Sythetic phonics hell: any KS1 teachers/parents with soothing words?

[Notnowcato]

So, DS2 is learning to read. He loves books. We read them together ever day. Lots of them. All sorts. Just as my DD and DS1 did.

He has 'learned' quite a few words because he recognises them. He makes others up, from context. The story moves along. He 'reads' aloud with expression and he laughs at the jokes. This is at home. At school, he crumples into tears in front of 'b-a-t' and says he can't do it and he's rubbish at reading. [I know because I help in the classroom.]

So I say to the teacher: "What are we doing here. We are destroying his love of stories. Why do we have to do synthetic phonics? You [teacher] and I didn't learn to read like this. My older daughter (now 12, level 6 reading and writing in Year 6 and is currently at the top of her 'Accelerated Reader scheme in Year 7) didn't learn to read like this. Leave him with me (he reads at home to me every day, I read to him every day). By the time he is in year 2 he will be reading fine." But no. She says he must sound out words so that he "understands" them. But he doesn't understand 'the cat sat on the mat' because he is crying. He does understand Alan Ahlberg's Crazy Fox stories because he tells me all about the silly fox and the lovely dog for hours afterwards.

Now were I being cynical (who me?), I might say that the teacher is more concerned with getting my son to 'pass' his phonics test at the end of the year, than she is in keeping the love of reading alive in him.

Thank you for the space to vent! [I hasten to add that I say nothing to undermine the teacher in front of my son, either at home or at school. We read his Read Write Inc. level 1 books very quickly and then go on to more interesting books.]

More practically, what can less angry parents/sympathetic teachers suggest about how I tackle this, given that my darling boy has another two terms of this teacher to endure. I really think that he is starting to hate reading at school. I really don't care if he fails his phonics test, I just want him to enjoy reading as much as his siblings do.

I'm just happy that he is being shown both methods And is now reading where he wasn't at the start of yr1. They are probably teaching both to him, but I do know that he can now read and for example, but as yet does not get blending (although I am sure he will).

It can appear to be a quick fix for struggling readers ...

I agree there are some unsavoury posts on this thread. But not from most posters who are managing to be perfectly civil. It's not that hard.

I found mrz to be polite when I asked a question. I think that the people being accused of bullying behaviour have offered accurate and helpful information. As for the argument about parents/staff. I'm both. Does this preclude me from answering a question here, should I stick to staff boards? I don't think so personally.

OP if you share lots of books and enjoy reading at home then your child's enthusiasm will not be dampened. If you want to help with phonics then can I suggest start with CVC words and use letter cards to make it into a game.

This for example

bogglesworldesl.com/cvc_wordsbingo.htm

I'm really sorry but I don't count arguing with marsha as a 'squabbling with an expert'. She is not an expert in the teaching of reading; she's an 'expert' in pointing out the problems with English spelling. This may be reassuring for parents who are worried about their children's progress but it's not much help in solving their problems. It always seems more like discouragement.

. I guess time will tell and maybe his is age related and it was just the right time for him to read.

LePetit is not the only one making such claims as I posted something rather similar on another very recent thread.
Also, not everyone suffers the fourth grade dip. By the time I could read fluently I had only ever been taught using flash cards. I remained the top of my classes throughout my schooling.
It's my suspicion that G&T children often benefit less from phonics than other students. Even thirty years of teaching will only encounter on average 1 student in the top 0.1% of IQ range, so no amount of classroom experience makes for expertise. I've almost certainly met more highly gifted people as adults at university than any teacher here has taught in their class.
If anyone has any research on the matter, I am happy to read it.

Presumably these highly gifted adults didn't require reading instruction ...?

I learned at age 2. My mum was supporting my older brother by attaching flash cards to their relevant objects. I also had lots of books available. No other instruction. I am not alone in this.

I do find the dispute over phonics teaching a bit bizarre in view of the fact that in many countries all children are taught to read with phonics as a matter of course and no-one thinks twice about it. G & T children have a much right to be explicitly taught the body of knowledge they need to become skilled readers as do other children; there's no compelling reason for them to be expected to work it out for themselves.

The whole word/phonics debate is a peculiarly 'English' phenomenom (though the French have it too), accentuated by the fact that the English Language is widespread and much reading research is concentrated on learning to read English.

This might put it into perspective for some people:

gsc.up.univ-mrs.fr/gsite/Local/lpc/dir/ziegler/article/1996.BRMIC.ziegler.pdf

Oh, I'll try that link again:

gsc.up.univ-mrs.fr/gsite/Local/lpc/dir/ziegler/article/1996.BRMIC.ziegler.pdf

Me too. I picked up some sounds and worked the rest of the code out for myself, after my mother took some initial advice from a remedial teacher who taught struggling readers failed by sight reading using phonics.

Goodness, there's a lot I don't know about learning to read.

Sorry for silence I was at a governors' meeting last night and suddenly it has become rather clear what is going on in my son's classroom. Our RAISEOnline data shows a potential hole in boys reading in DS2's class ... so the iron fists are out!!

Chandon: you are no doubt right that my son is picking up my negativity. So I will attempt to rebuild that particular mess. Luckily, the teacher concerned is brilliant at art and drama, both of which DS2 loves so neither of us has a problem being enthusiastic about her teaching of things other than phonics.

Of course he can read 'b-a-t', and even 'bat', straight off, but he now seems to associate spelling-out with pain! I am sure that this is a teaching fault and not a fault with phonics but I suppose I am baffled because neither of my previous children seemed to register the spelling-out stage of reading and so I'm coming to it for the first time and I can't really understand why in learning to read as in nothing else in life 'one size' has to fit all.

Catkind: thank you for those suggestions. I will try the logical progression you describe and perhaps let school concentrate on the phonics for a bit so we have other kinds of reading/word exploration at home.

As I said, my main aim is to keep the love of reading alive in him. We are a bookish family (I normally have three or four books on the go around the house, DD loves crosswords/wordsearches etc, both older children choose books above electronic games for car journeys, I work in publishing, husband in academia etc.) and I have no long-term worries for DS2's relationship with the written word, as long as he is not put off reading for life.

But, anyway, all your comments have shown me the folly of dismissing the phonic approach out of hand and so I will return to the fray a little more phonically aware and respectful. (But you can't really blame me; I was part of the great 1970s ITA experiment: anyone remember that??!!! We had many, many fluent readers in our school but no-one could spell ...)

My son was reading before the age of two with no instruction Micksy ...wish someone had taught him phonics for his spelling

In my experience, gifted and talented children would much rather be left with a book about the solar system or human anatomy than biff and chip. In my own words, on my first day at school, "I don't want to play in the sand pit. I want a book!"
Let's let people who want to read, read.
I googled the fourth grade dip in literacy and it appeared to be about economic wealth and disadvantage, not phonics.

I learnt to read without flash cards or any formal instruction ... I'm not sure how old I was but it was long before I started school at age 4 ... However I'm not really sure how it's relevant to the debate

Just as an aside, my sister lives in Sweden. And we all know how much we admire Swedish teaching practices. We all have probably heard, too, how well the Swedes teach reading with the result they have simply marvellous levels of literacy in the first few years of formal education, which of course starts much later than ours.

What we hear less of is that Swedish is an ENTIRELY phonetic language. Once you have learned your letters, you know how to pronounce any word that you see printed and you know exactly how to spell any word that you hear ... My nieces early postcards to us (written in English but using Swedish letter sounds) were masterpieces of a precocious form of Esperanto!

I think one of the problems we English twist ourselves into knots over learning to read is that it might, actually, be harder to learn to read English than it is to read many other languages.

Yes, I remember ITA. One of my cousins had the misfortune of being at a school which used it.

Thankfully now there is much more evidence on what actually works, and far less chance of methods which fail more children being allowed in to classrooms.

But who said they would ever hold back a child who could read already? That's an abhorrent idea to any decent teacher. The new curriculum insists that children should be reading books which precisely match their decoding ability. That's the opposite of holding children back!

As a secondary teacher, I can assure you that phonics has not eradicated bad spellings.

I'm really confused why he's getting upset over the word bat if he can read it with ease.

Why do you think the fourth grade dip is invoked? It is to warn, your child may read well now, but without further phonics education they will fail in a few years.
I don't find this either supportive or true.

I was chucked out of Reception after a day because I could read (and write). Like mrz, I'm not sure how relevant the 70s are to the debate

Perhaps that's because so many schools are continuing to promote sight reading instead

ITA has little to do with current teaching methods but lots to do with Masha's spelling reform aims