Reception reading: decoding or memory?

[Whoamireally]

We've just moved abroad and the kids have started at an international school with a British curriculum. At her UK school my youngest daughter was given 2 new reading books each week, even if she hadn't 'mastered' them she can change them and it was the same for my eldest daughter (who is now reading above her age). We were told this was because the principle is that they learn skills in decoding and exposure to lots of different words is a good thing. Fast forward a few weeks, and into the international school. Here, my poor DD has had the same bloody Biff and Chip book for 2 weeks, as having asked already what was the policy there, the teacher says she has not yet learnt all the words from memory. I'm not happy as she isn't moving forward with her reading and is refusing to read it again as she's bored of it. She's 4; should she be expected to memorise books before she gets a different one? It feels wrong! Is this outdated practice? We have been reading other books with her too of course, but since they aren't 'easy readers' she can pick out the odd word but obv not create a sentence that she has read herself. Should I relax and assume the teacher's method works, or go speak to the Year co-ordinator?

That's kind of what I thought, travel, she was doing so well in her previous school and it's ground to a halt now. I might go have another word. I want her to love reading, and books, and not throw them across the room in frustration!

I'm not sure how far you're going to get in teaching the teacher how to do her job! If you don't like the school put your child somewhere else. I'd imagine that the way they teach there is the way they teach whether you like it or not.

Is n't the problem though, that some of those early Biff and Chip books are not strictly phonics books like say Cat in the Hat, so with a lot of the words, you are trying to memorise them. In any case, at our school, the children were given these books before they had learnt phonics, so it was a case of memorisation.

DS, on the other hand, learnt jolly phonics before starting school and did not do any 'reading' until he had all the sounds and blends and then you simply could not stop him. By 5 he had a reading age of 10. Therefore, until she has learnt phonics I would not be too worried about the lack of books.

Gosh, my 4 yr old wouldn't be doing with that either. He'll never read anything twice.

But given it sounds like you're stuck with that approach, I think what I'd do is make up some flashcards with the words in the book and play games with them so she learns to read them quickly by whatever method suits her.

I keep hearing that these 'international' schools seem to be thirty years behind UK in their teaching methods, and it is a pity that families seem tied into them.

NONE of the early Biff and Chip books were phonics based, but even so in the early '90s when I was first a TA we did, somehow, still manage to get children reading, though their spelling and ability with previously unseen words was limited.

More recently, I did voluntary support in a Reception class, and the children knew all the books off by heart, and would recite the text without even being on the correct page!

No, no, no. This is really bad teaching.

Here's my advice:

Forget the bloody Biff book. Don't even try to read it. Get your hands on some phonics books (songbirds, reading corner phonics) and work through those with your DD.

Start using magnetic letters and a small whiteboard to do phonics skills with her. At first just the simplest cvc words- cat, him, bag etc. As she gets more confident, teach her digraphs (two letters that make one sound) like ck, ch, sh, ee etc.

Occasionally introduce tricky words which are harder to sound out (the, I, was, go etc) by telling her what the 'tricky bit' is.

Take lots of advice on here about phonics teaching, and basically do it at home!