First grade readiness

[jgale]

My son did preschool and kindergarden in a wonderful Montessori school where the activities were very 'child-led' and while he learned to read there, he definitely led himself more towards other activities. He will be starting at our local public school in the fall for 1st grade and I know that his reading level is way behind where the kids who did kindergarden there are.

I am not actually worried about his reading-I myself didn't really read until the end of 2nd grade and then became a voracious reader for the rest of my childhood. I'm more worried about him starting a new school way behind his classmates--how that will make him feel, what the teachers will think, etc. I would like to spend some time over the rest of the summer working on improving his reading, but I'm not sure how to go about that. I read to him every night, but getting him to read to me seems to turn into a power struggle pretty quickly.

Any suggestions? His comprehension of stories that I read is quite sophisticated (we've been reading Roald Dahl, the Ramona books, Harry Potter, etc), but the stories that he can actually read himself are kind of boring for him, I think. Plus reading is still really hard work for him, and who wants to work hard? Not him

Thanks,
Jessi

[mommy2superman]

My ds1 is going to 1st grade too.

He learned to read while in K. [I never was a fan of teaching sight words using flashcards, but the school gave him 3-5 words a week to learn. If he can learn some of the basic ones before school starts, he will be well on his way. Dr. Seuss books are really good for reading sight words.

I made sight word bingo cards for him. I would say the word and see if he could find it on his own, then turn a flashcard over with the word on it.

I also did a poster board with sight words written on it and had him toss a bean bag onto a word. If he could read the word he got a point. You can also make a large game board with a large white shower curtain, the sidewalk, or a path with words written on it and have him say the word in order to move to that space.

My ds1 also likes to play boggle jr.

[dbsam]

My children are also going from a traditional Montessori school to 1st grade in a public charter school. They are young for the grade; I didn't realize so many people in the area hold children back when they are near the cutoff. I know they are bright but I am worried how being 'behind' when school starts will affect how they feel about school and themselves. (I don’t really think of them as behind; they simply learned other things.) Their Montessori school did not do worksheets, tests, etc. and definitely didn't push reading or sight words (which I am fine with and agree with). They did work on phonics but even that seems to be a disadvantage. I spoke with a teacher friend who said most traditional Kindy's teach just the hard and soft letter sounds but my children learned all the sounds. e.g. When asked the sounds an 'a' makes they say all four and when trying to sound out words they try all four sounds.

I hired a tutor for the summer and we are doing a little homework. It is a Montessori tutor but at least we are reinforcing their learning through the summer months. I s/b pushing the reading more but the days seem to slip by so quickly.

Their confidence soared at Montessori and they loved it – couldn’t wait to get there each day. I'm afraid of how they will do at the new school and whether I s/h kept them in Kindy again.

[dbsam]

Originally Posted by jgale

Any suggestions? His comprehension of stories that I read is quite sophisticated (we've been reading Roald Dahl, the Ramona books, Harry Potter, etc), but the stories that he can actually read himself are kind of boring for him, I think. Plus reading is still really hard work for him, and who wants to work hard? Not him

My children also comprehend well and have great vocabularies - but their reading is very basic. They are barely reading. (Beginning level 'Bob' books, etc.)

My teacher friend came over and gave them part of the DIBELS test. They scored well on vocabulary (age 10) but horribly on the other two sections - one section just under the suggested level for 1st grade and the other way below. She thinks it is because they were never exposed to that way of teaching and that they will pick it up quickly once they are in school. I hope she is correct. She suggested I teach them the way they will be tested - but I think the test is ridiculous!

[orangecanoe]

I would check the district website and see if they have the elementary curriculum listed. Either that or google your state's standards. Knowing how our K year ended, I would say first grade is about much more than reading. They really pushed math and science with focus on smaller sums/fact families and making observations, respectively.

I would also do some informal journal keeping for the rest of the summer with him dictating to you or trying to write his own sentences. I was most surprised how much they expected the K kids to be "writers" as much as readers even if there skills were very much on the emerging end of the spectrum.

[musikat]

I was almost in your shoes, but we were able to keep my son in Montessori, going into lower elementary. I guess I wonder how "fluent" entering public school 1st graders typically are at reading? Are they really that fluent?

My older son entered 1st (again, Montessori) barely reading Berenstein Bears and ended 1st reading the whole first series of Warriors (200+ page books with no pictures) so I wouldn't worry too much yet. What helped him most was that when he got to 1st they were expected to read for 30 minutes silently. At first they were restricted to shelves that were at their level and he got so bored with Berenstein Bears that he wanted to read Magic Treehouse. I bought him the first one and he just soared after that. You just never know when it will "click." And I would assume no matter what method, your son at least has the building blocks to become a good reader, coming from Montessori.

Have you tried Graphic Novels at all for your son? They are in some ways "easier" because they are short bursts with lots of action and pics, but they are more sophisticated as an actual story. This is what got my middle son interested in reading this summer. He is an entering first grader who hadn't quite gotten there with reading for fun. So far this summer he has read the Zapt series from the library and has just gotten into Captain Underpants. Not my preferred reading for him but at this point if it gets him reading I am all for it. I am trying to get him interested in Wimpy Kid, too.

[jgale]

Thanks for the reassurance and for the suggestions. I'm going to check out the Zapt series, and I have a bunch of Captain underpants that somebody gifted us--I'll see if I can find them.

Any other book suggestions???

[eepster]

From what I've heard, most students going from Montessori K to public 1st are ahead of most of the students that went to public K. Also, students all come in at differing levels even if they went to the same class the year before anyway.

If you are still concerned though, you could show him starfall.com

[TAKLinda]

Decoding words

The easiest way to teach children to read is by using decoding words. The child looks for smaller words within larger words. eg., wagon = wag + on. Have your child color or highlight the smaller words.

Linda.

[domesticidyll]

You could talk to the teacher about the social scene in your kids' school, but my impression is that this age is pretty kind about varied abilities. When I was in DS's kinder classroom last year, I was struck both by how all the children knew exactly where the other children were in terms of ability--who was on which workbook, who could help whom with reading, who went to speech class--but also by how matter-of-fact they were about it. No one cared if anyone was behind, and I only saw one instance ever of someone teasing about someone being behind (and that was a girl with poor social skills who wanted to help her friend and didn't know how to initiate it). YMMV, and I imagine this shifts as the kids get older, but it should be okay. Most teachers seem to believe that ability is pretty flexible at this age and not indicative of future performance, so maybe that rubs off some, too.

Good luck!

[LuckyMommaToo]

The Fly Guy series is really good for emerging boy readers, I think:
http://www.amazon.com/Theodor-Seuss-...2402198&sr=8-1

Others my son liked were:
Benny and Penny graphic novels
http://www.amazon.com/Benny-Penny-No...2402241&sr=1-1

Young Cam Jansen
http://www.amazon.com/Young-Cam-Jans...2402293&sr=1-1

Mercy Watson books:
http://www.amazon.com/Mercy-Watson-F...2402511&sr=1-5

When my DS was where yours is, I went to the library by myself and checked out probably 30 books that I thought were around his level. Fiction and non-fiction, graphic novels, too. I put a stack of them next to his booster in the car and didn't mention them. Sure enough, he started picking them up and reading by himself. He quickly determined which were his level, and what he liked. His reading really took off from there. He never would have chosen to sit and read at home, but when he had to be sitting in the car anyway, he was happy to do it.

Best of luck!
-e

p.s. While DS loves Captain Underpants, they are pretty sophisticated. Definitely a step above Magic Treehouse.

[meetoo]

For our district he would be fine. The expectation is that they have about 20-25 sight words down and are emergent readers. My DD left K slightly ahead of the bench marks. I think like 1 grade second month? I remember her being able to read Go Dog GO, but it was hard and took more then one sitting to get through. I wouldn't worry ,around here anyway grade 1 is still very much about learning to read.

Many of the books other people mentioned would not be considered K books here. Not that some kids aren't reading them, just that is not the expectation. This is more typical end of K IMO. HTH


http://www.amazon.com/Hot-Dog-Step-I...2408013&sr=1-4

http://www.amazon.com/Big-Egg-Step-I...d_bxgy_b_img_b

http://www.amazon.com/Down-Green-Lig...ef=pd_sim_b_93