All About Getting Help for Students Weak in English

[buds]

Hi dokomo, your nephew has wasted 2 long years already in ICR. This isn’t the first few times i’ve heard parents and fellow frenz complaining about the ineffectiveness of ICR and the big group of children they take in. On top of all that, there were also observations of teacher being unable to handle the children and no gradual feedback on child’s progress.


I would not advise you to jump into another group programme anymore. He needs one to one and this intervention will help to zoom into his challenged areas. While there have been one or two students whom i’ve taken who were totally not cut out for Phonics (cos they really have no ear for it ie. just can’t listen and make out the sounds and its combinations… with the parents support we have not left any child behind being unable to read upon graduating from the programme. A good teacher can observe the weaknesses of the children and using other ways to tailor to the specific areas banking on their learning styles, to bring out the strengths in them.

[buds]

Yes Imami. That is correct. And also… short one liner sentences like.

Fat cat sat on a mat. Bug on a rug. Hot dog on a log. Plus simple one
liner story books and good sight readers.

[iLoveChubby]

Hey buds...

It's me again...your \"stalker\"... :rotflmao:
Dont :siam: first , want to chk w u sth...really lah.... ....:
Does purely reading storybooks suffice on their memory of sight words or do we really have to get \"sight word readers\"?
Do you have gd recommendations on any specific titles on sight word readers? I thk there are some under Scholastic?

[cherrygal]

jedamum:

Btw, is it common for 4yo toknow blending n reading? I thought average is k1 or k2. :oops:

Dun worry, he started at 4yo (N2) and after 1 year, he could read and blend the phonics. That meant he was K1 by then.

So sister buds was right, K1 is the more common age to be able to read and blend.

But my personal preference is Zoophonics coz they laid a good foundation within 1 year and he didn't need any more help after that. We went to enquire at LCentral when he was 4yo and he wasn't really comfortable in their small group setting (guess he didn't like too much attention from their native speaker teacher). So we settled on Zoophonics which was slightly cheaper and had more students too. My boy thrives in larger groups.

Within 3 months, he was trying to read by himself. So that was a great achievement to us. After 6 months, he even started to read food labels.

So dokomo, whether you finally select another group setting or settle for one-to-one intervention actually depends on your nephew's learning style. In my boy's case, he likes big groups and he doesn't do well when there are only 1-2 pple in the class. Weird but true.

[hokkiengirl]

Hello!


One resource to consider would be the Usborne series of books for beginning readers. There's 'Shark in the Park', 'Toad on the Road', 'Ted in a Red Bed'... well, you get the idea. Can try ordering them from Book Depository. This will hopefully help him get used to the vowel sounds.

Apart from reading to the child, it is imperative to make him read to you out loud daily, after he has learnt the basic phonic blends. Erm, but the key is that you Must. Be. Patient. Some kids (like my number two) are not instinctive readers and need a lot more time to get used to the irregularity of the English language. However, after months of persevering, I am glad to say that my K2 boy is now reading books his kor kor picked up in Primary One!!!

Choice of books is also very important. If he likes planes, borrow books on planes. If he's into animals, there is a lot of good children's lit about that. And not all books are recreated equal. There are badly written books which have 'flat' characterisation and there is really good kids' lit which can make them cry. Gotta browse around for them.

[dokomo]

:thankyou: for all ur replies.


Buds, ur post really got me worried, not to mention money down the drain. (which is small compared to his 2precious years wasted) One to one is good, but go where to find unless have recommendations, now whole family scurrying around finding school, pressing panic button. Do u hv recommendation for 1 to 1? Do u still teach 1 to 1? If 1 to 1 is not possible, small group setting (6 or will it help? I was even thinking of coaching him myself with the keywords commonly found (ladybird keywords) to help him kick-start his independent reading. (sigh, i dun know phonics so cant teach him on tt)

Cherrygal, where is this zoophonics conducted? I cant seem to find a specific school tt teaches zoophonics?

Went to popular but cant find the usborne readers, will probably order fr bookdepository then.

[autumnbronze]

Hi Dokomo,


Zoophonics is a methodology of studying phonics. There are several of these schools in Singapore. Here is the link:

http://www.zoophonics.com.sg/

I have signed my DS1 for their holiday programs before and he thoroughly enjoyed them.

Hope this helps

[iLoveChubby]

Hi dokomo!

You may wish to chk this website, they hv few branches :
http://www.zoophonics.com.sg/
My son used to attend Growing up Gifted wkend enrichmt - they also teach zoophonics.

I thk some (or all) Popular doesnt carry Usborne series - you can try Kinokuniya, alot of selections - else you can look out for SMH bulk purchase, its cheaper.

[hokkiengirl]

Hi, Dokomo!


Actually, I taught my kids to read myself. It’s not really that hard, but does require patience. I used this book which cost 30 plus bucks. The price was the main draw, when I compared it to the rest of the courses on the market. I mean, ONE lesson is 30 bucks! The title of the book is ‘Teach Your Child to Read in 100 Easy Lessons’ by Siegfried Engelmann. At least, I think that is the title. Am not entirely sure as I’ve lent the book to a friend.

It is available in the library. Can reserve it to take a look before ordering. Some people find it too technical, but once you get the hang of how to use it, it is quite straightforward (like using a new-fangled vacuum cleaner). You just need to follow the spoken instructions to lead the child to blend words like m-a-n.

Warning: it is NOT the most interesting of books for the child. The mini stories in each lesson which are used for daily practice can be a little trite, but they are crafted to build on what the child has learnt up to that point.

It just requires around 15 min a day. Not really worth it to hire an external party to do it…

[schweppes]

hokkiengirl:

Hi, Dokomo!


Actually, I taught my kids to read myself. It's not really that hard, but does require patience. I used this book which cost 30 plus bucks. The price was the main draw, when I compared it to the rest of the courses on the market. I mean, ONE lesson is 30 bucks! The title of the book is 'Teach Your Child to Read in 100 Easy Lessons' by Siegfried Engelmann. At least, I think that is the title. Am not entirely sure as I've lent the book to a friend.

It is available in the library. Can reserve it to take a look before ordering. Some people find it too technical, but once you get the hang of how to use it, it is quite straightforward (like using a new-fangled vacuum cleaner). You just need to follow the spoken instructions to lead the child to blend words like m-a-n.

Warning: it is NOT the most interesting of books for the child. The mini stories in each lesson which are used for daily practice can be a little trite, but they are crafted to build on what the child has learnt up to that point.

It just requires around 15 min a day. Not really worth it to hire an external party to do it...

Agree. This is a fantastic book to teach your child with. Taught both my girls to read using Engelmann. A friend recommended the book to me too.

To supplement the above mentioned book, I also got my kids started with the Rigby Readers and the Magic Key series. Those are of course more interesting and fun to read.