Oxford Reading Tree - what is WRONG with these bucketheads?

[solidgoldbrass]

Do they sit down and work out how to create books that are entirely witless and infuriating on purpose? I mean, as if Biff & Baff & Fucko and their Magic Key weren't tiresome enough, we are now on to Ant and Dec and Dipshit and their magic shrinking watches (The X Project). Stupid stories with no context, no resolution, no sense of character... are they trying to create a generation of book-haters?

DS is well beyond the Magic Key stage, but liked them so much that he "borrows" DD's reading books when she brings home one he didn't read first time round.

My main gripe is why the characters have such stupid names. In DD's magic key story yesterday Biff, Chip etc go back in time and are asked their names by a medieval girl. Her response is to say "what funny names!". How I laughed!

redskyatnight Excellent . Why do they have such stupid names? Does anyone know? We are still on the lower bands of ORT [groan] and I am actively looking forward to the magic key [sad I know]

If you don't like them, don't read them. Just find something else for your child to read - go to the library or look in charity shops if cost is an issue.

I quite like ORT, at least the Magic Key ones.

People who are dissing them should do a couple of rounds of Roger Red Hat and Billy Blue Hat, or the appalling GINN 360, and then still see if they Magic Key looks unappealing.

I do totally agree re the phonic illogicality of the text, and I don't like the earlier levels for this reason. But the early Magic Key ones (c. Stages 4-8) are brilliant for developing a bit of reading stamina and making that bridge between decoding and reading chapter books.

Come on people, there are little jokes in the pictures, and some splendid period features (mum with her dangly plastic 1980s earrings, the occasional guest appearance of a Maggie Thatcher character). And they lend themselves quite well to parody (Biff and Chip make a guest appearance in May Contain Nuts for eg).

What more could you ask for in a reading scheme?

my 2 yo has been given a couple of early stage ORT books, and bloody ADORES them, and now can tell me what is happening in each picture by reciting the story he has forced me to read to him over and over again. ('Floppy was dreaming that he was in the desert...' I DON'T GIVE A SHINY SHITE!)

If I still have to read the bastarding things with him when he starts school I will claw my own eyes out. I remember my wee sister having them when she was at school, and even then we were all about the ridiculous names/atrocious stories.

Are they a standard scheme in English primary schools, or are there better ones out there? can you do school applications on the basis of the reading scheme they use?!

The earliest ORT books are awful, boring and have no phonics practice.
Both my DDs liked the magic key, the continuity of story line and characters is comforting. In RL you see your friends and family each day and do things with them.

My dyslexic DD1, partially, appreciated not having to wade through pages of descriptions of new characters and new situations. She utterly hated books where you get half way through before anything happens. Reading for her was extremely hard work.
The magic key rewarded that effort by giving you a fun complete adventure. Also often with a bit of history and humour thrown in.

DD1's comprehension skills are amazing, given she still at 13 reads a lot of words wrong. That ability comes, in no small part, from hours spent discussing the pictures and story lines in ORT to avoid actually READING!

I think that they are wonderful - Hunt and Brychta = team genius. Imagine how difficult it must be to develop a series like that from scratch which ticks all the right boxes in terms of progressing children along the reading learning curve. Personally, I don't think I could do it.

frogs oh yes, I remember one that DS1 had that had a poster of George Michael (in his Wham days) on one of the children's bedroom walls

Maybe the moral of the thread is (again!) that it depends on the individual kid.

We have a range of reading systems at dd's school, and I have been reading with one class for 4 years now. Some kids loved ORT, some hated them, they choose different schemes and that is fine: now in Y3, and they all read perfectly well.

Maybe instead of rubbishing ORT, or praising it, the way forward is to increase flexibility and choice....

chose

Reading schemes have always been loathed, I think. My mother (now in her late 70s, but a reception teacher until I came along in '69) recalls with glee a child saying "When do Jane and Peter die?"

Once she was made to teach a reading scheme with no books at all. It was called "Words in colour" and each letter was coloured differently for the different sounds it makes. Doesn't sound too dumb until you realise the kids were meant to learn to read from charts. "bat cat fat pat" - now that was a REALLY bad scheme. Since she wasn't allowed to refuse to use it, she actually got coloured pencils out and made her own reading books for them.

Magic Key quite popular here.
What makes our hearts sink is when dd comes home with one of those dreadful 'information' books that contain a few vague and banal statements about 'things we use our hands for' or 'animals and their babies'.

Recently I've been cheered by the good old 80s PC-ness of Biff and Chip. We had one last week where the mum got out her plumbers' tools and fixed someone's sink, and that was just a sub-plot.

In fact ORT has the distinction of making Racist Dad in my village take his children out of school because they brought home one of the Adam and Jasmine books - he said if they brought home another one he would send them to a different school and they did so he did

My DS loves reading but cannot bear his ORT books. He is 4.5 and seems to be doing pretty well using them as a reading scheme. I would love to hear of alternatives for our home reading that he can both enjoy and use as development. It can be a real struggle getting him to bother with Biff and Chip, despite reading being a love.

I think it is very subjective to the child - my older children LOVED Biff and chip stories, all of them. My DS1 (now age 5) reads everything and anything and is a book nut but at night I still often find him going back to his ORT box and digging out for a couple and chucking away to himself - he finds them incredibly funny!

So I am afraid that we are just one example where children do like them and I think they are ok too - it would be sad if that's all they read of course, but if your child reads all sorts of stuff then the odd Biff and Chip is not going to endanger their love of reading!!!!

I'm still getting over the trauma of DD's latest book which had Jeremy Beetle, pictured as a news reporter.............

Ah, Peter and Jane... I still remember my mother frothing over one of those where the basic plot was "Peter goes and helps Daddy work on the car, while Jane helps Mummy bake a cake for Peter and Daddy "

Jeremy Beadle also crops up in the Magic Key book about the princess who could not laugh, as one of the queue of people waiting to try their luck at making her laugh. In fact one of the things I like about the MK books is some of the details in the pictures that have clearly been put in for the benefit of the supervising adults,

warms her hands on the flames of DDs book bag

was Words in colour early 1980s?

i think i remember that one.

i used to read the cards like this 'huntbluntmunttwuntcunt' and then read stories in the spare time at the end...

I'm puzzled at the lack of enthusiasm for beginning readers - strictly for fluency, mind you. These books are, when children have been taught enough of the code, simply steps on the road to the Greats, however you define them.

If your child is capable of reading "all sorts" I'm not sure why they would choose ORT over much more interesting texts but if your child is just learning to read then ORT requires them to "read" the pictures or rely on an adult to tell them many of the words which they can't possibly read independently.

Julia Donaldson's songbird books are sooooo much better.

DS and I love those.

I think they are ORT too.

ORT & Songbirds are both published by OUP

I love them. I learnt to read on effing peter and Jane. I think the stories are pretty exciting given that they only have a couple of lines on each page.

We bought a load of old Peter and Jane books for the nostalgia value (and because they were 10p each). Turned out that DD loved them, and we got very sick of reading "here is Peter. Here is Jane. Here is the dog'.