I have a fourth grade son who is identified with a reading disability.He has been receiving direct instruction in reading for 1 year now.I am trying to determine if this progress is good. He was told yesterday that he can no longer read Clifford the Big Red Dog series for reports because they are too easy for him. When I asked what series they had him working in he said the Berenstein Bears series.My impression is that these series are on the same reading level?His IEP goal to be reached by May 03 is to be on a 3rd grade reading level.How close is this series to that goal?The program they are using with him is based on SRA.
Re: Which SRA?
I agree. I have the SRA reading program which goes along with Hooked on Phonics. I’m very happy with it. My guess is that this is probably not the one the school is using. Not in fashion these days.
SRA is a whole-word program based on word families *and* many sight words. If your son doesn’t memorize whole words well, this program may not work out well for him. However, in most states you cannot dictate curriculum to a school district. You may, however, state your concerns about lack of progress and work to get some stiff goals and objectives in the IEP.
There are a couple of Berenstein Bears levels: One type are early chapter books. I’m not sure which one school is using. The picture books of BB and Clifford are on the same level. The early chapter of BB are a little more difficult and have more words on a page. Check it out & see which they are using.
What kind of IEP reading goals does he have? How do they measure them? Have you asked them the scope/sequence for their reading decoding program? If fluency and comprehension are problems, have you obtained information about those programs, too?