Learning to read - seems to be no structure to it

[grumpypants]

I'm a bit frustrated at the moment - ds (5) is in Y1 and brings home two books a week, one to read to me, and one to have read to him. There is just no continuity to the books he is meant to read and he is just not reading as well as i thought he would be by now. Older ds also couldn't read (worse than this) buy the end of Y1 and we hired a tutor for Y2 - he is now a free reader (Y3) and has a brilliant reading age.
The school read in groups, and apparently use several reading schemes.

Any thoughts?

Gooseberrybushes you certainly don't need to buy a full set of reading scheme books to get your child reading quickly

If it's not happening at school they provide order, structured progress, sense of achievement. For mother and child, without any pressure.

Tis the best way, it's marvellous.

"a bloody horrific waste of money" couldn't be further from the truth really

Perhaps if you saw an averagely intelligent child go from a complete non reader to a confident, fluent reader in 3 months you wouldn't find it bizarre...

No, I suppose not. But I think you can do that without sign language. My earliest had reasonably traditional reading education and was fluent in three months with ORT. That is autumn to christmas, reception, no books home: christmas to easter, books home: easter, fluent reading I can't remember what level. Not free reading.

After this everything slowed down for my other two. Teachers aghast at idea of teaching child to read in three months. They would spend a whole week on "ee" -- a sign to learn one night, a picture to colour in the next. I thought, this is going to take three years to get through the alphabet at this rate. So we bought the books and sorted it out ourselves.

I can certainly think of better ways to waste £1K +

It isn't sign language just a bit of fun. Young children enjoy the storyline and it is an additional prompt nothing more. Most children drop the action very quickly.

I would suggest any teacher spending a week on /ee/ doesn't understand how phonics is taught.
I teach a new sound everyday - under 9 weeks to complete all 44 phonemes

It is a sign. Mine used to be sat with the class and they used to test knowing the sign in relation to nothing else.

I can't think of anything more valuable than learning to read. Team up with friends and do swops, whatever. It's all worth it.

Your children are luckier than mine were. In fact, luckier than all the children who suffered under that little bit of curriculum dogma.

What do you suggest to a parent whose child is not being taught to read at school?

Teachers ime don't like you buying the books because they find it undermining. As in, goodness, what will they read in Y2?

Er -- harder books, hopefully.

No it is an action that links to the story that introduces each sound - how can pretending to be an aeroplane be the sign for /n/? or making donkey ears be a sign for /ee/? mouse whiskers /i/? They go with a story to make it memorable and fun just like finger rhymes - incey wincey spider or round and round the garden ...

The Jolly Phonics actions are just mnemonics. They help to make the learning multi-sensory, too. Children drop them when they don't need them any more. It isn't 'sign language'.

Most 'averagely bright' children learn quite quickly with phonics - the amount of repetition needed depends entirely on the individual child's ability to memorise. Some need telling once or twice, some need repeated reminders.

Mine are reading Harry Potter, Alice in Wonderland, the Hobit and Shakespeare in Y2

Has anyone said use 'Story Chest' yet?

www.readingchest.co.uk/

Sorry I meant Reading Chest - here is a link! It is fab - I have used it for all three DC.

(I am a teacher and was really fed up of my children's lack of progress in reception/Y1 at school.)

mrz - I wonder why you want children to read Harry Potter, Alice in Wonderland, The Hobbit and Shakespeare in Y2? I am all for children making good rapid progress, but I feel there are many wonderful children's books to read before the ones you list. There is no point accelerating childhood.

I suspect that parents do a lot of guessing about what goes on in the classroom based on the reporting skills of 5 year olds!

"We've been doing this sound for WEEEEEEEEKS!"

Ie - we did it for 10 minutes yesterday and the day before,

And parents also interpret teachers in the way they want to "I wouldn't buy reading schemes for use at home - we've got lots at school. Why not buy some other stroy books instead? is interpreted as "I feel threatened by parents buying books - how very dare they?"

I bought a full reading scheme (Jelly & Bean) because I wanted my DD to learn to read phonically in English (her bilingual school taught her to read phonically in French before English). I have found it to be a very good use of my money.

Presumaby you are reading The Hobbit aloud to them and it is a retold Alice?

A 6 year old who could read, understand and enjoy the original would be gifted indeed.

I would imagine because the children want to, Bonsoir. There is no point in restricting what children read, that would feel very wrong to me - yes, I know you're enjoying using these wonderful new skills, but no, you can't read that, or that, and you shouldn't be reading that.

"A 6 year old who could read, understand and enjoy the original would be gifted indeed."

Indeed, seeker! I am reading Aesop's Fables to my DD at the moment, retold for children by Fiona Waters, and my 6.5 year old DD finds those quite short moral tales quite challenging - we need to talk about them a lot. She can read most of the text herself if she puts her mind to it but needs me to read them back to her again to begin to understand.

Feenie - I don't advocate restricting reading, but I do advocate children reading a full range of literature. There is no point skipping over the fantastically rich children's literature of English to move on to books that are geared to older readers.

But why do you assume that they are skipping over them? Reading books for older readers wouldn't in any way mean that you missed out anything - it just means free, unrestricted access to anything they want to devour/

"Mine are reading Harry Potter, Alice in Wonderland, the Hobit and Shakespeare in Y2"

Do you mean, they are all freely reading in the original versions?

If so, your class is unique and gifted and you are an amazing teacher.

It might be a bit challenging for a six year old to have progressed through all the children's literature before moving on to Shakespeare aged 6. Unless they were free readers from birth!