Confused at to why Reception DD is being taught letter names so soon after sounds?

[Owlelf]

DD is in reception. When she she knew a few letter sounds and could form a few letters. She seems to have progressed really well and knows all get letter sounds, is decoding words and writing captions. To be honest I am really impressed that she has come on so quickly and have to credit her teachers.

I am confused though, that her phonics group are now learning the names of the letters. This evening we read her school book and she seemed to be confusing the letter sounds and names. To my (completely untrained) mind it seems too soon to be confusing her with letter names when she has just learned (?learnt?) the sounds.

I realise I could broach this with her teacher, but would prefer not to as they must know what they are doing- not least given DDs progress so far under their wing.

She is working within stage 3 phonics BTW (her class is split into several groups for phonics, so not all children are learning letter names at the moment).

So I am really interested as to why, at this early stage the letter names are needed? Can anyone explain please?

that should have said i haven't posted any lists

i think that both mashabell and mrz are very dedicated to their causes and both of them give generously of their time and exoertise.

I also agree that it all gets a bit uppity/one-up-man-shippy and there are, dare I say it ... phonics cliques .

'The sound of (in the 12 words with it) is very variable:
could, should, would;
boulder, mould, moult, shoulder, smoulder, poultry, soul; foul; ghoulish.'
I'm not going to say to you that all of the above is incorrect, Masha, but actually there is no logic to the way you are coding these words. The spelling is found in 'could', 'would' and 'should' (and their varaiants). It does not make sense to code words like m ou l d (et al) in the way you appear to have done. There are four sounds in 'mould'. If codes one sound, where's the missing 'l' sound. If, however, you are saying that encodes two sounds, you are departing from the logic you claim to espouse.

Oh and Santa, we also had 'put' in the reading book the other night. What worked for us was for me to say that the 'u' sound was different to how DS2 had learned it and we both sounded it out so that it said what we wanted it to say. There was no need to write anything down and it was a good intoduction to the redundancy of the alpabet code.

perhaps if you read what I posted SantaIsAnAnagramOfSatan
masha, telling you that I object to your attempts to convert you to U hasn't succeeded in driving you away or preventing you from posting your silly lists or indeed in preventing you making accusations you are unable to support
so unless your name is also masha you might realise that the statement is not directed to you ....

pickledsiblings you are mistaken ... I do not have a cause

and neither am I trying to sell books or any of the other things masha has accused me of.

mrz you are practically evangelical about teaching phonics

pickledsiblings - no she isn't! She is very straightforward about it and never preaches.

...and you are like her disciple Bonsoir

I hadn't realised people might feel that way from my posts because it certainly isn't true. As a teacher and a SENCO I firmly believe that all children benefit from a good phonic foundation but it definitely isn't a cause

If I ever take up a cause it will be to have masha's lists subject to health warning

I am quite sure that you have converted many a non-believer mrz .

That has never been my aim

Pickled - the way MN works is that We have conversations over many threads. So in effect you've jumped in mid conversation.

Mrz and others are very passionate about high quality teaching - which in the case of beginer readers normally means phonics.

But I can confirm that they do believe if phonics doesn't work you should try whole word. I've been talking to her and others over the last 2 years and they have been very open minded about what might help my severley dyslexic DD.

Stick around a bit longer and I think you'll find mrz is one of the nicest and most generous posters here.

I can see that about mrz Indigo and I am not castigating her in any way but I do sometimes feel sorry for mashabell who I think also has children's best interests at heart. Maybe I am mistaken about that?

Masha has never taught any children to read, is a retired secondary teacher and her agenda is her own self-published books and blogs. Her cause is to change the entire English spelling system. She is a well known poster on TES, where she is even more evangelical and comes unstuck most of the time when talking to teachers who actually teach.

If I come across as evangelical about phonics, it's because as an experienced Literacy coordinator I have seen first hand the excellent results which using this form of teaching reading brings - as opposed to using mixed methods, which failed some children. That's it!

I would echo that mrz is one of the kindest, most generous posters on MN, and I would say it's fairly typical of masha to jump on a bandwagon and stick the boot in.

Masha, as posters in TES have repeatedly told you, it's very hard to engage in any kind of meaningful debate about reading with you because a)you don't actaully teach reading b)you refuse to take advice on any of your many misconceptions regarding the teaching of reading c)the only way you seem to respond on any level is either to make snide comments or post lists.

thank you ladies

So mashabell, is helping children not on your agenda?

I'm sure Masha believes that her campaign to simplify English orthography is helping children. What she fails to comprehend is the British reluctance to follow Europe whether it be pounds and euros, miles and kilometres, gallons and litres, grams and ounces or our idiosyncratic spellings

I certainly didn't "meet" mrz on MN until after I had had my DD taught to read using phonics. I think, as others point out, that you are coming very late to a long conversation and aren't really in a position to comment on who knows what and how, pickledsiblings.

Pickledsiblings,
Helping children to read and write is very much on my agenda.

But as u have already noticed, the way I go about it is not to everyone's taste.

I've been around long enough to know that Feenie would rock up to defend mrz and disparage masha .

Well, I'll put my hands up straight away and say that I know that I can appear to be quite evangelical about the teaching of reading. I can't help it, I'm like that. If the internet had been around many years ago I would probably have been equally evangelical about beastfeeding and, in a completely different context, learning to ride a horse properly (proud mum of an accomplished rider...).

Working with KS3 children I can see the results of poor reading instruction and it is not something which I would wish on any child. Your children are at the beginning of their 'reading lives' and I'd like them all to become skilled and enthusiastic readers; for learning, for pleasure and for life. (This is beginning to feel like an election manifesto )

As far as our friend, masha, is concerned she is welcome to pursue her campaign for spelling reform, but when she tries to set up as an expert on teaching reading or tries to denigrate the teaching of synthetic phonics or keeps on insisting that English is too difficult to learn to read, in the face of evidence to the contrary, then she becomes downright irritating and it's hard to keep one's virtual tongue between one's virtual teeth...

x posts masha

The lists do really seem to annoy folk masha, perhaps you could find another way of connecting with people and getting your point across. Quoting some up to date and well respected research would be a start .

How many children have you helped to read and write to date, masha?