wordless "reading" books in reception

[BetsyBoop]

Not sure what to do about this & don't want to hassle DD's teacher yet & come over all PFB-pushy-mum, so advice please....

DD is bringing home wordless reading books (ORT) & I'm struggling to get her enthusiastic about them. She sees them as "baby books" as they only have pictures (and TBH she we were reading books like this together 3+ years ago...)

I don't think they start teaching phonics until after half term.

She is currently at the starting-to-read stage (knows all her phonics, recognises quite a few words on sight, happy to have a go at blending & usually works out the word etc) All of this led by her asking about letter/words/sounds, I have deliberately not pushed her at all.

When we read together she really enjoys "proper" books (she took an encyclopedia of animals out of the school library for example - her free choice - and we read all 90 pages in just 2 sessions) and would happily sit reading together for hours (when I have the time...)

I know they all have to start somewhere, but I'm also conscious that I don't want to quash her enthusiasm for books & reading by forcing her to sit & "read" what she thinks are the "baby books" that school have given her for homework?

Do I go-with-the-flow for now, or should I speak to the teacher?

thanks for your words of advice :)

The first books are all about comprehension. So the idea is that she can tell you what is happening in the story by looking at the pictures. Do the people look happy or sad, etc.

So you could just explain to her that there is a secret story, and she has to work out what it is. Like a detective.

Then she will move on to words.

It's very early in the school year: the reception teachers will be working their way through each pupil doing assessments of their skills: you might find soon she comes home with a different range of books...

This happened to DS2 last year - after they did a few weeks he started coming home with the right level stuff.

I would go with the flow. This is the way they started at my DC's school. It's quite nice for them to make up their own words to the pictures. If she's not interested you can look at them briefly and then read something else together.

Thanks Lougle

I've started asking her to tell me what she thinks the story is about from looking at the pictures - she does this in about 30 seconds (in quite a lot of detail too!) and then says "now can we read a proper book mummy?"!

Perhaps I just need to stop "forcing" her to then listen to the blurb on the parents sheet then, so long as I know she comprehends the story from the pictures?

thanks everyone.

sounds like go-with-the-flow for now then & spend very little time on the wordless books if DD is not that interested. I'm very conscious that I don't want reading homework to become a chore already, especially when DD loves books & reading so much :)

Personally I would have a word with the teacher say that your DD really doesn't enjoy the wordless books and see what she says, it may prompt her to assess your dd properly.

FWIW dd was in reception last year never came home with just picture books and started reading before all the phonics sounds were done. Each school does things differently, but I would want my DD not to become disillusioned with school reading so quickly because it provides no challenge.

I can't understand why so many schools, at reception stage at least, refuse to acknowledge that some children are more advanced and ready for more.

We've had similar problems with my DD1 all the way through last year and every year you read similar stories on here...

The approach they take is fantastic for a lot of children, but some children just need more and they seem to refuse to acknowledge that.

Some children are very well socialised, can read/write and have fab comprehension - I don't think that's beyond the realms of possibility!

Good luck with it, it might improve for you, but be prepared to get a little frustrated and being made outto be a "pushy parent".

Do remember that there is more to the enjoyment of a book than barking out words.

Surely they should be open to individual learning pace. My DS is 4 (late august) and can read and do all phonics so has been given the appropriate books for his current ability.

OP - I am mildly jealous. My DD sounds similar to yours and has not even been given a book yet at school. Any book.

if you don't like what the school is sending home go to the library etc and read other books.
you don't need to rely on the school to provide all yr child's reading material.

I would say you are possibly taking the homework a bit too seriously. I would just go through the book at her pace, however quick. Like Lougle said, you could tell her she has to be like a detective, working out what's happening - and that it's not babyish to get practice at storytelling using your own words, because when she can write, they'll be wanting her to do that.

You could also say to the teacher that your dd would quite like to have a go at a few books with words in and were wondering when they might start sending books like these home, and see what the teacher says. I don't think it's pushy to ask the question, which is merely asking for clarification of the school's policy, just pushy to insist. If the teacher doesn't like this idea, then just do what you want at home!!!...

In my dds school they call these books story walks. They help them follow stories logically and make up their own sentences, attribute feelings, emotions etc, at least that's what I was told at the "help with homwork" classes

Agree that you should keep going with them for a bit, if she's doing the comprehension bit quickly then don't drag it out unnecessarily, praise her and then move on to a book you have at home that she is more interested in.

WilfShelf
"It's very early in the school year: the reception teachers will be working their way through each pupil doing assessments of their skills: you might find soon she comes home with a different range of books..."

WilfShelf, just wanted to say you were spot on :)

We had a note in DD's reading diary to say teacher had assessed DD & as of this week she is getting L1 books sent home :) DD is quite excited now

Lovely to hear your dd is so excited about learning to read!

A friend of mine has a dd that could already read chapter books at the start of reception this year and, yes, she also was given picture books for quite few weeks. This is despite the school knowing from the nursery that she could read. The last time I spoke to her she had been given ORT level 2. (and yes, believe me, she could comprehend what she read...)It makes the system a farce.
My dd2 was in a similar position to the OP's at the start of reception. She'd known her letter sounds for two years and been ready to learn to read for ages and I'd purposely not done anything with her till school. After 3 weeks of picture books I gave up and started to teach her myself. Not all schools are like that though and picture books are sometimes only used briefly, while assessing. Dd1's teacher would never have been so inflexible.
The real irony is that for most chldren picture books are not helpful. You can learn comprehension from a book with words in. Picture books are good if the child is unused to the whole idea of handling books and the way they work. The other reason for them is to encourage children to look at the pictures to help work out what the text says when reading. All current advice is that this is actually bad for kids as it encourages them to guess from only looking at the first letter in a word, when they should be trying to look at the text and practising their new phonics skills by sounding out.

camicaze
All current advice is that this is actually bad for kids as it encourages them to guess from only looking at the first letter in a word, when they should be trying to look at the text and practising their new phonics skills by sounding out.

I found that this too that it was encouraging DD to guess words rather than read. She was also remembering the story after one read through.

We started using the Reading Chest to encourage her to practice phonic decoding and comprehension about half way through her reception year as we were worried she was developing bad habits. She was happier with their range and we obviously still read a wide range of books with her.

In year 1 there is more emphasis on phonically decoding the words.

I'm glad we did not wait as it took a lot of work to stop her bad habits that would have been more entrenched by then.

That was our experience too. My kids want to guess, its natural. It might help them understand a book they can't read properly but it seems actually harmful to their ability to make progress with reading.
I think that was why I was so annoyed by dd2's teacher's approach to picture books. My dd and I could have got over our joint impatience to get started with learning to read. But the teacher gave all children in the class picture books regardless of their ability because that is what she believed in philisophically, not because they hadn't yet been assessed.

Well, I sent some wordless books home last week for my Yr 6's. We use them a great deal to stimulate discussion and story-telling whatever year group the children are in. We also spent 3-4 weeks studying them in class, and my children are up to level 5's! Wordless books are NOT used to teach children to read, they are used to stimulate imagination, story telling skills, develop story language, discuss feelings, actions and emotions and a whole host of other skills that children neeed IN ADDITION TO decoding skills.

That all sounds fabby - no problem with that, sounds like a great way to stimulate your year 6's story telling.

Is the assumption that all Reception children need many weeks of story telling skills, REGARDLESS of what what their starting point is, before they are allowed a book that lets them sound out the word CAT?

I agree that is how wordless books should be used unfortunately publishers sell them as a stage before books with words for children learning to read ... and they certainly don't support "reading" in any shape or form that can't be achieved with a book with words.

There is a point to 'picture books' even in terms of decoding. Reading isn't just determined by the words, but by their context (so that we anticipate and understand differently in a newspaper, blog, academic monograph, novel etc.) One of the functions of picture books is to prepare your child for a certain sort of book where the story unfolds over 9-24 pages, the words are in essence a caption for the pictures, and to learn the rules of that genre and to think of the sequences between pages. That's a useful skill even for an experienced reader-you'll realise as you start to work through the reading scheme how you (with no decoding problems) start to anticipate language and storyline very differently to in a novel you might read.

Ultimately the best readers aren't those who can make the printed words into spoken ones, they're the ones who can appreciate and anticipate genre, and form and how it affects comprehension, and ultimately mimic it, becoming 'multiliterate' in many forms of English. There's no evidence that process is sequential-it can develop alongside decoding skills. Sometimes what seems basic is actually what is hardest.

AdelaofBlois I'm afraid reading is determined by the words. Words are what we read.
In most children's books there are illustrations to enhance the story but they are not what we read. As we get older books no longer contain illustrations yet we are able to read without them.
Parents and children can use illustrations in books with words just as effectively to talk about what they see and the child can make up a story but have the bonus that the actual story the author intended can be shared too.