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AIBU?

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Original poster

To think that schools should teach reading properly

113 replies

Reallytired · 09/07/2007 22:12

My son has been really lucky, he has had an excellent reception teacher and has been taught how to read properly by synthetic phonics. His teacher followed Jolly phonics logically with great results.

He has a little friend who is at a different school. She is 6 months younger than my son and has had only 2 terms of school. This girl has been taught to read by sight words and a reading ladder. Because she started after christmas she got taught the letter sound "ch" before being taught "s", "a", "t", "p", "i", "n".

The result is that this poor little girl is still on Oxford Reading Tree level one and hates reading. Her mother is convinced that her daughter is dyslexic because the little girl is extremely bright in other areas of the reception curriculum. I think the reason the little girl can't read is that the teaching she has recieved has been a mess.

OP posts:
Blu · 10/07/2007 11:12

But...she's only in reception, she's only been at school two terms, and are you sure you know everything that goes on in her school? At DS's school they did not really get started on phonics until Yr1 - he raced ahead in Yr1...that may be the case in your freinds dd's school.

I'm not saying reading shouldn't be properley and well taught, it's just that you seem to be
a) comparing your son (who sounds very ahead in reading - excellentr!) with a child who may not b getting it as quickly, is 6 months younger and in a different school - and making some big observations - and taking it in yourself!

Original poster
Reallytired · 10/07/2007 11:05

My friend's daughter mother is a single mother and works full time. She is clinically depressed and does not have the energy to teach her daughter to read.

I feel that my son friend should not have to teach her child to read. The school should do the job.

My son is six months old and he goes to a school that uses 99% pure synthetic phonics. He is reading stage 5 of the Oxford Reading Tree comfortably inspite of being partially deaf. He can read virtually anything. He has been taught that pictures are for decoration.
There are lots of children in his class who have English as a second language and they are reading well.

There is even a little girl who was so developmentally delayed that she started reception in nappies! Even this little girl has learnt to blend simple c-v-c words. However she finds it hard to understand what she is reading because her speech is so severely delayed.

In comparision my friends little girl has no major developmental problems. Infact developmentally she is very advanced, She just hasn't been taught to read properly.

I think its about time that teachers stopped thinking that its acceptable to have 20% of eleven year olds unable to read.

OP posts:
rhubarb90 · 10/07/2007 11:00

I started to teach my son to read when he was 3, using JP and some other made up methods of teaching. He's now 5 but with a reading age of 9. He is still being given Oxford Reading Tree books with about five words per page. He seems to be seen as something of an inconvenience to his class teacher who would prefer every child to be at the same level.

I totally agree that your friend's child has started learning in a weird order but as long as she eventually covers all of it she'll get better at reading. Her mother could buy the books and do them at home and make it a lot more fun than it's been for her at school. Finding books she enjoys, Little Miss and Mr Men or something perhaps might help. If she enjoys the stories she's much more likely to enjoy reading them. ORT books are incredibly dull.

lemonaid · 10/07/2007 00:46

Eighth Report of the Parliamentary Select Committee on Education, 7th April 2005: said that "around 20% of eleven-year-olds are not reading at an age-appropriate level".

hana · 10/07/2007 00:38

but thinking about your 80/20 split, 80 would pretty much cover the 'vast majority' wouldn't it?

I am a sen teacher.

hana · 10/07/2007 00:36

20% is fairly high, where are you stats from?
I still think the vast majority of schools do a good job.

I have a confident reader tho -sept born reception student - and we've not bothered with any jolly phonics or letterland etc etc. It's all just clicked with her. school uses ORT.

CristinaTheAstonishing · 09/07/2007 23:52

This is a book I used with my DS and he was an early and confident reader.

whiskersonkittens · 09/07/2007 23:42

It may well be, but how and when you teach letter sounds is important. my dd has just done the 'long' vowel sounds and 'oo' and she is at the end of yr 1. How on earth was she expected to read words if she had not been taught the long vowel sounds . She got so demorilised that i ended up teaching her JP in term 1 Reception so as a result, she can read, but has also been faily bored these last few terms in 'literacy' beasue she was not learnign anything.

I think many teachers do not beleive that children as young as 4 and 5 can actually understand phonics, especially the more complex rules, but IME they do just fine, and a lot better than being confused by a whole range of different strategies or worse still guesing from the pictures
If done properly it is fun and they do not realise they are 'learning'

meandmyflyingmachine · 09/07/2007 23:35

I thought phonics was compulsory now...

whiskersonkittens · 09/07/2007 23:33

Of course YANBU - there is so much nonsense about 'immersing children in a rich literacy environment' and not enough on the solid basics of letters and sounds.

IMHO nothing can beat the first times your dc reads something of their own violition, even if it is 'only my cat understands me' on your mug!!

When they start reading road signs and telling you off that is a different story

It amazes and appalls me how many parents leave something so important to the school even when it is clear their methods are not working. I am changing my dc's school and the way the old school taught reading ( a mix of Jolly phonics, alphabet letters only, plus sight words and guessing ) is one of the reasons - new school teaches synthetic phonics properly.

Hana - when you consider that 20% of children leave primary school not being able to read i cannot agree that most schools teach reading properly - that 20% would probably be higher were it not for those who could either read before they went to school, or whose parents taught them becasue the school were not.

christywhisty · 09/07/2007 22:25

DH is a victim of not being taught to read properly at school. They tried to teach him Look and Say which is a sight reading scheme. He didn't learn to read until he was 12

aloha · 09/07/2007 22:15

teaching by sight words is not teaching reading properly. if your friend wants to help her dd you can buy the JP stuff online really easily. Ds romped through it before he was four.

hana · 09/07/2007 22:14

i wouldn't have thought it was a bad thing to be on level one of ort after only 2 terms of school

and schools do teach reading properly, the vast majority do, are you sure you have the whole picture?