Ahhhh reception reading books

[Pineapple5678]

DS brought home his first reading book with words 3 days ago. He was very excited and wanted to read in straight away. It was a big cat pink band by Collins I think. It was about getting dressed.
My coat
My boots
Etc but he soon got frustrated as 'my' doesnt sound as it is sounded out not that he has learnt the 'y' yet and all the other words were undecodable to him at his current level. They have learnt up to jolly phonics 'll'
Today he brings home a book about teeth and after 2 pages refuses to read it as he can't make sense of any of it with his limited knowledge.
Along the lines of
Teeth bite
Teeth grow
Clean teeth
He ended up in tears saying he couldn't do it. I of course reassured him and we read a book from home to help his confidence.

Am I right to want to go in and talk to the teach tomorrow? It seems so unfair to give him a book he can't decode and ends up guessing by looking at the pictures installing bad habits .

[mrz]

Words like my, said etc are decidable and should be taught as such.

[christinarossetti]

I would disagree on the whole ferguson. If children are being taught phonics in order to be able to read, then giving them books that they can't read is useless in terms of the task they're trying to achieve ie reading.

How did you find out how to pronounce the word 'paradigm'? Was it helpful to look for 'dig' in it, or did your knowledge of sounds/phonics help?

[temporarilyjerry]

She said they do the mixed method.

[christinarossetti]

Yes, I noticed that.

It usually means that we have a vague bash at teaching them to read then cram them with 'alien words' during the lead up to the phonics screening.

[TeacupDrama]

While words like said are decodable, there is still some just learning as you can't tell just by looking at said that it does not rhyme with paid, the "ai" sound in paid is the same as in pail, but ai in sail and said are completely different.

You will not automatically have correct pronunciation by following phonics you have to learn which particular way you pronounce the e or y etc

[Flumplet]

Haha overscented we had that too and my ds said at the end : "is that it?? Well that was a bit pointless wasn't it mummy?!!" Lol. My ds just started year R too and brings home several books every week - one or two just to enjoy being read to him (he also enjoys spotting familiar 'key words' - the, is, on, and etc) there's no hard and fast way I don't think. Why don't you read it to him and ask him to identify words he will be able to decode so he is contributing and interacting. I also don't see a problem with using the pictures as prompts - 'what colour is Sam's coat? Yes it's green, where is the word green?'

[mrz]

Of course you have to be taught that the spelling in said represents the sound /e/ .... that's phonics teaching. My class have been learning that the sound /e/ can be spelt or or this week and later will learn less common ways ( friend, any)

[mrz]

Flumplet using picture clues to read leads to inaccurate reading just imagine that the sentence said Sam had a emerald coat ... Child look and says green much easier to get child to sound out what they know and supply missing information whether that's /er/ in emerald or /ee/ in green. It empowers the child to read words rather than guess.

[Mashabell]

Linking words like 'green' to their spelling, does not have to to lead to inaccurate reading. My daughter taught herself to read mainly by linking all the many nursery rhymes she had learned by heart to their printed versions. She became an exceptionally good reader and speller that way.

Not all children can do so, including my son, but many children make excruciatingly slow progress with phonics too. Parents should not be made to believe that everything but pure phonics is evil.

Whatever phonics teachers do or claim, many children find words like 'my, said, once ...' tricky - until they have been helped to pronounce them many times, by whatever method. They take much longer to learn to read those fluently than they do 'a fat cat sat on a mat'. Calling such words 'tricky' is merely a matter of being realistic.

The faster children are able to learn to read the few hundred very high frequency tricky words like 'the, he, she, we', 'here there were', 'one, gone, done', the sooner they become fluent readers.

[mrz]

Has anyone suggested that linking green to it's spelling would lead to inaccurate reading masha?

[Mashabell]

U did above Mrz, in reply to Flumplet.

Flumpet: I also don't see a problem with using the pictures as prompts - 'what colour is Sam's coat? Yes it's green, where is the word green?'
(with which i agree.)

Mrz: using picture clues to read leads to inaccurate reading just imagine that the sentence said Sam had a emerald coat ...
I was replying to that.

[mrz]

Masha you seem to have a problem with reading accuracy perhaps you're using picture clues rather than decoding the words.

[christinarossetti]

Surely, but surely, the most effective way of teaching a child to learn how to read 'green' is to teach them the gr/ee/n sounds phonetically?

Pictures are there to enhance pleasure and enjoyment of the text rather than 'help to read' aren't they?

[Flumplet]

But that's where parent guidance comes in Mrz.... There's no harm in using pictures - if it were an 'emerald jacket' i would say to ds:"look, Sam is wearing an emerald jacket - what sound does the word emerald begin with? can you spot the word emerald on the page?' and so on. (sorry, that sounds really performance parenty, but it's working a treat with ds). It keeps him very engaged and he's learning well. I remember doing this myself as a child and it never did me any harm at all.

[mrz]

More effective parent guidance would be to demonstrate how to decode the words accurately and to provide knowledge that can be used to read other words. Suppose on the same page there is the sentence Sam has an elegant, expensive, exquisite jacket. Are you going to say what's the second sound? Much simpler to teach him to read than guess.
Initial letters and picture clues are ineffective strategies.

[Flumplet]

Im not suggesting otherwise, but at first term of reception, I don't think that children are expected to be able to decode more complex words. I'm going to maintain that a combination of both approaches is perfectly acceptable, and in my experience works really well.

[mrz]

If they are given books with words they can't decode (extremely poor practice ) then it's up to a supportive adult to help them to decode them and not to encourage them to rely on ineffective strategies that will fail them at some point which can really damage self esteem.

[Flumplet]

It's not poor practice at all!!! All books have words in that can be decoded!! (Key words like and, the, for, is, etc) So long as there are opportunities to contribute and of course have a parent explain words that can't be decoded then there's no problem. All books, any books, are fantastic for reception learning. I never suggested relying on pictures at all, you've made that up all by yourself, pictures can and should be used as prompts and points for interaction.

[mrz]

It's atrocious practice to set a child up to fail which is exactly what you are doing if you send home books containing words that are beyond their current level of knowledge. I'm wondering how many threads there would be on MN if teachers sent home quadratic equations for reception homework ??

[mrz]

Share the wonderful variety of children's books available but don't expect a child to read words beyond their current ability. Learning to read isn't a sprint.

[lashawn]

How can it be a one size fits all approach though?

DD4 started reception in Sep with no phonics knowledge at all. So far they've learnt the first 10 letter sounds and as far as I'm aware, haven't learnt to blend yet. So DD has no decoding abilities whatsoever.

However. She started school able to recognise a large amount of words. Her teacher told me she thinks she has a photographic memory. She has been bringing home ORT level 3 and 4 books, yellow band I think. She gets through them really well - there will be the odd word she doesn't know but she can usually work it out from the pictures/ story.

Now obviously these books are WAY beyond her phonics knowledge, but if she can read them, surely that's better than her still bringing home wordless books?

[mrz]

Children are different but our written language is the same.
10 sounds and no blending or segmenting in half a term? ??

[lashawn]

Why, where would you expect them to be by now?

[mrz]

What do you think is easier for a child with a photographic memory to remember 44 sounds (and the 176 ways they can be spelt in English) or over a million words?

[mrz]

i would expect them to be blending and segmenting words as soon as the first 5/6 sounds have been taught- sat, sit, pin, pat, pit, at, it, pan, an, at, tip, tap, sip etc .
It's possible to teach all the sounds in a half term but I would expect at least half to have been taught.
We use a different system so our reception children are blending and segmenting words from the first lesson.