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Primary education

Books without words

9 replies

dilemma456 · 09/10/2009 09:37

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madrush · 09/10/2009 09:49

It's meant to be fun and encourage reading as a good thing which is sometimes challenging but mostly enjoyable. It helps children realise that an important part of reading a book is understanding what's going on, that you can interact with books by building your expectations of the action and by predicting what's going to happen next, etc, etc.

For the parents in a rush though, books without words are painful and you're never quite sure when a page is "finished" are you?

I always found ORT books had pictures that the children wanted to decode before reading even when there were words on the page. Some nights I'd be repeating through gritted teeth "look here are the words, let's READ them now shall we" - and feeling guilty because I was killing the enjoyment of the book. I just wanted to get a few pages done and write it down to show we'd done it (how mad is that?).

HOWEVER, please don't worry about rushing on, read loads of things at home with your dd as well and she can practice reading letters/words that way if she wants to. There aren't that many books without words in most schemes so you'll be over them soon and the skills they're trying to build are so important to how your dd will interact with books for the rest of their lives.

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Acinonyx · 09/10/2009 13:36

We got these (as well as very easy CVC readers) and dd hates them. She usually flatly refuses to engage and says 'I just don't want to' when asked to talk about them. She is just starting to read words.

I always report very frankly about this in her report book. This week we have stopped getting those wordless books, thank goodness, and got some readers with speech bubbles instead - much better as we are doing it together rather than dd 'performing'.

If she only got the wordless books I'd pretty annoyed too. Can't your dd at least have some proper reading practice too or are they the kind of teacher/school that is incapable of dealing with children at different learning stages? Ask them exactly what their strategy is in this regard - do they really insist that ALL the children read exactly at the same level throughout the year? Bonkers.

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dilemma456 · 09/10/2009 20:52

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Goblinchild · 09/10/2009 20:58

CVC consonant vowel consonant

dog, cat, big, fat etc

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Goblinchild · 09/10/2009 21:01

I've used picture books with able Y6 to increase comprehension, interpretation and ability to construct complex oral sentences of their own. Then to write their own narrative linking to the text.
One of the problems I encounter with 'Good Readers' as defined by parents is that they are good decoders but lack other essential skills.

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Goblinchild · 09/10/2009 21:03

You could download your own flashcards for the 100 High Frequency words if you don't see the point of what the school is trying to do.
www.sparklebox.co.uk/cll/lettersandsounds/hfwords.html

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FABIsInTraining · 09/10/2009 21:04

Chill.

The books without words ae to help with vocab and imagination. Plenty of time for reading many worded books.

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dilemma456 · 09/10/2009 21:54

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Millenniumbug · 10/10/2009 00:01

Reading books without words are often a source of contention with new parents. These books are great for readers and non-readers alike. Why, when a child is coping with starting school, do we want to give them something that they will find difficult? In these first few precious weeks, the foundations and attitudes to learning are laid. If Mum is constantly complaining in front of the child that the teacher doesn't know what they're doing, it bodes not well for the future.
Picture books encourage your child to tell a story, using complete spoken sentences. Look for inferred meaning in the pictures. Predict what will happen next. Ask your child to draw a re-tell of the beginning, development and end of the story. Write a simple sentence for each picture that your child draws - not War and Peace, but a simple 1 clause sentence using the 100 key words. Use the pictures on the page to find things beginning with s, a, t, p, i, n etc. The possibilities of a picture book are endless.
You've got years of the hard slog of educational homework ahead of you. Enjoy and be positive about these first few, precious, comfortable weeks.

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