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?

[Feenie]

You're right. Means a lot to our children who both can read and have a love of reading though.

Still at the idea of someone who claims to know nothing about current research telling me to broaden my horizons!

[tinytalker]

I never claimed to know nothing of current research!!??
I read, I assimilate, I try it out, if it works I embrace it, if it's crap I ditch it!
Simple. Try it, it's empowering.

[bronya]

The PM starters are pink level books, which focus on teaching children high frequency words by repeating them over and over (and over!) until they know them. If you are getting these now, you'll keep getting them until she knows the repeated words (A... This is a.....) - the picture gives the last word in the sentence.

When schools do this, the actual phonics they have been learning won't be of much (if any) use until she reaches the higher book bands. Some children give up trying to sound out words at this point, because the sounds they have been learning don't 'work' to help them read these books. To help her get through this stage, write each repeated word on a bit of card. Use these as flash cards to help her memorize the words. Whenever she gets a new book, add those repeated word cards to the pile, and do the words daily.

MOST children will learn the 'shape' and letters of these words by sight, so will be able to remember them. SOME children need to sound them out and link the 'odd' sounds to a word. I know a child who goes t-h-e...the for example. It works for her, where trying to memorize the word as a whole failed. Now, a few months on, she just says 'the' when she sees it, but she still sounds it out to spell as t-h-e.

[CouthyMow]

I despair at hearing that nothing but phonics should be taught. My DD with SN's just COULDN'T get reading with phonics. She couldn't read her own name until she was 8yo. She learnt to read by sight reading alone, once I insisted that the school abandoned phonics with her, and got an older teacher to teach her by using look and say, she was reading within a few months.

What happens to children like my DD, who are just NEVER going to learn to read using phonics?!

[bigTillyMint]

Couthy, I have direct experience of that too. A very few children just don't seem to get on with phonics at all. So whilst I agree that we need phonics to be taught systematically and comprehensively, we do need to explore other avenues when that just doesn't work at all.

[BalloonSlayer]

My DCs' school do phonics but they also start the children with the ORT books with no words at all, so that they can work out what's happening by looking at the pictures.

All my DCs learned to read by being read to, memorising the text and the words on the page, and later recognising the same words when they saw them somewhere else. I think your DD is going down that path.

[FlirtingFail]

My DD is in year 1 at a school that was v recently graded outstanding. In reception they did use picture clues, alongside phonics - and were strongly encouraged to use them. As the year went on, the books gradually moved away from picture clues. So it's certainly not true that Picture clues have been completely phased out.

[RubySparks]

I agree not all children find phonics the best or easiest way to learn to read. Very much depends on their learning style, my son is very visual and he often read more in the pictures than I did in the text. He only got the 'little' words like an, a, the by making them in 3d using play dough, somehow that stuck when just seeing/hearing the sound did not.

[Panzee]

Oh please don't get bogged down by learning styles. If they're visual they're using their eyes it counts for text as well as the pictures. Do all the other children close their eyes to learn?

[bibbetybobbityboo]

The problem with phonics is that it has been so heavily pushed that people (the government included) seem to think that phonics is all that reading is about. This is rubbish. Phonics is important and children do need to know how to decode words they come across but the best readers have a range of strategies that they can draw on, this includes using the picture for clues, recognising words on sight, reading ahead to give context to a word etc. We teach phonics in order to enable children to access the wonderful world of literature not just to get them really good at deciphering the code. Please don't get too hung up on phonics be more concerned that the children are being taught a range of skills underpinned by phonics to enable them to access the texts they are being asked to read.

[mrz]

"Is this how children learn to read these days?"

"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."

"she started coming home with these books which are called 'PM starters' and seem to be from New Zealand? The current one is called 'A house' and each page is 'here is a' window/chimney/roof etc." - it seems the school is using RR and associated mixed methods. [cross]

No it isn't reading and certainly not how children are taught to read in most schools.

[mrz]

The theory of "Learning Styles" has been widely discredited (even Howard Gardener says he has been misunderstood) as we use different styles for different tasks and no learner relies wholy on a single style for everything.
www.opencolleges.edu.au/informed/features/multiple-intelligences-theory/

[mrz]

"The problem with phonics is that it has been so heavily pushed that people (the government included) seem to think that phonics is all that reading is about." sorry bibbetybobbityboo you are repeating nonsense ... no one has ever claimed that phonics is all there is to reading it's simply one of those good sound bites beloved by those who think all children can learn to read by osmosis.

[noblegiraffe]

The phonics test doesn't come with pictures does it? And has some made-up words that the children won't have seen before.

So if they learn to read relying on pictures and memorising, they will fail the test.

[mrz]

"No worries, I work in the private sector! We are not bound by the latest trend and we can teach the way each and every child learns best! So don't worry Feenie most of our children are +2yrs above chronological reading age." Only MOST and only TWO years and parents pay for THAT!

[Panzee]

Oh Mrz I'm so glad you're here!

I am currently seeing my 4 year old learn to read by phonics, and phonics alone. He is reading words with no pictures and understands the sentence. It's wonderful to watch. :)

[mrz]

Well done Panzee's son

[RubySparks]

Text is not the same as pictures... For text, you need to code and decode which is a different skill. Some children just learn in a different way, thank goodness we are not all the same. If your child learns easily with phonics it is hard to understand children who don't. My DS didn't read properly until he was nearly 8 and only after lots of effort, my DD (younger) learnt quickly and easily with no effort at 5. Both were on jolly phonics.

[RubySparks]

Agree that we use different learning styles for different things and often a mix but that doesn't mean these methods come with the same degree of ease for everyone.

[Migsy1]

This is how my children learnt to read - or more accurately, didn't learn to read. There are different ways to learn how to read but they all suit different children. One size does not fit all.

[m0nkeynuts]

DS learned to read using phonics but they have always been encouraged to look for 'clues' in pictures when they come across trickier words as well.

This is from the P3 (English Year 2, I think?) class newsletter under advice on how to support reading at home:

"Support reading and discuss main ideas and features of books, encouraging children to look for blends and sounds within words and use any pictures for context clues."

I remember the same advice being given in earlier years too.

[Panzee]

I've yet to teach anyone using phonics that just can't get it.

[Feenie]

Oh Mrs I'm so glad you're here

I will second that - I was beginning to think I was in some kind of alternative reality last night!

[Feenie]

Me neither, Panzee.

[Feenie]

That's poor and outdated advice now, monkeynuts - we know more about reading now.