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Primary education

Join our Primary Education forum to discuss starting school and helping your child get the most out of it.

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Original poster

How best to help DD learn the keywords sent home by school.

28 replies

Readytomakechanges · 06/02/2017 20:42

I've started a thread previously regarding my frustration at DD (5yo, just started reception) being sent home key words with instructions to learn them by sight and then reading books which consist almost exclusively of these words.

At home we used Jelly and Bean books to start, but now Songbirds and have a reading chest subscription.

So far, I've been showing DD how to sound out the keywords and then practice this until the sounding out is seamless. It then seems as though she can read them by sight and can also transfer the sounding out skills to other words with similar spellings. I discourage guessing.

However, as the keywords are beginning to become a little more complicated, I'm feeling a little out of my depth.

The current key word set has thought, through, friend, laugh How do I support DD to learn these without resorting to 'just learn it by sight?'

Thank you.

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christinarossetti · 06/02/2017 20:47

Has she been taught the necessary phonic sounds eg 'ought', 'ough'? I guess not, if she's being asked to 'learn them by sight'?

I would speak with the teacher and probably head of EYFS. 'Learning by sight' isn't how children are supposed to be taught to read, and it's somewhere between being utterly pointless and being detrimental to the actual process of learning to read through acquiring phonic knowledge.

Original poster

Readytomakechanges · 06/02/2017 20:53

She know 'ou' as in house, but not 'ough'. I've been teaching her the phonics for what they send home so far, but I definately feel out of my depth with the spelling 'ough', with it having so many corresponding phonemes. thought, through, though, dough, rough, cough

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Tomorrowillbeachicken · 06/02/2017 21:03

Yikes. my DS is fairly good at reading but these would fox him at this point in reception.
Good example for insanity of ough is Loughborough

catchingzzzeds · 06/02/2017 21:12

Aren't these words also commonly termed 'tricky words'? As in they HAVE to be learned by sight as you can't sound them out. My reception DS brings home 'word boxes' these are words that can be sounded out/blended and then has 'tricky words' that have to be learned by sight.

Boiled7Up · 06/02/2017 21:16

If you couldn't sound it out it would be unpronounceable. What you've just described isn't great practice at all.

The words should not be learned by sight. Humans do not have enough memory to do that. The children should learn them instead by looking at the sounds in it- so for 'said', s is making its normal sound, d is making its normal sound, but 'ai' sounds like e.

BearAusten · 06/02/2017 21:18

I found this rather useful - Oxford Phonics Spelling Dictionary (Oxford Reading Tree). www.amazon.co.uk/Oxford-Phonics-Spelling-Dictionary-Reading/dp/019273413X?tag=mumsnetforum-21

I was faced with a similar problem, rather than learning them as sight words, I always taught and showed him the relevant phonic sound patterns, along with alternative spellings. Seems to have worked.

Original poster

Readytomakechanges · 06/02/2017 21:23

We have that dictionary bearaustin I will look up each word in that and show DD.

OP posts:

catchingzzzeds · 06/02/2017 21:33

Are you a teacher boiled7up? Many of the schools in this area teach tricky words in this way. My year 6 DS certainly had no problems with this method.

picklemepopcorn · 06/02/2017 21:33

Are you sure she isn't supposed to learn them by sight?

Write the words on post its and stick 'em round the house.

Play snap with the words- this encourages them to look closely at the word, the differences and similarities.

Time her as she turns the words over and says them. See if she can get more right than yesterday/ go faster than yesterday.

HarveySchlumpfenburger · 06/02/2017 21:39

My year 6 DS certainly had no problems with this method.

He was lucky. There are children who will develop a problem because of it.

One day we might get to a point where teachers are trained to teach reading correctly and then do so.

Sounds like you have done well so far OP. With those words, I'd just take it very slowly and maybe just introduce one at a time to avoid overwhelming her.

FlyingGoose · 06/02/2017 21:47

My dts are only in reception so this is probably a rubbish idea! With their tricky words I play matching pairs games, using them in sentences whilst emphasising the word and practicing writing them both singularly and in sentences.

mrz · 07/02/2017 05:48

"The current key word set has thought, through, friend, laugh " I would bet she hasn't been taught that

is an alternative spelling for the sound /or/ in thought but the sound /oo/ in through
or that is an alternative way to spell the sound /e/ in friend
or that can be the sound /f/ and the sound /a/ or /ar/ depending on your pronunciation of the word laugh.

I wonder if the teacher knows

mrz · 07/02/2017 05:56

but I definately feel out of my depth with the spelling 'ough', with it having so many corresponding phonemes. thought, through, though, dough, rough, cough

The first thing to remember is that although they all contain the letters ough they aren't all the spelling
Thought - = /or/
Through - = /oo/
Though & dough - = /oe/

But in rough and cough the spellings are
rough = /u/ and =/f/ so /r/ /u/ /f/
cough = /o/ so /k/ /o/ /f/

ThisIsNotARealAvo · 07/02/2017 06:08

These are year 1 tricky words which she should learn once she is working in phase 5 of Letters and Sounds. If her school doesn't use letters and sounds it might be different but unless she knows all the reception tricky words from phase 3 and 4 I'm surprise they're sending these home.

Ginmummy1 · 07/02/2017 08:56

It seems you have two options:

Teach your daughter what mrz has provided, with reference to the phonics spelling dictionary (if you think she will handle this level of detail at this age/experience)
Speak to the teacher and EYFS leader as christinarosetti suggests, pointing out that these words are not 'tricky' words but should be taught using phonics - but not yet! Books should be decodable at the level of the phonics teaching.

Option 2 will take some courage!

sirfredfredgeorge · 07/02/2017 09:06

Make sure you remember to add hiccough, thorough and slough to the ough mix too.

user789653241 · 07/02/2017 12:15

sir, I always thought it was hiccup. Just looked up on dictionary and hiccough is the alternative spelling, but same pronunciation.
How do you pronounce it? Is it "p" or "f" in the end? Very confused...

sirfredfredgeorge · 07/02/2017 12:21

irvineoneohone it's pronounced likehiccup - hence it being yet another sound that ough represents, as you say it's a more obsolete spelling now.

user789653241 · 07/02/2017 12:24

English is indeed very DEEP! I've been learning it for so long, but there are still so many things I don't know. (I feel sorry for my ds for having me as a mum!)

Tomorrowillbeachicken · 07/02/2017 12:43

F at end here in the sunny West Midlands.

Original poster

Readytomakechanges · 07/02/2017 13:19

Thank you for all the replies.

I think I will be taking the cop out option of following Mrz' advice along with using the phonics dictionary as I doubt that anything that I say will alter the entire way that the school teaches reading.

How would you break down laugh Mrz? Is it = /f/

OP posts:

christinarossetti · 07/02/2017 13:31

Do try to bring it up at parents' evening, or something. The school won't realise that their homework is stressing families out if no-one tells them.

It's actually really unhelpful to be telling children to 'learn by sight' when there is a perfectly sensible and widely available method ie phonics which enables children to learn to read these types of words in a way that they then transfer the knowledge to decoding other words.

prh47bridge · 07/02/2017 13:37

Agree with Christinarossetti. It is unlikely you will change the school's approach on your own. However, if enough parents complain it might persuade the school to sort things out and teach reading properly.

HarveySchlumpfenburger · 07/02/2017 18:06

Laugh will depend on you accent.
I would break it down as /l/ /ar/ /f/
l - /l/
au - /ar/. Same spelling as in words like 'aunt'
gh - /f/ - same spelling as the end of words like 'rough' or 'cough'.

In some accents it will be /l/ /a/ /f/ and the 'au' will be a spelling for the sound /a/.

mrz · 07/02/2017 18:33

In my accent laugh would be /l/ /a/ /f/ =/l/ = /a/ = /f/ but in other accents could be /ar/

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