Emergent Readers- getting more difficult

[Rachel]

I am using the Emergent Readers' Schedule with my dd and another little girl in our co-op, and up through the Frog & Toad books they were doing fine. Today we started Wagon Wheels, and my friend's daughter started to really struggle with some of the words, as well as comprehension. Her phonics level seems to be much lower than my dd's, so she often is guessing on words and has to be forced to properly try sounding them out (as soon as she gets anywhere near figuring out the word she just starts guessing again). I am very much hoping that this was just a bad reading day, or else that the names in this book or storyline is just not so familiar to her and she will do better once we move on. But I have taught this schedule twice before and none of the kids have been struggling so much at this point. What do you think? Of course I will continue on and finish this book, try the next one too. But if she is still struggling and can't properly answer the questions/narrate, do you think I should continue push on to challenge her, or have to take a break (including my dd) and use some of the other lower level recommended books (or Henry & Mudge type books) before moving the girls on? It might cause a relationship issue with her mother if I discuss this with her, too, since she insists her daughter knows phonics!

[tiffanieh]

I'm assuming you are homeschooling this other woman's daughter? I would certainly hope it wouldn't cause friction in your relationship, since you are her teacher and are the one actually with her each day, if you needed to slow her down and cement in her phonics facts. I would definitely not be too worried about pronunciation of strange names so much as common every day words she may struggle with. If she is struggling with as much as you are indicating, I certainly wouldn't go on to the next higher level book, but like you mentioned, give her additional reading with similar leveled books. Is her mom working with her at home as well? What program did she use to learn her phonics from originally? If she didn't go thru a solid phonics program then there very well may be holes in her grasp of phonics. Is she doing any type of phonics workbooks like Explode the Code to help cement them in? That would certainly help.

Hope it gets better for you!!! If your daughter isn't struggling, then I would continue her on and slow the friend down. That is the beauty of homeschooling!!

[Rachel]

Thanks for you advice. She has had a mixture of A Beka phonics (intensive) and public school recently. Now her mom is back to using A Beka with her, so she does the workbooks, but I don't know how much they practice the charts. I only teach her group subjects and then this reading with my dd. So I'm not in charge of her phonics class. The last few days she did much better, although still definitely struggles with sounding out words more than I would prefer. I guess for now I'll keep on forcing her to sound them out, and then as we go on if she is not improving, I will have to separate the 2 girls.

[mrsrandolph]

It sounds like more phonics instruction is needed. By the time they are in the emerging readers, the books should flow pretty naturally with only a few bumps.

[my3sons]

You've received good advice here already! Certainly every child develops differently when it comes to reading, and from what you've shared, it sounds best to separate the two girls, as their needs are now different. I would slow down the ERS with your friend's daughter, and perhaps help her work on her Abeka chart as part of the reading time, or maybe work on Explode the Code workbooks with her to help her over this hump. You could also use the supplemental titles, and take turns reading with her, alternating by sentences. It helped our sons to let them practice reading the book first on their own, and then to join me and read it aloud. We have used the markerboard to help our dc over the hump of sounding out words with great success. I described it here...
viewtopic.php?f=6&t=10907&p=79431

I think it would be discouraging for this little gal to struggle alongside your dd who is moving ahead of her, so separating the two of them would be a good idea. You can just tell both gals that it is better at this stage of reading to work with one child at a time. They probably won't perceive one being ahead of another then- as they aren't probably aware of the significance of the order of the books, nor are they holding the teacher's guide that lists the books numerically by unit. Separating the two girls, and having this little one read more at her level rather than moving her ahead too quickly, will probably take less teaching time than trying to keep the 2 together and having to constantly stop to sound out words. HTH!

In Christ,
Julie

[twoxcell]

Another idea to do along with extra phonics is to get some of the supplemental/extra titles to have her read before moving on with the ER's. There is one listed for each week of the ER's. I own a bunch of these and have my dd switch back and forth.