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.

Free? Not a lot, but I do make sure I co-plan with my student, find time to feedback and support her after school, include her in meetings and training, including co-delivering some training on phonics to parents and generally make her feel included.

So when do you find time to teach your student phonics?

We meet every morning at 7.30 and plan the day together, or at least the parts we didn't manage the evening before. I always work from 7 until 6 so there's plenty of time after school. We also take our PPA time together so we can do it then, though we've been using this more for assessment. Obviously a lot of that planning and reflection work centres around phonics, but not all, obviously. There is a lot of time to be honest. We went through the schemes and the principles in her first week then she observed me for a week, then we co-planned and delivered for a week and now she's pretty much flying and i support her in assessing and planning.

But when do you provide phonics training?

Can't you read mrz?

yes thank you for asking... now when do you actually teach your student phonics ...not when do you plan phonics or go through schemes ...when do you actually provide thorough phonics instruction for your student?

Sorry to interrupt.

Squeezed...I hear you! Sounds like you are giving your student a great start.

Like I said, as we plan and when we assess and review. You seem to think that it's hard. We use a mix of miskin and the actions from jolly phonics. It's not exactly rocket science is it?

really? ...with no phonics training?

What year are you teaching at the moment, squeezed?

Thanks pinkpeonies :)

Year 1 mostly yellow and weirdly also year 7 - another member of staff delivers numeracy and PE while i do that. We have a 3-18 school and are setting up a new curriculum model in Year 7 so I'm popping into that too. Mrz, I think you misunderstand what training is. High quality training takes place with collaboration, observation, background reading, feedback and co-planning. It's no good sitting her down and lecturing her on what a diphthong is without planning it into our teaching. If I did decide to lecture her, there would still be time, but it would have less impact.

How do you manage to provide training in phonics and differentiation on the job, so to speak?

I don't know if my dd's Y1 class is usual, but the differentiation there is extreme, from children who have gone past lime level to those still on red/yellow.

Have you had time to teach the whole of the equivalent of L & S phases 1-6 since the beginning of term?

No squeezed ...my student knows nothing whatsoever about phonics other than what she has seen in my class. I can give her our programme ...but she won't be able to teach it effectively because she knows less than the children she needs to teach. Now for me to train her to deliver phonics teaching effectively requires at least 5 full days input ... so when do you train your student?

I would add that my school has had to spend considerable amounts to train NQTs in phonics because they haven't been adequately trained during their ITT.

No - it is really difficult, so we group them according to level or phase across KS1 and then teach them in that level - so in my little group at the moment, there are some highflying receptions kids, a few of my own and a couple of Year2 children who need to just need to revisit some stuff. We review every couple of weeks and move them around. We all chip in - the HTLAs from class 2 are also trained to teach phonics so they help and I have to say my student is really helping in this respect now - we've been able to reduce the group sizes. We also stagger across the day so some of us might take phonics twice in one day with two different groups. It's quite complicated but it means we can differentiate because like you say, some children are working at phase 2 and others at phase 6.

Mrz, I could keep on repeating myself all night but what's the point? We get a student, she's my responsibility. I train her. Not much more to say.

Squeezed, it's not sufficient that your method works. It has to be the right way. Lots of methods work. But not all are phonics approved.

But Miskin is approved.

Sorry but your idea of training falls very short of mine ... there aren't enough hours in the school day to adequately provide quality phonics training during a placement ... yes I could do as you have explained but that would be to the detrimental to my class.

Yes, but approved by all appropriate contributors to all appropriate fora and when you do Miskin, is it really Miskin, or is it your interpretation of Miskin? The world is a slippery place with lots of pitfalls. It's best to accept the fact that we're wrong to begin with. Then life is easier in a forum.

learnandsay I am not talking about phonics methods I'm talking about teacher training

Well Ruth Miskin trained me herself so I'm fairly sure it's Miskin...

learnandsay would you be happy for your child to be taught maths by someone who couldn't count to 100?

Sorry, mrz. You're a love, you really are. But sometimes when I see you beating people up I can't help thinking that's not the way the world works. I know if we all had you as a teacher we'd all do fine. And everybody else knows it too. But sometimes you whip a bit too hard. (You can beat me up all the time. I ask for it. But some people are just doing a good job.)

Goodnight ladies...Homeland calls:)