Reading in YR some reassurance

[mummiekins]

DD reads at home beautifully. Not her school books though.
She reads a scheme I get from the library called Start Reading, and also Leapfrog fairy tales. The Start Reading ones are book banded but Leapfrog ones are not. We just choose ones that she likes the look of.

At school I mildly clashed with the teacher because I thought her school books were too easy and said so. She is on blue ORT, has been almost all of last term, reads them smoothly and fast, very little sounding out. Her phonics are good.
Teacher said she cannot go up, she isn't ready because she had tested her on red books and she sounds out words which means she has to stay on blue.

Today she came home with a green ORT songbirds book . We didn't read it. She read our home copy 6 months ago.
We read a blue band Start reading Freddy Family book which she read completely with no sounding out except the word pretending.

Can I ask
If she has been taught phonics, surely she should be allowed to read using a sounding out technique when she comes across a new word?

Are these Start Reading scheme book accurate on the band colours? (would make me feel a bit more confident in my view that she is 'under' performing in school).

thanks slipslider - will visit that one

*Tgger Wow! That is low from the school. I thought dd was hard done by but she has had 35 from school, her 2 easter holiday books have not been changed yet though.

slipslider does HA = highest achiever?
You sound just like what my daughter needs in school. I wouldn't dare ask for books as i'm aware of some of the losing battles that other parents are having on book bands etc.

Yes it is literal - look at the word, cover it up with a bit of paper, try and write it down, then check whether you have got it write.

Think I would struggle with rhinoceros!

She sounds like she has a lot of support from you, just keep on supporting her as are you are doing, and it will get picked up. The main thing IMO is to try and keep them interested and enjoying reading/writing despite the sometimes truly dire books that come home from school.

*right, obviously.

Ds doesn't get his ability from me, obviously

like the look of that one, may actually subsribe!

HA = higher ability! Thank you wigglywoowoo I think it stems from me enjoying reading so much I want them to too and I know if they are motivated then why not use that to give them a push! I don't believe in letting children 'coast'! ha! I have a few in my class this year who have read over 150 books! Some will keep bands as they revisit different aspects of phonics - some books will have igh or oa in it but also have split digraphs in ae as in made or ie as in bike and these are further on in the program so i know some revisit books so they can focus on this instead of the previous sounds - maybe that is what they are doing?

i subscribed for my class as we didn't have a schools subscription and i think mine was £10 in August and it lasts a year!

igh ie and oi oy and ai ay.

What's next... random selection from fuddled brain coming up:-

ea, ce as in ceiling, city

the magic e! place, take, make, made etc

ou and oo as in

oo in wood (rather than pool), ou in would and could etc.

Am sure there are others. If you can stand it you might want to try some RWI books- I bought these as it's what DS first brought home from school and they have given him very good phonic base. Have a browse but probably the pink and the orange would be most useful (sets 3 and 4) for your daughter. I got up to the yellow ones (set 5) with DS and then we were both bored/they got a bit long and too tedious/tricky for him so we moved over to other things.

link coming www.amazon.co.uk/Read-Write-Inc-Phonics-Storybooks/dp/0198462573/ref=sr_1_8?s=books&ie=UTF8&qid=1334787298&sr=1-8

Tgger we don't teach magic 'e' any more we teach what is called split digraphs. The children learn that ie (as in tie) is the same sound if you pull it apart i_e (as in bike). the children learn to recognise it is the same sound. I teach it by having a big 'i.e.' on two separate large cards, we say it as a whole while they are together and then we physically pull it apart and say the sound as it is split. I teach the children the split sounds give the last sound a cuddle so we would read bike as b ie k and then blend. I use two pieces of card held together with string so the children can physically make the sound together and then pull it apart.
This is the same for ue (cue) and split ue (as in cube), oe (toe) and oe (close) ee (cheese) and ee (these) and ae (cake). hope this helps!

Thanks slipslider. Interesting and informative. Thanks!

Thanks Slipslider, great advice!

Slipslider, I confess to calling it magic e but your description is MUCH better
Thanks and thanks again!

Glad to help! I know when I was at school it was magic 'e' etc but how teaching has changed, i had to re learn it all and all the new methods for other subjects...wait til some of you come across 'chunking' when working out long division....it will blow your mind! ha!