Barton Classroom

Level 2 Questions

The topics are in alphabetical order and most of the questions were answered by Susan Barton. If you are looking for a certain topic, hit ctrl F, type in the subject, and click on FIND NEXT.

 Blending

Question: Student can do all of Level 1. It took time, but he could do it. When he got to Level 2, he couldn’t blend words together. He could say all the sounds, but not blend them together.

Answer: Have the tutor bring out the blank tiles to build words and say, “This word says, “MAT”. Can you touch and say the sounds in mat? Can you blend them together? And say it fast like a word?” Great! Tutor then puts the letters MAT underneath the color tiles and tell the student that this is the letter that says that sound. Now, let’s do it with the letters. Touch and say….Slowly blend and fast like a word.

This is a for student who can do it with his ears, but not his eyes. They can get overwhelmed by the letters.

Question-Jill could absolutely NOT sound out S A P (Lesson 2 Section H pg 38 Reading Real Words with Tiles 2nd word), no matter how hard she tried, and how many error corrections we used.  She added an L (S A L P) each and every time.  She was trying VERY hard and knew what she was doing, but couldn't stop herself.  This happened over and over.  We tapped out the vowel, slowly sounded out each sound individually, and when she attempted to blend slowly or quickly, S A L P, came out.  She even asked, "Why do I keep adding an L in there."  She was very consciously trying not to.  I used the word in a sentence and reminded her of a recent story we read so she could visualize the trees with the sap buckets, then she knew what word she was trying to read, then she just said it.  I'm not sure if I did the right thing or not.  She proceeded to complete the section reading the remaining 12 words with typical error corrections. (nap, nip, tip, tap, cap, etc)
 
The same phenomena occurred one other time (Lesson 2 Section J pg 40 Reading Nonsense Words with Tiles).  The 6th word, out of 7 was N I B.  She couldn't seem to stop herself from adding an M sound so she was saying N I M B.  As before, she knew it, tried hard to stop it, and literally it just came out.  I just can't describe it, it was as if she literally had no control of her brain on these 2 instances.

Answer: Since she did not do that during Level 1, when blending sounds into words in Procedure B, and she did not do that in Lesson 1 of Book 2, then it should be fairly easy to help her overcome that problem.

If  it should happen again, do not stress over it or get her stressed about it. Explaining the meaning of the word (as in your sap buckets example) is not necessary, and it will not help.

Instead, have her sound out the word one tile at a tile -- backwards, like this.

If she is not aware of what she did, share that she included a sound that is not in that word, and you are going to show her a trick to get rid of that extra sound.

Take the tiles away.  Put out only the LAST tile, the P.  Have her touch and say only that sound.

Then put the A in front of the P.  Have her tap the vowel, then touch and say just those two sounds.  Then have her slowly blend those two sounds together, then say them fast like a word.  /ap/.   Notice the extra sound is now gone.

Push the A and P tiles together, so that they are touching, and ask her once again what that "nonsense" word says, so she will say it one more time as a "chunk."  /ap/.

Now put the S in front, but leave a slight space between the S and the AP tiles.  Have her touch the S tile and make its sound (/s/), then touch and say the "nonsense" word as a chunk, /ap/.    Then have her blend the first sound into the chunk, and I am confident she will be able to say SAP - without the extra sound.

Use that procedure only if she add in an extra sound that she cannot get rid of.

Question: He also has problems hearing blends.  We were working on "swim" today.  No matter how slowly we said the word, he still had a very difficult time getting the "w".

Answer: When this happens, point out which sounds he is hearing properly. For example, on SWIM, if he hears SIM for SWIM, congratulate him on hearing most of the sounds. Push the tiles a part and tell him there is one more sound in this word, but it is a very FAST sound so it’s difficult to hear and say, “Let’s do the slow down step to see if we can hear.” Have him say the word SWIM very slowly and stop when he gets to the W sound. Point out that when you begin saying the word a sort of whistle sound comes out of your mouth, but when it stops you are switching to a different sound. Then say, “Let’s try and figure out that sound?” Have him pay attention to the shape of his mouth and the sound that is coming out. Ask him what type of sound would come out when your mouth is that shape? If he doesn’t know, you can practice different sounds and see what shape your mouth is making…..f, m, r, w, I,…You get the idea.

Then, when he figures out the sound go through the process one more time so that he can do it correctly. Because this is so difficult, make sure you praise him A LOT.

Fluency

Question: My student can read accurately, but very slowly. She has to stop and sound out each and every word, each and every time. What should I do?

Answer: That is common in children with severe to profound dyslexia.

Always praise, praise, praise for accuracy. Focus on accuracy first. Work on fluency -- which means speed -- as a secondary goal.

It will take a long time for fluency to improve. Research shows that the only thing that builds fluency is repeated reading.

Use special procedures to work on fluency during Procedures L and N. Those procedures are listed on page 167 of your manual, which is the Tips and Error Correction section.

In addition, play the many games that are listed in the Games and Activities section of your manual -- both in Level 2 and Level 3. They were designed to provide a fun way to get kids to repeatedly read the same words or phrases.

You can also download our newly developed Fluency Building materials and use them for 5 minutes at the beginning and end of each session. Over time, these activities will gradually improve a student's reading speed. As you will see, they provide more intense repeated reading practice. To download them, click here.

Do not let lack of fluency keep them from progressing. You can use these Level 2 fluency building materials at the end of each tutoring session -- even if your student is in Level 3.

Hearing Sounds

Question:  My student is having a difficult time hearing the difference between the short vowel sounds /e/ and/i/?

Answer:  This is a common problem for students in the Barton Program and that that is why E is not introduced until the last lesson. It is important that they are solid on the vowel I sound. The first thing you need to do is make sure that you’re pronouncing the sounds for short-i and short-e properly. Here is how Susan responds to a similar question on her web-site:

Q: I am having one minor problem, and it's ME!!

I am having a hard time correctly pronouncing the short-e and short-i sounds, especially in the word PEN. What should I do?

A: Here are 3 things you can do that will help.

1. Practice those two sounds, a lot, before the lesson.

Ask your husband, or other children, to listen to you and repeat back the vowel sound they think you said. Practice with nonsense words -- so they can't "see" the word in their head to help them figure out which vowel you said.

2. Slow down the vowel sound a bit.

When dictating the word for spelling, hold onto the vowel sound a little bit longer than you would in normal speech.

Also, open your mouth a bit more that you would in normal speech. That will allow the vowel sound to come out a bit more "cleanly."

3. Accept the blame.

Tell your child that you're learning, too, and that you don't always pronounce those two vowel sounds as clearly as you should. That will make him feel better.

Please know that the hardest words for spelling are ones where the short-i or short-e is followed by an N or M. That's because M and N sounds come through your nose, so they distort the vowel that comes right before it.

That means pit or pet would be easier for you to dictate clearly (and for your student to spell) then pin or pen.

If that isn’t the problem here is something else you can try. When you give your student a word to spell; for example, “hig”. Have your student tell you the sound of each letter, but on the vowel have them tell you the sound and the key word. If they are not sure if it is “itchy” or “eddy” have them try both key words with the sound they hear. It would look like this…/i/-itcy or /i/-iddy. I-itchy sounds right and they will know that it is an I, assuming that they are solid on what sound each vowel makes. When in doubt you can go back to the key word stories on pgs 112-113 for short-e and pgs 30-31 for short-i. If that still is not enough, you may follow her advice on page 162 of the tutor manual.

Letter Confusion

Question: Do you have any suggestions for my daughter who confuses g, j and q when writing?

Answer: I assume you have now progressed into Level 2 of the Barton System through COVA, and your daughter is confusing those letters when writing her spelling words during Barton tutoring time.   But I do not know what lesson you are in at this point.

You introduced the g in Lesson 2.   Some students confuse g and j because they know (from prior phonics instruction) that g sometimes makes the /j/ sound.  When yoou brought out the letter g in this lesson and asked her what sound it made, did she confidently know it makes /g/ -- and only  /g/?

If you think she might know that it sometimes make the /j/ sound, then you might want to emphasize that for now, the only sound g will make during Barton tutoring time is its most common sound, which is /g/.   Then add g to her sound page, and have her draw a picture of a goat next to it -- to remind her of the only sound that g will make (until she reaches Level 6).  Make sure she understands that the first sound in goat, /g/, is the only sound that g will make during tutoring time.

Put the sound page next to her, and encourage her to look at it whenever reading words that contain g, or spelling words that contain the /g/ sound.  Praise her each time you see her glance at that page.


In the next lesson, Lesson 3, you introduced j.   I suspect it is at that point that her confusion may have appeared. 

I recommend you add j to her sound page (below the g and the picture of the goat), and have her make a picture of jam (perhaps a jar or bowl of jam).   Make sure she knows that the first sound in jam, /j/, is the sound that j  makes.

With that sound page showing, practice verbally a bit.  Make one of those sounds, have her repeat it, tell you which keyword it goes with, and then have her point to the letter.

After doing that in random order several times, pull down the g and j tiles, repeat the process (you say the sound, she repeats it, she says the keyword), but this time, have her point to the correct tile.

Then pull out a piece of paper, and with both the tiles and her sound page showing, do that process again (you say the sound, she repeats it, she says the keyword) but this time, she writes the letter on paper.  Encourage her to look at her sound page or the tiles if she needs a model of the letter.

In Lesson #4, you introduce qu.  In the Barton System, since the letters qu are on the same time, and we discuss why in great detail and practice it quite a bit, that should  eliminate her g  versus qu confusion.

But it is possible that her g confusion is due to directionality issues -- which way the tail curves.  If the tail curves the other way, it would become a q.  If that is her confusion, maybe this will help.

Tell her this story.  Poor Mr. Gee is a scaredy cat.   He sits on the shelf  (at this point, draw the circle of the g -- the line it sits on is the "shelf" -- and put two eyes and a oval open mouth so it looks afraid) and Mr. Gee is afraid that he will fall off.   But he won't because his tail goes down and curves underneath him and says, "Don't be afraid, Mr. Gee.  I'll catch you if you fall." 

We are on level 2. What do you do when in the spelling on paper part they write a letter backwards? Word was zip and the z was backwards. How do you handle this?

If she never writes her 2's backwards, then tell her that a 2 and a Z start on the same side.  Write those two items next to each other on paper to prove it to her.

Then teach her this trick to help her remember that fact.  Call it "Zee Two" -- using a slightly silly sounding French accent. 

That will help her remember that a Z and a 2 start on the same side.

We are on lesson 4. When I gave her the new letters it has overwhelmed her. She is now unsure of her letters. When reading the words she does fairly well, but just reading letters she is faltering. What do I do?

That is a very unusual reaction to new letters.  It may have occurred for one of the following reasons:

1.  Perhaps you took a several week break over the holidays before the information taught in Lessons 1, 2, and 3 was truly mastered (so she didn't retain it during the long break)

or

2.  If there was no long break, then perhaps the information taught in Lesson 3 was not solidly mastered, so she was not yet ready to move on to a new lesson

or

3.  There might be something else going on in her life that is stressing her in some way or sapping her energy.  Is she, by any chance, catching a cold or suffering from the flu?  Is she, by chance, not sleeping well or eating well lately?  Is there something else going on in her life that she is worried about?

No matter what the cause, my recommendation would be to go back and re-teach Lesson 3 and to play many of the games in the back of the manual using words from Lessons 1, 2, and 3 until she seems totally comfortable and confident reading and spelling words composed of those letters.

At that point, teach her Lesson 4 again, and I suspect she will do much better.

Phrases

Question: I have a question regarding one of my students- She's six years old and in Kindergarten.  She is doing beautifully with decoding and reading words in isolation.  However, the section "Read Phrases" is very confusing to her.  I've tried having her connect  each phrase with a line, I've tried coloring the different phrase sections so she knows to pick one from this section, one from this section, etc.  Nothing seems to work.  When she gets to the "Read Sentence" section she does beautifully.  Do you have any ideas?  
Could this be a "maturity" issue?  Is this something I should just skip for now and come back to from time to time?  It is very discouraging for her. She is in LEVEL 2 Lesson 5.   Thank you in advance for answering my question.

Answer: I have not heard of a child having that difficulty before, but I'd like you to try the following activity at your next lesson and see if it helps.

Before she arrives, get 3 x 5 index cards.  Get the pack that has different colors in it.  You'll need 4 different colors of index cards -- because in Level 3, there are 4 different types of phrases.

Ahead of time, write each Who phrase on one color of index cards -- one phrase per card.  Write each Did What phrase on a different color of index cards -- one phrase per card.  Do the same for each Where phrases (on a different color of index cards), and then for the Add-On phrases (on the fourth color of index cards).

When it comes time to read phrases, do NOT have her read them from paper.   Instead, hand her the deck of Who phrases, and ask her to read the phrase on each card.  Then put them on a pile on the desk.

Next, hand her the deck of Did What phrases, and ask her to read the phrase on each card.  Then put them on a pile on the desk - horizontally next to (to the right of) the pile of Who phrases.

Next, hand her the deck of Where phrases, and ask her to read the phrase on each card.  Then put them on a pile on the desk - horizontally next to (to the right of) the pile of Did What phrases.

Finally, hand her the Deck of Add On phrases (that start in Level 3), and ask her to read the phrase on each card.  Then place them in a pile on the desk - horizontally next to (to the right of) the pile of Where phrases.

So you will now have a row that contains four stacks/piles of index cards.  The Who stack, the Did What stack, the Where stack, and the Add on stack.

Depending on which you think she would enjoy most (or confuse the least), she can either pull the top card of each pile down into a row of her own, and then read the sentence she just created (and then tell you whether it is a real sentence or a silly sentence) -- or she can read the top card on each pile -- and tell you whether that sentence is real or silly.

Then you should move those cards away, and she should repeat the process.

If she starts to enjoy this way of reading phrases, and would tolerate it, you could then put a different phrase or two in the sentence she has just read, have her read it again -- and figure out if it is still silly (or if it is still real).

Once she can do this successfully at 4 or 5 lessons, try going back to reading phrases on paper and see if it works better -- now that she's got the concept.  If not, you have my permission and blessing to continue to do in using the index cards.

Tricky Letters

I am working in level 2 lesson 3 with my daughter (she is 7). She seems to be doing fairly well. I do not want to move to fast but also do not want to be holding her back. She has never been solid on her letters. She has always guessed and struggled with many of the letters. I have been teaching her the tricks  and given her the help page with trouble letters. She is doing much better. Do I move on to the next lesson before she is solid with the letters in the current lesson?

If she knows to refer to her help page for those tricky letters, and she can and does use her balloons-pigs or balloons-or-not trick to accurately tell b from d from p, then yes, move her on to the next lesson.   They will become more and more solid as she continues to use those tools.

If, however, she does not yet refer to her help page consistently, or use her other tricks consistently, then you should repeat this lesson.

I gave my son the Level II test and he passed just fine.  He still sometimes holds up his fist to see the letter B (he still has some b-d confusion.)  Is there anything else I can do about the b-d confusion other than have his hold up his fist when he’s writing? 

No, there is nothing else you can do. 

Do not discourage him from referring to his fist.  That is EXACTLY what I want him to do -- until he has internalized it to the point that he does not need to check any longer.  That usually happens during the first few lessons in Level 3.

So praise, praise, praise every time you see him check with his fist.   In fact, you should be reminding him to check (by doing a quick balloons-pigs gesture yourself) before he reads any word that contains a b, d, or p -- and have him figure out that sound first so that he never makes a mistake when reading the word.

That's because the more times he reads it correctly, the stronger the correct physical memory trace in his brain will become -- and the faster he will get to the point where he no longer has to check.