to be a bit frustrated by dd's first reading book NO WORDS!!!

[littlebylittle]

Okay - health warning here, I am hormonal!! I am also a teacher (clearly not reception!)and should know the theory behind this. But...dd has just brought home first reading book after five weeks in reception and there are no words!! She know all letter sounds (initial) and has grasped all the phonics at school so far (ie they have seen her understand phonics). She also knows a good few words by sight. She'll also talk happily about stories and predict what's going to happen. So I am just a little peeved that there are no b**y words in this book. After this rant I will calm down and share the book she is so excited about and realise that yes IABU. But for five mins I feel like throwing the book at the wall! Any experience of learning to read confidently and quickly starting with wordless books?

Thanks :) I'm hoping to eventually specialise in maths (ie helping the whole junior school improve maths standards)

Anyway, I'm really dreading the idea of not knowing what's going on at school. I know they're the professionals but I'm still the parent :)

I generally sent one or two of the wordless books home before starting skipping kids about and jiggling things to get the ones who WERE ready to read onto a more appropriate level. You'd be surprised though - you can assume kids are used to books... not necessarily in some areas.

I'd rather send something "too easy" home initially and build up some confidence than send something "hard" home and scare a kid off books for life!

YANBU they should tailor it to her level. DD is just 3 and will be just 4 when she starts reception. If they start her off at the beginning with wordless books I shall be having words as she can do sentences now. If your child can sound out phonic sounds and manage CVC words then she shouldn't start with wordless books, it's just a waste of time and shows a remarkable lack of imagination and/or attention to the level of each child on the part of the teacher.

Some children may have no idea how to follow a book, but many will. One size fits all is just too simplistic. I remember being forced to read all the set of books at school even though they were way too simple. It was boring.

I think it's silly to be so negative about it TBH - is it really doing any harm? Presumably if they can already read they have access to lots of normal books, why does it matter if they have an extra 'too-easy' one? It'll probably be more harmful to the child's attitude to school to complain about it.

to freudian i have same problem with bedtime story so used some of the shorter and easier books she can read cvc words from but then she said thats to boring for a bed time story and she was to tired to try to read them. was at libary today and her idea was to get a longer book for me to read and an easy book for her. i think ill get her sitting down reading with me after school before dinner and then keep bedtime story as i usualy do wizz through, lol.

she has no reading book yet and was told she will only get non word books sent home and they will read once a week the kipper books in class with an adult...i thought this was not enough but teacher has urged us to read daily with children.

A friend of mine teaches in a nursery school. She had a boy who could read whole sentences, including quite complicated words, at the age of 3. But he had no clue what the story was about. He was just treating it like a code-breaking exercise.

Since she told me that, I've been more understanding of the value of wordless books and quite enjoyed making up our own stories for them when the DDs were in Reception. It does get frustrating when you know that your child does understand the story and their teachers are still banging on about the importance of comprehension, though.

And there are definitely children in DD2's class who started school with no concept of what books were about, sadly.

another good point is that my dd in reception can read cvc and is remembering most of the words that are difficult such as the, for, they and can also make words from magnetic board and spell sounds out loude that make the words but she can not write her name and is absolutly no where near it, so i would rather they concentare on this as she is very far behind what would be expected considering her ability in other areas. remember they learning so much other things along side reading.

That's a shame grockle

Our DD' school have a notice board up where we can find out what they are doing in school that week.

We were also invited to a 'curriculum meeting' this week where the staff were to tell parents about what the children were learning, topics etc... Unfortunately we couldn't go but I think we're really lucky that DD's school want parents to be involved.

I used to be a reception teacher. DD1 hs just started reception.

Wordless books are normal. They will move on!

I totally agree Freudian. There's plenty of time, IMO.

Children in many other European countries don't start formal schooling until they are 7 and they all manage to learn to read and write (and to learn a foreign language too!) They don't seem to need to be pushed into it at the age of 4/5. Actually, our school leavers' results are worse than a lot of these other countries, as far as I'm aware, so that really isn't a good advert for such early pressure in education.

Smithagain Very true. My mum was a Primary teacher for 30+ years and met many children like that.

You're right, it doesn't matter. Especially at this stage when they are still settling into school. It just irritates me and I am a pushy interfering parent with unreasonably high expectations of the teacher and DS. But I know that

My mum has just done a course that specialises in teaching children phonics/reading skills (shes a ta) and I commented that my DDs books were getting a bit too easy for her. She said that the books that are sent home are meant to be at least a level below what they are actually reading at. Apparently its more important for the child to enjoy reading at home than to challenge them, as they are more likely to not want to read if this is the case. Also, comprhension is as important as knowing the words-the child needs to be able to explain the story to you.

My ds ia in P1 (reception) and he can read whole sentences etc but I don't have a problem with him having wordless stories. He's enjoying making up the story which to me is just as important.

What about the children who WANT to be challenged? The ones that enjoy reading, understand the stories and actually want to read proper books? How are they being catered for? Yes, it's all very well providing wordless books for children who need them but by giving all children the same starter books in an effort not to penalise those who can't read you are then penalising the ones who can. Does no one else think this?

DS1(4) LOVES reading books and has no problems understanding the story - what a waste of an opportunity for him to read new and exciting stories by being given a book with no words simply because another child in the class might not be reading yet. :( Children are not the same and it is unfair to treat them like that. If the situation was reversed and your child came home with a Roald Dahl book that they were expected to struggle through every night with you there would be uproar!

Want to swap?

We have books with words that are way ahead of my DC's abilities at the moment. The teacher can remember my older DC who was reading well by half term and, I am sure, assuming DC will be the same - grrrr.

bubbly, suggest you just hang on a while. If your ds is in reception, he's only been in school a few weeks. Won't be long before he's getting books that are more stretching. In the meantime, I'm sure you have plenty of interesting books at home and a library card.

Books with no words give even children who are able to read a challenge - to work out the story for themselves with no written prompts.

I'm not looking forward to these with ds, dd's first book in reception she brought home was I think level 7, that was painful enough thankyou. I really hope they change the whole reading scheme, don't fancy doing the whole lot x 3.

I recall in reception being incredibly frustrated because I didn't feel ds's abilty was being taken into account and the teacher would only change the ORT book twice a week max and he was expected to read the same book at least three times or twice if we were lucky!!! With hindsight it didn't stop him reading the first Harry Potter on his own at just 6 or indeed the first two in Latin at 12. Got easier with dd - just read the ORT book once but dutifully wrote things like dd enjoyed this book so much upon re-reading it in the reading record. We read much more interesting books instead and she too was reading big books independently at 6.

PS: I still have a niggling little feeling that I might have had a third had it not been for the prospect of doing ORT with Biff,
and Chip again. That Golden Key has a lot to answer for when it comes to locking up the imagination!!

Yep- not all kids are used to books. I'm STILL coming across people who think their child is somehow advanced for getting a library card at 5 or 6 :(

Both mine got theirs on their first outings, and DH got his before he was born (his mum was Children's Librarian, so he got special dispensation so they could get a good picture for the local paper :o ) But then, we are a slightly public libraries obsessed family, and I will admit that maybe a baby should get registered as being born first

Haven't got the foggiest about educational theories but the 'one size fits all' approach does worry me. Surely teachers ought to be able to tailor the work to the child? I remember being bored rigid during my own early years at school because I could already read (and, yes, comprehend too) but was made to work my way through a standard set of books and exercises. I'd hate to inflict that on any child.

And I really don't get the 'no words' books. Surely, even if a children's book has words in it, no one reads the exact words on the page each time anyway? I'd die of boredom if DS and I didn't make up the story a bit each time.

I think it's unrealistic to hope any teacher can teach to a wide range of abilities in one class. Most teachers do their best to differentiate for different abilities and most schools have a G&T programme to try and stretch those who are the most able but they can only do so much with the staff ratio and resources they have in a state school. Those who want a more individually-tailored programme for their DCs should look at private schooling or homeschooling, if they can afford to do so.

I don't know Olifin - when it comes to stuff the do in groups in lessons they can only differentiate up to a point (eg the whole class do the Jolly Phonics actions together even if some of them know them perfectly and others are struggling to remember them - fine) but in terms of sending home books at the right level, that the child will then read individually to the teacher, that ought to, and can easily, be individually tailored, surely?

Dd got 2 wordless books to start with then moved on to simple word books. They are very easy, is it biff, it is biff etc. So we do the book once a week the night she gets it and then do other stuff in her bookbag the other nights.

She has word walls, Flashcards, tricky word lists, a self chosen school library book as well a piece if maths related homework. So, in amongst all that there is something interesting and challenging for her to do each night.

The teacher ran a meeting before term started to tell all the parents how she teaches reading and explained all this. Out if 30 sets of parents only 8 or so of us turned up.

With respect, some of you are getting worked up over very little. Just because they get a wordless book it doesn't stop them reading harder stuff does it? And anyway they will only have them for a week or so. Seriously, get some perspective.

Also, I would find it quite sad and/or worrying if a child couldn't make up a story - no matter how good they were at reading.