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.

[AudrinaAdare]

My autistic DS coped fine with the nonsense words, and as you can imagine, is extremely literal. At that age there are plenty of words which children haven't heard before.

They told us that they checked comprehension of the "real" words to make sure that he wasn't barking at print, although they may have done this because he hadn't actually demonstrated at that point that he could read in school and came out with score of nine point something. That's DS for you

But if he could cope with it then surely an NT child can? I sometimes wonder if some of the people who are stressing about this are gutted that it's beyond their control to prepare and coach... Do these people not understand the point of diagnostic tests? They inform teaching and learning!

Phonics is bloody great. Didn't they have to abandon the Clackmannshire research because the control group were doing so poorly?

[housework]

Phonicating has some annoying implications. DD's year 2 class has had to do another year of it because last years fails have to retake. My other irritation is that DD wants to spell everything phonetically. Her spelling is poor. I'd rather school were rigorous about correct spelling.DD can read,she doesn't need any more phonics lessons.

[GibberTheMonkey]

What's the point if sending home fake words to learn? Doesn't that defeat the entire purpose?

[AudrinaAdare]

Learning fake words? Fucking hell, I've heard it all now!

I must ring and find out what DS' exact score was. I will surely need it for his Cambridge application

[MuddlingMackem]

EglantinePrice Thu 13-Jun-13 22:57:09

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

[Feenie]

But they're not teaching her 'trag' and 'yunk', they're teaching her out to READ trag, and yunk and any other word in existence. Difference.

What language? Would be very interested to know.

[mummytime]

There are lots of "fake" words in the better reading books, eg. Names of Aliens. Most children can cope with no problem.
The bigger issue is that they are doing the testing, but not really giving schools resources to help the children who "fail" the test.

[AudrinaAdare]

It shouldn't really surprise me that schools where pupils have interested and involved parents are trying to gain additional advantage by covert cheating. T'was ever thus.

[EglantinePrice]

I'm certainly not stressing about it Audrina dd can cope fine. I just think its a poor use of class time - and mine.

We were sent around 80 fake words home over half term so are really being encouraged to 'coach' them. We read some real stories instead...

[YoniSingWhenYoureWinning]

But I don't WANT her learning to read trag and yunk, Feenie. I want her learning to read actual words.

Language is English, btw.

[AudrinaAdare]

You are clearly not one of the people I was referring to. Good for you

I once taught in a school where the year three's were marched out onto the field to practise for an upcoming party

[waterlego6064]

The reason the 'rules' of English spelling and pronunciation are all over the place is because we have such a rich language with so many roots.

[EglantinePrice]

I have no intention of doing them muddling. If anything this would have been more appropriate in reception when they were learning phonics.

I think they want to just make absolutely sure everyone passes by making sure no one is surprised/phased by the test. Hardly 'cheating'

[AudrinaAdare]

Erroneous apostrophe phone fail.

That many words to learn My teenager doesn't get more than ten in French every week. I'd have said something to OFSTED about that.

[YoniSingWhenYoureWinning]

Feenie, to respond to your earlier comment, about the 80%, I think that's exactly my point, if phonics is appropriate for the 20% who would struggle to read otherwise, why teach phonics to the other 80% Why teach to the lowest common denominator?

[EglantinePrice]

OMG a party practice! Sounds like something out of N Korea!

[MuddlingMackem]

EglantinePrice

Are you saying that they no longer do phonics in year 1? In our school the kids still do phonics sessions in Year 2, even for the top reading group.

Surely they shouldn't need to practice now to avoid being surprised in the test, nonsense words should be old hat by the end of Year 1.

[AudrinaAdare]

Yes, it was!

"All shall make merry (in a sanctioned and controlled manner)

Under pain of detention"

[YoniSingWhenYoureWinning]

Somewhat concerned now that my posts are coming across as if English is my second language . Perhaps I should drop the subject!

[MuddlingMackem]

YoniSingWhenYoureWinning Thu 13-Jun-13 23:19:16

if phonics is appropriate for the 20% who would struggle to read otherwise, why teach phonics to the other 80% Why teach to the lowest common denominator?

[YoniSingWhenYoureWinning]

That does seem logical. I would just hate my kids coming home from school saying 'kih ahh tih' spells cat. It would drive me bonkers to have everything dumbed down so much.

[EglantinePrice]

Muddling Yes whilst they do phonics still in year 1 it seems to be a small tool in the process of learning to read. There seems to be lots of emphasis on enjoyment, comprehension, context discussing the story etc.

Whereas reception seemed much more strongly to be about learning phonics.

IYSWIM. At this stage it feels like a backwards step.

I agree I don't think they should practice nonsense words at all. I don't recall them doing it previously though so perhaps they are trying to familiarise the children with lists of nonsense.

My feeling is time could be much better spent.

[MrsGSR]

Where I live they stopped teaching reading with phobics for a few years, I was just leaving school as these students were starting secondary school and the majority of them couldn't read beyond the level of a 7 year old. They introduced paired reading schemes with the 6th formers to try and help them improve.

In my experience phonics is very successful and i think anything that encourages it should be welcomed. I do think it might help to maybe give parents a letter explaining phonics so they understand it and can help their kids more.

Those who say better readers will try to make the non-words into real words, do they do the same with words they don't know? At 6 and 7 I doubt they know every word so if so this needs to be addressed.

[TuftyFinch]

I know the person who devised the 'phonics test', it was never meant to be a test but a screener to check for pupils who may have 'slipped through the phonics net' to ensure they were given targeted help.
My DS is in Y1, I don't know if he's had the 'test' yet, nor does he. It is not made a big thing of in his school and the pupils certainly aren't aware they are being 'tested'.
I have heard though that the pass/fail rate of the test can trigger an Ofsted visit so that's more added pressure on teaching staff.
I don't think it's a bad thing used correctly but if pressure is being put on 6 YR olds and they have an awareness it's a test then that's wrong and bad practice.

[MagicHouse]

The trouble is, phonics teaching is a part of learning to read - but just a part. When we teach reading (actual reading I mean - not just isolated words) we teach the children to actively use all sorts of tools to help them access a new word (look at the pictures/ think of the context/ use the sounds.... if they say a word that doesn't make sense we might say "does that make sense.... what might fit there?) The trouble is, in phonics sessions we are "teaching" the children to simply attack the word using sounds, but in their reading we are teaching something different - in fact NOT to over rely on phonics. That's where the difficulty lies with this test.

Aside from the fact that, as has been pointed out on here, lots of words don't actually fit all the "rules" (have, tear - which could be pronounced "tair". How about "ue" - can be oo as in blue, or you as in due etc etc). Ok, so we teach all the "alternatives", but imagine how confusing that begins to get in our language! Last year's test also had "real" words that some children had never heard of, like "shrubs".

Despite this, most teachers will run this test as a low key activity, and not worry about the results for individual children. Support is given to those who need it. (All of those children will have been identified already before this test).