Advice re read write inc

[KayHRR87]

Hello, my daughter is in year 1, she is a late June baby so one of the youngest in her class. It is likely I’m worrying unnecessarily but I’m concerned she is behind on her reading. She is currently in group orange, yet she tells me some of her friends are in grey which is 3 levels above her from my understanding? I might be getting this completely wrong but if I’m correct, it really concerns me that she seems so behind. Does anyone have a better understanding of it than me and if so, should I be concerned? I rarely get to speak to her teacher and parents evening is virtual and only 9 minutes long so barely enough time to express my concerns. Thanks.

Can't you email the teacher?

When you do the sounds at the front of the book and the words at the back how does she do with them? And if you don't know all of the sounds yourself it's really helpful if you learn them correctly as that will help when you listen to her read,

It's just impossible to compare your child with other children. What did she get in her last report?

www.oxfordowl.co.uk/for-home/reading-owl/find-a-book/read-write-inc-phonics--1/phonics-pure-sounds-video

Sounds.

Most recpeption / year 1 classes have kids in a range of levels, sounds perfectly normal. Just ask what group he should be in by end of year

Hello, yes we both do the sounds together and she does really well with them. I'm never concerned when she reads to me and I feel she reads fairly fluently for her age. I know I shouldn't compare but it's so hard if you feel concerned that your child isn't doing so well. Perhaps I should email and ask to arrange a meeting as I prefer to speak face to face. Thank you for your advice.

Yellow would be expected for this point in Year 1 so orange puts her half a term below. Schools using RWI properly assess every 6 weeks and groups are changed accordingly. Sometimes children’s progress stalls and they might remain for longer in one group. When this happens school should put interventions in place to plug any gaps. When did she last change groups? She’s really not doing badly to be orange now, there will be a huge range of abilities in Year 1. Did she achieve the ELG for Word Reading in Reception?

There's a massive variation in reading in Year 1. Remember that it's not unusual for some children to be reading before Reception while others won't. Can you email the teacher ?

Orange is absolutely fine for this point in the year. It's not a race, let her relax and enjoy books.

Hi @FlumpsandCookies, thanks for your reply! She has just moved up to orange as when she was last assessed she wasn't ready to move up a group so remained at pink. I don't think she has any additional support and her teacher has never contacted me with any concerns. She was just below the expected level on word reading when finishing reception, her teacher said it was frustrating as it was a tiny fraction! They always say how hard she try's and how enthusiastic she is to learn so I guess that's one thing to relax about! Hopefully nothing to be concerned about and she'll catch up!

@BettyBoopy thank you! I needed to hear that

@WheelsUp thank you! Yes I'm going to email and arrange a meeting with her

Year 1 august birthday girl here. We've given up on the read write inc at home because she really doesn't engage with them and I'm not sure she's bringing home reading that's equal to her ability. We switched to reading other books eg Julia donaldsons and some Pooh bear chapters and things came on v quickly
Obviously there are pupils who are 7 in sept/oct and they are reading and writing ahead of my DD. I'm not worried, she's still young.
I think he maths needs a bit more work though 🥶

Just read every day with her and she’ll learn to read, unless there’s a specific problem (doesn’t sound like there is). Don’t stress about levels as it sounds like she’s well within the normal range. If she’s still on orange in 6 months and not progressing then that’s when you need to pay attention.

@YukoandHiro thank you! Perhaps I should give that a go! We read together with our other children but maybe some other books that we can read just the two of us that are suitable for her age/level might be worth a go! We very much stick to the read write inc books but I think she finds them quite boring, despite the fact she's always so enthusiastic to read to us!
We aren't given any maths homework, just the reading. I worry too much I think!

@Wasywasydoodah thank you!

Stop comparing her to other children, particularly the extremely able outliers.

Look at her own progress.

The new RWI assessments are much more rigorous when it comes to fluency/speedy reading. So it could be that her phonics at that level is secure and she has good decoding skills, but doesn't have the skill of sight reading words she already knows.

Children also need to confidently read multi syllabic words to move to yellow books, and this is often where children can get a bit stuck. You could practice chunking strategies with her, as this makes the words easier to read.

My child is a year older than yours and has only recently moved to yellow books. I’ve been convinced for about 18 months there is some underlying learning issue, but an optometrist spotted an issue with visual tracking. We have been working on that (by reading through a ‘letterbox’) and he’s really improved. He jumped two book bands in a month. His decoding skills are fine and it is his speed that’s currently holding him back.

I’d say trust your instincts, and I’d also say that our school have been woefully inadequate at a) spotting the actual problem and b) knowing how to intervene. Ultimately there may/may not be a bigger issue at play but it’s too early to say. Just track her progress and keep pushing school is what I would say. And do consider an eye test.

Hi, just being nosy, was it a normal optician who spotted this problem during a routine appointment? Did you mention that you had concerns about reading when you went?

OP - orange is not a worry at all for this point in Year 1. It's very slightly "behind" expected progress but not by enough to be concerning, unless there are other concerns. Grey is very good - her friends must be very good at phonics. This doesn't necessarily mean they're overall smarter than your DD.

@solidaritea - no, or rather I had already had his eyes tested a year earlier by our local optician and all was fine. I went to see an optician who specialises in the Irlen method as I thought perhaps coloured overlays might help, and she spotted the issue. It was in an NHS eye test, so nothing special was done to him, but it’s clearly something that not everyone is looking for. From my POV to as parent I thought it was fairly easy to see there was an issue during the test, as he was unable to follow her pen, but I didn’t know what it meant.

The ‘treatment’ has largely been a series of eye exercises, such as doing mazes and dot-to-dot puzzles using red pen. I don’t know if it’s completely resolved or if some other underlying issue still exists but it has definitely given us something to work with.

Ask to see her phonics assessment

Then go to Oxford owl - brilliant and free - and pick the right books

Then go to the letters and sounds website - it shows you the reading levels and sounds in order -

print off - igh ear or whatever sounds and stick them by the door - you choose the password to leave the house and she has to run through them till she gets it right.

Using the letters and sounds website wouldn't be particularly useful, as the phoneme/grapheme correspondences are taught in a different order in RWI.

It's why we had to get rid of Oxford phonics books when the 'fidelity to scheme' came in!

It's best not to use other phonics schemes - stick to RWI. Practice the sounds, practice the speed words at home and don't worry. They all learn at different speeds. I worked in year 2 for ages and there weren't any year 1s in my blue phonics group, let alone grey.