Tell me about Read Write Inc for older/more able children

[redskyatnight]

DC's school have just started using Read Write Inc. I'd naively thought this was just a system to teach phonics so my DC wouldn't be exposed to it as they are beyond the basic phonics teaching stage (They are Y5 and Y3 and working at NC Levels 3 and 4). However, it seems that everyone in the school is using it.

Can anyone tell me about the benefits/how this works for DC who are beyond the "learning to decode" stage?
Thanks

They would be better off looking at something like this which is specifically aimed at the sort of pupils you mention

Well quite possibly duckyfuzz but on the basis it's a new initiative, I would have hoped that "someone" would have spent time looking at different schemes and deciding that Read Write Inc was the best.

Just interested in experiences from anyone whose DC have used this other than at the early phonics stage?

The reason for using RWI is to get all pupils up to a suitable standard on phonics as they progress through the school. That could mean that some low achieving pupils could be accessing the scheme all the time they are in a primary school. However RWI is normally designed for pupils up to about 8 when it comes to their phonic package.
RWI however do have literacy and language and spelling modules as well as the phonics which are used for pupils in the higher years of primary school. Is it possible that this is what they are accessing?

admission thanks. I think DS may be using a spelling module - he certainly mumbled something about doing 15 minutes in a book each morning which was linked to his spelling words that came home.

DD (the Y3) one hasn't started using it yet (but apparently will this week), but she reports back that currently only the lower ability children in her class are using it - I guess this is the basic phonics version?

DC's school is a juniors (so presumably will only be doing the phonics stuff with EAL and lower ability children) so it seems like an odd choice(from where I'm sitting anyway!) for the school to have made, hence my question really.

DC school only use RWI thru the phonics stage (up to about free reader ability). After that RWI is too prescriptive in its approach to writing (they say). There will be some kids on y5 who still aren't reading fluently for whom basic RWI might be worth a try, I imagine.

Yes it does seem like an odd choice, as you say, for the pupils you mention, hence my response!

There's loads of different RWI schemes. One for spelling. One for comprehension. One for grammer and puntuation. as well as 2 for reading.

Probably what happened is last years SPaG test highlighted problems with spelling, puntuation or grammer, so they've bought in a RWI scheme to help....

RWI Schemes: global.oup.com/education/content/primary/series/rwi/?view=ProductList&region=uk

We're just about to start this after half term.We've all just done all the training (phew! LOTS to learn!!) There is another part of Read Write Inc called Fresh Start which is for older children who may have "gaps". Apparently it is used in some secondary schools too.
Apparently Ofsted really like Read Write Inc.

I'm quite looking forward to doing it.

Many schools are using RWI for spelling and comprehension in KS2

the soundtraining would be a much odder choice

Used to teach RWI. It's very effective for teaching phonics - I'm aware of amazing results in lots of schools - but tbh I wasn't a huge fan, possibly because of the way it was implemented in my school. It's so prescriptive (incredibly dull to teach!) and when I had the top group (we used to rotate) the children were obviously bored - there is very little imagination or creativity involved, which must be extremely frustrating for more able children who like to think outside the box. I made up my own extension activities so they weren't tempted to stray off-task, but technically I wasn't supposed to do this!

My school used it up to Year 3, although personally I think that for all but the least able pupils Year 3 is too old. I'd definitely have a chat with the school and ask them how they're planning to implement the scheme and ensure it's suitable for older children. One of the things we struggled with most was logistics - we had lots of similar ability but mixed-aged groups coming from different classes, and barely enough staff to cover them all. It ended up with TAs taking some of the groups with only limited training, which was far from ideal.

RWI comprehension scheme is aimed at KS2 confident readers and Get Spelling is aimed at children reading above a level 2A so perhaps best if you find out what exactly your children will be doing OP.

Yes, just to clarify, ours was the phonics scheme as opposed to the others that mrz mentions - these may well be more useful for KS2. I imagine those are still fairly prescriptive, though, which was my main bugbear!