DITHOR ?s: w/ER books, selecting & scheduling books

[Rice]

I've got a 10yo DD with some reading issues (just had her assessed and there are no cognitive impairment) so I will be going somewhat tentatively as we start Preparing this year. I know her comprehension is good, especially when I read aloud, but I'm not sure where she's at when it comes to doing DITHOR books and the corresponding work pages, especially on top of the rest of the workload. I know I will have to play things by ear as she improved a lot over this past school year but wondering about opinions of those who have used the 2/3 or even other DITHOR levels:

1) I don't want to purchase the Level 2 or 3 packages as I truly hope she will work through more than one level in the coming year. I did notice, though, that one Humor book on the Sample Book Ideas list is Amelia Bedelia and a Historical Fiction book is The Courage of Sarah Noble, both of which are coming in my son's Emerging Readers pack. I will likely start with these, but I noticed that they are over half a year apart in the Emerging Readers series; should I pick another book in between to sort of graduate the reading level as we work from one to the next (maybe Tornado or Little House Animal Adventures)? -EDITED TO SAY: since I posted this yesterday I think I've decided to go through the Emerging Readers (and that portion of the Beyond guide) with her before starting DITHOR. I think she'll go through fairly quickly but will slow down as needed when comprehension or decoding skills warrant it. I think the last ER (The Courage of Sarah Noble) will be our first genre for DITHOR - so this question has now become, should I schedule Sarah Noble for 5, 10 or 15 days and if not 15 then what book should I pair it with?

2)And how long would each of these books be read for DITHOR? Amelia Bedelia for 5 days? Should I pair it with Owl at Home to make the 15 days for Humor? (7 or 8 days each?) Would the Courage of Sarah Noble need another book to make 15 days for Historical Fiction? If so, where do I find a book to make up the difference? - EDITED TO SAY that this question is now included in question 1 so no further answer needed.

3) How do I know how long to schedule each of the books from the Sample Book Ideas for (5, 10 or 15 days), at least the ones that are not in the DITHOR packs? My kids have looked through some of the Sample Book Idea lists and picked out books they would like to read (based on their titles). How do I know whether I'll need a second (or third) book for that genre/how many days to schedule them? I can cross-reference some of them with the Book Packs sold by HOD but not all of them are there and I don't have them here to be able to see them (nor do I know DITHOR enough to know how to schedule them, even if I had them in hand). For Example: should The Lion, the Witch and the Wardrobe (Adventure 4/5) be scheduled over the full 15 days? Or, for Adventure 2/3, The Littles (based on the Level 2 book pack in the catalogue) should be 10 days. What other books on the list could be read the remaining 5 days (other than The Storm)? I don't suppose it could be as simple as a certain number of pages per day for each level. Books vary (print size, literary difficulty, etc.) too much for that. . .

I'd love to plan all this out in a short time but picking enough books for 3 children to do 5 genres this year (one who will hopefully span more than one reading level) and finding the books (library? used online? or order from HOD?), never mind scheduling them on the "Assigned Reading Calendar" and picking and planning a Kick Off for at least the first few genres. . . oy! I'm getting overwhelmed again.

Oh, and 4) The Littles is listed as Adventure in the Sample Book Ideas list and as Fantasy in the Level 2 Book Pack. Does this mean it really doesn't matter where I put it, or in fact which genre I pick for many books as long as it generally fits the description?

Drowning in book titles, genres, reading levels, days to schedule, etc. Any help is appreciated!
Blessings,

[my3sons]

Thanks for sharing about your dd here! Now that the testing revealed she doesn't have any impairment, I think you can move forward feeling like dd will just blossom this year. I tutored for many years using the ERS and DITHOR, and one thing I standardly found is that it is important to start where the child places best and move forward systematically. This helps the most progress to made, both in reading skills/comprehension and in confidence. For this reason, I'd look at the Emerging Reader's Set you are going to already have on hand, and start her where she is reading fairly comfortably and well. If this is the last half or third of the set, I'd begin there. You can use the ERS schedule for numbers of pages to read, or you can use time (i.e. have dd read aloud to you for 15-20 minutes and stop wherever she is at the end of the time). However far she gets, I'd orally ask her the ERS comprehension questions for all/most of the pages she read that day. This will be excellent preparation for DITHOR 2/3. Whenever she completes the ERS/oral comprehension plans, she can move in to DITHOR 2/3, and I'd encourage you to use the Level 2 Book Pack. It is the cream of the crop - the best selection of books with the best progression of difficulty, carefully chosen by Carrie. The Sample Book Ideas is good, but it is a much brooder group of books with a much more general leveling.

The books in the ERS may span many reading levels according to their AR Levels/publishers. However, reading levels are often determined by numbers of words per sentence, numbers of syllables per words, number of sentences per page, etc. In truth, there are many more factors to determining the reading level/readablity of a book than a canned formula can factor in. (Carrie and I studied this quite extensively in our masters of education classes . We used multiple reading level formulas to level books and came up with a difference of as much as 3 grade levels using different formulas! ) For example, Carrie considered the number of pages in a book, the length of chapters, the number of pictures a book has, the size of the font in the book, the ease of readability of the font used, the subject matter content (i.e. how much a child could relate to it or know about it), etc. According to reading levels provided by publishers, "First Flight," "Buffalo Bill: Frontier Daredevil," and "Fanny Crosby" are all 4.0 reading levels. However, Carrie has placed "First Flight" in the Emerging Reader's Set, "Buffalo Bill..." in the 4/5 set, and "Fanny Crosby" in the 5/6 set. If you were to hold these 3 books in your hand, it would be obvious why they are placed in these sets. So, the DITHOR Book Packs are the best leveling system, as Carrie has poured over all of these books and placed them accordingly in a progression that is wise. The Sample Book Ideas List uses general reading levels provided by each of the publishers, which is far less accurate than 1 person with her master's degree in education sitting down and painstakingly going through books to create levels within DITHOR book packs. The pacing of how many days to spend on each book is another thing Carrie very carefully considered, and that makes all the difference in progress as well.

I long for you to take advantage of all of the research, work, and effort Carrie has put into choosing books and pacing for the ERS and DITHOR - and I certainly don't want you to be trying to redo all of that work yourself! I would find that exhausting too! I think you would find it an incredible relief to just use the plan Carrie has put into place, by having dd move through the last portion of the ERS, and then by having her move through however many genres she gets through in DITHOR 2/3 with the Level 2 Book Pack. Though the PHFHG guide plans for reading to be done 3 times a week, I'd do it daily. This will help dd so much more than trying to get through more levels more quickly. If you finished out the ERS by working on it daily, and then began DITHOR 2/3 daily, as in 5 days a week if possible, that would have dd getting through much of DITHOR by the end of the year. DITHOR is also fun and not hard to do in the summer or during school breaks, so she could finish out the books then. This steady diet of good reading and progression of reading will move dd forward at a successful pace that is not overwhelming. One other thing you may want to consider is adding "The Reading Reflex" to your day. This is a phonics reference book that includes mini-lessons you can tailor to your child's needs. It is to be used for more mature students, and both Carrie and I enjoyed using it with our 3rd and 4th grade students when we co-taught. Parents came into the classroom and used it as well, and it had solid results. I think you will see real progress this year with your dd's reading, and I am excited for the two of you to begin. HTH!

In Christ,
Julie

[Rice]

Thank you SO much for your detailed response, Julie.

I think you can move forward feeling like dd will just blossom this year. You can use the ERS schedule for numbers of pages to read, or you can use time (i.e. have dd read aloud to you for 15-20 minutes and stop wherever she is at the end of the time). However far she gets, I'd orally ask her the ERS comprehension questions for all/most of the pages she read that day. This will be excellent preparation for DITHOR 2/3. Whenever she completes the ERS/oral comprehension plans, she can move in to DITHOR 2/3, and I'd encourage you to use the Level 2 Book Pack. . . Though the PHFHG guide plans for reading to be done 3 times a week, I'd do it daily. This will help dd so much more than trying to get through more levels more quickly. If you finished out the ERS by working on it daily, and then began DITHOR 2/3 daily, as in 5 days a week if possible, that would have dd getting through much of DITHOR by the end of the year. This steady diet of good reading and progression of reading will move dd forward at a successful pace that is not overwhelming. . . I think you will see real progress this year with your dd's reading, and I am excited for the two of you to begin.

Thank you for these specifics, especially knowing that it's equally valid to do page numbers or time with the ERs. We'll see which seems to fit best as we get going on it. I don't know if I can fit DITHOR 5x/week with her (while running 3 guides and keeping 3 under school age busy, especially since I'm expecting things to take her slightly longer than average, possibly) but I will definitely try.

One other thing you may want to consider is adding "The Reading Reflex" to your day. This is a phonics reference book that includes mini-lessons you can tailor to your child's needs. It is to be used for more mature students, and both Carrie and I enjoyed using it with our 3rd and 4th grade students when we co-taught. Parents came into the classroom and used it as well, and it had solid results.
In Christ,
Julie

Would you suggest starting this right away or after we are done the ERs?

One more question: since we did Biography already (last year as prep for starting HOD) should I start with the Level 2 Bio for her when the ERs are done (re-do that genre) or should I start with Adventure and go through the list, and order the Level 3 bio (as a substitution) for her to read at the end?

Blessings,

[my3sons]

With your busy schedule, I think 4 days a week consistently will suffice! Your health is pretty important to maintain too! For younger dc doing the ERS it is best to just follow the scheduled page numbers as is, but for older dc setting the timer and moving along would be fine. I think I'd see how the ERS goes. Dd may make incredible progress! If she is struggling with the ERS, I'd get the Reading Reflex and begin using it daily in short mini-lessons as needed (probably not to exceed 10-15 minutes or so, so dd can put her time and effort into her reading books as well). As you've already done Biography in DITHOR, I'd move on to Adventure. HTH!

In Christ,
Julie

[Rice]

It does! Thank you so much for your help and advice, Julie!

Blessings,

[Gwenny]

my3sons,
To take advantage of the progression of skills in the level 2 book pack for DITHR, do you need to do the genres in order?

[Nealewill]

No, you do not. You just want to do the levels in order. We jump around the genres. I actually let my kids pick the books they read and the order as long as it is from the book pack I am doing that year if that makes sense. They also have to pick a genre we haven't covered in the student book as well. The DITHOR student books lasts us 2 years. But we buy a book pack every year because my kids end up reading the other books over the summer.

[Rice]

Since this thread is up again I thought I'd post an update on what I decided to do this year.

For my DD (10yo late reader) we decided to scrap all LA plans in the guide (too bad there isn't time for everything , though she's doing CTC Poetry with her brothers) and do Dianne Craft's Brain Training with her. We'll do it till at least February or so then reevaluate for the rest of the year. (I don't want to skip doing all the LA as I do want her ready for CTC next year, if at all possible.) I got the Level 2 Book pack for her for when she's ready for DITHOR (which my 9yo DS is reading for fun). Her reading level still tests at a Grade 2/3 level but she is doing Preparing (other than LA) probably 85-90% as written with me scribing or allowing oral answers occasionally for things like the science questions. Those were challenging for her in the first weeks (picking out the answers from the One Small Square text) but she has improved already and I see both areas of challenge/weakness and growth in her.

I got lots of the DITHOR 5/6 book pack for my 12yoDS who is doing CTC for Grade 7 with Extensions. He'll do those this year and move on to 7/8 books next year when we complete the second half of the genres. He and his brother (the 9yo, doing CTC without extensions) have done Humor and moved on to their next choice: Fantasy. (I think I'll try to push Historical Fiction or Non-Fiction next. ) I wish I had gotten Level 4 book pack for my 9yo for simplicity but costs were high and we have so many good books around here. . . Next year he'll start on the 5/6 book pack.

My 6yo DS, doing LHFHG, just finished (2 days ago!) his phonics program from last year (100 Easy Lessons) and moved right into the Beginner Bible today. He did pretty well with it. I hope I can find the Early Reader's Bible around (we have both) as I think it would be good for him to do both before moving into the rest of the ER set.

We have found a number of challenges this year (some of you may remember my post about our oldest's challenges, dysgraphia and possible EFD) but I am also seeing steady growth in them all, some gaps being filled and tremendous blessings from the beautiful correlation between History and Bible and everything else in the guides. It's hard to stay on top of it all (checking that I and S work is complete and getting all the T boxes done for all 3 levels) but we're finally starting to settle in and be able to appreciate all that is in the HOD guides (DITHOR, WWTB, etc.).

Thanks for your patience in seeing me through the planning and first few months! 4 kids in 3 guides is a wild ride to start but I think we're close to being able to enjoy the roller coaster ride now!

Blessings,

[Mumkins]

I'm glad you're finding something that's working Rice.

I too have a struggling reader. I bought level 2, but pulled her back to ER. She went quick through a couple books (we started with Amelia Bedelia as I knew she could read it. We're on the nature reader now. She's just reading the scheduled 3 pages a day. At the scheduled pace, she'll finish ER around week 25 of Bigger and we'll catch the last 10 weeks this year with Level 2. I went through and decided to do DITHOR in the order of reading level. Usually, they're pretty close. But I noticed Adventure had two books listed. Animal Adventures was 2.8 and the books that goes with it, drawing a blank right now, was 4.something. Should I wait til she can read books in the 4s well? That was the only thing that confused me about DITHOR, the books in level 2 have a reading level from upper 2s to upper 4s. It seems they should be scheduled in order or a child could struggle. Or maybe I'm just over thinking it...,