For the last three or four months I've been reading with Mateo a few times a week. After he wakes up from his naps in the afternoon, he frequently asks to "look for letters," which means to do headsprout with me.
Headsprout is a reading program that is cartoon-based and online. I found out about it when I was tutoring. It uses direct instruction (one of the most effective research-based methods), with something called precision teaching, (another effective method). I signed up for the program a few years ago, and they gave me five free passes, one of which I never used.
I will admit that at the beginning I expected that we would stop doing the lessons at any time, because he is only 2. . . but as of yet, he still enjoys doing the lessons, gets over 95% correct every time and asks to do them regularly. (The few times he gets less than 95% correct, we redo the lesson on another day. I figure if he enjoys reading the same books over, and over, and over, he would also enjoy doing the lesson more than one time.)
Actually, he begs to do the lessons and gets very upset when I say that reading time is over. Before each lesson we now practice how he will act when the lesson is over. (Now Mateo, are you going to cry when the lesson is over? When it is over, you might feel sad, but you can say to yourself that we can do more tomorrow.)
Here are the words he can currently read: see, van, Vee, San, the, Lee, can, feels, Fran, fan, ran, I, out, and, flips, sand, sleeps, Pip, plan, reef, feel, Clee, shout, fish.
Some of those are character names from the stories. I'm just trying to follow his lead and so far it has been really fun for both of us. It has also changed how I am teaching students at school, which has been interesting for me. It's reminded me that if you focus on the basics in the beginning and take the time to make sure students have a solid foundation, then things will go much more smoothly as they advance.
1 comment:
Amazing how that works, focusing on the basics!
Headsprout taught my then 7yr old son (who was/is autistic, and was a non-reader) how to decode and read by the 3rd lesson. The school had told me that kids like my son needed to learn with sight words because they were "visual" learners.
That was the turning point with me ever trusting the school system again. I realized that the vast majority of school people have no idea what they are even doing. They are simply winging it. I don't blame them though -- they are (most of them) very well-intentioned people who were never taught proper instructional techniques in Ed school. How very sad for kids.
Clearly, you don't fit this mold. Thank goodness for your son, and thank heavens for the kids you teach.
Headsprout and DI ROCK.
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