"Look at the picture and imagine what the words are."

[Barbeasty]

I'm starting to get concerned about just what DD (4, in reception) is being taught for reading.

At parents' evening a few months ago her teacher came up with a few things which niggled- firstly the classic "it's mostly our good readers who fail the phonics test in year 1", and then saying that they want the children to start just reading words without sounding them out.

Tonight DD was reading a book and said "Look at the picture and imagine what the words are." She then proceeded to guess various words wrong- the for her, and lots of guesses with the ook ending but wrong first letter for cook and look.

Apart from reading with her and strongly encouraging her to sound words out, is there anything else we should be doing?

Her teacher is head of KS1, but not head of literacy. SATs results have been steadily dropping. DD has been bringing home higher level red ort or equivalent books (1 per week.)

If you want to get more decodabke books - DD2 really liked this one by Julia Donaldson, and the following levels too.

I taught her phonics before YR and she started school reading like an adult - w/out sounding out most words.
However, when she does see an unfamiliar word, it is Phonics that she uses to decode it.

www.amazon.co.uk/gp/aw/d/0192792970/ref=mp_s_a_1_2?qid=1427730628&sr=8-2&pi=AC_SY200_QL40&keywords=julia+donaldson+songbirds&dpPl=1&dpID=51YKHmaYu5L&ref=plSrch#

www.thebookpeople.co.uk/webapp/wcs/stores/servlet/qs_product_tbp?productId=218821&storeId=10001&catalogId=10051&langId=100&searchTerm=songbirds £16.99 for 36 books

Papermover - just wanted to thank you for the sounds-write app reccomendation. Its perfect and just what I've been searching for! Thank you if you have any good maths apps reccomendations please share!

Sorry for slight hijack op- I think you've had some brilliant advice though, I'd definitely buy some resources and start at home.

Thanks all.

I've downloaded the app recommended by papermover, and set up a reading chest subscription this morning.

I did look at the book people, but I think being able to get a wide range of books without the repetition will be good- DD has a good memory and will remember what a book says once she's read it, rather than actually re-reading it iyswim.

Even if the things said by DD and her teacher are red herrings, it can only be beneficial to do the extra reading.

These are the books that match the Sounds~Write programme perfectly www.phonicbooks.co.uk/ibooks.php the first unit is free then £3.99 for the other units. I'm not sure how much Reading Chest is but I would recommend these over most schemes.

Papermover the Dandelion books are available now as apps and are written by Sounds Writer trainers so compliment the programme.

The seven units (28 books) cover the whole initial code and having looked at Reading Chest are much cheaper.

We use Sounds Write across the school (nursery to Y6) with good results (some children have made 5 years gain in reading age in under a year).

Looking at those books DD knows the sounds they cover.

They have used phonics- they used Jolly Phonics resources, but covered the sounds in the order from Letters and Sounds. Looking at the Letters and Sounds website I think they've done level 3.

DD looked at the word night and said it was too difficult, but when I got her to sound it out she got n, then when I covered the n and t she got igh straight away, and could then blend to get night. I'd say she isn't secure when a sound is made of more than 1 letter.

I've signed up to reading chest now, so I'll see how it goes. (Plus the Ipad is my work one, so not sure how much access I want to give her.)

The books cover exactly the same content as the Sounds Write app ...

The ibooks go up to level 7, so ll, ss etc. Beyond that you have to buy the proper books so it becomes more expensive. The app is free for levels 1-3 then either £1.99 for all the remaining levels or £1.49 for each of 4-8 and 9-13.

I'd already signed up to reading chest when I saw your post about the books, so I might see how that goes for now. The first set of books arrived yesterday (day after signing up), and DD was very excited and wanted to read them.

Since they have been teaching phonics, just along side other methods and possibly less than enthusiastically, I'm hoping that reading lots of phonics based books with DD and really pushing sounding things out rather than looking and guessing or using the pictures, will be enough.

If she loves the app (haven't had a chance to use it yet) then I may get the books too to reinforce it.

Letters and sounds on line and phonics play are good. Print tricky words and play snap pairs - u can get tricky word snakes and ladders - or contact dept if education fir a copy of the phonics books in schools they`re free

Sounds Write also publish their own books (slightly more challenging IMHO). I'm a huge fan of the programme and we've seen massive progress -children complete non readers at the beginning of reception to fluent confident readers by the end.