DC (yr 1) in top group for reading - but seems to be just guessing words?

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Do I need to do something? DC1 is in the top group for reading and is bringing home long chapter books every night, which he is enjoying. School has taught him to read using Read Write Inc, but the books he has brought home have always included many older, non-phonetically-decodeable books.

Now, when he reads aloud, he seems to be guessing a lot of the words from the first couple of letters and the context. Eg he repeatedly read “froze” as “freezed” last night, even after I asked him to double check it (I assume because he doesn’t actually know the past tense of “to freeze”!). He also read “one mistrustful eye” as “one missing eye”, and “the bird was fluttering” as “the bird was flying”.

This worries me - I don’t think he is really decoding phonetically. Yet his teacher says she has no concerns. Apart from making him go back and reread, sounding out words he doesn’t know slowly (which frustrates him), is there anything I should be doing? Will he just get there on his own in the end?

He wants to start reading in his head all the time now, rather than reading school books aloud, but I fear that many words will not be read properly if he does this.

Thanks very much for any advice!

That does sound bad. Dd, yr1 read widow as window earlier, which i think is understandable, and could read it when looking carefully. She is more likely to miss short words out.
I imagine yours is getting a bit lazy and skim reading. When mine gets it wrong i dont more my finger on so she looks more closely and corrects/sounds out rarely.
Sometimes your brain/mouth go too fast and you assume xyz will be next words, but i guess the test is being able to read words out of context.
So you need to distinguish whether he actually cant read it or if he is just going too fast/needs to be more accurate.

DS had a phase of guessing. Thing is, those old-style books positively encourage guessing, they way they are structured and everything. It is hard to resist, and then becomes the lazy approach.

I wouldn't expect him to get there on his own, though he might. My DS, a few years on, still encounters lots of unfamiliar words (currently Greek and Latin names, expressions from Harry Potter, and such). Very often he just skim-reads/guesses them but when he wants to, he is perfectly able to decode them correctly (though might pronounce them wrong - 'tiddle wave' was quite funny (tidal wave)). He's just too lazy when he feels it doesn't matter.

I would definitely continue to hear him read out loud. Depending on the context, pull him up right away to re-read a word, or leave it until the end of the sentence/paragraph/page if necessary, in order not to interrupt the flow of the story for example. And continue reading to him too, with him following the text as well, if possible. Tell him that if he 'uses his phonics' on unfamiliar words the first time round, instead of trying to guess first, then he won't have to be frustrated by going back and re-reading...

My dc were both good readers and regressed in year one for a time with assuming they knew words. Maybe they're good but not good enough at this stage to read as quickly, or with as little attention, as they think they can. I just made them decide the word correctly and moved on.

*decode.
Now they're older, they'll decode automatically if they're unsure.

From my observation of my own DS (Y1, able reader) I don’t think you’ve anything much to worry about. Adults don’t use phonics to decide when they are reading - they recognise whole words by sight. If you’ve ever seen one of this exercises where it proves that you can make sense of a sentence even if the letters are jumbled within the words, you’ll appreciate how much that recognition is effectively about making a guess informed by what you are expecting to see. In fact, he’s not going to get to read fluently any other way.

The issue is that (like with froze/freezed) his notion of what to expect is still developing - getting it wrong from time to time is part of this process, as is being exposed to steadily more complex written and spoken language. Listening to him read our loud, as you’re obviously doing regularly, and helping him to realise his own mistakes and correct them, is a really important part of this, in my experience.

Decode, not ‘decide’. Though, you may have proved my point by working that out already!

Well, I’m obviously completely wrong, then. But then I’m not trying to peddle my website, either.

DS2 is terrible for this. I just make him read it properly.

Also, DD's only just been allowed to read in her head all the time in yr5.

Can he decode when poked to do so, though?
I don't think it's necessarily a problem - even with perfect decodeable books kids learn to decode, then realise they can recognise words and do so, which is part of developing fluency, and now the next stage is learning to tell when they haven't recognised a word correctly and they need to stop and decode.
My dd did this recently in Y1, tried getting away with just decoding starts of words so she could read faster. Didn't let her and soon she was both decoding faster and recognising more words.

Found this in my DS. Top set for reading in KS1 but as the books got longer, he guessed the words. Problem was, given the literary quality and language used in books for 6-8 year old, he was bright enough to guess and anticipate the word that he couldn't read correctly. Even if the word was wrong, the sentence woukd make sense. So, when reading out loud and asked to phonetically sound out words he had guessed correctly, he just couldn't do it. Using OP example with fluttering and flying- fluttering is a simple word to sound out, it's exactly as it looks, no tricks required. But fl-ing is in both words and 'y' is tricky sometimes phonetically. So flying works. DS' s ability to use common sense and intelligence masked his mild dyslexia until we tested for it in year 5. Sadly, his primary school never got that he could be dyslexic, as he read above expected standard and tgey believed you could oy be dyslexic if you 'couldn't' read. Does your son have other possible dyslexic traits?

They and only at the end, grr typing!

I agree with what UrbaneSwawl wrote.

Decoding did not 'click' for my DS until he was 6 and already reading. When he did figure out decoding he didn't automatically use it and he often said a similar word that made contextual sense at that age. I stopped him at the end of a page, pointed to the word and asked him to say it again, prompting him to decode it if he got it wrong again. He often said it right the second time once he had slowed down though.

I let my DS read in his head as much as he wanted, but also read, say, a chapter out loud to me. He was reading years above his age by the time he was 8, and still is a prolific reader at age 11.

There's some excellent advice on this thread.

You could try turning it into a game. So he gets a point for every sentence read accurately and you get a point for the ones he gets wrong because he’s been guessing.

Might just focus him enough to slow down and read what’s actually written. It’s one of those habits that’s easier to get rid of the earlier you tackle it.