

or resource reading program though.....even if you have a child with no

" challenges " , did you find one program more helpful or confusing than

another..??

thanks again..........kathy nj

[Guest guest]

Hi Kathy!

Yes still entertaining with company already here and more on the

way -but we love it because we miss all our friends from NJ and NY

too! (when you move to Florida you can nickname your home " Bed and

Breakfast " ! ) and I myself take 2 or 3 ProEFAs on most days but as

always on an " IEP " kind of day I take up to 5! And speaking of

EFAs -we do have a number of MDs and PhDs at this point with serious

interest in neuro research on our population. Thank you for all

that offer support on the professionals level. I'm working on

trying to have the research done without the parents of the children

we are looking to support being put in a position that they feel

they have to financially support this to make it happen. With

therapy and in some cases medical and legal needs, many of you have

enough stress on your family as it is. I believe we can get this

done with only your support -not financial support -just support.

About reading -I'll get your 's number if you want to call her

being that she herself is a special ed teacher working on her

masters...and...she grew up with apraxia. I'm sure she will have

suggestions too. Here is an archive from her:

And here is a post from Dolan who grew up with apraxia -and

is

> now going for her masters in Special Education at FAU. A bunch of

> us from Florida were fortionate enough to meet and hear

speak

> at the and Noble in Jensen Beach Florida where I was

> scheduled for a book signing for The Late Talker. And again if

you

> didn't know she had apraxia -you would not know (practice makes

> perfect!)

>

>

> From: meg6179@a...

> Date: Sun Jul 13, 2003 11:43 am

> Subject: Re: [ ] Re: stereotype that those that

> speak early are " bri...

>

>

> I enjoyed reading the poem you wrote, .

>

> I was a child with Oral apraxia and did not speak well until I was

in

> 5th

> grade. I was called many of names growing up and it really hurts

when

> you are

> old enough to realize what is actually going on. I can remember

> having to read

> a paragraph out loud in class one day (maybe 3rd grade). I can

> remember how

> stupid I felt because I could not pronounce a word (I think--

> SPECIFIC) and

> everyone laughed because I could not say the word. I started crying

> and it

> really

> has stuck with me. I am very careful about the words I use and

when I

> have

> to read aloud I preview what is in print and then read slowly what

is

> there so

> I don't make any mistakes. I am now 24 years old and I am very

> successful but

> that day in 3rd grade still sticks with me.

>

> I spoke to through email about my story and maybe one day I

can

> share

> the story with all of you.

>

> Dolan

Below are archives on the school program that works for Tanner as

well as what we have done with him. We are happy with the SRA Open

Court program.

http://www.sraonline.com/index.php/home/curriculumsolutions/reading/ocr/622

Of course like Suzi we love Dr. Seuss books too. Tanner's

favorite " first " books was Hop on Pop for the longest time -he loves

many of them however - " Green Eggs and Ham " is another favorite of

his that I believe is a great book for an apraxic child.

Update again -Tanner is still straight As and is now fluent at

reading many things. We still use many of the strategies below to

help Tanner read his " chapter books " which he can now do with

help!!!

From: " kiddietalk " <kiddietalk@...>

Date: Sun Nov 30, 2003 6:24 pm

Subject: Re: , PLEASE Help Direct Me re.

Hi everyone!

I want to answer here about the amount of time it took Tanner to go

from the Hug book to Danny and the Dinosaur (because my apologies

but I try and can't keep up with private emails)

Just like in NJ where Dakota attended kindergarten, here in Florida

children in kindergarten are not expected to read or write. We've

had many discussions on this and 'overall' I would highly recommend

you check the archives and big time consider not starting

kindergarten until your speech impaired child is 6 since there are

many that do this with even " normal " kids -and it gives them that

extra year of development. I also highly recommend starting them in

the mainstream vs. starting them at 5 in a self contained LD

kindergarten class. (and of course I don't recommend starting the

child in the self contained LD kindergarten class unless everyone is

100% convinced that child can't make it in the mainstream)

We kept Tanner schooled in out of district placement at the Summit

Speech School for the hearing impaired up till he turned 6. (they

only work on reading or writing readiness)

Tanner was mainstreamed with pull out ST and OT and one of the top

students in his public school kindergarten class of 26 students here

in Florida. We (again) did not work on reading at all before or

during Kindergarten. We only at home reinforced what he was being

taught at school. Once Tanner completed kindergarten however we

decided to look into a faster paced, well respected private school,

and began to work on reading over the summer (when he first turned

seven -and before he started first grade) I probably would have

worked with Tanner on reading over the summer when he turned 7 years

old -even if he stayed in the slower paced public school -he showed

intrest in learning to read.

We started with books like Hug for confidence -and Dr. Seuss for

reading around either June when Tanner was still 6, or July of this

past summer when Tanner turned 7. He was accepted into the private

school by the skin of his teeth since he was only reading Dr. Seuss

books and we were told most of the kindergarten class at his school

is already reading and writing. Writing? We had only just had him

transitioned out of OT for how he even held his pencil by the end of

kindergarten -so no we had not worked on writing at all with Tanner -

and he entered the school not writing.

But regardless -Tanner's been maintaining all A's in reading and

writing and spelling (and math and science etc.) since he started

school, first grade in an accelerated academics private school in

August of 2003. He went pretty quick from Hug to Dr. Seuss. Hug was

just a jump start book for confidence he used for the first weeks.

Dr. Seuss was his favorite for a month or so -but Tanner wanted to

move onto " chapter books " which is what I told him Danny and the

Dinosaur is getting closer to.

Tanner is on level with his classmates on what is expected of them

in class in all academic work. Even though Tanner is schooled with

children like Suzi's who are reading Magic Tree House books in first

grade, Tanner is not reading Magic Treehouse books yet on his own

even though he reads books like that with me. I heard once that

children's eyes are not yet like ours and need the type to be a bit

larger for some reason -and since children with apraxia at times

take a bit longer. I just searched and only found the work of Dr.

Rosemary Sassoon http://www.clubtype.co.uk/sassoon.html and this

website http://www.textmatters.com/kidstype/

Not sure if this is the theory I remember -I thought I heard it was

on the age of eye development?

So all together we've only been working on reading at home for

around 4 months on a casual fun basis. Tanner started school in

August and I'm very happy with his teacher and the school...and the

reading program they use there. SRA Open Court Reading:

" maintains strong instruction in the areas of decoding (learning how

to read), comprehension (understanding what you read), inquiry and

investigation (learning how to apply what you have read), and

writing (how to communicate with others in print). There are also

applications for teaching spelling, vocabulary, grammar, usage, and

mechanics, penmanship, and listening, speaking, and viewing...Open

Court Reading is a research-based curriculum grounded in systematic,

explicit instruction of phonemic awareness, phonics and word

knowledge, comprehension skills and strategies, inquiry skills and

strategies, and writing and language arts skills and strategies. "

http://www.sraonline.com/ or here is a good page about it:

http://www.sraonline.com/index.php/home/curriculumsolutions/reading/ocr2002/ocr2\

\002longcopy/183

I think that covers all the questions!

=====

[Guest guest]

Kathy thought you would want to read this too about the program

Tanner uses at school ~:

~~~~~~~~~

" Perhaps the most sobering message from our nation's recent interest

in reading is how tightly children's achievement is reined by the

educational practices and expectations of their classrooms. In some

classrooms, nearly all of the children flourish. In others, they do

not. Both are true in every state and every sort of community in

our country, large or small, rich or poor. How can we help our

schools be as good as they must be? Increasingly, we are told that

good instruction must heed the lessons of research.

This is a major message of the No Child Left Behind Act of 2001. It

was also the major message of the National Reading Panel's report,

Teaching Children to Read: An Evidence-Based Assessment of the

Scientific Research Literature on Reading and Its Implications for

Reading Instruction (2000); of the National Research Council's

report, Preventing Reading Difficulties (1998); of the American

Federation of Teachers' report, Building on the best, learning from

what works (1998); of the Learning First Alliance's Every Child

Reading: An Action Plan (1998); and indeed of many other recent

reports from institutions, organizations, and every level of

government. Significantly, it was equally the compelling message of

the vast body of scientific research that I synthesized on behalf of

the U.S. Congress more than a decade ago, Beginning to Read:

Thinking and Learning about Print (1990).

To be sure, the first requirement of effective schooling is good

classroom management—the art of keeping all of one's students

happily engaged. Yet engaging children in ways that promote

learning depends on understanding what that must entail in both

overview and moment-by moment activity. It depends on providing

literacy instruction in a way that assures that for no child does

any lesson depend on knowledge or abilities that have not been

supported in the classroom and equally that for every child each

lesson offers challenge and growth. It depends, in other words, on

perspective and analysis that is beyond the reach of any single

human being on her or his own.

Therein lies the value of research. Research is the collective work

of legions, all doing their best to test and retest and to extend

the collective knowledge of the profession. Good research offers

unrivaled guidance toward understanding what children must learn,

how those facets interrelate, how to tell whether any is missing or

misconstrued in our instructional models, and good ways to teach.

In addition, research can provide objective distance from the

individual student, teacher, or classroom and identify what works

best in the hands of most teachers, for most children, and for the

long term. Research can tell us what kinds of learning depend on

instruction. And it can tell us what kinds of instruction work well

and what kinds are shortsighted or even counterproductive. Research

can also tell us how to assess students' progress and difficulties

so that we can maximize the pace and impact of our curriculum while

losing no key lesson and leaving no child behind.

For 40 years, Open Court Reading has steadfastly structured its

curriculum on the strongest lessons research could offer. For 40

years, as literacy research has grown in power and scope, Open Court

Reading has been augmented and tuned or changed accordingly. For 40

years, Open Court Reading has demonstrated that instruction based on

tested, research-based practices gets results. Over and over, the

achievement of students who have been taught with Open Court Reading

has been shown to be exceptional on state-mandated tests, national

standardized tests, district tests, and a host of more specific

measures.

Whether we look to scientific journals and reports or success

stories such as those presented here, the message is compelling.

Through scientific research, we have learned with more clarity and

detail than ever before what is involved in skillful reading—how the

brain works, what kinds of knowledge it uses, and how it uses it.

Most importantly, we have learned how to teach beginning reading far

more effectively than is too often the case. Provided that we apply

the lessons we have learned, there is no reason for any healthy

child in any classroom in our country to be left behind in reading.

For the future of our country and our children, there is no more

urgent or important mission than turning this potential into

reality. "

Marilyn Jager

Research Associate,

Harvard University Graduate School of Education

Phone (781) 395-2563

http://www.sraonline.com/download/ocr/adamsOCR2.doc

=====

[Guest guest]

Some other books that are really good are Usborne Books. I used to sell them

because I loved them so much - but now that I have almost all of them I don't

really sell anymore. I like them because they start very easy, and graduate all

the way to adult (encyclopedia like) books. The younger reading series is great

because they have simple sentences on the top of pages that kids who are

learning to read can accomplish - then more complex sentences at the bottom of

the pages for the adult to read. You can also read straight across the top if

the child wants to read the book all by themselves! You can look at all they

have at http://www.usbornebooks.com .

North Carolina

[ ] reading series

Thank you for your answers.....here's another question for those of you that

have kids in school...... What is the reading series that your kids are

using?? like Open Court or Scholastic Literacy or the Program or

son

or McGraw Hill or Silver Burdett and Ginn, etc etc....Along with the company

my district uses I and the other Kindergarten teacher supplement with

PAF--preventing academic failure----i believe it was really meant for more of

a spec ed

or resource reading program though.....even if you have a child with no

" challenges " , did you find one program more helpful or confusing than

another..??

thanks again..........kathy nj