Appalling reading advice for parents and TAs

[Feenie]

This document is being flagged up in lots of the teaching pages i've liked on Facebook:

literacyforpleasure.wordpress.com/ta-guide-to-listening-to-reading-making-comments/

It's terrible, full of recommendations to encourage children to guess. Really depressed at the number of teachers tagging others to flag it as 'useful'. It really, really isn't.

If you're starting as a reading volunteer in September, I hope you're not given anything like this. Any advice encouraging children to guess words is really poor and awful practice.

If a child is 'stuck', encourage them to look at the sounds and blend - or if they're really stuck, give them the word and come back to it later. Feedback to the teacher on the sound they couldn't recognise is fabulous.

And thank you for volunteering in the first place - your help is invaluable and much appreciated.

Not read the whole thread, but I think that access to high quality decodable reading books is the way forward. Dd only read decodable reading books in reception and the first term of year 1. There was no need for her to guess. She grew in confidence and once she was taught the more complex phonics all books became decodable.

Certainly reading is a sophicated skill, but there is no need to introduce complexity straight away.

Bedtime stories are not a reading lesson. I don't expect dd to read when she is tired. Vocabulary is developed casually by conversation with children.

Agree with all of that, Really tired. We do actually actively teach vocabulary acquisition though - but I do accept that most of it inevitably comes from outside influences. Which makes.it all the more important for struggling readers who only use their own possibly limited vocabulary to guess as a strategy because some idiot professional who either hasn't read the evidence against or who is well-meaning but has been given the OP's damaging leaflet has told them it's a valid.strategy.

Not read the whole thread, but I think that access to high quality decodable reading books is the way forward

I would say that beginner readers should only be expected to independently read books at their level of decoding ability but^^ they should have access to any books, comics, magazines, football programmes, menus, brochures, catalogues etc etc that interest them (just don't expect/ask them to read them independently).

We also have a Five a Day policy ...so we try to read five stories per day to the very youngest children.

http://teachlikeachampion.com/books/reading-reconsidered/

http://www.npr.org/sections/ed/2015/03/17/387774026/q-a-raising-kids-who-want-to-read?utmcampaign=storyshare&utmsource=twitter.com&utm_medium=social Daniel Willingham Raising kids who read

https://mitpress.mit.edu/books/early-reading-instruction

Proust and the Squid Marianne Wolfe

"they should have access to any books, comics, magazines, football programmes, menus, brochures, catalogues etc etc that interest them (just don't expect/ask them to read them independently)."

I totally agree with this. I have seen my ds pretending to read something way before he was able to read. When he started to decode, he was trying to read my book and find the words he can decode. He was so proud of himself that he can read some words from my books. And he tried to read anything he can see.
After that stage, he became fluent reader quite quickly.

http://www.rrf.org.uk/pdf/Grant%20Follow-Up%20Studies%20-%20May%202014.pdf

http://www.belb.org.uk/Downloads/lp_report.pdf

We do actually actively teach vocabulary acquisition though

Don't be ridiculous, you're an extreme phonics advocate, you're not supposed to be teaching vocab. It's supposed to be barking at print all the way.

I think mrz and feenie have probably covered every link I have. Would highly recommend Dianne McGuiness' 'Early Reading Instruction'.

Just one more http://www.lancsngfl.ac.uk/curriculum/english/download/file/Wow%20Up%20Your%20Words!.ppt

Internet connection isn't great here

Ooh, are you away, mrz?

Don't be ridiculous, you're an extreme phonics advocate, you're not supposed to be teaching vocab. It's supposed to be barking at print all the way

Sorry, sorry, sorry. Mrz, you're going to have to stop with the enjoyment of reading links too - we don't do that either, remember?

Mrz 5 a day policy, is that common in school's?
How many should I read at home, I normally read 2 books, one my choice one DS's.

Thanks for the links, plenty of reading material for me.

I'm going to enjoy reading all those links! I wonder if some of the disagreement here has been in interpretation. I'm all in favour of systematic phonics, and I wonder if you saw me teaching my sons to read you would interpret what I do as "guessing". In my mind it isn't what I do, but my teaching training was a maths specialism pgce in the middle school age range. Any education I've had in teaching reading has been from fellow teachers, reading and research. I now home educate my kids and, aware of my weakness in that area (and my son's character) I've bought in a curriculum called "Logic of English" which is systematic phonics. I'm as yet unconvinced that using systematic phonics with a range of strategies to keep reading fun is such a bad thing, but maybe we were talking at cross purposes there, or maybe your links will convince me otherwise.

I'm as yet unconvinced that using systematic phonics with a range of strategies to keep reading fun is such a bad thing,

No one said that it was, unless you're talking about allowing children to guess/skip - strategies like any word will do as long as it makes sense, skipping words is fine, etc. And I would dispute that they keep reading fun - it's not reading, for a start! There are much better ways to help children to enjoy reading .

MrEBear many of our pupils come from homes where books and bedtime stories are unheard of so the five a day is compensation. After the age of five children's vocabulary develops less from conversation than during the early years and more from books and reading so we feel that it's necessary. I'm sure your child gets lots of stories so I wouldn't worry

Gentleness are you in the US?

http://www.balancedreading.com/3cue.pdf

http://www.balancedreading.com/3cue-adams.html

http://www.balancedreading.com/3cue.html

http://www.nifdi.org/resources/news/hempenstall-blog/402-the-three-cueing-system-in-reading-will-it-ever-go-away

From Louisa Moates

Final point is worth noting

mrz - no.