Help: phonics v sight reading -differing views (long sorry)

[fizzly]

DS starts reception in Sep. Is currently in school nursery and is fairly forward on his reading through no major encouragement from me/DH. It is just 'his thing'. He has always had a phenomenal memory and knew all his letters and many words by sight from 3 onwards. He loves books and has taken the lead on wanting to read more so I've gone with it but have always been a bit anxious about going against what school will do when he gets there. I read up on phonics, and I buy into the concept.

Fast forward to now (4.5yrs) and he is reading pretty well (ORT stage 6 or so, can read things like Mr Men without too much challenge). However he is definitely doing a lot by sight. When he gets to an unfamiliar word he'll guess based on the starting sound / the pictures etc. When reminded by me he'll sound out and is ok at doing so but not brilliant (because any teaching on phonics has mostly come from me and I'm no expert so my teaching has been patchy at best). When he reads with DH/ DMIL or others they'll do it for him, won't remind him to sound out, so he gets away with his guesses iyswim. I'm not at all worried about his reading long term - I'm sure he's part of the 80% for whom 'mixed methods' will work just fine, however I have a shorter term issue which is what happens when he is in reception. As he has been way ahead of some (not all) nursery peers, the school nursery had a go at putting him (and a couple of others) into reception for phonics sessions (RWI). This started about 3 months ago. I found out this week that he has been "bored" in these lessons because he is "learning by sight" and that "this is clearly just the way he will learn to read and that's fine". This from the school literacy coordinator - who will be his class teacher from September. I am worried about this. I do think that he needs a solid grounding in phonics to be able to sound out (without being reminded to do so) when he encounters new words and it bothers me that the literacy coordinator things that sight reading is ok at this point. Am I right / wrong / worrying about nothing? If I'm right how do I diplomatically put my concerns to the teacher? We are right at the start of our school journey and I do not want to piss people off. Any advice?

You're right he needs to be sounding out not guessing. You should be able to persuade DH of that at least - I don't think I succeeded with the older generation. That is not a good sign coming from a literacy coordinator and I think Ofsted will have things to say.

I would say a couple of things:

Reading words at sight is not in itself a bad thing. The aim in the long term is for everything to be read at sight (phonics enthusiasts prefer the term "automatically" to avoid confusing it with whole-word-learning-at-sight). By level 6 I'd expect your DS to be not spelling out many words aloud unless they're new or particularly difficult.

My DS had a guessing phase at a stage when school started sending home books that were too hard for him. There were too many new sounds coming at him, so guessing was working better/quicker than phonics. So maybe go back a stage or two so the sounds are almost all ones he is confident with and sounding out is an easier strategy again.

If he's ORT 6 then my guess is he's bored in Reception phonics sessions because he already knows the sounds they're learning. So he will seem to the teacher to be knowing the words at sight, even if he originally learned them phonically.

Thanks catkind. DH totally agrees with me fortunately but (due to time/patience issues) tends to just 'do it for him' rather than remind him to sound out etc, which is a shame. MIL is a different issue and will just congratulate DS on a good guess, which I don't agree with!

Words that DS might find difficult now are things like (from today's evening books): 'extraordinary' and other (simpler) multi part words like 'cheerfulness' or 'courage'. But he can occasionally stumble on much simpler words (especially with an 'le' ending) and will often be distracted by what's in the picture so will obviously be guessing wrong words just because of the picture but when reminded to slow down and read the words properly will get it right. This might be normal - I just don't know!!

Frankly as a non expert I haven't the first idea how to tackle any of this! We've enjoyed reading 'simpler' books recently but he then gets very frustrated if asked comprehension-type questions - because it feels like we are labouring the point on something that he just gets quite easily.

I've found that what DS teacher means by comprehension is a lot more interesting than what we had when we were at school i.e. regurgitating bits of text to check you've understood. More "what do you think happens next", "what is x character feeling", "why did the author use this word". Sorry if you'd picked that up already but if not it might help making comprehension more interesting. The other thing they're big on is reading with expression.

Hello WiganandSalford (I'm from your part of the world originally, and it is nice to hear a familiar accent!!). I agree and I'm not really worried. I am confident that he'll be reading well soon. I'm from a family of early readers (by all accounts) but I just don't want it to be an issue in the short term. I can see him getting bored next year if he gets the message that it is ok for him not to engage with phonics.

See, DD was an early reader, but loves her phonics sessions. She is in Reception and does Phase 5 letters and sounds with y2. It is helping her spelling lots. Maybe when he is in Reception he will see the point to phonics.

DS1 learnt to read early. I taught him basic phonics, he worked out how to blend them and he was away - reading Harry Potter by 5. But most of his later knowledge was definitely picked up by learning sight words.
This meant he gradually forgot his original (minimal) phonics knowledge. His reading age remained several years ahead through primary, but his spelling age was consistently below.
Then when he was in about year 4 the school introduced phonics lessons right through the school. His spelling age now (in year 7) is a year ahead. I made the mistake of stopping reading with him regularly in year 3, and because at that point he had no proper phonics base he learnt to read words with some really strange pronunciations. It took me ages to work out what a /r/ /i/ /f/ /le/ was when he used to talk about them, rather than a /r/ /ie/ /f/ /le/. He is slowly improving on working on sounding out new words rather than just reading them and not knowing what they really say (although knowing the meaning, if that makes sense).
So personally I would agree with you, get the school to give him a solid phonics grounding. He should fly through the initial sounds - DS3 is on orange band and is working with year 1 on phonics so reception phonics probably won't be the right level for your DS, but it may be worth the school giving him a thorough screening when he comes in to check that he knows all the initial sounds before moving him onto the 'correct' level.

Not really sure what you're worried about, he will get the same phonics sessions as others in reception so he will just use both methods. If he is getting bored then it's his teachers responsibility to cater for his needs.

Every time I think of this I get more nervous. I try my best with DD who is interested in reading and often says she wants to learn to read, but 2 years of Jolly Phonics at nursery seem to have sucked dry any interest she might have had in sounding out or exploring words.

I have to really sit on my hands when she 'guesses' a word without sounding it out - if she points at a word and says "that says 'ROAD', doesn't it?" every instinct I have is to say "That's right, well done!" rather than "Hmm, you're guessing aren't you? Now tell me what sounds are in that word and point to the different sounds as you go." The usual response is "No! I don't want to!" and she gets really frustrated.

She's nowhere near 'reading' at 4, but not praising word recognition of any sort is something I'm finding really hard. When we ditch the sounding out and just read the book, she does pretty well - "I can see a dog" sort of level, but she wouldn't say "I c/a/n s/ee a d/o/g" IYSWIM.

Sorry for thread hijack, I'm just glad to know that other people are having similar issues (though your DCs are well ahead of mine)!

I am so relieved to hear that you are in support of your son learning phonics - the alphabetic code - even though he is clearly exceptional at recalling whole words and making sense of texts in reading material.

Phonics is for life - and children either need to learn it (to be taught explicitly) or deduce it for themselves - but the latter approach is one which does not guarantee reading and spelling in a more advanced form.

The worry is that teachers who specialise in infant and early primary teaching may be unaware of longer term consequences of considering that some children don't need comprehensive phonics teaching because they are up and running with their reading and writing without it, or ahead of the planned phonics teaching - or fall into the category of children who have different learning styles and other such explanations.

There may well be times when your son is bored at school in the sense that the planned phonics is so easy for him or he knows it already - or he reads in advance of the phonics being introduced - but hang on in there because he will benefit from it ultimately and certainly his spelling and handwriting will probably be well-served.

Over the years I have had a very broad experience of primary teaching - plus having four children of my own - and tutoring many children - and this includes the kind of children like your son who romped ahead with their own natural ability to read beyond what one might expect. I found, however, that when re-introduced to some rigorous phonics teaching in later years, not only did their spelling improve notably, so also did their capacity to read longer, more complicated words.

This profile of children can also become very frustrated when reading material 'content' starts to stretch beyond their oral vocabulary - therefore, they do not have any 'words' in their head to support them through a more guesswork/common sense form of reading. Sometimes, then, skipping words becomes the default mechanism because they can still get the gist of the text so comprehension levels are still high. If you delve deeper, however, they are avoiding taking on new vocabulary because applying phonics code and blending through the word is too much bother after years of easily reading various texts.

Also, the more alphabetic code that children understand as discrete units, the easier it is for them to be attentive to the details in the words which will help with spelling.

I would not worry for your son because you yourself are very mindful and respectful of the need to know the alphabetic code for reading and spelling. Many parents in your position (with early readers) don't see the point of phonics as their children are reading so well 'without' the phonics input.

What you could add to his reading material is what I call 'plain' texts - that is, with no picture cues.

Write him some stories with interesting ambitious words - ambitious in the sense of their meaning and/or their complexity of structure/code - so that he needs to attend to the phonics - and you can teach him any part of the alphabetic code at any time - you are not restricted.

All the best!

Don't worry a jot, Fizzly, but at some point u will hav to explain to him that he is exceptionally lucky in his ability to learn to read so easily and does not have to go through all the phonic stages most children need.

As Catkin said, The aim (of all reading instruction) in the long term is for everything to be read at sight - as we all do now.

Most children benefit from being taken to that stage in a methodical, plodding way, starting with basic phonics, then being introduced to other sounds for all the main spellings (man - many, on - only, etc.).

Because 69 English spellings have more than one sound (see list further down) phonics beyond the basic level, involves a lot of word level work anyway.
It is questionable whether children learn to read the likes of 'on - only, once, other, woman, women, who' by simply meeting them repeadedly in their phonics lessons or if they really learn the the different sounds for o and then go through them in their head when meeting new words .

My daughter learned to read pretty well by age 4 in much the same way that your son is doing and never proved a handicap of any kind.
I would not make a meal of any words your son stumbles over. Give him a few seconds to try and work it out. If he gives u the right first letter, just ask him to look at the rest carefully and sound it out for him.

The following list shows why phonics, in the sense of sounding out and blending letters into words, is by no means simple in English.
Many graphemes/spellings have more than one pronunciation. That's why phonics is an essential but not exclusive way of learning to read. Children need to practise word recognition as well.
The first word after each spelling gives u the main sound for it. - After the dash are examples of other sounds for it.
a: and – any, father, apron
a-e: gave – have
ai: wait – said, plait
al: always – algebra
-all: tall - shall
are: care - are
au: autumn - mauve
augh: daughter - laugh
ay: pays - says

cc: success - soccer
ce: centre - celtic
ch: chop –chorus, choir, chute
cqu: acquire - lacquer

e: end – English
-e: the - he
ea: mean - meant, break
ear: ear – early, heart, bear
-ee: tree - matinee
e-e: even – seven, fete
ei: veil - ceiling, eider, their, leisure
eigh: weight - height
eo: people - leopard, leotard
ere: here – there, were
-et: tablet - chalet
eau: beauty – beau

• ew: few - sew
• ey: they - monkey

ge: get - gem
-ger: anger - danger
gi: girl - ginger
gy: gym – gymkhana
ho: house - hour
i: wind – wind down, ski, hi-fi

• ine: define –engine, machine

ie: field - friend, sieve imb: limb – climb ign: signature - sign mn: amnesia - mnemonic

ost: lost - post
-o: go - do
oa: road - broad
o-e: bone – done, gone
-oes: toes – does, shoes
-oll: roll - doll
omb: tombola - bomb, comb, tomb
oo: boot - foot, brooch
-ot: despot - depot
ou: sound - soup, couple
ough: bough - rough, through, trough, though
ought: bought - drought
oul: should - shoulder, mould
our: sour - four, journey
ow: how - low

qu: queen – bouquet
s: sun – sure
sc: scent - sceptical, luscious
-se: rose - dose
ss: possible - possession
th: this - thing
-ture: picture - mature
u: cup – push
ui: build – fruit, ruin
wa: was – wag
wh: what - who
wo: won - woman, women, womb
wor: word – worn
x: box - xylophone, anxious

• y-: type - typical
• -y: daddy – apply

z: zip – azure

Masha Bell