Phonics help going into year 3

[Blankscreen]

Dd is leaving her old school and starting a new School in september.

I thought i would keep her ticking over, over the summer and basically just sat down to do an english work book with her and its just awful.

Just one example she couldn't read 'email'. Just guessed at anything. When she sounded out she did a and i separately and not as one sound.

Her old school used mixed methods for reading and i feel that she has some major gaps in her phonics knowledge. They also used read write.inc but i fear that something has gone very wrong somewhere..

They didn't do the phonics test.as it was a private School,-conincidentally they never told us she has any gaps.which she clearly does.
Any idea as to where to start i feel totally ovrewhelmed as to how to help her.

Thanks

You need to start by finding out what she knows already.
You've said she doesn't know the spelling for the sound /ae/ does she know the other ways /ae/ can be spelt in English? day, rain, made, great, eight, they, straight, veil, ballet, sundae.

How do i check this? Ask her to write or get her to read various words?
I've got the usborne phonics dictuinary, so I could pick words out of that. I have a very horrible feeling she probably only knows 2 of the variations, -ay and a-e.

I'm.thinking i might just need to get a tutor who actually knows what they are doing. Im worried im going to do more harm than good.

https://www.phonicbooks.co.uk/advice-and-resources/advice-and-resources-for-teachers/phonic-code-table/

The link is to a phonics chart you could write the words on scraps of paper and see if she can decode them and/or ask her to write the words.

You could look up the the Yr 1 phonics screening test- it's a mix of real and nonsense words you can read using phonics, the nonsense words are there to help identify children who are using memory.
I think the pass rate is 32/40 for a child to be on track going from Yr1-2.
It might give you some idea of how she is doing. There are a few past papers available on line.
Ruth Miskin is the expert on synthetic phonics teaching if you wanted to look up some resources.

Check out teach your monster to read. It's a free online game that teaches all the phonics and tricky words while you help an alien on his adventure. It teaches spelling and rhyming too.

Thank you everyone. I've just looked at the chart and i feel.sick. I know she hardly knows any of them. She's managed to get by reading by learning words by sight.

I will 'test' her in the morning and report back.

I feel like i've completely let her down, the School have never said anything and i have foolishly trusted them😣
Thank again.

The Y1 screening check only covers the very basics certainly not enough for a child in Y3 so I wouldn't rely on it at this stage.

https://www.phonicbooks.co.uk/wp-content/uploads/2016/05/Diagnostic-Assessment.pdf Phonic books provide this simple diagnostic test which you might find helpful.

I was going to suggest 'teach your monster to read' too.

Be aware that Teach Your Monster to Read is a mixed methods programme and doesn't teach all the alternatives .

Also think TYMR is too babyish for YR3 child?
I would follow mrz's suggestions.
If she was able to read by sight up to now, she seems to have good memory. I am sure she will be able to catch up with your help, she is only half way through primary. Have lots of time left.

Something like Nessy Reading and Spelling may be helpful -it is phonics based, but is suitable for children up to 12 years.

www.nessy.com/uk/product/nessy-reading-spelling/

Nessy is also mixed methods as are many of the programmes that originated in the US

Blankscreen, I feel for you. My ds2 is going into year 3 in September, his reading has been massively improved in year 2. At the beginning of year 2, he couldn't blend the words and reads very slow. Now I am very worrying his spelling (his spelling just terrible!). For example he would spells "litle" for "little", "hav" to "have" and "wen" to "when" I have corrected him many many many times! But he still get them wrong. In his weekly spelling tests at school, he normally gets 10 out of 10 correct (with a lot of practices during the week), then he seems forget these words very quickly after a day or two usually. I am trying to go through the 300 high frequency words with him over the summer and hoping this would help him with his writing in year 3. But honestly I don't have much faith in him. A very frustrated mum here.

Wow that's shocking from a private school:(

Hopefully the new school will be able to help - you can tell the teacher its due to lack of being taught rather than struggling with it.

Wangx it's really common for children to learn spellings and score 10/10 week after week and not be able to spell the words correctly in their writing (often straight after a spelling test) Spelling is often poorly taught or left to parents.
It really looks like he hasn't been taught the alternative spellings for sounds so he's sticking with the ones he knows and possibly trying to memorise the words as wholes.
How are you teaching him to spell the high frequency words? Can he tell you the sounds in the word?
If he writes wen rather than when ask him if he knows another way to spell the sound /w/ and get him to correct it similarly with the other examples (have I often find is a problem if children have been taught "magic e " so they miss off the final e better to teach that is an alternative spelling for the sound /v/) .

How did she do when you practised?

In the MN Book Reviews section you should be able to find the Oxford Phonics Spelling Dictionary, look under "phonics"and the 'review' should tell you a bit about it. It may help a child to UNDERSTAND a bit more about how spelling 'works'.

My ds is terrible at spelling but good at reading (he's going into year 3). Good at spelling tests. So much so I'm keeping the idea of dyslexia in the back of my head.

But what's really helped is reading and lots and lots of it. Then we use phonics to help him blend and therefore identify words. Because we've read so much with him, he's able to use phonics and identify the word (e.g. Email isn't a normal "e" sound but he'd say eh-Mail then switch to email as that's the word he knows).

"Email isn't a normal "e" sound but he'd say eh-Mail then switch to email as that's the word he knows)." If he'd been taught phonics well he would know that the spelling e can be the sound /ee/ as in he, me, she, we, be, ego, eject, evil, lethal, medium, legal etc and of course email. Unfortunately many schools don't teach the alternatives leaving it a guessing game.

I thought about dyslexia as well. I have talked about my thoughts to his year 2 teacher and I have been told he can only get assessed in year 3.

It's interesting that schools should teach 'e' as one of the ways of spelling /ee/. My DD followed RWI to the end of the programme. As parents we were told about set 1, 2 and 3 sounds and 'e' for /ee/ isn't in any of those sets of sounds. Do schools explicitly teach this within phonics schemes?

It should be taught when the high frequency words he, me, she, we and be are introduced if the school are following good practice.

"Do schools explicitly teach this within phonics schemes?" Yes schools are meant to teach the alternative spellings for the 44 sounds.
In Year 1 we start by teaching that the sound /ee/ can be spelt ee, ea, e and y (feet, beat, he, mummy). Later we introduce other ways of spelling /ee / in English i, ey, ie, e-e (taxi, key, chief, eve).

Maybe they just don't tell parents about it, the definitely do high frequency words. It must be difficult to let parents know what is being taught in phonics when it's taught in lots of groups going at different paces, in contrast to something like maths where the whole class is doing a particularly bit of maths, but with differentiation on that bit.