KS1 teachers avice needed. Phonics and reading.

[BunnyWunny]

Have just found out from my dd, after asking her if she was being taught to join up her writing yet, that she is apparently in a different phonics group than her guided reading group.

She is in Y1 and reading ORT stage 7 comfortably, and as I help in her class one afternoon I know she does guided reading with a group of children and they are all roughly at this stage too. However, she is doing a daily phonics session in the morning with a different group of children, who I am pretty sure are of a lower reading ability (one girl I read with is only reading ORT stage 3). The children from her guided reading group are in a different phonics group and are given more challenging spellings than her, and are being taught to join (dd has excellent neat handwriting).

Just wondered, before I ask the teacher about this at parents evening what your opinions are. As an ex teacher myself I fail to see how reading and phonics ability can be separated, and if she is expected to read with a certain group of children, why she is not expected to be able to do the same 'phonics work' as them?

'I fail to see how reading and phonics ability can be separated'

Actually I think this can be quite common. I'm not a teacher but have a reception-aged ds and his ability to read definitely outstrips his ability to decode because he has good 'look and remember' skills.

So for instance he can easily read 'toad, road, load etc' but can't reliably remember what sound 'oa' makes. Likewise he can read a lot of longer words - enough, through, everybody etc - but if he meets one he hasn't met before eg yesterday, he can't reliably break it down and sound it out as yes-ter-day, even though he can handle the individual bits.

Definitely speak to the teacher but it could be she has an excellent memory for words and therefore tends to use the has relatively less well-developed phonics skills because she needs them less (to read, they are obviously needed for spelling).

Hi BunnyWunny, read your post with interest as a situation occurred at my DD's school last year when she was in year 1 that sounds similar to your story. To recap, the phonic groups were all mixed up last Easter and some children who were previously in the hardest group were moved down to an easier group. As you can imagine this caused an almighty furore amongst the (dare I say it, pushy) parents in the playground, but it all boiled down to the fact that said children were not reliably using their spelling skills on a day-to-day basis when writing. Do you think that this could be the case with your DD? Often children's reading ability outstrips their writing ability. If this is the case I wouldn't panic, getting a really sound phonic knowledge is invaluable and will see your DD in good stead as she goes up the school. HTH.

Thanks Lovecheese, maybe- I am not really sure, she is certainly able, and her writing is well within the expectations for year 1, but attends a school where many are of above average in their achievements. I am wondering if she is maybe the weakest of her guided reading group and the teacher feels she benefits from being with slightly less able for phonics. I am going to speak to the teacher next week, so hopefully she will be able to explain.

Let us know how you get on