Ruth Misken books v ORT?

[5GoldenFimbos]

Ds is learning to read using the Misken scheme whereas dd used the ORT. Ds has discovered an old ORT book we had and is much preferring Biff, Chip and Floppy because he finds it easier to read and of course there are not the comprehension questions like the Misken scheme.

Anyone else come across both and what do you/your child prefer?

Not a fan of either but the RWI books are much better

they do different jobs

No they both do the same job (different methods) but one does it far better

well .. my kids (at school) love the ORT stories and pictures, don't enjoy RWI stories so much but they are clearly phonetic

as I said I'm not a fan of either scheme

no me neither :)

Why does your son find ORT easier?

DC are taught ReadWriteInc at school but they come home with Reading books from all schemes but RWI, including a lot of ORT. I can't see that the schemes are incompatible.

He's mostly reading TinTin now. :)

Same here, ragged.

Which ORT though, ragged - Songbirds/Floppy Phonics? Then totally compatible.

I am not enough expert on ORT to say Feenie! Lots of Biff and Chip. And Ginn, and others I think.

Has the OP not come back to this thread?

I'm still curious to know why her child finds ORT easier.

DD gets ort books from school and I borrow books home from the shool where I work which are RW (Miskin). She very much prefers the rwi books and finds it helpful that unless the word is red she will be able to sound it out using the graphemes she has been taught.

Sorry posted and then dh came home and blah de blah.

With wrt to ORT its "trunk" stories. I probably worded my op wrongly. He can read but prefers ORT as the are only a couple of lines whereas RWI are much longer and therefore he gets fed up, which in turn becomes a struggle, he then starts stumbling over words he already knows.

The ORT books he is reading should be pretty comparable to the level of RWI he is on.

Why are they bringing the RWI books home? Do they do the phonics scheme properly?

ORT books aren't comparable with RWI at all. ORT and RWI books are written for completely different purposes.

RWI is structured to accompany the phonics teaching and will contain only words which the child can read with the phonics they have already been taught, plus a few 'red words'.

ORT are designed to 'teach' children to recognise words as 'wholes', the vocabulary will be more restricted and there will be lots of repetition of the same few words so as to promote 'word learning'. Many words will be completely outside children's phonic knowledge. The pictures are intended to give 'clues'.

I would be worried about DS getting 'fed up' with reading longer books. It doesn't augur well for developing a 'love of reading' . I would have a quiet word with his teacher..

I guess I need to speak to the school really.

Maizie - my ds is lazy, hence the problem. (but I persist, I don't let him wriggle out of it).

What do you prefer instead mrz

I like the Songbird scheme and the Rigby Star Phonics. The children enjoy the stories and find them accessible from a very early stage. They are also more attractive to the children which is a problem with a few of the other schemes available .
They also like RagTag Rhymes (Dr Seuss like)
I'm waiting to see the new Floppy phonics

Thanks. I'll be looking at schools soon (eeeek!) so I will be asking what scheme they use.

Lots of schools use ORT because it's expensive to replace and they believe parents like it. Once children have the skills to read the words themselves the books are ok for practise but in the early days they encourage children to do lots of guessing as they introduce difficult words very early. the WRI books are a good phonics scheme (not very attractive) and I find overly prescriptive for the youngest children.

So if the school DD ends up at has the ORT is it worth making a fuss? Or should we put up and shut up, or get other books at home...

(sorry for hijack but I've been wondering about this for a while)

I think if they are using phonics as the main method of teaching and then using ORT as the main/only reading scheme it shows one of two things - they can't afford to replace it or they don't understand what they are teaching.

I see

So what would you recommend doing to help at home under those circumstances?

ORT Floppy Phonics are fine though.