A little background:  Anya asked how students' spelling skills progressed while using Reading Reflex (RR) and The Writing Road to Reading. I replied that we had used Reading Reflex to teach reading, but didn't pay attention to spelling skills progress. Then a forum visitor posed the next question to me.

Question posted by Kimmy

I'd love to hear your pro/con list of Reading Reflex for reading. I'm interested in using this with my 5yo ds who is reading short vowel 3-letter words at the moment. Would it also help my almost 7yo dd who is reading ok but not as well as I had hoped at this time? She has gone through about 3/4 of Phonics Pathways but can't stand it.
yo=year old, dd=dear daughter, ds=dear son
 

Answer:  Okay. Let's see. ::gathering thoughts:: (We used it quite a few years ago.)

Just observations. You decide if they're pros or cons. :-)

You have to cut the book up or copy quite a few pages. (For me it would have been easier to buy two copies since we didn't have a big copier at the time. I had to cut the page out before I could run it through my single sheet fax-copier. I could have just taken the whole book to Kinko's and copied the necessary pages without cutting the pages out.)

All the little pieces of paper with the letters on them kept in 70 envelopes in a shoe box was obnoxious. It took forever to get all set up to use the program.

Using the little pieces of paper with the letters on them was great fun for my student! No doubt about. It was worth it, in the end, to use the system. I think that it would likely be easier to just buy about 3 sets of lowercase letter tiles or magnetic lowercase letters (could also be used on fridge for self-directed review for younger student while you wipe up in the kitchen) instead of all the little pieces of paper. To make them last, you could glue each sheet to some poster board before cutting--that would at least keep them from blowing away if you have a tendency to sigh or sneeze very often. :-)

My student thoroughly enjoyed the letter bingo. You'll need tokens. We used pennies. If both students play, that will be extra fun unless competition doesn't work well in your family.

The stories in the book are less than exciting and there weren't enough stories included. Some of the Bob Books or clones should fit the bill since your youngest will need some stories.

There is a placement test, so it's easy to place your older student.

Don't be surprised if you or one of your students doesn't like it. Kids are funny that way. It can be a perfectly good program, but the whole personality thing comes into play, plus how their brains process info, plus what they're used to ... Phonics Pathways, which you mentioned you're using, is a good program, too. But with reading, you so don't want them to hate reading or get discouraged about it, that you really do need to find one that the student can enjoy--or make it enjoyable somehow, which the teacher can sometimes do.

RR skips learning blends like fr, gr, bl, st. They claim there's no point in trying to remember the /f/ /r/ and /fr/. Just learn 2; the third is obvious. (This made a lot of sense to me.)

RR makes it sound like only their way will work. Not true. (I just overlooked this, while shaking my head and chuckling.)

The book suggests that you read the entire book before starting.

The introductory pages are quite good. Much of it is necessary.

RR teaches that when referring to the letter "t" that we should say that this picture shape (t) stands for the sound /t/. You don't use the actual names of the letter "tee." Does that make sense? I'll try again. A student learning the name of the letter g (gee) and the sound ... well, that is duplicating our efforts and sometimes confusing the student. Just call the letters by their sounds because you don't need to know the alphabet to learn to read. You just need to know the sounds.

Writing is necessary at some point. I can't remember when they introduce it. For some younger students too much writing is a hindrance.

I think Reading Reflex is a pretty good system. It's not as fun as something like Sing, Spell, Read & Write. However, it does approach learning to read in a unique way. It's not like Alpha-phonics, SSRW, Phonics Pathways, Writing Road to Reading, Play 'n Talk. I can't think of one program that it's like (not like I've seen them all).

I'd say it made a real difference with my student. We moved and never got back into it, so we didn't use it all the way to the end of the book.

It's designed for remedial work. So it would be appropriate for your older student. I've also heard of it being used with new students, too. It's just a matter of seeing if it works with your students. I think it's reasonably priced.

Any specific questions? I don't want to "sell" you on something though, so I hope I don't sound like that. It truly may not work for your students. I think it's a good system, though. But, still, it's just one of many good programs.

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