Kipper, Chip et al...how does it actually work?

[TheProvincialLady]

DS1 started reception 3 weeks ago (late due to an operation). He is 5 and can read basic words and a few more complex ones, from my having taught him the basic phonetic alphabet and then him asking questions about other sounds. School ran a 'how to support your child's reading' session but sadly I missed it as I only had 2 days notice and an important work meeting at that time.

Last week he brought home his first book, which had no words but a list of questions to ask and things to talk about which we did every day as requested. DS says his teacher has listened to him read some words in a book and so today he brought home a reading book with words. But the words contain sounds that we haven't covered at home like AI (which AFAIK can be read as either air or aid) - how do I teach these if he hasn't already covered them at school?

I was a bit surprised TBH as the reading scheme they were using at his Montessori nursery seemed a bit more structured, ie each book built on the foundations of the last one - whereas this is more dive straight in and get on with it. I've seen rumblings of Kipper discontent on MN before but never really paid much attention before, oops.

I guess what I am asking is, how does this scheme work and what should I be doing to teach this stuff? Thanks

I've just commented on a thread on TES primary where a teacher is saying just that Indigo!

So Songbirds is still a good scheme? I may buy it for DS if it's cheap then :)

Are Biff, Chip and Kipper Decode and Develop Stories any good or not? Are they what come after they've finished stage 6 of the phonics schemes?

I just looked on the Book People website and couldn't see any Songbirds books. There is a Treetops set for £15 but that is for 7+ so no use for us yet.

www.thebookpeople.co.uk/webapp/wcs/stores/servlet/qs_product_tbp?storeId=10001&catalogId=10051&langId=100&productId=218821

sorry just noticed out of stock

Both the DSs were taught using songbirds and I cannot praise it highly enough since its 99 percent phonics. Its also julia donaldson and so the stories are a bit more interesting.

I really do believe that some sight words are necessary though. A child will encounter sight words at a really early stage eg said. A child will have been taught that "ai" is "ay" it may be that the rule is that "ai" is "ay" and also"e" but the child will not learn that until way after they have come across the word "said". Similarly "you". The child will have been taught ou is "ow". It is also possibly "oo" or "u" eg "tough" or "aw" eg "your", but at the stage the child encounters you they will not have been taught this. If they just learn the word "you" by sight and practise it then they will know it and be able to read it without any problem. I don't understand the objection to sight words when used in conjunction with a good phonics based scheme.

You can usually find songbirds sets on ebay by the way (altough will be more than bookpeople since people buy them from bookpeople and sell on for profit using ebay). Alternatively just keep going back to the bookpeople website since they tends to restock popular sets fairly quickly.

Yes words with "tricky" parts are introduced before the child knows the sound it represents but the idea is that it is taught by explaining that it has a "tricky" part... so said would be taught (written ai) not as a whole word and the teacher would include other words with the same "Tricky" part.

the message is you haven't learnt how to read this sound yet rather than you can't read this word unless you memorise it.

Ah yes Mrz that's how we did it, we'd still break down the word into "s" "ai"/"e" "d", not just learn it as a whole by the shape of the word on the paper. Phew - glad I haven't been dong it incorrectly!

or "doing" even!

When my eldest was given look and say books, I got hold of the Floppy's Phonics books in the Christmas holidays, and started him off on those. When he'd done them (they only go up to orange) we switched over to the magic key books, which he tackled confidently and enjoyed. I think some of the stories in the ORT books from orange upwards are quite good. My DS1 loves the project X ones, and is now on white level and will read them as soon as he can get his hands on them.

Apologies for the misquote of 20% mrz.

Mrz I have just come across these, are they any good?

I would not advice buying them but I know some parents and children like them.

What's bad about them?

And also the Decode & Develop ones :)

Just personal preference I'm not a fan of Biff, Chip et al (much better books out there) they are ok once a child is reading but not for beginner readers.
I've not used the Decode & Develop but understand they are intended for children who are already reading

What stage does Project X Phonics and Read Write Inc Phonics go up to?

Floppy's Phonics and Songbirds go up to stage 6 so I was wondering if that meant once they have completed stage 6 of these they can move onto non-phonics reading schemes or if it is better to move onto "real" books? I remember you saying it is not good to teach using a mixture of phonics schemes and sight reading schemes but wasn't sure if that applied once they have finished the phonics schemes.

Stage 6 refers to the governments publication Letters & Sounds which is split into 6 phases ( all 44 phonemes and all possible ways they are written in English with a few suffixes and prefixes thrown in for good measure) so by this stage a child is very well equipped to read any text Reading scheme or "real" books) with age appropriate content.

Why do the children have such weird names, that's what I want to know. I've never met a girl called Biff. I assume the were carefully chosen for some teaching reason, but surely there were better ones they could've had. 'Yes, isn't he beautiful? We named him Kipper because he smelt just like a fish when he was born.'

Sorry. Bit off topic.

So if by stage 6 they are equipped to read any age appropiate book why do they bother going up to stage 10 or 15 or whatever it is. Are you saying it is unneccesary and a bit pointless to continue with reading schemes passed stage 6 and they may as well move onto "real" books?

Phonic reading schemes don't go up to stage 10 or 5 ... but reading schemes are designed to teach other specific skills not just decoding. So I might assign a book to develop a child's ability to infer meaning from the text or I might assign another to develop an understanding of the author's purpose or another to develop evaluative comprehension.

The author says In terms of names, I came up with Biff, Chip, and Kipper because they are basically classless names which carry no suggestion of regionality or social position. What's more, there are very few children called Biff, Chip, or Kipper ? I think it would be annoying for any child to be reading their own name repeatedly.

I think some of the ORT reading schemes go up to stage 16 don't they? So once they have finished the phonics schemes would you say it is still beneficial to continue to use non-phonics reading schemes?