What am I supposed to do with this book?

[Changebagsandgladrags]

DS (first day in reception) was given Oxford Reading Tree level 1 - At School. The teacher also gave me a comments book.

This book has no words, just a few pages of pictures.

So, I sort of 'read' it, got DS to do the recommended activities. But all this took just a few minutes and DS was bored by it. Am I supposed to be more imaginative?

Am I supposed to send it back tomorrow do you think? I should have asked the teacher, but assumed the book was 'meatier' than this.

Plus what do I comment? Boring

Its a pre reading skill being able to tell a story from the pictures you are encouarging your child to look at the pictures to see what is happening in the story. It helps them see that the story happens in a sequence (vital pre reading skill), it helps them later to use the picture if they are stuck when they are reading.

Because wordless books only make sense when the pictures are viewed in sequence, adult readers must make a point of focusing children?s attention on the left page before the right. Particularly when children participate in the telling of the narrative, they practice the left to right pattern of reading.

Oh so they might do Jolly Phonics too? We have been doing that, we have the songs CD and the story book and some workbooks.

He's used to being read to and has liked to 'read' his stories back to us.

We did have a meeting back in July but they just went through general school stuff. I do remember the head saying they would organise mornings when they invited parents in to see how they do things.

That's really interesting - is it an earlier starting version of those worksheets I used to do as a child don't know if they still use the materials the dinosaurs were learning with where you have about 8 pictures, and you have to cut them out and put them into some sort of sequence and write a sentence underneath each one to create your own story?

yes. it's just part of several rescources the teacher will use. jolly phonics, flash cards, word walls etc.

the wordless books are just showing the child how a story is made up, how you predict a story so help you to figure out tricky words.

When children start to read they will often use the pictures to give them clues as to what's in the text. These first books with no words are to encourage the kids to take a detailed look at the pictures and to try to tell the story from the pictures. At my kids school as soon as they can demonstrate that they can do that they move onto books with words and then simple sentences. It can take a few weeks at the start of the year for the teacher to accurately assess the children and have them on an appropriate reading level.

when I started teaching remedial reading I asked my daughters what they remembered about learning to read. All the oldest could remember was getting books with no words in and wondering "what the heck!?"
So they had some impact but actually taught her nothing of any use!

DS1 had these books last year in Nursery. I have to say we found the storylines rather obscure in many cases (they are rather dated now) and he found them quite difficult to do. He did develop his skill and they were helpful for this but they were, for him at least a rather tough way of starting.

Although he found these books difficult, I would say (without meaning to boast) he's a very good reader and also has a sound understanding of stories - how they're structured, how to predict narrative etc., vast vocabulary, great imagination. So don't despair if the ORT books prove tricky.

The wordless books are actually good for getting the "idea" of reading accross to children. Not every child knows which way a book is held, that the story startes at the front and that you read the left side before the right side for example.

If I remember rightly there aren't many books without words, by Level 1+ they have words (and an interesting story where all the characters, including the dog, get into bed together!)