To not feel happy about 6 year old ds being 'tested' on fake words? Phonics.

[OHforDUCKScake]

And is this something all year one pupils have to do?

So the children learn the phonics, 'oa' 'air' 'ng' and so on.

Now, the government, since last year, want to test them on it. If they get a certain amount wrong, they fail and have to do it again.

The thing is, the way they test them is to give them fake words to check they really do know their phonics.

They will be given 20 real words and 20 fake workds and they have to get 34 out of 40 or their fail.

So, as long as they can read toast, fair, treat

As well as taim, roaf, rait

Then they will be ok.

I dont know where to start, honestly. First of all, testing them just so the government can see what the deal is, using them as guinea pigs it feels like. They are only 6!

Secondly, the weeks leading up to the test they have been teaching them fake non-words.

A test? At 6? That they can fail?

I asked if we were obliged to do this? Teachers are, and parents are. I have no choice but to let my son have the bullshit test.

If AIBU then thats fine, but he is our first so we dont know the drill and he is already struggling in some areas so possibly a little more sensitive than usual to him being taught bullshit words and being tested on them.

OK, 'have' was a bad choice but I'm not sure why the question mark against 'rose' Gibberthemonkey? Because you say the letter 'o' as it's name rather than as it's sound - otherwise written as 'ros'.

But that IS learning reading!

You picked two words, talked about a rule yet those two words had opposite vowel sounds. No wonder people get confused by phonics.

Out of interest why is have different?

There aren't really any rules, just tendencies really. Phonics isn't about teaching rules.

PrincessScrumpy - the children do not learn pseudo words. That's the whole point of it. They are phonic sounds put together to make a pseudo word - a word that doesn't exist. The children don't need to learn how to read them. They just blend the sounds, which they already know from phonics, and just say the word that the sounds blend into. The alien is just there to remind them that they are just blending the sounds and saying it as it is, even if it is a word they don't recognise.

The best way to know a child has learned something is when they use it in the wrong way! eg "look at those sheeps" they have learned that plural words have an s on the end. And hopefully they will have never heard "sheeps" being used so they have applied teh rule themselves.

"If a child has not encountered a word before, it is like a made up word'

But it isn't.

Why do we have knight, knife, knob? Even DS's teacher doesn't understand that one. And yes, I know what you mean Gibber but it's not just phonics that has confusing 'rules'. I was taught the classic 'I before E except after C' rule. Which is rubbish. Because 'science, sufficient, weird,foreign, their' and many more break that rule. And that's not phonic based.

"My understanding is that this year the made up words will have a picture of an alien next to them so the kids are completely clear that these are nonsense words (alien names). This should avoid the issue of good readers trying to turn them into real words."

I'm sorry, but I praise the fucking lord I got my kids out of the British education system.

was that 'but that is learning reading' to me, Feenie? tbh i don't know much about it, am not exercised by it at all, it's worked really well for my child and i hope it will be the same for her sibling. i was just meaning that dd was unfamiliar with all the words she was learning at the time, that's all. we don't do the testing thing here, or officially at least. i think they scrapped it. (but it seems like a good tool to me).

You learn the letters, then you learn the sound each letter makes then you learn the first maybe thirty most commonly used words by sight, then you gradually develop the ability to sound out words as you go. I won't say where I live as it would probably out me but we score extremely highly in literacy compared with other oecd countries.

I'm sorry, but I praise the fucking lord I got my kids out of the British education system.

Yes, the bastards - teaching our kids how to read any word, and checking carefully using a test that has been proven to be an effective assessment tool for years and years..

"My understanding is that this year the made up words will have a picture of an alien next to them so the kids are completely clear that these are nonsense words (alien names). This should avoid the issue of good readers trying to turn them into real words."

You don't read the above and think 'that is just really stupid." Really? Really?

Your method works for 80% of kids here.

I am not happy to have one in five children unable to read in my school. So I read and research and found something that reaches nearly all instead. I've only met 3 children who failed to learn to read using phonics - all left us in Y6 to attend a special school.

In puts the skill into a context children enjoy, Yoni. You are not a child - it's not meant to appeal to you.

It. Bloody phone.

But Feenie if someone tried to teach my five year old 'trag' and 'yunk' She would say 'what does that mean?' And if I said 'It doesn't mean anything at all, those aren't actually words' she wouldn't enjoy it at all, she would be confused as hell.

This sounds like a reading programme called 'toe by toe' that was originally used with people with literacy problems.
It's actually really effective. Older children I have known who have engaged with this have increased their reading age by a number of years over a really short period of time.

It uses fake words because it stops the reader guessing words. They have to read the letters and learn the sounds that different combinations of letter make.

I don't understand phonics teaching in the slightest, Feenie, because in my country there is no such thing. For which I am profoundly grateful.

Such a bad use of time ime.

They are sending them lists of fake words home now (to practice for the test).

dd has recently made a real leap in her reading and has started reading 'chapter' books herself. I am not going to stop this and insist we sit down and read made up words.

Since starting reception the teachers have emphasised the importance of context and comprehension. Suddenly we are putting all that aside and just reading bollocks words.

Phonics is just one tool in the learning to read journey there are infinite exceptions and 'tricky' words this is unhelpful.

It may well pick up a few children who haven't got to grips with phonics. However I don't believe that the teachers don't know who those children are without having to spend time 'revising' for this test.

I thought it was 'I before e except after c and only when the sound is ee.'