Phonics Test

[SnowieBear]

DS (6) came back yesterday from school with a slip of paper saying that after being tested against the government's phonic test, he had not reached the standard required and will be receiving additional support with his reading.

DS is a rather good reader and has progressed all the way to stage 9 ORT since the start of Y1. However, I am not surprised he didn't do well at the test, as he finds it difficult to decode words he cannot adscribe meaning to. In general, that's not a problem as he is a very wordy kid, but it was always going to be the spanner in the works for the phonics test.

Am I right to be utterly unconcerned about it? (Well, as utterly unconcerned as someone can be that then goes on to post under the primary education thread...).

Sarahken
They also included a list of the 40 words they asked the children to read.
Could u possibly type those up? I am retired teacher and would very much like to see them.

the split digraph i_e changes the sound of /i/ in a predictable way, which is to "eye" not to "ee". Think of how 'grip' becomes 'gripe' (not 'greep'), or 'pin' becomes 'pine' (not 'peen'). "bime" would rhyme with eg "time" or "lime". I cannot think of any 'ime' words that are said "eem".

There are lots of exceptions like 'police', but especially if the ending is '-ine':
Chlorine, gasoline, guillotine, machine, magazine, margarine, marine, plasticine, ravine, routine, sardine, tambourine, tangerine, trampoline, Vaseline
and
Destine, determine, discipline, doctrine, examine, engine, famine, feminine, genuine, heroine, imagine, iodine, intestine, jasmine, masculine, medicine, urine.

That's why even the best grounding in basic phonics does not enable all children to become good readers.

I can't think of a single one syllable word ending in -ime that is pronounced "eam." So to read a one syllable nonsense word in that way would just seem plain wrong to me, and I was never taught phonics.

Obviously, there are some "rules" that some people follow and others do not recognise - like my preference for pronouncing "scone" like "stone" because "cone" is pronounced that way, "stone" is pronounced that way, they are all one syllable words, and "gone" is not a noun, so I see no reason for the word to rhyme with that - so "rules" can be self-created!

pib, vus, yop, elt, desh, chab, poil, queep, stin, proom, sarps, thend, chip, jazz, farm, thorn, stop, truck, jump, lords, kigh, girst, baim, yune, flods, groiks, strom, splaw, fair, flute, goat, shine, crept, shrubs, scrap, stroke, index, turnip, waiting and portrait :)

They said quite a lot of the children read the word 'strom' as 'storm', they didn't give us an indication of how many had passed in the class, just individual performance

shrubs, flute, shine, stroke and portrait were the most common errors for our Y1 class

Perhaps the moral of all this is that the test should be used as a guideline to phonics levels, not an exact science.

I could imagine reading 'bime' as 'beam', as well as 'byme' - but then I am half French.

CecilyP and mashabell there is no way that the words in those lists would be known by most 7 years olds. They include 2 and 3 syllable words.

FWIW I would teach that ending- ine separately from "magic e" as it's a completely different sound.

I also think that you need to think a bit more carefully- one syllable CVCV words- eg mine- say EYE.

it's only longer words that might sound like ee.

Elibean the check doesn't provide levels it's purely a diagnostic screening tool to identify which children are having difficulties and what with.

and "bime" wasn't one of the words

To read "strom" as "storm" would be quite normal - the brain of a fluent reader automatically rearranges letters that are inverted within words.

And I don't think that words that are common in other languages (that the children being tested may already be able to read) ought to be included among the so-called pseudo words eg poil.

The brain of a fluent reader automatically rearranges letters that are inverted within words when reading them in sentences. The brain of a careless fluent reader does this when they have a picture next to the word telling them it isn't a real word.

Bonsoir they stated before the check that none of the pseudo words would be real words in other languages

"To read "strom" as "storm" would be quite normal - the brain of a fluent reader automatically rearranges letters that are inverted within words."

I was under the impression from my dds class teacher prior to the test that if this was the obviouse case the teacher may say something like are you sure that is what it says, allowing time for self correction.

To read "strom" as "storm" would be quite normal - the brain of a fluent reader automatically rearranges letters that are inverted within words.

Errr............no.

Brains of dyslexics often transpose letters but brains of readers without dyslexia should be able to read the word that is there- not the word they think is there.

The whole point of reading words out of context is that you read the word on the page.

We weren't allowed to do that TheEnthusiasticTroll but it isn't normal for the brain to automatically rearrange the letters ... think how many good readers struggle with anagrams

poil is French for (a) hair and an absolutely bog standard word for any French child.

Asking "Are you sure" would surely invalidate answers? Whenever I have assessed ( for dyslexia) I am not allowed to "hint" an answer is incorrect.

It's really quite bizarre to teach children phonics which has as a guiding principle not to rely on picture cues and then to provide a picture cue for pseudo-words and ask children to pay attention to it.

Why are people so worried about this? Is it possible, as I said earlier, that people are worried that their child may not do as well as they hoped?

The whole point of reading words out of context is to get confused! Words are supposed to be in context. That's what language is for!

maybe I missunderstood what she said, she have ment in normal circumstances or for practice they would say are you sure that is what it says. Im pretty certain they would not bend the rules.

An inversion (of two letters ) is not the same as anagram though, mrz. It is quite normal for the brain to do this and it doesn't slow reading speed. Stanislas Dehaene refers to research on this in his book on phonics.

Bonsoir the pictures don't provide a clue to the words they only identify which are pseudo and which are real.

"Why are people so worried about this? Is it possible, as I said earlier, that people are worried that their child may not do as well as they hoped?"

I think that is it exactly seeker. In my dds school the only parent who was worried and questioned what if someone fails who you would expect to pass, was the preverbial pushy parent. She was very much wrapped up in "the fluent reader, like her dd, who has already learned all the phonics may be stumped by the alien words as she would read them automaticly without applying the phonics.

She could not grasp that the child would apply the phonics it would just be a far quicker proccess without the need to sound out loud in many cases.

I know 'bime' wasn't on the list, but it was being discussed...

Well, if the test helps teachers pick up on specific issues that need attention, well and good. I imagine its trends on misread words, rather than individual incorrect answers, that points those out...