Reciting phonics books - reciting?

[RessicaJabbit]

My child does Read Write Inc phonics, and the school are kind of doubling down at the moment saying Daughter absolutely has to read the 3 phonics books were given each week at home every day. She's in Year 1 and on Yellow Band.

My problem is this - she just recites the books from memory (she doesn't have to see the book to do this, I just have to ask her what does it say in X book, and she rattles it off ) - this is because they've already read it multiple times in school.

Can anyone help me understand why they need to do this? We've always just read other books with her as it seems an entirely pointless excercise to listen to her recite each book every day. I have emailed the school to clarify why reciting these books will help her, but wondered if anyone had nay wise words of wisdom?

I would ask her to break down each word so she is not just reciting but understanding how the sounds are made and recognising any tricky words by heart. This will help her to pick up reading speed when she comes across words she doesn't know and has never seen before.

If it's 3 books, I would just do each book once and maybe redo one book that she may have had more trouble breaking down the words. If she has no trouble breaking down the words into sounds then she's flying!

She's almost a "free reader" only gets stuck on words like "eucalyptus" as they haven't covered EU sounds yet etc.

It's so frustrating, she's arguing that she "already knows" and gets bored and frustrated.

School don't seem to believe me and think it's fluent reading. But I can. Tell the difference between her reading easy books fluently and reciting known text. (Mostly because she doesn't have to even see the book when she recites it, she goes "which book?, I say "book x" she rattles it off 😂)

Oh well, just go through the motions I guess

I'm sure she is reciting but if she can break down each word, that's a great skill to have. My kids had books given to them in reception where they would have a word like bread and next to it was 4 boxes and you had to write the sounds into each box - b, r, ea, d. It was actually really fun (well, my very fluent reader DS enjoyed it). You could have digraphs, trigraphs etc. so it really consolidated that a word is made of sounds not letters. They're 17 now and just aces GCSEs, but their school did readwrite inc. It's pretty boring but very thorough!

At my kids' school you're not a free reader until you've completed all the levels of books and I'm not kidding when I say there are about 20 levels. My kids were reading adult books in y5 and 6 but still technically on the top levels of the reading scheme. Be prepared for many years of book band BS. My best advice is to pay lip service to it and just let her read what she wants every day, provide her with more challenging stuff too and feed her interests.

I kinda have given up

I'll just write in the record that she "read" the books... It's all such nonsense. I'm sure they think that I think she's some sort of savant... It's just when I make he read the books she gets cross and grumpy and asks me why she has to read them etc. I have to just sit there and "because you just have to..." I mean what else can I say??

So much for instilling a love of reading... :/

RWI the books are so dull. Agreed.

The "arguments" We've had with her reading these bloody books 😂 she'll happily read others, but these RWI ones... Flipping heck!

I am a teacher, my daughter is in reception and only has 1 book to read 3 x a week.
I just write in the record that we have even though we haven't! But we talk a lot about phonics when reading other books (we read every day), and I am able to teach her through that.
3 books 3 x a week seems a lot!

Just lie on the reading record.

School don't seem to believe me and think it's fluent reading

I had that with DD1 worse was they thought she was reading fine but was actually really struggling and relying heavily on her memory from prior reads.

I'd write read in reading book and then read other books - we did reading chest to get enough variety.

I teach a lot of phonics so I would say if she reads and understands the blends in the books then definitely don’t get her to read them over and over - but maybe try and get her to recognise the same phonemes and words in other more interesting books. God, some phonic scheme books make you lose the will…

If she can read is there no progression on to a different reading program? Seems pointless to
me.

In my DD’s school you start on phonics books but then once you can read you go on to Accelerated Reader which focusses more on their comprehension of text rather than their ability to read the words. I was so happy when we got to that point at the end of year 1 because it means they bring home normal picture books rather than those awful phonics books.

The RWI books are full, there’s no getting around that fact. They do the job though. Schools are supposed to do what the schemes say, and the sceme says the books have to be read multiple times to increase fluency, expression, understanding, intonation, all that stuff. There’s no point arguing with the school. Just go along with it, read the book once at home, answer the questions and write that you’ve done it in the diary.

RWI regularly assesses children and if the school is doing it right, your child will be reading books at the right level for her.