learning to read and spelling too?

[spoony]

I'm teaching my DS to read with OPG and he's doing well, but I have friends who are doing spelling test and timed drills (to see how many words they can read in a minute). Should I be doing that as well?

[lach]

I'm pretty "structured learning" as far as this board goes, and I personally think that a coherent spelling curriculum is useful and good at the elementary school level.

Timed reading, on the other hand... wuh? What on earth is the point? I read very, very fast... but that doesn't mean that I read better than anyone else. I really don't understand why anyone would need to do this.

[OTMomma]

I don't think giving tests and timed drills at home are necessary at all- what matters is that the child learns skills. I think tests and drills can be needlessly stressful.

[jlpumkin]

Do they do the drills often? I only ask bc my dd did one as part of a cooperative class that focused up building fluid reading skills. They did one of those at the start as part of a reading assessment. While I wouldn't think to do one myself it was sort of neat to see where she fell in the grade standards. Even as a close to school at home hser - I think this as a routine activity is a bit much.

[lach]

Originally Posted by jlpumkin

Do they do the drills often? I only ask bc my dd did one as part of a cooperative class that focused up building fluid reading skills. They did one of those at the start as part of a reading assessment. While I wouldn't think to do one myself it was sort of neat to see where she fell in the grade standards. Even as a close to school at home hser - I think this as a routine activity is a bit much.

That makes sense, to do is as an assessment thing. And it could be interesting to, say, do it at the beginning of the year and then 6 months later (or whatever) to see if the child is building fluency. There are two aspects to reading: fluency and comprehension. For reading to be fun, you sorta need both. And while comprehension has a lot to do with maturity and vocabulary, fluency is really only built through practice.

I could also see it being worthwhile if you're in a state that requires testing, or if you just want to have your child take an assessment test. Those tests are usually timed, so it wouldn't hurt to see how quickly your child can read so you can work with them on test taking skills as needed.

So, yes, it makes sense as a one off (or occasional) thing. It does seem odd as part of the regular homeschool curriculum.