Open Court Reading

[teach_reading]

Hello, can anyone give me some advice on how to teach the Open Court reading program? So far I found one good site, http://www.opencourtresources.com

Does anyone else find it hard to complete the blue section?

[BigDaddyTeacher]

Hi - I wish you luck in your teaching of this program. From personal experience (my kids went though it at their school), my biggest advice to you is watch out for your fast learners. My kids got bored very quickly with this program, and turned that unused energy into 'unwanted behaviors', according to their teacher.
Their school finally scrapped the OC program after two years.

[Unregistered]

That's a great site! They have really good powerpoints for 4th grade.

[therealmccoy429]

Hi,
My school just adopted the Open Court Reading Curriculum. I teach 2nd grade and was actually chosen by my principal to pilot the program during the last quarter of the school year last year. I love the sound spelling cards! I realized after training this summer, that I was really confused last year. The routine cards really help! My kids are starting to get it. I know it will take some time, but the teachers will get it too. There are a lot of concerns with the time management involved with Open Court with the teachers on my team. They have found some creative ways to make it work for them. The big thing at our school is that you have to teach it with "FIDELITY!" I feel much better about it than I did at the end of last year. Good luck with it!

[Unregistered]

My experience is that Open Court is too far below grade level.

[Unregistered]

I an a Kindergarten teacher in Atlanta, and my school adopted Open Court two years ago. The one thing that I can tell you to do is modify, modify, modify!!! Open Court of course is "resesarch based" (isn't everything?), but I have found that the pace is too slow and repetitive. You are asked to read a book about 5 times before moving on to another, and the students just get bored. I suggest using the books provided with the curriculum as the basis for your integrated lessons or the class theme. Read the books before you read them to the class as well. There was an extremely heartbreaking story ( a grandfather had a stroke and ended up in the hospital) that was in our Open Court Curr. that I do not use.
The language/word cards are the most useful thing in the set. There are also picture cards that are wonderful when doing letter sounds, because it gives the chidren a visual aid. I use those cards constantly. I would just suggest you make changes and bring in supplements because if not, the students will be bored.

[Unregistered]

I taught Open Court first grade for two years and loved it. I never had children get bored or turn into behavior problems because of the pace. In fact, the pace of Open Court is extremely fast compared to my current use of HarCourt. Open Court introduces new phonics skills daily, as opposed to HarCourt's week long phonics skill practice. Open Court is much more in-line with the research that shows that phonics instruction is about exposure, not mastery. Teachers that get bored with Open Court are not bringing their own creativity to the program. The units have great, tangible themes that can lead to Science and Social Studies activities and projects. Go to the library and get a ton of books that have to do with your theme. Read these, not the same book 5 times that Open Court provides. Teaching is part acting. If your students are bored, it is you, not the curriculum.

[Unregistered]

You must not have read my post. I said modify, modify, modify, AND bring in supplemental material. Doesn't that mean going to the library and getting more books? DUH! I've never read the same books 5 times. I said that's what Open Court asks you to do. What good teacher ever follows the curriculum to the letter? Not a single one. I certainly do not. Your students may have like it. Out of every teacher I know, and I know quite a few, hardly any onf them like it. But, everyone is entitled to their own opinion. I do not agree with yours.

[kelsey]

I have taught first grade and second grade using open court. The open court curriculum is very challenging. It introduces too many new sight words at the beginning of the school year, and then hardly any after winter break. In first grade, the phonics skills are intoduced so fast and many are second and third grade skills. Whereas, the second grade curriculum is a lot of review of phonics skills that were introduced in first grade. The big difference is the level of comprehension that is taught. First grade comprehension is all oral until unit 7, so I find myself supplementing a lot of comprehension papers and even creating my own quizzes to go with the decodable readers. Even when I teach second grade, I create quizzes to go with the decodable readers. This way the students have plenty of practice for testing time since most of the standardized tests are story comprehension.
I do love the word knowledge part of the open court. The green section of open court is fun to teach in first grade, but second grade is pretty boring, so I have to spice it up with some phonics games to keep it fresh for the kids.
I like open court because it has unified our school. It has forced all the teachers to teach the same format, therefore the students are all getting the same instruction. Of course, the creativity of the individual teacher can improve the program by making the lessons exciting and meaningful.

[teachere88]

While I will agree that some of OC is ok, I find that generally it is too restrictive. It assumes that all students are reading and at the same level. It also assumes that there are only a small number of students in the classroom and that teachers have time to modify to each ability level. I also think it is asking students to do too much to soon. At first and second grade students should be concentrating on learning to read not on genre's, author's purpose, etc. To me it is just another program geared toward students achieving on standardized tests, not on true learning.

[Unregistered]

I'm a kindergarten teacher and I love open court. You can't always get through each section but I take out the best parts. My students stay interested and learn very quickly with this program!