Is this how children learn to read these days?

[Bananaketchup]

Am genuinely asking. DD is in reception. She started late at the school and has only been in full-time since xmas, so they don't really know her too well. She loves being read to, she can sound out words when she's in the mood, but is also one for the easy life. She reads once a week 1-1 with a TA at school, and brings the book home afterwards until it's swapped a week later. The books are of the 'this is a house, this is a garden' level. In her reading record it will say 'DD read the book and enjoyed it'. But when she reads it at home she rattles off the sentence on each page and has clearly just memorised it, and isn't actually reading. If I mix the page order up, she can't read it. If I hide the picture, she can't read it. She will make wild guesses without even trying to sound out the word e.g. she will guess 'the' for 'house', just pure guesses. This weekend she got in a strop because I wouldn't let her see the picture (as she was just guessing from this and not reading the words at all). She then said 'but Mrs X (The TA she reads with) says look at the picture, then read it'. So my question is (if you've got this far without dying of boredom), is this how children are taught to read - to look at the picture to know what the words say? Because DD isn't paying any attention to the words, just gabbling off what's in the picture, and I can't really see how this is teaching her to read. I am minded to speak to school, but don't want to be 'that' mum if this is genuinely a method children learn to read by, which I'm unaware of. Can anyone advise please?

[HarveySchlumpfenburger]

I don't see the personal attack.

I'm not sure the non-Latin script makes much difference. I have friend learning a MFL in a non-Latin script (the first MFL she's learnt) and she has learnt to read in that language very easily by using the same skills she learnt in English - learning the sounds symbol correspondences and then blending them together to read words. I don't think she's ever learnt to read words using flashcards. And she might be what you would call a 'visual' learner if there was such a thing.

[maizieD]

I should also point out that the languages I teach are not in the Latin script, so my students have to learn about new writing systems before they are able to effectively develop their vocabularies and successfully read and replicate words in their speech and writing. I teach new words and phrases with images so that they have a graphical link between the new words/phrases as they are written and how they are said. This image later acts as a stimulus for recall.

I actually agree with you that in the situation you describe here images are very useful. This is not a 'learning styles' issue.

Apologies if I misinterpreted your original post.

[Spaghettinetti]

When I initially posted, I didn't think if have to explain myself quite so fully or that certain individuals would argue their points quite so vehemently - actually to the point of personal attack in my mind. When I mentioned 'visual learners' I didn't say that I subscribe to the belief that we all have a distinct learning type and that people 'assigned' that learning type only learn in that way. It is however, preferable for some learners to link images with text and vocabulary. My own learning preferences involve seeing information graphically or from actively participating in activities, rather than just reading about stuff. I can process information that I read, but I prefer to see it in other formats and retain it better this way; I'm sure I'm not alone in this.

I should also point out that the languages I teach are not in the Latin script, so my students have to learn about new writing systems before they are able to effectively develop their vocabularies and successfully read and replicate words in their speech and writing. I teach new words and phrases with images so that they have a graphical link between the new words/phrases as they are written and how they are said. This image later acts as a stimulus for recall. I will do a number of activities with my students using such images including asking students to write the words associated with the images, which demonstrates both their reading and writing skills. This does work in language learning and vocabulary development.

I agree that phonics is by and large the best way to teach reading, but I don't think there is anything wrong in looking for contextual clues from images. As other posters have already mentioned, these books are mainly intended to hammer home key words. Personally, I hate them...I also hate Biff and Chip style books, but appreciate that they play a role in helping children to learn to read.

[HarveySchlumpfenburger]

Wasn't really thinking about learning styles. I know 'learning styles' as such are rubbish. Could never really get my head round them when doing my teacher training.

It's more just a personal preference I think. I wonder how much it has to do with how I was taught to read. I seem to have been taught with a much more phonics based approach than most MNers. Not as comprehensive as newer schemes but I've never been taught any other approach to a new word than to sound it out. So I naturally apply what I've learnt to other languages. I might be completely screwed if I tried to learn something like Kanji in Japanese or some of the Chinese languages where words are represented using pictorial symbols rather than sounds being represented by symbols.

[maizieD]

I suspect that prefering to read new foreign words rather than learn them by listening to them has more to do with it being more difficult to remember a sound sequence (particularly when the 'sounds' are put togther in an unfamiliar, foreign, sequence) than it has to do with a (non existent) 'learning style'. Having the word written down gives a prompt for the sound sequence and, if you've learned the new 'code', a reminder of what the sounds should be.

I think that most people would find it easier to learn a new language by a combination of hearing snd seing it. Unless they are accomplished mimics.

[HarveySchlumpfenburger]

I had figured you could read . And I don;t think there are many pictures to help you in the 'Teach Yourself' books.

I'm actually quite similar when it comes to learning languages. I need to see the words written down when I hear them in order to memorise them. At least in the initial stages. But I'm concious of the fact that I am reading the words in the same way that I would tackle an unfamiliar word in English. Albeit using a different 'Alphabetic Code'.

[maizieD]

Don't think we've convinced anyone about 'learning styles' mrz

[MuddlingMackem]

RafaIsTheKingOfClay Wed 26-Feb-14 21:33:50

I think there's a big difference in teaching vocabulary and teaching someone how to read words though. And between teaching MFL to students that can already read in one language and teaching children who have never read before.

[HarveySchlumpfenburger]

I think there's a big difference in teaching vocabulary and teaching someone how to read words though. And between teaching MFL to students that can already read in one language and teaching children who have never read before.

I can 'read' (or bark at print, depending on which way you wish to look at it) words quite fluently in several languages. Most of the phonics skills I learnt when learning to read are transferable it's just the case of learning the specific code for that language. No pictures are needed to read the words on the page.

I might use pictures in the very early stages for learning vocabulary but never for learning how to read a word. At most, I might have the picture, written word and spoken word together so I associate them with each other but I would be looking at the letters and associating them with the sounds in the spoken word rather than with the picture.

[MuddlingMackem]

FWIW I would say I'm a visual learner. I remember stuff much better if I've read it than if I've heard it. DS is the same. I failed miserably to learn any Italian from cassettes, but an old 'Teach Yourself' book had much better results. :)

[mrz]

"Sometimes people speak about a “visual” learner or an “auditory” learner. The implication is that some people learn through their eyes, others through their ears. This notion is incoherent. Both spatial information and reading occur with the eyes, but they make use of entirely different cognitive faculties. Similarly, both music and speaking activate the ears, but again these are entirely different cognitive faculties. Recognizing this fact, the concept of intelligences does not focus on how linguistic or spatial information reaches the brain—via eyes, ears, hands, it doesn’t matter. What matters is the power of the mental computer, the intelligence, that acts upon that sensory information, once picked up."

[mrz]

You obviously aren't up to date on learning styles ...
neurobollocks.wordpress.com/2013/05/23/why-learning-styles-dont-exist-by-daniel-willingham/

fluency21.com/blog/2014/02/18/deconstructing-the-myth-of-learning-styles/

www.edudemic.com/the-myth-of-learning-styles/?utm_content=buffer97af3&utm_medium=social&utm_source=twitter.com&utm_campaign=buffer

reedgillespie.blogspot.co.uk/2014/01/the-pitfalls-of-learning-styles-and-how.html

www.danielwillingham.com/1/post/2012/06/teachers-dont-need-to-learn-neuroscience.html

[maizieD]

so am quite up to date on learning styles, thanks.

OMG! Where on earth did you do your PGCE?

www.senseaboutscience.org/blog.php/77/neuromyths-and-why-they-persist-in-the-classroom

[maizieD]

There is no such bl**dy thing as a 'visual learner'.

And even if there were, what is NOT visual about learning letter/sound correspondences? You SEE the letters and say the sounds.

And how on earth did they learn to talk with nothing there to 'see'?

[Spaghettinetti]

I'm actually learning German and using images to help me interpret text all the time, the same ways little ones do when reading story books. I actually did my Primary PGCE in 2008 and have continued CPD since then, so am quite up to date on learning styles, thanks.

[mrz]

are you an expert in teaching MFL too columngollum?

[columngollum]

images and words to introduce new vocabulary

isn't the same as

used pictures to read

(Just as swimming isn't the same as drowning, even if they happen in the same pool.)

[mrz]

When was the last time you used pictures to read Spaghettinetti? or read the research on learning styles?

[Spaghettinetti]

I totally agree with swimmingwithsharks. There are loads of strategies that we employ when reading a text. I teach adults nowadays and use flash cards with images and words to introduce new vocabulary (I teach foreign languages). Eventually, my students remember the words, recognise them in texts and write them independently. The same thing applies for little ones...especially visual learners.

[MuddlingMackem]

Interesting link mrz.

[mrz]

www.societyforqualityeducation.org/parents/bkgrnd1.html#responses

[mrz]

thinkingreadingwritings.wordpress.com/2014/02/15/code-teaching-or-code-breaking/

[mrz]

Pythonesque you don't say which country your mother practiced her skills as a remedial teacher but I would point out the phonics employed for example in the USA & Australia are very different to those taught in the UK so perhaps her experience isn't the same as very experienced UK teachers who do not encounter the problems you mention.

[Pythonesque]

I've read the first few pages of this thread and of necessity skipped to the end ...

My mother's been a (private) remedial teacher for decades (not in the UK) and has been there seen that so far as reading theories and teaching fads are concerned. In reality more than 50% of her work has represented picking up the pieces after failed teaching (she always knows when a school is failing because she'll get one child and suddenly has several from the same class ...). But she has also picked up the pieces when special reading interventions have failed a child. The think these situations most often have in common is that a single strategy is being pushed to the exclusion of all else. If that strategy is look and say, some children will get it, many will struggle. If that strategy is "pure" phonics, more children will get it, some will still struggle and fail. And so on.

By dint of experience and (dare I say it) common sense, my mother has always tailored her approach to each student and uses a variety of material with all of them. And definitely she has taught numerous children, often with "specific learning difficulties" for whom phonics is a relatively unhelpful approach. Other strategies will allow such children to make progress, and specific efforts will be needed to give them the decoding skills that phonics provide. An interesting subset are those who turn out to have a high frequency hearing loss (or in some cases a very patchy hearing loss hitting small frequency ranges only) - if you can't hear the difference between a set of consonant sounds then focussing on those sounds isn't going to help you read very much!!

[CecilyP]

The books that OP describes sound as if they are designed specifically to be read via the pictures. The purpose of them is more to hammer home the high frequency words this, is, a, here, I, am, rather than to actually read the words that are illustrated. After a month in school, any school, she would be highly unlikely to be able to decode the illustrated words, (so covering the picture was bound to lead to problems) nor would she really be expected to remember those words either, though some children will. They do sound boring and I think the teacher hasn't really answered OP's question but rather side-stepped it by suggesting story books because it will be the OP rather than the DC reading these, which I am sure she does anyway.