How do I help my daughter prepare for the yr 1 phonics check?

[Churmy123]

Hi
My dd is 5 (6 at the end of July) and is in year 1. She enjoys school, is well behaved and as far as I know doing well and progressing as she should be. The feedback from her teacher has always been positive. At the last parents evening I was told that she has a flair for creative writing and her writing skills and handwriting are at a year 3/4 level. She also said my dd was one of the 'better' readers and in on turqoise books. At home she is currently confidently reading Enid Blytons Famous Five books. Yesterday after school the teacher called me in to discuss my dds phonics skills. They had done a 'mock' test (last years test I believe) and my dd had only scored 29 out of 40 (32 being the 'pass' mark). She asked if I could do some extra work with my dd at home to try and get her up to the 32 mark before the 'test' in June. She gave me some sheets with words on to work through with my dd and also recommended the 'phonics play' website. We did some of this at home last night and my dd appeared to find it easy and didn't struggle with any of the words. Do I just continue doing this at home? Or could it be that she was having an 'off' day on the day of the 'mock' check? Or is it the 'alien' words that are confusing her? I'm a little confused!!!
Thanks. x

[lougle]

Thanks for clearing that up, mrz and maizie. It's quite possible that I've misinterpreted what I was told, tbh.

That's difficult. DD1 has an idea of some individual letters and their corresponding sounds. So she will say 'M' for ''. However, I'm not sure that she's yet got the idea that words are broken down into sounds..or has she? She sounded out a few words (cat, rat) last week.

[mrz]

I have one child in my class who I will disapply because he is preverbal

[pickledsiblings]

A comment that my sons teacher made about the check is that she has had to speed up her phonics delivery to ensure that all the sounds are covered by the time of the check.

This is a good thing as I'm sure the research suggests covering the sounds 'quickly' as opposed to ambling along on 1 per week.

[mrz]

It appears to be a huge problem in some schools using Letters & Sounds, teachers are so hung up on those stupid phases some children are still working on the first few sounds into KS2!
It seems to have become standard practice in some schools to stream phonics across the school [why? smiley] which also results in some children not having the opportunity to learn all the sounds they will encounter in the test ...

[EskSmith]

that some schools aren't covering all the sounds by the last term of year one!

Dd's school introduced 6 a week from the start of reception.

[mrz]

The thing is that in some schools some pupils will have covered all the sounds needed but others won't have been given the chance because they have been placed in a "lower" group

[maizieD]

And the really, really ironic aspect of this is the the L & S 'phases' were never intended as a way of 'streaming' or differentiating. (I am assured of this by one of the L & S authors)

It was pretty inevitable that that was how they would be used, though, given a very poor understanding of phonics teaching among many KS1 teachers and the unfortunate influence of the RWI 'ability grouping'. Which works in RWI schools when it is properly managed, by children being continuously monitored, given extra help and moved groups as appropriate, but in many schools the 'phases' are just perpetuating the old 'low ability' group concept.

[DoctorAnge]

I still can't find the test - I can't get onto the TES website

[learnandsay]

I think you need a login. It's free. The test is on that link I gave you.

[mrz]

I wouldn't worry about the TES link DoctorAnge they are just one person's attempt at producing practise words certainly not worth the effort of registering with the site.

[DoctorAnge]

Ok thanks I has no luck registering anyway. But the other PowerPoint link has some word examples - is this the test?

[mrz]

the Power Point contains the words used in the 2012 check ... there will be new words used in June but no one knows what they are until the 17th June

[DoctorAnge]

Thanks so much Mrz

[Buzzardbird]

Went to a meeting about this forthcoming test last night.

I went with a sense of enthusiasm and left with a sense that the test was a futile waste of time.

The HT did not give the impression that she believed the test to be worthwhile but equally wanted us all to 'coach' our DC's as much as possible to try and pass. She also said that 'good readers' were likely to fail as they would skim over many words instead of taking time to spell them out.

I am really at a loss on how to approach this now. DD has already mastered her phase 5 phonics and is about to start her turquoise level at phase 5 reading but I know she is a 'skimmer' of words when she is excited about a storyline.

Any suggestions?

I am interested in hearing what books for reading at home people would recommend as she has been reading biff at school and so many of you seem to sneer at these? Her books at home are varied between traditional, princess stories (I know, but she is 'girly') and poems.

Just need some direction. TIA

[ShadeofViolet]

I havent read the whole thread so dont know if has been mentioned, but DS likes playing this game

Buried Treasure

[maizieD]

The HT did not give the impression that she believed the test to be worthwhile but equally wanted us all to 'coach' our DC's as much as possible to try and pass.




She also said that 'good readers' were likely to fail as they would skim over many words instead of taking time to spell them out.

I'm glad I'm not an author. Just imagine spending all that time and creative effort to find precisely the right words to produce a given effect and then discovering that your readers don't bother to read most of them; they just skim them.. Not only that, but schools and parents seem to positively encourage children to skim read from an early age.

[AlienAttack]

Buzzard bird, the only advice I can offer is to encourage your DD not to "skim" words. My DD (in year 1) is on emerald books and occasionally gets lazy when she reads to me and "skims" a word...which basically means she guesses. I stop her and suggest she sound it out. I don't see how she will expand her vocabulary unless she she sounds out words she doesn't know, asks me what they means, and we discuss.

[Buzzardbird]

Thanks Alien, we definitely don't encourage 'skimming' at home, I always keep my finger under the word until she says it correctly but it does worry me that this isn't followed through at school. I also like you ask her if she knows what it means and explain if she doesn't. The books from school rarely have any challenging words so this tends to be with her own books. I ask them often to give her more challenging books.
maizie...my thoughts exactly, though not sure parents encourage it, unless they don't listen to reading perhaps?

[Buzzardbird]

Violet, she loves those games and does well on them. Perhaps from what others have said this 'skimming' has been allowed at school?

[maizieD]

Buzzardbird,

Some parents may well encourage it if that is what the school is promoting as a good reading strategy. Fortunately a lot of parents can see that it is not 'good'

[learnandsay]

I don't let my daughter miss or misread words either. In her school reading books she rarely gets words that she can't manage. But in her home reading she gets quite a few difficult words. If she sounds the words out slowly most of the time she gets them right, things like: effectively, quizzical, anxiously and so on. A few times I've volunteered to help her with words, assuming that she wouldn't be able to read them on her own. But she has managed. But, left to her own devices, she will read some of the longer more difficult words horribly wrongly. But if she's told to re-read it until she either gets it right or makes a reasonable job of it, she does.

[stealthsquiggle]

DD's teacher definitely doesn't allow skimming - in fact, she and we are worried about DD's tendency to do it. I guess some of the DC who are zipping ahead through the reading books may be being allowed to do that at home - I hadn't really considered it, just beat myself up that we don't find more time to read at home (its no good doing at bedtime, DD is too tired to concentrate on anything challenging)

[daftdame]

Regarding 'skimming' I agree with the above posts in that is no good to skim when it means you either misread unfamiliar words or are just skimming in order to race through a book at record speed.

However it is important to remember skimming does have its uses. Finding the appropriate section in a reference book, finding the part of a story that answers a comprehension question, looking up a word in a bibliography are just some examples.

What needs to be learnt (and encouraged) is how to use this skill appropriately.

[maizieD]

What needs to be learnt (and encouraged) is how to use this skill appropriately.

I didn't mention that use of 'skimming' as I didn't think anyone would be teaching it to 6y olds!

Surely fluent and accurate reading has to be well established first?

[wonderingagain]

Buzz - what did the head teacher suggest you do in terms of 'coaching'?

Everyone knows this is simply an assessment and is there purely to identify problems to ensure early support is in place if necessary? And to compare levels across schools for a similar reason?

I can't believe that anyone would tell their parents to coach them other than to make sure the child feels confident and has a rough idea of what to expect.