Should I abandon the school's reading scheme?

[MerryMarigold]

Any Ruth Miskin fans out there? Please explain why...

I'm pretty livid with Ms Miskin and her RWI programme. My ds1 has been in Reception for 3 terms and has not had a single reading book because he finds blending a bit more difficult than some of his peers. He does, however, get to bring home 'ditties' which are a black and white A4 sheet of paper with the sounds, words and 'ditties' on. The last said this:

I sit on a bench
in the sun on the sand
a hat on my head

I think this is pretty advanced actually but the poor kid hasn't got 'far enough' to even get the most basic book which he can read all by himself , just these boring, uninspiring sentences. No pages to turn, no pictures, no sense of achievment having finished a book. No wonder he now 'hates reading' and feels like he 'can't do it'.

Anyway, so I am going to start teaching him myself over the summer using Chip and Biff books. And I am bagging synthetic 'bleed-the-joy-out-of-reading' phonics, which I have been so keen not to disrupt by doing my own thing. I really feel that I have let ds1 down badly because I was so keen to only support the teaching (ie. bang on with the ditties at home).

Am I wrong to do this? Have the school 'done' RWI wrong? Does it have any redeeming features?

Jeez, he's a little boy. Chill out, everyone. They learn in their own time and in their own way.

MerryMarigold I think you should take on as much advise as you can from your thread and do as many as you can with your ds. The advise is great, and as you think your ds might have diffculties but don't know what they are, then your best bet is to 'attack' from all directions (in a fun way of course!). My only advise on the books would be not to start the school reading scheme at home (eg if they're doing Biff and chip, then pick a diff one for home) because that will get very boring for you and your ds.

Making a book together, going to the library, reading signs in the street, on shop fronts, labelling things around the house, these are all great reading aids.

If your ds recognises the word 'a' when reading, point it out whenever you see it when you're reading, or better still, get him to point it out when you're reading to him. When my dds started noticing the letters/words in books, we always did this. It makes them feel very clever .

And that's the trick, making them feel like they've achieved. That's why all the suggestions on your thread are great.

Good luck. I think you'll do great.

Desiderata. I so want to agree with that. And that's been my philosophy so far. I've thought I want him to be a child and just have a lovely free childhood. My favourite parent's evening was where his teacher was saying how lovely it was to find a child whose so...childlike! Another person has described him as a 'free spirit'.

But now I feel bad and that I've let him down as he is disheartened and it is undermining his confidence (in other areas too). So, decided to pull me finger out and help him. But not sure how.

You know your own child. Can you play reading games by just writing words out and getting him to read them? I have basically taught three of my children to read using my own methods. I hate every single reading scheme and I've been through a few, with different schools for each child.... They are all dire and make my brain freeze!

Most of my sentences were about the child itself, which immediately increases their interest. They tend to know their own name and it gives them confidence. You can use topical things from the day you have had. You can scribble five sentences on a piece of paper any time, draw your own pictures...

You can also use words like poo and loo. They think this is hysterical. 'This is a poo' was always a big hit and nailed 'th' and 'oo'. Then I used to move on to 'This is his poo', 'This is my poo', etc. You'd be amazed how much more interested a small child is in poo than in Biff...:)

I disagree a book needs stories. Stories require concentration and at a simple level you are NEVER going to be able to build up any suspense.

I think a better aim is to make a child laugh. One silly sentence can do that, and makes them want to read more.

Can't comment on RWI but I have a son in Reception. At his school they are offered a variety of books, ORT, Floppy's Phonics, Collins Big Cat, Rigby Star, Ginn and some other ancient looking schemes. Ds and his friends seem to prefer non-fiction like Collins Big Cat which is look-say but can be easily guessed so good for confidence. A typical book early on will be on a topic like dogs with a photo of a dog doing things and a sentence like Dogs like to jump. on each double page. Some of the words are decodable but repeat words/ phrases so were enjoyed by my son who is not a keen reader.

DD uses a laptop with a mouse pluged into a USB, dependant on your computer you may be able to get a mouse cheap or free (freecycle)

Could you explain more how he struggles with blending? I think if we understood more it might help

if he had flashcards (or three bits of paper) with m-a-t on, individually can he sound out 'm' 'a' 't'? if yes, what happens when you suggest to say it faster?

Oh yes, he can sound out the sounds m-a-t. He learned all the sounds really quickly (although he struggles with the combined sounds 'ea', 'ch' as he can't remember they go together).

He can say it faster, but however fast you go it never sounds exactly like the word, so I understand your brain has to make a little leap to fill that gap. When you say, "what's the word?", he will say something with those sounds in like 'matter' or make up a word "malitobobby'. My favourite was 'o-n' - he said it was 'onion'!!! But after reading it a few times, he knows it's 'on' now, so he doesn't have to blend it anymore. Which is why I was wondering whether teaching him visual recognition will help him. However, if he is given a word like 'blink', he won't be able to sound it and then blend it.

Plugging the mouse in is a great idea. We have loads of 'mice'. Now we just need a table! (kitchen is being done at the mo, so our table is covered in plaster and building gear)

littleducks - "I would steer clear of Biff et al. for now, as there are alot of picture clues in the books and this could cause you more problems if your son is already struggling."

That is precisely why the pictures are there - to give clues and help if the child is struggling. The initial ORT books have no words, and this is to encourage the child to "read" the story from the pictures. As they progress, the words increase in proportion to the pictures and the books I now read have no pictures at all, so I think I'm doing okay.

MerryMarigold choose some good picture books from the library and talk about the stories with DS.

Marigold,
don't forget the importance of environmental print as a beginning for reading. This could boost your DS's confidence to show that he can read. I once had a wee boy who was completely ferral and totally hated any kind of reading/writing but could recognise all sorts of brands and was dead chuffed that he could tell that a carrier bag was a Tesco one. So, he did have an awareness of print and could make the connections, he was just not quite ready for reading books yet. I see this time and time again, usually with boys. If they are absolutely forced to read/write they will develop a hatred for it and this is why so many boys get naughty by the time they move up the school (in my area anyway). Chidlren nowadays are acutely aware of where they are in the 'pecking order' at school and I can't believe in reception they are already being streamed?!! In Scotland it is much more hands on and active, giving the children time to explore language and make the connections for themselves (with guidance, obviously)! Anyway, I reckon that if he recognises environmental print this could give him a good boost and make him realise that not all reading has to come from books. Oh, and make sure if you do teach him your own way that it's fun! :)

Oh and for the record, my Head Teacher has been in the job for years and we have just bought into another new reading scheme (we now have around 6 in the school, in various states of disrepair, and of varying ages). She is still not happy. IMO there is no reading scheme that can teach a child to read using that scheme only. It has to be a mixture of all sorts of different input from a variety of interesting and stimulating resources. It is important not to get hung up on one particular set of books, but to give the child a varied experience of language. Now, wait a minute while I climb down off my soap box :o

Scholes- I also learnt to read with a look/say scheme (Peter and Jane at home and Billy Blue Hat and friends at school). Some children can learn this way there is no disputing that, but the problem (as I undertand it) is that children who do struggle to learn to read and at the moment it seems like the OP's ds is finding it a bit tricky, can guess there way through the early levels of reading schemes with picture clues and their difficulties only become apparent much later, when it is far more difficult to 'fix' as the rest of the class has moved on/the early books the need to master are 'babyish' and dont motivate them/there are the staff and resources to start all over again.

But I am not an 'expert' just a mum!

My dd was given a look/say book at her old school and read all the info about space perfectly, fluently and quite fast and was able to answer comprehension type questions.....until the page that said 'Look here is a spaceman' and she said 'here is an astronaut' or vice versa, so I do believe a child can bluff their way through books.

jenrendo IMO there is no reading scheme that can teach a child to read using that scheme only.
I beg to differ! The closest I have found to a reading scheme that does just this, is the BRI/ARI sets of books - 68 books, for the basic code beginner sets, and 70 books teaching the advanced code.
For amount of practice, word per dollar, they are hard to beat. They are not bad little stories, either, considering the limitations that are often imposed by contraining the vocabulary and decodability.
Children can graduate at any point in the process if they are ready, but if not, there is enough to keep them going until everything is taught. They go up to about a grade 3 level (maybe that is Y2 in UK?) They are sold by
www.piperbooks.co.uk. Plenty of further information on the website.

Thanks so much for all your input. We do go to the library and get books, but these are mostly read at bedtime, so it is not really the time for 'teaching' or asking him to spot letters/ words. I think we are going to have to have a 'reading' slot where I read to him, he reads to me etc. earlier in the day.

The environmental factor is really important as ds1 is very visual, so he knows Tescos (probably from the blue and red more than the words) and McDonalds (just from the big M) and all sorts of other visual clues. I just need to teach him that that is reading too, whereas I hadn't thought of that. He notices when people have had a haircut when I don't even notice, even (in one case) a child he hadn't seen for nearly a year!

He can say it faster, but however fast you go it never sounds exactly like the word, so I understand your brain has to make a little leap to fill that gap. When you say, "what's the word?", he will say something with those sounds in like 'matter' or make up a word "malitobobby'. My favourite was 'o-n' - he said it was 'onion'!!! But after reading it a few times, he knows it's 'on' now, so he doesn't have to blend it anymore. Which is why I was wondering whether teaching him visual recognition will help him. However, if he is given a word like 'blink', he won't be able to sound it and then blend it.

I often wonder why people think that learning letter/sound correspondences isn't 'visual recognition'. Why not? They are not smelling the letters, or feeling them; they are seeing them. There is no physical difference between seeing a letter or group of letters and saying the sound they represent and seeing a group of letters and saying the word that they represent.

There is a difference in cognitive loading, though, as memorising whole words requires far more 'memory' in remembering the shape and letter sequence in the word and in the sheer number of words to be memorised. There are some 250,000 words in a standard English dictionary and it is absolutely impossible for any individual (apart from the very exceptional types who can memorise an entire phone book!) to memorise each individual word. Whereas in learning phonics the load is reduced to learning about 160 -180 common letter/sound correspondences.

I would very strongly recommend that you persist with the decoding and blending and don't try teaching words as 'wholes'. It is not uncommon for children to have a problem with decoding but with persistence and patience the penny usually drops - I work with secondary age children and not one of them is unable to decode and blend, so they all must have 'got it' at some time.

Practical (thought you may know all this already)

Make sure he is using 'pure' sounds (which he should be if the Miskin programme has been properly taught), putting an /uh/ sound on the end, as in /cuh/ /a/ /tuh/ distorts the sounds and makes the word very difficulty to recognise.

Instead of trying to say the sounds fast, try saying them slowly and letting one 'slide' into the next. I know that the Miskin programme teaches 'robot talk' which doesn't suit all children who are learning to blend.

Make sure that he is still 'reading' the sounds as he blends. Many children decode the sounds, then look away to try blending (trying to memorise them). When they are not looking at what is on the page they can tend to put in sounds which aren't there and produce odd words.

Can he blend a word which you say in 'sounds'. If you said 'Where is your /c/ /oa/ /t/ would he be able to recognise the word and tell you the answer?

Can he orally break a word into its component sounds?

Has he had his hearing and sight checked?

The BRI books are well worth trying as they are 'books' but they take the process very slowly and allow for lots of practice.

Thanks Malaleuca, I will give my HT the website :)

Thanks maizieD. That's helpful. I will think about it. I still disagree slightly that it is all the same kind of visual recognition plus sound, though I agree that it is harder to memorise thousands of words than decode them. Obviously memorising what a whole word looks like plus one sound is easier (initially) than memorising a lot of sounds and then putting them together and then making a word, though long term this is very helpful. It is actually harder to do. And there are so many words which aren't decodable (though, through, thought etc.).

Interestingly, my sister and I were both taught to read in exactly the same way (my Mum home schooled us till 8 yo). I think we were probably both taught 'recognition' rather than phonics (or perhaps both - this was late 70's). I have always had no trouble reading and decoding words, whereas my sister is definitely (still at the age of 35) a look-at-a-new-word-and-guess, rather than spell it out to herself and figure it out. I am so fascinated that this is what my son does. Despite this she is an avid reader though she had a lot of struggles early on (our whole family reads a lot, so she probably caught that bug!).