superphonics

[molk]

just wondering whether to buy the superphonics books as a variation to ORT for my ds. what would be the equivalent colour superphonic to ORT level 4? do your dc enjoy them?

What stage are you at? I taught my daughter with Ruth Miskins books which I think are now called superphonic (They were called Read Write Inc). They were great although they dive in quite quickly at the beginning.

They are wonderful because they a structured and progressive and entirely decodable i.e. kids only read sounds that they have been taught before.

There are other similar reading schemes around. Jelly and Bean is good.

My mum has some great books too! www.phonicbooks.co.uk.

They are particualarly good for early readers. They start with just five sounds s, a t i m. The next level adds a few more and so on right the way up the phonic code.

The launchers aimed at beginners. Dandelion readers for the whole phonic code.
Talisman for older reluctant readers.
They have great stories and are fun.

They also have a blog at www.phonicbooks.wordpress.com where they discuss reading issues.

I bought the whole set from the book people. There are 4 levels, I would say level 3 is roughly ORT 6/7 and level 4 is 8/9. Didn't read the easier levels as too easy for DD gave to my sister for my niece.

Based on what I saw probably the level 2 was ORT 4/5 and level 1 was ORT 2/3???? Its a totally different scheme though so hard to draw direct comparisons.

Did feel some of the stories a bit contrived just to get all the right phonics words in though.

I wouldn't try to compare decodeable books with ORT at all. The purpose of the ORT books is to use repetitive text in order to reinforce 'look and say'/whole word teaching. Decodeables are for practice in applying phonic knowledge as it is taught. It's like trying to compare apples and pears...

I understand that a child who is well taught with systematic phonics will have no problems with the later levels of ORT as they'll be able to decode it, but as I work in secondary I'm not sure at what 'level' this happens, I just know what I have been told by teachers who work with younger children.

As for literary criticism, children don't mind a bit of 'contrived' when they are practising a new skill!

Superphonics was Ruth Miskin's first synthetic phonics reading programme -the books fit in with that programme. They aren't as good as the latest Read Write Inc. books.

As maizieD says, don't try to compare decodables with whole language books like ORT as they are simply not compatible.

There's lots of information about choosing a decodable books scheme -and links to all the publishers here:

www.aowm73.dsl.pipex.com/dyslexics/resources_and_further_11.htm