year 1 phonics check

[SmileAndNod]

Does anyone know if this is done in the summer term, or is there no set time for it? Also what exactly is it they check? That they can decode a word rather than read? It was mentioned at the start of the year but nothing since!
Thank you

To be fair, ThreeTomatoes, lots of practice in reading is brilliant once the basic skills have been mastered. I've always been very cross about the fact that the children who need more practice are the ones least likely to get it; they 'struggle' so they are restricted to short, 'simple' texts.

However, letter/sound correspondence knowledge and sounding out and blending have to be in place before 'lots of reading' can be achieved.

I'm not sure what you class as 'basic phonics'; there are some 160 - 180 common letter/sound correspondences which have to be learned for competent reading. In my experience of working with MrsK's 20% this is the sticking point; many schools don't seem to teach much beyond the first 50 or so. Not to the 'slower to learn' anyway.

Ok, threetomatoes, apologies if I misunderstood.

Practice is of course vital alongside phonics, but not instead.

If anyone is interested, the NUT has posted an 'anti-phonics check video on youtube: tinyurl.com/q87hufl

And phonics expert, Debbie Hepplewhite, has responded to it:
tinyurl.com/q8pb4e4

Phonics philosophy does seem to think that it owns the universe, threetomatoes, you get used to it after a while.

To learn to read well using synthetic phonics instruction a child needs to learn 44 sounds and that they can be written in 176 ways. To learn to read using analytic phonics a child needs to master thousands of pieces of information (onset and rimes and whole words. To learn to read using Look & Say a child needs to memorise tens of thousands of words and to learn to read by immersion a child needs to be born extremely lucky!

Threetomatoes for the record I'm a Y1 teacher and welcome the test.

To learn to read using Look & Say a child needs to memorise tens of thousands of words

I suppose if the child wants to recite a dictionary she'd have to, yes. Funny thing is most of them don't.

I'm not sure how relevant the article you quoted is to the Phonics Check. I, personally find a lot of it is familiar and agree with it, having worked in a school for over 10 years.

However, a point to consider is that you cannot, however hard you try, release the potential of semi-literate pupils because reading and writing are essential to learning in most subjects. All the testing and monitoring (and ever earlier start to 'formal learning) is, in part, a desperate atttempt to raise 'standards' without admitting, or considering one of the root causes of poor achievement.

When MrsKCastle talks about 20% of children failing to learn to read adequately she is actually going on 'official' figures from KS2 National Curriculum Tests (SATs) which have consistently shown the percentage of children achieving a L4 (expected standard) in English to be around 80% since the early 2000s (it was lower before then). Having worked with secondary children I can assure you that even many L4s are quite insecure with reading and writing. To turn a metaphor on its head, the 20% may be the base of an iceberg but it has quite a substantial tip above the waterline.

To read a well known tabloid newspaper an adult needs to be able to read 20 000 + words CG - very basic level of literacy. Not funny at all

I suppose if the child wants to recite a dictionary she'd have to, yes.

Do you ever engage your brain before you put your mouth into gear, cg?

Oh, right. Thanks for that. I did wonder why so many of the people I went to primary school with are struggling to read The Daily Star.

Do you ever engage your brain before you put your mouth into gear, cg?

And the argument here is:

It was a rhetorical question

No it isn't! Rhetorical questions have a point. That is just a colloquial insult.

I wasn't actually arguing about anything, cg. Just asking a question.

I wasn't actually arguing about anything

hmm, so much for the rhetoric, then.

Threetomatoes - you may be interested in the various discussions, sparked by the Davis paper, in the TES opinion forum.

community.tes.co.uk/tes_opinion/f/31/t/690225.aspx?threadPi=21

This is the current one - community.tes.co.uk/tes_opinion/f/31/t/690225.aspx?pi2132219857=22

Rhetorical questions don't require answers CG and certainly aren't arguements.

We happen to think it's important that everyone learns to read and write ThreeTomatoes

Some of us are passionate because we are living with the consequences of not being taught to read properly.
My dd and I learnt to read easily like your dd. My dh didnt learn to read until he was 10 because of look and say, it has affected his adult life. He caught up after leaving school with an apprenticeship but has left scars on his mh, my ds also has spld but was taught phonics so thankfully learnt to read a lot easier, but still has other problems.
Reading is something you cant take for granted, not everyone absorbs it like my dd.
Prisons are full of functional illeterates who have never been taught to read properly.