Use the pictures for clues

[catkind]

Got DS new reading diary home, with some helpful hints on how to support reading.
First hint:
"Use the pictures for clues."

This isn't good is it? Can I say something or does that make me awful interfering parent?

I don't get it

It's not exactly phonics is it? It's something previous school were actively discouraging. Perhaps I've still not understood, but sounds like at least one of them must be wrong...

No, it's not good. Although I'm not sure how you can say something without coming across as interfering.

I'd ignore it for the moment and just hope they don't do much 1:1 or guided reading in school. Obviously you'll need to keep an eye on how he is approaching new words.

To be honest I would let it slide this once for fear of becoming "that" parent - but if similar "hints" come home which are not correct in a phonics-centred approach then it will probably be best to explain that you don't feel it is in your child's benefit to be doing what she's asking.

Is the instruction from the teacher or in the books the school sends home?
Can your son read the books without using pictures to guess? If he can I would just ignore the instruction

As a deputy headteacher in an infant school I would be shocked if a school didn't let a child look at the pictures. It is part of learning how to read and more importantly it helps a child develop a love of books.
Phonics is fantastic but it is only one skill in learning how to read. Context, pictures and discussion are also important. Whatever you do don't spoil the fun of reading by covering up the pictures. Children soon learn not to rely on them as the books progress.

But Burtrix, no one is saying covering up the pictures.

But they are saying don't see a word beginning with 'b' and decide it is banana because there is a banana in the picture, when actually it is 'box'.

Surely they need to be sounding out the phonics to decode a word, not 'using the picture as a clue'?

Not all words can be decoded using knowledge of phonics. Using the picture as a clue is a good strategy that children should be encouraged to use when coming across an unfamiliar word.

Burtrix who said the school shouldn't let the child look at the pictures?
The point is guessing words from picture clues isn't an effective reading strategy so it's not one we should teach or encourage.
I'm really shocked that someone who Is a deputy head of an infant school isn't aware of the content of the National Curriculum.

Emmmie what words can't be decoded using phonics?

Using pictures to guess words is just that - guessing. How many years of the new reading curriculum would teachers like to elapse before they actually deign to follow what is very clearly and legally set out? Come on!

I wonder if it's the same reading diary we got.

I was very suprised to see the new home reading diary full of hints such as "encourage children to: look at the picture, look at the starting letter, reread and make their best guess, stretch the word, read on."

We are well past that stage anyway (DS can definitely read his chapter books without looking and guessing from any picture), so I didn't think those particular tips were relevant to us anyway.

The reading diary (which is the same for all children in reception, Y1 and Y2) is from a company called Kluwell, and from googling it I found they are used in Australia and NZ, so might not be in correspondence with the latest UK curriculum.

Although, from talking with his teacher, I got the impression that the point of the diary is to keep a daily record with comments on every book they read, so that they get rewards after 25 days, 50 days, etc. More to encourage daily reading rather than anything else.

It's a bit confusing though. Not sure whether they are advocating guessing or not, and cannot really say that I ever got that advise from his teacher when DS was in reception.

Will ignore it. And ignore my interfering urges. (And maybe see if I can volunteer for hearing kids read to help in a more constructive way.)

Doesn't sound like the same one Ellle, though along the same lines - ours was just a photocopied school one. In isolation I'd hope they'd just not looked and updated it in the last x years. I'm not convinced in this case though, we've had other reasons to believe they're not 100% behind phonics.

Not concerned about DS, he's a strong reader and doesn't need to guess. I doubt they'll manage to derail DD either, she is well launched on phonics. But ... one wonders what other parts of the NC they randomly ignore.

Catkind - 'our' school is patchy on phonics. I do volunteer to hear the children read. It is very frustrating! Listening to a child who is struggling, sounding out muh-a-nuh and quite understandably failing to realise that the word is man. What do you do? You can't really tell them to do it differently than their teacher says. Rather than explicitly telling anyone to say mmmm-a-nnn when sounding out (I have to suppress the urge!) all I can do is model it that way and hope that the child will eventually cotton on.
Also watching a child's confidence disappear as they get non-phonics books. Watching them move to guessing and all sorts of strategies, because the books are made that way.
Also realising that some parents clearly see what is happening, and whenever their child has read all the phonics books and is moved on to the non-phonics books, they are suddenly moved up a level/supplying their own books/refusing to read the school books. Because the parent has taken action. Whereas the children whose parents aren't as involved/don't know about phonics, have no one providing that corrective input. Are left struggling, confidence and enjoyment of reading dropping.

What I'm saying: It is possible to make a LITTLE bit of a difference by volunteering in a school with bad phonics teaching. But it is very frustrating because your hands are tied, and you end up watching the effects of bad teaching unfold in front of your eyes, powerless to do anything about it.

Overall and in hindsight I'd say that if you want to DO something, perhaps suggest to the school that a parent session 'introduction to phonics' would be brilliant. Or some information leaflets. If the leaflets provide the right kind of info, then the parents will at least be providing some corrective input at home when reading with the kids.

But in your situation maybe best to wait and see for a little while yet. May still turn out that their phonics teaching is brilliant.

As long as the child is looking to the picture for clues as to what the story is about, how characters feel, what might happen next etc then it isn't a problem.
It only become a problem if children are encouraged to use the picture to guess at what the word might say.

Why should using pictures as clues to help with decoding a word be such a bad thing?

Is this not simply being realistic?

Lots of English letters have more than one possible pronunciation (like a in 'an - any, swan - swam, fat - father'). Children are taught the different sounds for them in phonics lessons, but they don't always remember them all, because over 60 letters and letter combinations have more than one sound. So children can easily get stuck.

If an adult is around s/he can help, but encouring children to try and decode for themselves using other clues (pictures, context, other letters in the word) is surely not really a bad thing?

With English spelling being what it is, the idea that only pure phonics is good enough is simply daft.

If u want to understand a bit better why children sometimes get confused, even with the world's most excellent phonics teaching, have a look at the different ways we use the letter o.
On the left u have the main graphemes in which o occurs, on the right u have words in which they spell other sounds:

o (on) only other tomb woman

-o (go) do
o-e (bone) done move

oa (road) broad

oo (food) brooch flood good

ou (out) mould couple group could

ow (now) slow

It takes a while for this kind of jumble to become sorted in children's heads. Using some props to help them cope is really not stupid at all.

Why would a picture help to decode a word masha?

Real life example from yesterday

Child read "dad put the fish on the /d/ /i/ /sh/ ( looked at picture and said ) plate" helpful?

How would a picture clue help you decode only, other, tomb, do, done, move, broad etc?
They might help if you are reading old fashioned non phonics beginner readers that are designed to work that way. i.e. very few words on the page, lots of repetition, the only difficult words are nouns and they have deliberate picture clues.

Thank heavens you are knowledgeable about reading instruction, catkind Others might have taken marsha seriously!

I'm curious to know if there were any other dire 'tips' in this reading diary?

Are you going to have a quiet word with your DC's teacher to see if they agree with the advice given in the diary?

Decoding should always be encouraged as the first strategy.
But English is not decodable in a straightforward way, in the sense of each spelling having just one pronunciation - especially for vowels. If it was, nothing but decoding would ever be needed.

Children do look for clues when stuck and they can't remember all the different possible pronunciations. Often only an adult can help them out because they can't utilise other help. But sometime pictures, context or other letters in the word do help.

I'm curious to know if there were any other dire 'tips' in this reading diary?
Sorry to disappoint, but the rest are fine, no. 2 is to sound out and blend and the rest are more about comprehension.

More concerning is the lack of phonics books being sent home - none in year 1, whatever stage they're at. Emphasis on reading books over and over so they can "read them from memory" (their words). Deputy head talking about "a range of strategies" when we first visited. Some other little hints, nothing concrete, and they do talk about phonics too.

Meita, that does sound dispiriting. I'm hoping I've just picked up the wrong impression from a few tidbits and volunteering will reassure me not worry me more!

As I say, not really concerned about my kids as they are solid readers. But y'know, the quicker the rest of the class can learn to read, the quicker they can all get on to more interesting stuff.

Do you think ofsted would notice and pick up this sort of thing? Or would it be too minor to worry them? Probably due one in the next year. It does feel like the school could do with a new head small rocket up the behind.

The Lead HMI at a conference I went to stared that one of the first things they would look for in terms of early readers would be decodable books closely matched to their phonics attainment.

Wonder how their phonics results are? Ds's school is in RI because of phonics results and writing outcomes.

We had Ofsted last year and lead inspector wanted me to walk her through our reading scheme and how they matched our phonics instructions. The inspectors listened to a number of children from selected classes read and asked them how they would tackle unknown words.

Oh Feenie , I don't think you need to worry about their phonics results. I expect the HT says that good readers often fail the phonics test because they want to make sense of the nonsense words.