Phonics screening test

[Mashabell]

There is a very good article on the madness of the phonics screening test in todays i (the 20 p version of The Independent) and some of its silliest effects.

A book IMO won't test their phonic knowledge though as lots of kids guess from looking at the picture,may have read the book before and know it. Or the child could guess words from the context of the rest of the sentence.

Not really, squeezedatbothends. We've discussed that letter and its signatories before, and not given them a huge amount of credence, tbh - Christine Blower, for example. I would be happy for her to talk about my pension rights all she likes, but she has never taught a child to read in her life to my knowledge.

So you haven't encountered the Ice Age books and toys squeezed

But it isn't a reading test learnandsay it's a phonics screening check (reading is tested with a reading task or test)

I know that. I think I said that. But I was talking about a (non existent) reading test which would be conducted with a book.

simpson the phonics screening check took approx 2 mins of the child's time and any sensible teacher would have waited to administer it if the child was obviously off colour (it didn't have to be done on one particular day)

you mean like the reading task a child might do in Y2 learnandsay?

Feenie are you really dismissing Robin Alexander? Really?!

Oh, sorry I thought it had to be done on a particular day

I just remember a note on my DC's schools newsletter last yr saying the yr1 kids were having their phonics test on xxx date and to please be quiet when walking into the school (if you had a reason to go in).

Maybe the test should refer to the 'made- up' words as aliens' names rather than nonsense words. Might help the children whose inclination might otherwise be to try to turn them into 'real' words and also not offend the phonics bashers (as they would surely have to admit that new names - people/place - almost always have to be sounded/worked out)?

I know it doesn't take very long, DD has had 4 phonics tests (1 of them when she was in nursery) which was the phonics test split into 4 times iyswim...But not repeated so different words each time as part of a reading/phonics assessment.

Then after this she had to read parts of a book and retell the story and talk about it....

Books - my kids school tell them that aliens have landed and want to communicate with them but that they won't be able to understand the words but just to use the phonics knowledge to sound the words out....

Not dismissing - I agreed with many aspects of the Cambridge review. But he hasn't taught any children to read either, afaik.

Very possibly.

their not the

They were presented as the names of imaginary monsters, Booksandacuppa

Feenie, are you kidding? What do you think he did when he was a primary teacher?

How many years ago was that? The Three Wise Men report was twenty years ago, fgs, when reading teaching was in the grip of sight word teaching.

I think most people are hitting the target when they say that the nonsense words haven't yet been put into a context where they clearly are nonsensical and it makes sense that they make no sense.

An entirely alien explanation for them, along side some silly gestures would be great for my daughter.

OK, Feenie, there seems to be some discrepancy between those who said they were alien words (like simpson's school) and those who said alien/monster names and I was just thinking that a child would be more likely to attempt to turn them into something they already knew if they were told 'names'.

FWIW, my ds's primary literacy coordinator was concerned about the 'good readers getting some wrong' but admitted her concern was unfounded.

That's already in place - it's made clear to the children that they are monster names and not real words. There is a picture of a monster next to every single one.

The instructions for administering the test were very clear, Booksandacuppa.

Yes, but bear in mind that these are young children and they're trying to do as they've been told.

Playing an alien game "is doing what you've been told." So if you have to bang your nose and read plob, scob, tral, vek, ninb, latil

because that's how an alien speaks you will do that. If you're struggling to read well and you have to take time out to look at a picture of an alien then you might dismiss it in favour of the reading task, in just the same way as I ignore a ringing phone when I'm typing.

Well no, actually, phonics has come back into fashion, but it was widely taught in the 70s - so widely and fanatically in fact that people started teaching children to read incorrect words - nonsense in fact and everyone started to think they were mad and the system swung back too far the other way....is history repeating itself? The reality is that children need whole word and phonic teaching. They need to use cognates, syntax and etymology to read properly. Phonics phanatics need to bear in mind that there is a whole lot more to reading than word recognition.

That's good, then, thanks, Feenie.

I was thinking more of the parents/phonics bashers who seem not to realise that reading made up/nonsense words is something we need to do all the time (not only when encountering new vocab as mrz oftens mentions but place/people's names too). There's quite a lot of 'my child needs to read real words not nonsense ones' on here!

(I am the avid reader who thought that 'albeit' was pronounced 'al-bait' until I was in sixth form - I was clearly using phonics even though I was taught with look and say!)