? kindergarten FSR

[notmarypoppins]

Hello, I am wondering how FSR is similar / different from Blend Phonics and Word Mastery. I am wondering if it will help my 7 year old non-reader. He had a year of K in public (he struggled to write his letters and his name) and a year of K in private school where he was taught the Riggs method. He knows phonograms but cannot blend sounds. I am wondering if this phonics program would be appropriate for him. I have spent many months researching phonics programs, have purchased The Phonics Road, but I am not satisified that we won't end up spending another frustrated year of tears and no reading. If you have any advice, I'd appreciate it. Thank you.

[tanya]

The FSR /Classical Phonics Program includes attractive workbooks for the student and a comprehensive teacher guide. It appears to be a more developed, “finished” program than Blend Phonics/Word Mastery. However, the approach of the two programs is very similar. Blend Phonics emphasizes blending, “directionality”, and word lists, all of which are emphasized in FSR/Classical Phonics. FSR/Classical Phonics also has a printing component but I don’t know if Blend Phonics does or not.

First Start Reading provides more practice with the all-important short vowel sounds and “directionality”, blending from left to right, than any program I know of. Beginning readers trace with their pencils on the blend lines as the move from left to right and sound out each word. They don’t do this once or twice. They do it all through Books A, B and C. Some might call it overkill, but why take a chance.

First Start Reading begins with the unvoiced consonants (m, n, r, s, and f) first. They are the easiest to blend with and can be voiced without the “uh” sound that so often confuses students and hinders them from completing a smooth blend. I noticed that Blend Phonics begins with the voiced consonants, b, c, etc., as so many programs do.

Classical Phonics is Word Mastery that has been edited and updated. We have greatly improved Word Mastery by making the pages more attractive, reducing the number of words per page, and reorganizing the last half of the book into systematic units that are more phonetically accurate.

First Start Reading has beautiful covers and simple pictures for coloring. It emphasizes correct letter formation and pencil grip. Students print each word as they are learning to read it. FSR has 25 phonetic stories. FSR and Classical Phonics have word family lists for student to practice each skill. I think word lists are extremely helpful and give the kind of review that is so often missing in phonics programs. There are no phonetic rules for students to memorize. Students learn one phonogram and sound at a time and practice that phonogram in the context of word families.

I am not familiar with the Phonics Road but I am familiar with the Riggs program and I think the approach of learning all of the phonograms up front along with lots of rules is a very misguided approach to reading. I do not like to criticize other programs, but I make an exception for The Writing Road to Reading and its offshoots such as the Riggs Program.

If your child is having trouble blending, I can honestly say that there is no program I know of that teaches blending as well as FSR. And the fact that FSR begins with the easy blending consonants first is an added benefit. Blend Phonics/Word Mastery, however, looks like a very effective approach to reading. There are many good reading programs out there. Two of my favorites are Alphaphonics and The Ordinary Parent’s Guide to Teaching Reading, by Jessie Wise, Susan Wise Bauer’s mother. However, I am partial to First Start Reading/Classical Phonics because I wrote it to solve all of the little issues I had with other reading programs.

Regards,

Cheryl Lowe

[notmarypoppins]

Thank you for such a thorough response Ms. Lowe. This is such a great help to me. I have struggled with this decision for so long. As for Phonics Road, The Phonics Road to Spelling and Reading is Orton and Spaulding inspired. I spoke to Barbara Beers, the author, and she agreed w/ your concerns about the Riggs program. However, I do not see any mention of blending or "directionality" in PR. I was under the impression that learning to spell and read at the same time was a good idea - perhaps it is not?? Could you tell me how your FSR approaches/ teaches spelling and grammar? Does it teach this separately, if at all, in kindergarten or first grade?

Thank you again for your time and advice. I feel much more comfortable that your program may be a great fit for both my 7 year old and my 5 year old.

[clowe]

Directionality is just a term for going from left to right in reading and sounding out words. All programs teach “directionality” but FSR and Blend Phonics seem to emphasize it more than most programs, I think.

Spelling and composition always lag very far behind reading and should not interfere with reading progress. Decoding and encoding run along the same track at first, but once a child begins to read, his reading vocabulary will run far ahead of his spelling abilities. At that point reading and spelling are on different tracks.

The Phonics Road is a very comprehensive program that covers four years of reading, grammar, spelling, and composition. The phonics section of The Phonics Road that corresponds to First Start Reading, is covered in a very short time, about four weeks! I’m not sure how that is done. I think it must be for mature reading-ready students who are capable of spending 3-4 hours per day on phonics. In any case the phonics covered in Mrs. Beers’ first year is equivalent to the phonics we teach in three years, K-2. I think the Phonics Road will be a very good spelling, grammar, and composition program for you, once your child becomes a reader.

To help your child become a reader, though, you need a simpler, more gradual program like First Start Reading and Classical Phonics, or one of the other programs that I mentioned that focus on reading, not spelling, grammar and composition. First Start Reading, in my opinion, covers the first part of phonics - consonants, short vowels, and blending - better than any other program. But it does not cover the rest of phonics - long vowels and consonant and vowel teams. For that we use Classical Phonics and SRA Phonics.

Our kindergarten students learn to spell the phonetic words they are learning to read. There is no formal grammar orcomposition, other than copybook.

For spelling in grades 1-2, our students study the particular word family they are studying in phonics along with some additional words from their literature reading. They also do copybook and literature study guides which address composition and spelling. There is no formal grammar and composition in K-1. The focus is these years is on reading. In the 2nd grade we use the Rod and Staff English book and also Prima Latina which teaches parts of speech.

Mary Pecci’s has a very good explanation of reading problems on her website, onlinereadingteacher.com. Her program At Last a Reading Method for Every Child, looks very good to me, although I haven’t actually seen a copy. I think her explanation of the “traps” which cause reading problems is correct. It might help you. If you find you need some more explicit help after First Start Reading, to go along with Classical Phonics, you might try it.

I hope this helps.

[notmarypoppins]

Thank you again for such a thorough response to my question. I took a look at the website you recommended. I have also been testing my 7 yo to assess his phonemic awareness skills. (In case anyone else needs to test this for their child I found a helpful resource here: http://teams.lacoe.edu/documentation/classrooms/patti/k-1/teacher/assessment/tools/tools.html). My 7 yo started to really struggle after the first few tests, making me think he has only emerging phonemic awareness skills. I thought perhaps the first level of Barton Reading and Spelling (which teaches phonemic awareness skills and nothing else) might be a first step and allow me to progress into the FSR and CP program. Does FSR and CP require strong phonemic awareness skills to begin?

I appreciate the review you did of The Phonics Road. My concern has been that it will be too fast for my struggling non-reader, although it is designed to work w/ a child that is not reading yet. You've confirmed it is fast, or at least intense, and a good program to use later. I haven't really anymore time to mull this over, so I guess I just need to try something. Your program sounds like an appropriate place to start my 5 yo and ease my 7 yo into. Thank you again for such wonderful support on this forum!

[clowe]

Hi,

I just wondered how you were doing with phonics and reading with your 7 year old. I noticed in your last post your question about phonemic awaremess in FSR and CP and wanted to mention that both programs have exercises to develop phonemic awareness. In fact, Classical Phonics has a teacher intro in the back on pages 122-125 that explains how to teach phonemic awareness, which she calls ear and tongue training. She recommends continuing ear and tongue throughout the year. I incorporated these methods in First Start Reading also. Hope this helps.

Cheryl Lowe