How do you actually teach a child to read?

[septemberremember]

I know they do phonics at primary school but I don’t know how they go about this and translating it into reading - obviously cat and dog are phonetic but what about other words? I was taught by a look and say method which was the rage in the 80s. But I believe that isn’t favoured now.

I always thought I’d teach my children loads and I haven’t

Read lots of good quality books to your child, let them see you reading too. Do lots of singing together - nursery rhymes etc.

@iwentjasonwaterfalls
what is she up to now out of curiosity

Crikey all of these systems sound a bit complicated.
I just sat and read every day with my children from when they were tiny babies pointing at the words as I went along.
They could both read simple books by the time they started school.

Read with them. Play phonics games. They need to learn the phonics sounds first, then they will learn to sound out and blend green words (phonetical). Then they will learn basic red word (not phonetical). They will also start to learn how to sound and blend in their head eventually.

Resources wiseTeach your monsters how to read if free on laptop. Reading eggs is my favourite but it costs aboy £8 a month. You also can print off resources. So say you are doing m. They have m worksheets as well. We did 10 minutes a day of reading eggs and mathseeds (it comes with the reading eggs) My 6 year old has a reading agg of 8 1/2. She's in year 1 but reads with older classes.

https://www.amazon.co.uk/Read-Write-Inc-Home-Flashcards/dp/0198386710/ref=asc_df_0198386710?mcid=6bf7f817c6de33a19f1438f56867b681&th=1&psc=1&tag=googshopuk-21&linkCode=df0&hvadid=697222099338&hvpos=&hvnetw=g&hvrand=15719452342895636293&hvpone=&hvptwo=&hvqmt=&hvdev=m&hvdvcmdl=&hvlocint=&hvlocphy=9046010&hvtargid=pla-421323033723&psc=1&gad_source=1

https://home.oxfordowl.co.uk/reading/reading-schemes-oxford-levels/read-write-inc-phonics-guide/

At my DC's school they do presentations to the parents to explain their approach to phonics, and send home supporting materials so you know how to follow the school's approach when reading at home. Hopefully your child's school will do the same. I wouldn't worry if they're not at school yet!

You start by reading to them.
They need to know which is the front of the book, turning pages one at a time, that the text carries meaning. (Those black squiggly things are important , point to them as you read) That you read left to right top to bottom.

Play with sounds. Rhymes, words that start with the same letter, changing the first letter/sound of their name. Singing.

Watch alphablocks.

Look for letters they are familiar with, eg m like in mummy. Careful to say "m" not "muh"

Ask questions, what does this character feel?
What do you think happens next?
If you were writing this story what would you write next?
Where do you think they are going?
Which was your favourite bit.

Most of all, inculcate a love of books and reading. Those that read for pleasure do better.

Reading is taught in a very specific way in schools and if children are taught the “wrong” way at home they will not pass phonics checks etc at school and will be held back. My Year 3 child still wouldn’t be able to pass a phonics screener but is a fluent reader (currently reading His Dark Materials) but if he was in a mainstream school rather than specialist independent where they can decide that phonics doesn’t work for him, he would be held back instead of now being part of the Year 6 reading group.

Parents absolutely should be helping their children to read but the stupid lack of curriculum flexibility means that it’s often in their child’s best interest to leave it to the school.

That said, the more a child is read to at home, the faster they are likely to pick up reading once they are being taught how to.

We did the Dept of Education videos on You Tube when Covid struck. They are each about 20 mins long iirc - but it did give me an idea about how they teach reading and it made sense as we worked through the videos together.

Phonics is total nonsense. There are so many exceptions to the rules...
Read with your child - enjoy books. Go to the library and let them pick books... subscribe to a magazine and let them read that too - my daughter learnt to read with a Beano on the loo!

We read bedtime stories, and always had a book on the go ourselves. Set an example that reading is a fun passtime.

The best thing the school did at the start of reading, was to send them home with books with no words at all. Just a story told in pictures.

This got the kids involved with the characters in the reading scheme (Biff and Chip), and making up a free flowing story, working out that the next page meant "what they did next", using words in their own vocabulary to describe what was going on "floppy looks happy, they are running around really fast"... Actual words that they wouldn't be able to read for some time. You guide them with questions and it is fun... then words get introduced. The kids really enjoyed it.

I absolutely disagree with “leave it to the teachers”. I’ve had some very good teachers, but they are very busy, and often DC who are capable and well behaved get sidelined quite a lot. I’ve seen it happen loads of times with my DC.

My youngest was in a class of 11 in year 1, and he was lucky if he got one entry a week in his reading diary having read a couple of lines.

You need to read to your child from a very young age and get them to love books. Snuggle up and read and do the voices. You also need to teach them basic maths and when a bit older get them to do a bit at home. Google your future school and see what phonics they use. I think it’s ok to teach your DC basic phonics. No one has ever told me I’d messed up my DC’s reading by teaching them myself.

I’ve never left anything to the school. Your DC are your responsibility and you are their greatest teacher.

Just practise reading with your child and follow what the school tells you - including the homework. Children in England start school and reading really early when compared to the rest of the world. I think in most of countries they start school at 6-7 years old. I went to equivalent of a Reception class when I was nearly 6 and I was the only person who could read already (family taught me early at home). Now I have 2 kids and at 4 they were able to learn to read simple words. We just read to them at bed time and did the reading homework. It also depends on a child and their abilities. My older one learnt faster than the younger one.

It’s probably really dated now but I used Letterland and my DC were reading before they started school.

She's home educated now so she hasn't been tested since, but she's working on a number of GCSEs at 10 so she's still going great guns 🤣

The biggest challenge we've found is finding novels that will challenge her while also being appropriate content-wise - she's incredibly bright but still a young 10-year-old emotionally. I'm a former English teacher and I know she'll love digging into texts like An Inspector Calls and Frankenstein, but at the moment she's too young for the content.

Find out which scheme they use at school.
Buy the book and follow the scheme.

Of course parents should teach their children to read. It is a massive disadvantage to not be able to read, massive. For example an illiterate person is far more likely to end up in prison. That is not coincidence.
You need to read to your child. You need to show your child that reading is normal and acceptable. It doesn’t matter what you read or how your child learns to read. The main advice is that they learn from being read to. They learn from constantly hearing words and hearing patterns and the rhythm of language. The longer you leave it the more of a disadvantage your child will have.
Join a library and borrow books, the librarian can recommend what to read.
You don’t have to use any reading scheme but I had the Letterland books which my children enjoyed.

You haven’t read the thread, which is quite funny because it is about reading. We read for pleasure but I’m asking about reading independently. I would like to support the school in what they do.

The school teachers children sounds. This enables children to breakdown words and understand what they say. By the age of 7 my son could read anything competently.
They school will send home phonics story's they are boring but necessary to learn to read. Do those with them but also share stories with your child that they will enjoy, go to the library, make reading fun longside learning to read

I do agree with you. I have raised it with the school time and time again and they just say ‘you can read what you like with her at home’ when I ask for harder books to be sent home. I mean obviously, how do you think she got to this point 😂

in their defence though, it’s the latest DFE thing - ‘fidelity to the scheme’ - apparently if ofsted find out children have been given books containing sounds they haven’t yet been taught they won’t be impressed. I have lots of teacher friends who confirm this is the case in their schools too (I’ve been out of state schools and English teaching for a few years!) so I don’t think it’s just my child’s school. They got ‘good’ on their ofsted a year ago with this approach so they’re clearly ticking the right boxes…

out of interest how old is your child? I think this not moving them on thing is a relatively recent thing…

My children are quite a bit older so the world might have moved on a bit (and there might be new books).

I waited until the first half term of Reception so the teachers would have covered some phonics. We started on the Julia Donaldson Songbirds series (level one to six - 36 books) which I got for about £20 from the Bookpeople and got my children to read through one book a day. Then we had Christmas and I bought the Project X Alien Adventure books (levels 7 to 14). These are quite a bit longer so we read each book over a few days. Once a child has gone through those then they are pretty much able to read most things.

But I didn’t bother until after the children started school.

If you ask me phonics is a load of shite and has messed up my child's spelling! But anyway OP, just read simple books to your child and follow with your finger so they can see. Then, when they're familiar with a story, leave a silence for some words and let the child fill them in.
Post its on things around the house naming them. Subtitles on when you watch TV.

Read books to them preferably same one and point to the words as you do it simple books

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