First Start Reading A-D Set
Grade K
$52.55
First Start Reading Table of Contents
First Start Reading Student Books: A Sample–B Sample–C Sample–D Sample
First Start Reading Books A-D Teacher Sample
Is there really a need for another phonics program? Well, we thought so! The first reading and printing lessons are critical, and although there are many adequate programs out there, we could not find one with the right combination we were looking for—a balanced, age-appropriate approach to phonics and reading, and a serious focus on correct pencil grip and letter formation. In addition, many phonics programs today use the ladder approach (consonant-vowel blending), which is fine, but we prefer the more traditional (vowel-consonant) approach combined with word families. And one more thing: mastery of the short vowels is the sine qua non of phonics programs, and few programs really give adequate practice in this very important skill. First Start Reading solved all of our little problems and made us happy. We hope you like it too.
Product Description
First Start Reading covers consonants, short and long vowels, 45 common words, and manuscript printing, accompanied by artist-drawn coloring pictures and drawing pages for every letter. Your child will begin reading in the very first lesson as he progresses through five student books and over thirty-one phonetic stories, such as “Hogs and Pigs” and “Jog to the Jet.” The Teacher Manual guides you through the program and provide helpful assessments and teaching tips.
This set includes the following: First Start Reading Books A-D and the Teacher Guide.
Articles:
“Why First Start Reading” by Cheryl Lowe
“What is the Classical Approach to Phonics?” by Cheryl Lowe
Additional Information
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5 reviews for First Start Reading A-D Set
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shellyanglin –
We love these books!
noexcuses –
These books systematically teach how to build reading skills. My child learned to read using these books. It has enjoyable activities as well as assignments that train in discipline and diligence. In our situation, I felt that Book D pace was too fast and we had to supplement with additional games and activities.
Heather Pedersen –
I have enjoyed teaching my daughters how to read through this program. It utilizes a gentle and multi-sensory approach to reading.
Kevin Hegarty –
As a first time homeschooler, I have successfully taught my son how to read and become a voracious reader because of this curriculum. Not only has it given him reading confidence, it has given me confidence as a teacher!
Abbie Heler (verified owner) –
Our family has gone through all 5 books in this series (including book E) and ultimately, it has too many gaps to be a solid program.
what I liked: the simplicity of the lessons, and the open and go format.
what I hate: It did not have nearly enough sight words in comparison to other kinder programs. Also, after finishing all 5 BOOKS, the program did NOT address the controlling R with the vowels. What?!
My first student is a struggling reader, so we moved at our own pace, and I supplemented a lot of lessons with extra practice in a composition notebook. My second student is doing really well, but now that I have already completed the series with one child, I know better what to add going through it again.
Ultimately, it did teach my students to read, however, by the end of the program, students will not be strong readers. There are too many gaps in common/sight words, and the lack of teaching controlling R, ‘ing’, and ‘ed’ at the end of a word, make the beginner reader under equipped, because many the stories in book D, and book E had words with these phonic concepts.
Book D has 12 lessons. Book E has 8. The writers of the program couldn’t find a way to add controlling R in these books?
If these issues were mediated, it would be the perfect program. Otherwise, for my next two students, I will be on the look out for a different phones/reading program.
Lukas Swenson –
Thank you for taking the time to contact Memoria Press. We value the input of our customers.
The First Start Reading program is modeled after the Orton-Gillingham path of phonics introduction which introduces one sound for letters allowing plenty of practice with them before introducing another sound or spelling. This is a contrast to say, a Spalding path which introduces all of the spellings for a sound giving no practice writing or spelling with the sounds. In her research our founder realized students only need to have focused written practice with a portion of all the phonograms of English before they are ready to transition from practice with those phonograms in a workbook style situation. After a certain point students could be introduced to more advanced phonics to allow their reading to continue progressing, while spending focused written work on spelling of phonograms already introduced and practiced through reading. These basic phonograms that students need to practice prior to this split into phonics for reading and phonics for spelling, which happens in our first grade, are the ones included in FSR Books A-E. These books were not designed to cover all the phonograms in English.
In the First Start Reading program we limit the teaching of sight words. We call them Common Words because some are words that can eventually be decoded, they just contain more advanced phonograms, while others are true exceptions to common spelling rules of English. We teach enough for students to be able to read some sentences and/or stories. We did not attempt to cover all the words in the Dolch word lists or any other lists. We believe the words we ask our students to read as sight only words should be limited to what occurs more naturally in the stories associated with our lessons. Student time spent learning how to decode is a better use of time and makes more sense than just memorizing a list of 100 or so words that have no context attached.
The student is actually introduced to the r-controlled vowels within some of these Common Words: are, her, girl. This makes it easy to isolate the ar, ir, er sounds and add ur. Similar to how we did with the h-teams. In Books A-C students read the Common Words the, this, that, there, they, she, what, when, where all before they are asked to decode other words with those sounds. The only completely new sound within the h-teams is ch. But because the r-controlled vowels, the three sounds of the suffix -ed, and -ng, should be introduced in this more natural way as the student encounters the sound. If you look at the StoryTime Treasures Teacher Guide you will note these phonograms you mentioned are introduced in isolation with the phonics flashcards and discussed prior to reading so when the student encounters a word with one of these new phonograms they have some working practice with them. Later in the program they will read other words with the phonogram in Classical Phonics within a list, so no context. This is a key decoding skill. Students must actually have practice reading a word around 60 times before they can spell the word, but the phonogram will be the Phonics Focus in a spelling lesson.
I did not include -ng in the list of phonograms not covered until the reading and spelling split because it is actually covered in FSR within the Optional Lessons.
For the phonetic reading with Fun in the Sun, Scamp and Tramp, and Soft and White it might be beneficial for you to look over the stories assigned to see if there are any words that need to be covered prior to reading. If you find some just write them on a whiteboard, tell them what the word is, have him repeat-read the word. If there are a couple of words, just have him read through them several times prior to reading. Also it might be helpful to pull phonics flashcards or even just write any common phonograms on a whiteboard for practice of them in isolation. Then have your student read. If he struggles with a word you covered, simply point to the word on the board and see if he remembers and coach him through decoding the word in chunks if needed.
Additionally, if you have followed the lesson plans and completed all the components of the FSR program and your student still struggles, there are three additional phonetic readers that are Optional for first grade. These cover some of the issues you noted. These books are At the Farm, which covers r-controlled vowels, On the Trail, which covers vowel teams, and Sounds of the Sea, which covers diphthongs. These are optional because they are not always needed for students to progress from the FSR program as written to the phonics for reading split. However our classes at the model school has a set that are used when we need them. If your student still really needs focused practiced in phonetic readers, we recommend using these as you have time alongside the recommended reading in first grade.
The goal of the First Start Reading program is to get students through the needed phonics lessons to take-off with reading. What I mean by take-off is that they are confident enough and have the tools they need to read basic phonetic readers. After this, what is needed is a quick introduction of phonograms then practice decoding with them. All the workbook pages are not what helps best. In all my 30 years (really there are more years of experience but there is no way I’m admitting to being that old) of experience teaching students, I have found this to be true. There comes a point where students do best with introduction of a few more advanced phonograms and then give them practice reading with them. And that reading is better done with real literature, which is varied, allowing students to practice their decoding skills while reading something of worth rather than continuing with contrived phonetic stories. Some phonics programs have students continue reading phonetic readers through grades 5 and 6 leaving students to miss out on the beauty of good children’s literature.
The phonetic components you mentioned are included in our program as explained above, they just are not part of phonetic workbook pages, which we try to limit. Our literature lessons or recitation program, or even our Copybook include English grammar components. We use these other subjects to cross-teach. So students using the entire MP program will advance to the next grade with experience with capitalization, punctuation, and grammar not necessarily the focus of an FSR lesson. They will encounter the past tense -ed form of words so the teacher will give a little mini lesson on that.
Thank you again, for reaching out with your comments and concerns. I hope with this explanation you will see the fullness of the program. If you have further questions, please let me know.
Blessings,
Michelle