Effect on progression when changing Phonics scheme part way through reception?

[educator123]

Dd2 is half way through reception, seems to be progressing well using Jolly Phonics and would have to move to Read, Write, Inc.

We've just has a phonics scheme change at my school. Started it just after Oct half term, though had bits of it in use in classes from September. Has meant a change for all out Reception-Y2 children. TBH the children haven't really noticed much of a difference in the sense that they still have phonics, though it now uses a an online book.worksheet combo and is whole class and not differentiated teaching groups. But for them we tailor it within class so they are all at different stages of the program, just learning teh same sound (for ex we did the j sound last week = depending on ability they did j, gy, gi, ge, dge, etc.)

Thank you. If you don't mind me asking what did you move from and to, and was there a reason why.

I'm interested to know if they are much of a muchness, with different names or if one scheme is above the rest. From what ive tried to find out myself, Jolly Phonics seems to be virtually the same as Read, write, inc but Read, write Inc seems to be the popular choice. Is it just because it is the most recent?

The main difference is knowing fredible words and go words in RWI and in JP they have the actions to go with the sounds.

TBH if they are taught well it should not be a problem.

The books used can be similar (my DD does JP in reception and I have a placement in a reception class that use RWI) and both schools use a mixture of ORT, songbirds and dandy lion books.

If your DD is pretty strong in her phonics I would not have thought she would notice much difference. The only thing I don't like with RWI is if a child does not know a sound (SH for example) you cannot prompt them with the action.

But in the end both schemes are phonics based so there should not be much difference. I do think my DD could cope with the switch just fine tbh.

I think RWI is popular because the lessons are set out on how to deliver them so less planning for the teacher.

So what are the red and green words all about is that to do with what Dds school call tricky words.

She seems to be making fast progress with JP but the books aren't great, when dd1 was struggling with the JP books she went onto Dandelion readers which I personally think they were great with the words/sounds at the beginning followed by the questions for comprehension but she finished them and now back on JP which aren't enjoyable so i'm thinking of seeing if I can buy some higher level dandelion readers? For her to read at home.

JP books only go up to blue level I think and are tedious (my DD hated them).

Have you checked out the oxfordowl website? It's got loads of free ebooks to read.

The more I hear about the schemes themselves the more I realise that we've missed nearly all of this stuff!

The last JP books are blue...but according to JP their blue equates to turquoise level! Just to confuse matters.

We are nearly past them, then Dd1 tells me she will be a 'free reader' ??

I just thought the the dandelion reader she did have were more visually pleasing and the format was great in my opinion for making it clear so they could fully understand the word formation and diagraphs etc.

Learnandsay I know what you mean...I feel like I was so uninformed first time round now dd2 is in reception I'm determined to up my game, esp as I have two more starting school in 2014 and 2016.

It really depends how far both schools are through the schemes ...there is a slight difference in the order that sounds are introduced (so possibly knows some sounds not covered but may have missed others that have been taught in the new scheme) but it should be a simple matter to catch up.
The schemes have different "terms" red words in RWI and tricky words in JP.
RWI is much more structured
JP books are pretty dire IMHO

If the JP books go up that far then I should imagine that our school doesn't have any at all. I've not seen one. We used to get some RWI books last term. The only problem for us was that all the words looked the same red or not so my daughter just read them. We stopped getting those books now.

"The only problem for us was that all the words looked the same red or not so my daughter just read them." which is what she is meant to do learnandsay

Sort of, I suppose. But if the child keeps on reading whatever's put in front of it then sooner or later it's going to need real books.

as opposed to unreal books?

The JP books seem pretty new (to my DC school) as DS did not have them.

Poor DD is having to wade through some shit boring non fiction books ATM

We had some non fiction books a little while ago. They were very short, things like planting a herb garden, a book on frogs and whatnot. I don't know how many books we've had but those two and Stitch the Witch stick out as being quite good. I thought the Ginn Zoom Set Bs were fantastic because the one we got first had diary headings spelled out as long dates. Looking back on it now I don't think the children were meant to read those titles. But my daughter did because I didn't know she wasn't supposed to. That's why I thought the Ginn readers were so brilliant. For a while I thought at least, real words!

Are they the National Geographic books simpson?

Books with a deliberately restricted vocabulary, whether it's Marinarik's, Seuss', William Murray, or Donaldson's limited vocabulary, have their place, for sure. But if a child is reading Beatrix Potter at home and yellow, albeit non decodable. at school, should the school be making a slow transition to Potter books for that child? We're not quite at the point of it becoming an issue. But it will become one at some reasonably near point.

Mrz - I wish!!! Which ones are those? They sound good.

LandS - she had a Ginn 360 book a few weeks ago about spiders which she enjoyed.

This one is a snap dragons book about healthy bodies/eating or something. But it is soooo dull.

She does not want to read it. I am torn between just doing 4-5 pages a night or telling the teacher she hates it.

Her teacher has said her non fiction readi g needs work hence this book but quite frankly she would rather read about how elephants live etc than how a heart works a d what carbon monoxide is.

Also she has got a "thing" about the glossary and every time a word is highlighted (it feels like the same word is highlighted a million times) she has to look it up and re-read it.

It took us 30 mins to read 5 pages this eve

Simpson have you 'enjoyed' the Antarctica one yet ;)
I'm sure it was the JP non fiction that put my dd1 off reading during year1.

Oops, blooming iPad!!

So any book written within the last 70 years for young children isn't real

That's rubbish Simpson, my feeling is that if they aren't enjoying it, ditch it. I wish I had had the confidence too previously rather than trying to push on dd1 to read it and end up having a negative association to reading!

If I ever get stuck on a knot like that, simpson, I'll work on my daughter's non fiction reading. But I'll ask her to read something else. There's no point in torturing a child because the teacher thinks it's a good idea. You can read non fiction in the newspaper!

DD did not have any blue level ones but went from green to ORT.

The ones she hated were "Wait and see" although that was fiction about a girl getting a dolls house and "shells" (non fiction) and "The Outing" (again fiction).

And tbh if DD hates a fiction book that's saying something (ie it's pants!!)

LandS - I found a massive collection of "my animal kingdom" books (40 of them) in a charity shop for £5.

I would rather she read them (and so would she).