Friday, January 22, 2016

Barton Level 4: Practice and Review (also...that darned shwa!!)


Anyone who has used Barton Reading and Spelling will tell you that Level 4 is a BEAST! Seriously, this is where the meat of the program starts. The first 3 levels are genius in how they set you up for success here and how they get kids learning fast. But Level 4? It has every rule you never knew you needed to know to read and spell perfectly. However, English is kinda a beast in and of itself and so the rules have exceptions and funny details and are just plain hard. Worth it....but hard. 

Both my daughter and my other oldest student are in Barton 4. Actually my daughter is "finished" but didn't totally ace the post-test so we're doing some review. Barton insists you should have a 95% accuracy or better to move on and I agree generally. So like with the other levels we're spending a little time at the end reviewing and playing games. 

My tutoring student was especially struggling with the BANANA rule and that darned schwa sound (the /uh/ in banana for all of you). Because the schwa rule is a rule of convenience vs logic (we use it to say words faster because basically we're all in a rush) and it's heavily dependent on where the accented and unaccented syllables are it is complicated to really get the hang of for some.

Anyway, so we went back through the lesson but with the 3 syllable types we've learned and a little accent symbol on post-its. So the kids would divide up a word with tiles, then label each syllable type and mark the vowel (see the cheat sheet for how to mark vowels over on the right?). After that they'd decide where the accent should go using a rubber band to determine which syllable is longest and using common sense/process of elimination. THEN they say the word again and we check to make sure they're right. 




Even for the ones where they got something incorrect it lead to great discussions about WHY it was wrong. It really seemed to help break up the concepts into manageable chunks.

We are ALL about the manageable chunks!

Does anyone else have any tips/tricks for Level 4??

7 comments:

  1. Thanks for starting this blog, Manda! How awesome! There are so many struggling readers out there and parents struggling to find ways to help them. Resources like this are invaluable.

    As for additional suggestions for how to navigate Barton itself, with regard to Level 4 in particular, I agree with you wholeheartedly, this is a really tough level. Many find it harder than any other level. Some students may take 6 months to a year to complete it, which can come as a shock to parents using this system since Levels 1-3 are shorter. It IS a hard level, and a long one, but I agree that it is worth it if you are willing to really slow it down when your student struggles.

    As for my own recommendations for anyone reading your blog, first and foremost, be prepared with these lessons. Know what you are talking about. Read the back of the TM for suggestions if a child struggles. The more prepared you are as a tutor, the more likely your student will make it through the lessons successfully.

    Also, I heartily recommend running through the first 5 lessons of Level 4, stopping at that point to review each one of those lessons again with the Spelling Success card games, additional practice from the extra words in the Teacher's Manual, the fluency drills available on line, the Extra Practice pages (some of which are available on line in addition to the ones in the book) and anything else that seems like it might help to really solidify things before moving on.

    With the next lessons, I suggest making absolutely certain syllable division rules are solid. Work hard to know them yourself, as the tutor, before you attempt to teach. When you hit the Schwa lesson, slow it down. Like reaaaaalllllyy sllllloooooooowwwwwwlllllllyyyyyyy. Expect resistance and confusion. Prep for that lesson like your life depends on it. If you don't fully understand it and you misspeak/misteach it may take herculean effort to help your student get over your errors. Go through the lessons at whatever pace works for success. Do NOT rush that lesson (or Level 4).

    When you finish Lesson 11, stop and go back over the lessons again to review, just like with the first 5. Take your time. Play games suggested in the TM and using the Spelling Success card games (the creator actually has her card games broken up into lessons 1-5, lessons 6-11 and the vowel team game and it works well that way), etc. Move on when the lessons through 11 are solid. After you finish Lesson 14, review again before giving the post test. Spelling Success has a vowel team bingo game that may help solidify those last lessons for your student.

    With my own kids I had to break lessons up into pretty small pieces at first. Don't be afraid to keep lessons short if it helps your child to focus and retain better. Some kids just wear out with long Barton lessons. Don't be afraid of being behind. I see a lot of parents afraid that their child will never catch up if they don't keep pushing forward, so they rush through, then they and their child get frustrated, confused, fail to progress. They either have to backtrack or they may drop the program all together. They see 10 levels and think their child won't learn to read unless they finish all 10 right away. That really isn't true at all. In fact, Level 9 and 10 are prep for High School. They are pretty advanced. The levels of Barton are building blocks. You have to build a solid foundation for the structure to be sound. Take the time to build that structure before attempting those loftier levels. And if you need to backtrack, don't be afraid to do so. Level 4 caused us to backtrack a few times but it was well worth it.

    Sorry my suggestions post for your readers is so long. I hope it is more helpful than annoying.

    I hope others will post helpful suggestions,too. I look forward to following your blog, Manda. :)

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    1. Catherine, don't apologize, your reply has so much good stuff in it! I wish I'd known that about pausing to review after Lesson 5 and Lesson 11 before going through it the first time because I completely agree with you that those are the best spots at which to pause and review. And knowing why, when and how to slow down is crucial!

      One way I calm myself down when I'm worrying about my daughter's progress is to remind myself that in 5 years of public school without an orton-gillingham method she made exactly 1 grade of progress in phonics/reading. And in just 2 years now she's made 3 grades of progress. So we tripled the progress rate and in half the time. Also, although I'll definitely take her through Level 10 I view Levels 9-10 as optional, kind of the icing on the cake to get a kid truly ready for high school level work. If she reads at a 6th grade level she'll have met the expectations set by her educational psychologists based on her disabilities.

      Also, for parents worried about Level 4 taking a long time, know that most kids start actually picking up easy chapter books at the end of Level 4 and just reading them. That alone is a huge step and so even if they don't know silent-e yet they still know a whole lot and they know it backwards and forwards.

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    2. Oh, very good point! In fact, some kids start reading chapter books silently by the end of Level 3. Fluency and decoding will probably still be rough and spelling certainly may not have really improved a whole lot yet but sometimes just mastering those first 3 levels is the key that unlocks the ability to silent read material with enough success they can enjoy the process, even if they aren't accurately decoding most words.

      My kids had the same experience as yours, with regards to school. They made almost no reading progress in years and years of brick and mortar instruction. It took Barton to finally turn things around. They had some great teachers, too (well most were great). The teachers just didn't have a clue how to teach a dyslexic to read.

      I love your game board, by the way. I'm terrible at that type of thing. Spelling Success stuff is great but can be pricey. Having options that can be created at home is wonderful. Thank you so much for sharing!

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  2. We're in the throes of Level 4, and I greatly appreciate all the tips you ladies have offered here! I took notes so that I could remember your words of wisdom. Thank you very much!

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  3. All of your comments are invaluable to one just about to start this journey with Level 4. Thank you so much!

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  4. Really excellent thoughts, thanks! We are struggling our way through Level 4, just on lesson 5 right now. It's been tough, so finally, for the first time ever, I decided to have my profoundly dyslexic daughter actually watch the DVD training for that lesson with me. It actually helped a lot! She liked seeing that I am learning right along with her and I think she enjoyed correcting me if I didn't say something exactly the way Susan Barton did :) We are still working on that lesson though and she still cannot differentiate the accented syllable. She says the rubber band is useless :(
    By the way, I love the way your board is set up too! Thinking about magnetizing my tiles... As for the Spelling Success games, I am a convert for sure. But we live in Canada, so the cost really is outrageous for shipping and $ conversion. So, I make some of the games myself and buy some of the games through them. In the end, the games really have helped immensely.

    Anyway, thanks again for this blog!

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  5. I was thrilled to see that Carlie mentioned magnetizing the tiles. I have been thinking about that too! I taught another program where the tiles were magnetic and we did a lot of the work on a wall mounted white board. I think it's important/healthy to get up and move around and mix it up. Too much sitting. Also, it's easy to use board markers to fill in letters and words or add in teaching notes and examples.

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