Phonics Test Year 1 Query

[NigellaEllaElla]

DS is doing the "Test" next week. I did a few flash card words with him last night and just have a query.

He sounds out the word but if it has a "y" at the end he sounds it as "yu" as in the letter name, not sound. (Not sure yu is best way of explaining it but can't think of alternative) rather than "ee" but then still says the word correctly.

So for "Happy" he might say "H a p p yu - Happy"

Because he is saying "yu" not "ee" when sounding will this count as a fail even though he knows the word correctly?

Bloody stupid test. He's a really good reader for his age, possibly a little too good cause I don't think it will do him any favours in a test like this!

Thanks in advance for your help.

I don't have a TA to hear readers (we only have one for the whole school)

Interesting, my child's school has more than 20.

I bet organisation is very different.

• volunteers are often 'required'.

Learnandsay, you can hardly compare meeting new/unknown words with piloting a space shuttle. We all come across new words frequently- brand names, technical vocab, new technology, pop groups, place names, people's names. If we use phonics there may be two or more alternative pronunciations (but often one is more likely). If you don't think phonics is the first or best approach, what would you suggest?

I imagine we are a smaller school

Pozzled learnandsay's name may give you a clue

mrz. Average 2 form entry (less some year groups).

Single form entry

I know mrz, but as an adult I wonder how she deals with those kind of words.

I imagine she knows them all Pozzled

Pozzled I think some people do pick up a lot of the phonic rules practically subconsciously. I must have done, I was only 'taught' rudimentary phonics (alphabet book) but the rest was picked up bit by bit, piecemeal as I read books with my mother eg. she would have told me the rule for 'happy' when we came across the word in a story, I also remember 'magic' 'e'!

OK, let's use brandnames in the phonics test.

learnandsay The brands would be queuing up!

I imagine children know brand names too

some lucky individuals will work out the relationship between those marks on the page and the sounds in words with very little help but it obviously takes much longer than explicit teaching but for the less fortunate who can't work it out alone teaching is more important

My daughter is pretty shaky on the names of cleaning products to be honest.

By the same token the driving lessons could include instructions for piloting the space shuttle. It's not very likely that you will come across the controls of the space shuttle, but if you do you'll know how to use them.

So your 6 year old knows all the English lexicon and doesn't need to worry about unfamiliar words because she knows them all already!

Your analogy is completely ridiculous. Comparing driving a car to driving a space shuttle is like comparing to read English with learning to read French. Your DD will need to be able to work out what written words in her first language (or is she bi-lingual?) 'say'. She won't need to know French phonics unless she actually learns French. Likewise I, and a few million others, don't need to know how to pilot a space shuttle unless we want to be astronauts.

I did wonder if L&S had begun teaching her daughter to drive as she used a driving test analogy on the NC level thread too

Well, it's quite easy, after all, isn't it? (Driving) Don 't you just spend lots of time being driven and just pick it up?

mrz I think my mother actually will have given a lot of individual input and attention. I have noticed her sheer 'staying power' when playing or sharing books with her grandchildren.

The 'teaching' may not have seemed explicit because it was very gradual, done bit by bit, several times a day. I knew my initial basic phonic alphabet at 2 yrs. However the teaching was there, I also did not learn to read by magic.

I'm one of those individuals who did learn to read without any adult input as did my son daftdame ...although I don't think it was magic

mrz my son too . Again not magic, observing his behaviour, determined little guy.

well strictly speaking the adult input was there, but totally child led. He also liked phonic electronic toys and games and my^ books were continually pulled off the shelf, he had a large collection of his own (chewed, still teething at the time).

I happened to notice him picking up junk mail and newspapers and reading bits out loud when he was around 18 -20 months at the time ... unfortunately he doesn't understand phonics so his spelling is abysmal and he didn't really write until Y6. If this check had been around someone might have acknowledged there was a problem and listened to my concerns.

He was reading bits out loud at 18-20 months?!? My youngest is 21 months and I cannot imagine for a minute him grasping the concept of reading a word!