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My 8 year old will be starting Bigger in the fall and I am wondering if she is ready to start DITHOR? She has struggled with reading and is not ready for chapter books yet. She is very comfortable reading level 2 readers from the library on her own and level 3 with a little help. Chapter books are overwhelming to her right now because of the amount of words and lack of pictures. Could DITHOR be done with level 3 readers from the library or should we wait until she is reading chapter books?

I would wait until she could read the books listed with Book Pack 2.

Has she gone through the Emergent readers? If not I would start there the schedule is in the back of the Beyond and Bigger guide. You can even add in some of the supplemental titles to give her more practice. If she has done the ER's I would get the level 2 books and just have her read through them aloud to you, and then start DITHR with the level 3 books when she is ready.

DITHOR is intended to be started once the student can read chapter books confidently and independently. If your child is not at that point yet, then just figure out where she would land in the Emerging Readers set, listed in the Beyond and Bigger guides. The ER set will take your child through the reading levels until they are ready to start chapter books. There are also supplemental titles in case they need more practice before moving on to the next level. The ER set worked well for both of my kids preparing them to read chapter books and to enjoy reading in the process. We read through all the books - the listed books and all the supplemental ones before starting DITHOR. I even gave my daughter some extra time after finishing the ER's and read through some chapter books listed at the end of the ER's. She was a good reader but did not yet have the confidence to do it independently. The extra few months kept her reading on track but gave her more time to feel confident in her ability.

HTH,
Stephanie

I would wait too, for two reasons. The work in DITHOR is really about understanding and analysing the books you read. Step 2 and 3 early reader books don't have that much to analyse IMO. They are all about practice, and as the Emerging Reader program has them doing, you can ask comprehension/understanding questions or discuss things like setting, characters, etc without going into DITHOR. You want the reading in it to be on the easy side for your child before you start making them think that hard about the things they are reading and doing that kind of work.