Books for teaching older children to read??

[katymac]

Any suggestions for a 13yo with a reading age of about 5

We using Dr Seuss and thinking of poetry.....any others?

[tamum]

These books by Barrington Stoke may be too advanced at the moment, but are worth a look- there are certainly some for readers with a reading age of less than 8 (the 4u2read books).

[katymac]

Off to the library to get some of those.....

[tamum]

My stepdaughter did some work experience with them, that's how I know about them, but they should be pretty widely available

[katymac]

I think to teach him with "baby books" would be inappropriate.

That's why I though of poetry as it is quite ageless

I will try and get some other books as well

[ChocolateGirl]

A few months ago I read "Reading Reflex" by Carmen and Geoffrey McGuinness (pub. Penguin).

The authors have designed a reading method (called Phono-Graphix) which is suitable for remediating reading problems (but it can also be used by younger children who are beginning to learn to read). It is a synthetic phonics system (although it doesn't call itself that) and you can teach your child to read yourself using just the material in the book.

It starts with some "diagnostic" tests to find out what the problem is then goes on to explain in a step-by-step way how to teach a child to read. There is also quite a bit of background information on how children learn to read and what is helpful and what is not.

Usually the problem is that the child doesn't know the "sound code" (the 44 sounds that make up the English language), or has difficulty blending and segmenting, e.g. putting c-a-t together to make "cat", breaking "sit" down into s-i-t.


I found it very useful. My ds1 is 4 and I am using mainly JP to teach him to read, but this book was informative because it cuts what you need to teach down to the bare minimum.

There is another thread in the Education section this evening which is about teaching children to read - and links to other threads - but lots of the advice/opinions given there would be helpful for you, I think.

Other websites I've found helpful are syntheticphonic.com - you can email Debbie Hepplewhite personally and she will give you excellent advice. The Reading Reform Foundation is also well worth looking at.

When he is reading a little better, Barrington Stoke is a publisher that produces books for older children - that is with a subject matter that is of interest to older children who have a reading age that is younger than their chronological age. They have a website.

I hope some of that information is helpful to you. I wish you the best of luck. Has your son's teacher suggested anything? I suspect this has been a problem for some time so surely the school has spoken to you about it?

[tamum]

Yes, absolutely- that's what the Barrington Stoke scheme tries to do, to have simpler-to-read books but with storylines that appeal to older children and teenagers. It's just possible we've got some knocking around somewhere, I'll have a look and let you know if I find any.

[katymac]

I'm a childminder and it was my first day with child today...so I have to learn very quickly

DD's school uses Thrass which really makes sense to me That the Cuh sound in Cat, Kitten, queen,duck all sound the same but are spelt differently

So I'm really struggling to learn about a new child and to teach him asap - the school is ready to exclude him and I think I'm his last chance

[katymac]

Any other ideas?

[popsycal]

i was going to suggest barrington stoke too

[popsycal]

there are other authors too but may be a bit difficult for him yet

paul jennings is a good one

[swedishmum]

Waterstones do a free booklet - books for dyslexic children - which gives reading ages. Have been using Barrington Stoke - ds 8 loves them and they've been a real breakthrough. The teenage ones are great. Alternatively you could try some of the Adult Literacy entry level stuff. Ds loved the unit on the 1966 World Cup being stolen. There are wordsearches and all sorts. Can't find the whole address but one of the pages isthis
Also ReadAmerica has a unit on Spiderman - ds loved it but it could be a bit young. Worth checking anyway.
There's a UK version of Phonographix out in Sept apparently. Can't say I like it much myself but it certainly seems to work.
Do you do paired reading? That will certainly help him to get more confidence and get through books more quickly.

[swedishmum]

Website changed to this

[katymac]

The school (dd's not his) have offered me a reading scheme to borrow over the summer, so that will help