Can someone tell me all about reading schemes? Particularly Rigby.

[Mumoftwoyoungkids]

Dd is just 4 and in the nursery (FS1) class of the school she will go to in September.

The kids have all just been assessed ready for school and as dd knows her phonics, seems to "get" letter blending and is absolutely desperate to read (she takes it very personally that she can't read and her older cousins can!) school have started sending her home with a reading book.

She is very proud of herself!

Just wanted advice on how the whole reading scheme thing works. The books have a level right? Are all the books at that level the same difficulty or do you work though a level getting a teeny bit harder with each book? Are there lots of books per level orcould we run out? How many times should I get her to read the book before we change it? I was planning on changing twice a week to give us some structure (which both she and I like). Is that too often or not often enough? Should I read it to her first or get her to do it herself? They seem to be about the right level - she can read it but it takes a little effort. When is the right time to move to a different level?

How many levels are there?

The books seem to be Rigby rather than ORT which most people on here have adding to my confusion. Does anyone else know Rigby?

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We find there are easier and harder books within a level, particularly if your school use more than one reading scheme. In our school at least there's no "order" for reading the books within a level, the children choose from a box. It's quite nice to have variation in difficulty level so one week you can practice fluency with an easy book and the next week work on some new sounds/words with a harder one.

Don't read it to her first, let her try and help out with any sounds she finds difficult.

How many books there are per level depends how many your school own; our school had level 1 and 2 by the hundred, I suspect they didn't have many level 3 as DS kept bringing home the same ones.

I think just see how your DD gets on with books how often you want to change them. With the easier books we found DS didn't want to read it more than once or twice so we were changing 3 times a week or more. But sometimes a book would have something to make or he particularly liked it so he'd want to keep it longer. Now he's getting longer books he's reading a few pages at a time and we're changing less often.

Moving to a new reading level is one of those Things. I tend to wait till DS is needing help with at most one or two words in each book, reading fluently, secure in all the phonics. Then wait a few more weeks to see if school pick it up and move him up a level. Then get a bit bored and ask his teacher if she thinks it might be time for a new level. The first two times she agreed and moved him up, the third time she didn't (but then started sending books several levels harder anyway), so I think I wasn't far off.

Enjoy, it's amazing watching them learn!

Rigby and ORT do follow tthe same system, even if their color coding is different. They'll call them Levels or Stages, but all correspond to NC book bands. Reading chest will give you an overview, or ORT website has a chart explaining it.
ORT books, other than songbirds and floppy phonics tend to be non-phonetic even in the earlier stages, which is why I don't really like them.
How many books per week really depends on your daughter. Same with reading the book more than once - let her if she wants to.
If she is eager - ask nursery to give you more than 2 books/ week. Or just use other books - e.g. as you read picture books to her, let her read the easier words and try some more challenging ones.

Just see how she goes. Don't rush it, she's only just 4, so go at her pace. Jelly and Bean or Dandelion readers are great at this stage, then there are the Julia Donaldson Songbirds. Have no experience of Rigby. It depends on the child, but DD wasn't really ready for books at just 4, although she knew her sounds. We just had fun blending and "reading" words at home eg "c-a-t", "d-o-g". Got her onto books at 4 and a bit, found that jelly and bean got us quite a long way, then when she started YR she moved onto the school RWI scheme www.amazon.co.uk/Read-Write-Inc-Phonics-Storybooks/dp/0198462530/ref=sr_1_5?s=books&ie=UTF8&qid=1401126040&sr=1-5&keywords=RWI+books+green- you can buy them very cheap if you so desire! She's now, towards the end of YR well on the way towards fluent reading, just starting on Horrid Henry .

Older Rigby are Look & Say I'm afraid and Rigby Star Phonics have been replaced/renamed in the UK by Phonic Bug

Thanks all - this is brilliant info. It's all very exciting! I am obsessed with books so am very happy that she is starting on the journey that will open up worlds to her.

mrz I've had a look and I think it is a Rigby Star Phonics book. What does that mean? (Other than it is an old book!)

It means they are much better than ORT for beginner readers.

A "phonics" book simply means that most of the words are phonetic as opposed to sight words or tricky words.

eg.
sand - phonetic - sound it out and you will hear the word
the - sight word or tricky word - say /t/ /h/ and /e/ it does not sound like "the" this word can't be decoded, just has to be learnt.

BUT if you child has been taught that /t/ and /h/ make a /th/ sound then the word is less "tricky" to read

Read the back cover of the book - does it say which sound/s are being focused on?
The sounds are generally taught in a particular order, depending on which phonics scheme the school uses. I would ask the teacher to give you a copy of the order of the sounds that are being taught.

sorry if you already know this - I am a teacher, I can go on about phonics for ever!

Oh - they are quite fun. Thanks.

All words are phonetic even tricky words and those some teachers call and teach as sight words.

Cross posted there pink

That makes sense but I didn't already know it IYSWIM so very useful. The books do list the phonics (or rather letters as they are very early ones!)

Asking for a list is a really good idea. I'm always a bit nervous about asking for that type of thing as dd is very early in her school career and I don't want to appear a pushy middle class mum with nothing better to do than obsess about her child's academic achievement (probably because Iam a pushy middle class.......)

Rigby introduce the sounds in Letters & Sounds order - s-a-t-i-p-n-m-d-g-o-c-k

Children should be taught that there are 44 sounds in English (but 180ish common ways to spell these)
a sound can be spelt using 1,2,3 or 4 letters
some sounds have more than one spelling
one spelling can represent more than one sound
how to combine sounds to read a word and how to split a word into separate sounds for spelling
how to form the letters correctly

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