Reading scheme without pictures - does it exist?

[Munashe]

Need reading scheme suitable for my 5 year old son without pictures. He is sight reading but once we cover the pictures he really struggles with the words.

[Munashe]

He is being taught using the normal reading scheme with pictures.

[Munashe]

Oxford reading tree books.

[Periwinkle007]

I don't think there are any. I used to cover the pictures to avoid distractions, just used a bit of cardboard as soon as I turned the page over. then when she had read it she was able to look at the picture.

Do you mean he has just learned the sentence on the page so looks at the picture and then remembers what it says or is he just able to guess at what it probably says (I am assuming it is one of the early ones with only a sentence on each page)

[sillyoldfool]

Aren't they taught to do that? My dd was-one of the strategies for figuring out a word was to use the pictures.
I'd let him carry on as he is tbh.

[Nacster]

The pictures help them to learn to read.

They are useful.

Once the child can read at a level where pictures are no longer useful, they stop appearing in the books.

A good strategy is to have him read something super easy, then something a little (not extremely) challenging. Setting work that is out of reach is completely demoralising and a bad idea.

Some children learn well using sight words, some through phonics, IMO a bit of both is good - fridge magnets and high frequency word worksheets are your friend for sight reading practice.

[Munashe]

Ah well if there aren't any we would just continue covering the pictures here and there. The teacher mentioned today that he just seem so stuck and struggling as he is just sight reading. Maybe I should just ignore it and just continue with what we are doing.

The thing is he loves book and being read to. I wonder if just reading to a child without drilling phonics helps?

We would still use the school reading scheme and nothing more beyond that apart from leisure reading. He starts spinning and rolling upside down when we are doing the phonics and ORT yet he enjoys the library books. I want him to read by himself of course but I don't want to put him off the enjoyment he gets from stories. At the moment we enjoy reading stories together but I am thinking that perhaps we are stuck as all the books he reads have pictures.

[allchildrenreading]

Have a look at BRI:Beginning Reading Instruction on www.piperbooks.co.uk. The b&w illustrations in no way help a child to guess - in fact books 9 and 16 have been planned to make this almost impossible . The Notched Card in the Getting Started section also stops guessing from taking root. There's lots to talk about in the books themselves as well as essential skills building.
Good luck with whatever decision you arrive at, but you're absolutely right not to trust pictures to help work out words on the page.

[intheshed]

I don't see any harm in the pictures, they make the books more interesting and exciting for the children. They also help give little clues about the context.

Maybe in addition to the books write out some sentences for him to read?

[sillyoldfool]

If there's plenty of reading going on at home he'll get it when he's ready, dd took ages for reading to click, then she just got it and she was off. She was on the same reading level for 4 terms, then started speeding through them!

[uselessinformation]

Finding information from the pictures is part of learning to read. If you had to read a complicated article on a subject unfamiliar to you then you would look at the maps, diagrams and pictures for cues to help you to understand.

[mrz]

Only a very fortunate few "get it" because there is plenty of reading going on at home I'm afraid is it worth risking that your child isn't one.

[Periwinkle007]

enjoying reading/books is the most important part. The problems come though that if he learns each book by looking at the pictures but then isn't ready to move up to the next level and runs out of books then what happens then. My daughter wasn't using the pictures to inform her reading, just purely for distraction purposes. She did learn to sight read but by that I mean she actually learned whole words so the pictures weren't being used to help her work out the words.

Are you saying he is struggling with blending? does the teacher not have any exercises you could use for reading cvc, cvcc etc words so he can practice the actual process of blending? Not much use being told he is struggling without any advice about how you can help him.

[learnandsay]

The pictures aren't there to give you information. They're there to make the book look nice. If you needed pictures in order to read then adult novels would be full of pictures.

[Feenie]

The pictures help them to learn to read.

They are useful.

No - they are there to enjoy and perhaps talk about, but they are nothing to do with decoding the words.

Try Reading Chest - I used it myself when my ds couldn't learn to read using the school's sight scheme (also ORT). You can choose only decodable books to borrow and the envelope comes with your dc's name on it, which my ds found very exciting.

[mrz]

Pictures don't help children learn read. Illustrations are there to enhance the story not to provide clues for guessing what the text might say and of course illustrations don't stop just because a child can read at a certain level.

Part of the problem is the school is using books that require the beginner reader to guess because they contain complex words even in the very early stages.

[noramum]

Nacster, my DD is on purple, fast track to gold, and still gets pictures, she don't need them, she reads chapter books with just small B&W pictures at home.

They distract her a lot and I often cover them up as I want her to concentrate on the text. I don't mind her looking at them and we talk about them. We also have several books with beautiful illustration but for learning to read they can be a nightmare.

[hardbeingme]

my daughter used to do that initially using the pics for guidance and we moved through the levels gradually but one day it just clicked and she could read - iykwim.

We still read on a daily basis and spell out trickier words, am not saying shes ready for chaucer - but it was like the marks on paper made sense and will now have a go at reading anything.

Persevere - she reads her book to me, i read stories on demand i don't stress if she doesn't get the word correct first go, think at this age they should be encouraged to enjoy books first and foremost.

[mrz]

I would also suggest that no matter how fluent a reader your child becomes not to stop reading stories with/to him. Sharing books is important.

[learnandsay]

Yikes! I don't think sight reading involves memorising whole sentences, just individual words.

[mrz]

Lots of children learn whole books by rote learnandsay