WIBU to suggest teachers watch YouTube video to improve their teaching methods?

[BettyFlour]

Before the summer we attended classes at DS's school and had taster sessions in phonics I.e to pronounce the letter M as 'mmmm' not 'muh'. It was excellent.

We have since moved and have started DS at another primary (Reception) and the teacher pronounces S as "suh" not "sss" etc.

The correct pronounciation of phonics can be the make or break for some kids in learning to read.

I have found a youtube video which teaches the correct pronounciation very well. I'd like the Reception teacher to watch it. How do I approach this with the Headteacher? WIBU to even think of suggesting it? I feel IABU however, I want the best for DS. Other children would obviously benefit too.

[BettyFlour]

link

[Jellybeanz1]

As a teacher I welcome useful resources. There are a lot out there to wade through so a recommendation for a good resource in a quick email might see me open it. I just found a lovely one the other day by CBeebies, introducing Divali and found that via TES online teacher resources. Maybe you should go national if you have confidence in it? (I wouldn't put in the bit about wanting to teach better - goes without saying).

[BettyFlour]

I've posted the link above. She leads into the video quite well explaining why it's done this way. But if you scroll to 45 seconds, she explains why it's better (yes better!!) to use "mmm" instead of "muh".

She then sounds out the whole phonetic alphabet

[DropYourSword]

Can I ask someone to point me in the right direction so I can read up more on phonics? It just seems like quite a recent method of teaching (on the scale of things) and I've seen many threads worrying about teachers doing it wrong.

Is there research to prove how effective it is? I just see statements about kids not being able to blend words etc and how damaging it will be to their ability to read if they aren't taught correctly. I just wonder how true those sorts of statements are. I wasnt taught by any phonics method (that I'm aware of) and I assume most MN ers weren't either and we did ok? Is the stressing about it worth it (genuine question, not derogatory statement)

[Spinkle]

Actually some children with auditory processing and poor discrimination find phonics really difficult.

Phonics is not a magic cure all people think. Some pupils get in better with while word recognition.

[soimpressed]

Why not ask the teacher if she knows of any resources that show the correct pronunciation? Make it sound as though you need the help then she won't feel you are criticising her. Tell her you know that you shouldn't be saying 'muh' and 'suh' but you're not sure of all the other sounds. Then the teacher may look into it. If she doesn't get back to you after a day or two you could go in and say you've found a great link on youtube that perhaps other parents might find useful.

I'm surprised that a teacher wouldn't know how to say the sounds correctly.

[BettyFlour]

soimpressed that's a perfect solution thank you!!

sprinkle you're right but that's a separate issue. For those kids that do learn from phonics, and because the teacher is teaching phonics, it should be done correctly.

[ApocalypseThen]

If they find its you passing on the helpful hints as to how you think they should do their job, don't be too surprised if they want you to home you tube your child.

[LRDMaguliYaPomochTebeSRaboti]

Phonics was around 500 years ago, it's not a fad and not new.

OP, do you know that teaching aid (very simple and boring really) where you get a child who is struggling to hold a mirror up to his or her mouth so he or she can actually see the shapes the sounds make? Sometimes that helps too.

Anyway - my mate just finished her PGCE and said a good third of her coursemates didn't get the phonics because they'd heard conflicting messages from teachers in schools they went into, and quite a lot of people were quite resistant to the whole idea of it. So I think you would have to go really softly not to risk offending people. But you could just politely ask her what is going on and explain you are confused because of the difference between the two schools, and want to know which method to use at home? That is slightly white-lie, but would be politer than calling her out as wrong.

[LRDMaguliYaPomochTebeSRaboti]

Gah, I took so long typing that and soimp has a much better plan!

[ArgyMargy]

The video is helpful but the later sounds show why it's difficult to apply in English. There are so many letter combinations that sound the same, and combinations that sound different when part of different words. Ou and ow are just two of the latter. And consonants often sound different when they are the first letter of a word, or within a word, or the last letter of a word.

Anyhoo, I'm sure it's a great system.

[HumphreyCobbler]

The fact that english has a complex phonic code is all the more reason to teach is explicitly.

Adding an uh to the end of each sound is distorting when you try to blend sounds together to make a work.

cuh/a/tuh is not the same as c/a/t. Why wouldn't you expect a teacher to make the correct sound rather than the incorrect sound? I really despair when I hear that professionals are still doing this kind of thing.

"Actually some children with auditory processing and poor discrimination find phonics really difficult". This is very true and all the more reason to use the ACTUAL sound rather than the sound with a schwa added.

[HumphreyCobbler]

sorry about all the typos

[YouTheCat]

I teach phonics. God, I hate it so much.

But OP is right about the pronunciation. It is very important for blending and also can help with spelling.

The teacher is probably aware and has had training. I know plenty of teachers who still get it wrong. OP just reinforce the correct way at home.

[CrohnicallyLurking]

For anyone who thinks that phonics isn't important- how do you read user names on here and 'pronounce' them in your head? It's highly unlikely you've seen the word 'Crohnically' before, or 'Maguli'. Yet we each have some idea of how the word would be said.

When a child is learning to read they come across many words which they haven't seen before. Phonics is a method of working out how the word might be pronounced, so they can see if it matches a word that they have heard.

Even whole word learning methods rely to some extent on phonics, it's working backwards and realising that often the same letter pattern makes the same sound (rather than learning sound/letter correspondences explicitly). For example, a child who knows the words book and look could make a reasonable guess at the pronunciation of took as it has the same letter pattern at the end.

And for anyone that thinks it doesn't matter whether you say 'mmm' or 'muh', I was working with a child earlier who was trying to spell the word 'bigger'. He sounded it out as 'b' 'i' 'guh' (writing the letters b,i,g as he did so)- hence spelling 'bigger' as 'big'.

[manicinsomniac]

I don't think YABU if you are polite about it.

I was reading this thread thinking, 'oooh, where, I'll watch it, send me the link' and I've been a teacher for 7 years. I'll definitely be watching it now I see you've linked it and recommending it on if it's any good.

My PGCE course was for 5-11 year olds. I am specifically not qualified to teach foundation stage and, when I told a lecturer that I wouldn't feel confident teaching a child to read, I was told 'this course doesn't do that. Children learn to read when they are in reception, we only go from Year 1'. Riiiight. The youngest children I teach now are 9 and they still can't all read (well they can, of course, but some have reading ages of 5 or 6). I feel very unqualified to help them at times.

[RedHelenB]

Not being funny, but I'm almost 100% certain that the dvd that accompanies the gov letters & sound doc has the correct pronunciation so you could be teaching your Grandma to suck eggs!

[YouTheCat]

Blimey! I can't believe a PGCE lecturer thinks children are taught to read in reception. Have they been out of a classroom for long? Certainly the foundations are put down in reception but there is still plenty to do in years 1 and 2 with regards to phonics and reading.

The Letters and Sounds does have (mainly) the correct pronunciation in the accompanying videos.

[manicinsomniac]

youthecat - this particular lecturer lasted two weeks in a secondary classroom in the 70s then left teaching to teach potential teachers - and openly admitted that! Wny he was ever considered suitable to do so is beyond me!

[TwllBach]

I watched a little girl spell cow C O W U becuase of the 'u' on the end when people say letters. I am teaching phonics atm, with no formal training as my training is 7 - 11. It can be difficult, but you have to pronounce it properly.

[chompychompychompchomp]

My niece, who is six, used to pronounce her sounds this way because her school (same one that my daughter used to go to) uses the Jolly Phonics scheme. I know a friend's son does a different scheme at his school and he learns to pronounce his sounds without the 'uh' at the end. It's the school's fault, not the teacher's, for subscribing to a particular phonics scheme. My friend is also niece's childminder, and she has been 're-teaching' her for a while now; her spelling has improved greatly!