What do I do about reading books my daughter can't possibly read?

[Patchworksack]

Mr third child has just started Reception. The school have changed how they teach phonics AGAIN (3rd child through school, 3rd method= Read, Write, Inc) and I have dutifully attended the meeting to explain the method and gone out and bought the parent pack to support her at home. She is just starting to read CVC words and has been sent her first few books with words home. They are sending home ORT books which she can't possibly read with the method they are teaching - every page contains at least one word which has sounds she has not been taught, including split digraphs, y making an 'I' sound, ing endings etc. Given that these are books with 3-5 words to a page it's a significant amount of it she can't decode. I recognise they have budget constraints and maybe don't have enough RWI books for every child, is it too much to ask for books she can read with the method she is being taught, given that I'm expected to make her read it every night for a week? It is very definitely for her to read, they have another library book which is a story for the adult to read to the child.

Anyone would think children never learnt to read before all this angst became the norm. Many of DDs friends could read before they went to school.

Look, with all due respect, you have pretty much answered your own question here, BubblesBuddy. You are an articulate lady who privately educates your children at selective private schools, meaning that you are basically surrounded by switched-on, middle-class families with overachieving kids. Kids like this will usually (not always) learn to read no matter how bad the teaching methods are, because the kids benefit from brighter-than-average genes, a better-than-average environment and parents who are motivated and educated enough to be able to help their kids at home. But schools have to teach all kinds of kids with all kinds of parents, including kids who have natural dyslexic tendencies (like poor phonological awareness or slow processing) and parents who may not be literate or speak English well, meaning that they are not in a position to (for example) glance at a page and work out which words are tricky and which ones the child is in a position to read independently. So schools need to be sending home books that get all kids reading. That means decodable readers, selected according to the level of phonics that the child is currently at.

You probably have few kids in your social circle who have reading struggles, but at the population level, about 20% of kids end up being basically literacy failures when taught using muddled methods. With really good systematic teaching, you can get that figure down to the point where only a small % of kids (basically, those with severe learning challenges) end up seriously struggling with literacy.

There's an interesting post from author Jackie French on Twitter. Despite coming from a family of storytellers and avid readers she struggled to learn to read and still has difficulties.

Just roll with it. Get her to sound out the unfamiliar phonics. Tell her that sometimes letters have different sounds than usual and she will figure out what these are by just coming across it more. The word ‘the’ is extremely common and not a regular decodable word - but we just learn it from seeing it so often. Get her to see it as a puzzle that you do together - and when you go out - point to road signs etc. Encourage curiosity instead of just sticking to the curriculum.

Also to add that my dd was much more interested in wanting to read when taken to the library and picked whatever she wanted.
Now she's a free reader it's different and she can pretty much read anything but at that time I didn't mind whether she picked older or younger books as the most important thing was that she wanted to read.

Also I use rewards for certain things by buying books for dd. She is building up quite a collection now.
It took time but she got there in the end.

If it is a problem and the school can't change it you could let her read the words she's able for and teach her the ones she can't, explaining sounds and telling her 'it's a bit mad, silly etc that the English language does this,' and allowing her to learn words she wouldn't have. It's not ideal and if it bothers you this much maybe tell the teacher but it might even advance her reading, I know my ds learned a few words he'd never have otherwise from putting the picture with the sounds and taking time over it

Pointing out the tricky graphemes in the occasional unfamiliar word is a good strategy if a child is able to sound out all the other unfamiliar words without help. Just point to the tricky bit, tell them what sound it is and then they can just blend it normally.

It is problematic if the book is really mismatched and there are lots of words like that in it.

I think it's reasonable to ask the teacher what they suggest for words where she hasn't learned the sound yet. You don't have to be bolshy about it.

This is something I remember from our 2nd YR - the class learned a couple of graphemes (?) a week and the more ahead ones were soon reading ahead of this in their reading books. We just told our child any words he couldn't know yet, and we occadionally supplemented with a set of scheme books from The Book People. He always enjoyed those and regarded them as much easier than his school books. He did tend to pick up the sounds ahead of the class teaching. Not ideal, but I put it under nice problems to have, and a degree of that is inevitable in a world where preschoolers get to watch Alphablocks.

It is a level 1 ORT book with 2 or 3 words on each page. We have had half a term of books with no words, and several print outs of traditional tales home for an adult to read to her - she is a whizz at reciting stories. In the RWI books the undecodable words are printed in red, and they have already been taught a few of these (I, he, the etc) as well as most of the single sounds. I bought the parent RWI packs which have very short stories which at her level she can read fairly confidently - maybe 10 words on a page but all either decodable or red words she has been shown. She is much more enthusiastic about that than trying to tackle a book with long words (what on earth is the point of giving a child a book with 7 or 8 letter words when she struggles to hold all the sounds in a CVC word long enough to then blend them?) with digraphs she doesn't know. It would be much better to read her a story with a decent plot and find a few words she can decode along the way. I'm not too bothered for myself - this is the third time I've supported a child through this stage and we have a house full of both early readers and storybooks, but I know that is very unlikely to be the case for a lot of her classmates - we're in quite a deprived area. Plus I have to read the damm thing at least three times with her before they will get it changed....

I would get her to read the words she can and you read the words she can't.

That’s what I would do, assuming it’s only say 1 in 5 words or fewer that she can’t read. I don’t really see the problem with this. Reading books would be incredibly boring and difficult to make into a story if they had to use words that reflect only the first couple of stages of phonics.

My ds is using RWI method and we have not had any books home for him to read yet. He’s reading and making words with magnetic letters and we’re reading proper stories together for enjoyment.
All seems to be going well. He’s happy and enjoying it and enjoying reading words in our shared books when he can.

TBh I'd buy a songbirds set as I find them better in terms of phonics compared to biff and chip.
My son is in year 2 but in reception he didn't have books until after half term and only the wordless ones at first.
To help him I put him on 'Teach your monster to read' and on 'Busy things' on the computer and also played hangman with the rwi packs of cards by forming three sound words for him to sound out.
Iirc some of the early ORT biff books have some hard and unusual words.

www.thebookpeople.co.uk/webapp/wcs/stores/servlet/qs_product_tbp?storeId=10001&catalogId=10051&langId=100&productId=218821&cm_mmc=Google%20Adwords--PLA--Songbirds+Phonics+Collection+-+36+Books---SONB&utm_source=shopping_google&utm_content=mkwid_c1y6aHC4-dc_pcrid_217455040733_pkw__pmt__prodid_SONB&pgrid=44617317806&ptaid=aud-421402036949:pla-360735495332&gclid=Cj0KCQiA2o_fBRC8ARIsAIOyQ-nH7frK0jCt-cmGGOIFjoDtRJVaMmZWH-4R0Cyr5-PF40zIvWVymf0aApw5EALw_wcB

Whilst for now you do just have to roll with it - I actually feel not having enough books that support the reading scheme being used isn't good enough. Yes they are expensive but the school should do matched funding, get grants, explain the needs to the PTA and explain the cost to governors and have a plan in place for refreshing and replacing.

TBh I'd buy a songbirds set as I find them better in terms of phonics compared to biff and chip

I like those ones too, like Biff and Chip too, especially some of the adventure ones, and the kids always laugh at Floppy, but there's just a bit more variation or something in Songbirds

Mrz- if school are spouting this nonsense and encouraging guessing using context and picture, what can we do at home?

I had this issue with DS - it was more that he had forgotten some GPCs (and/or wasn't owning up to knowing them to me when he used them at school). School were not actively encouraging him to guess but he was doing it when he forgot one.

I started out by trying to get him to remember each GPC as we came to it, assuming that he actually knew them. Then I gave up and just re-taught/revised each one with lots of examples.

With the odd word that the (otherwise decodable) book seemed to think was a good "tricky" word (usually it wasn't) I usually told him if he really didn't know it, or suggested he have a think if he had known it lots of times before.

He's still not a very quick reader (he's on blue now) but where we have a word that his GPCs won't let him decode, I get him to have a go then explain (e.g. 'what', we're English so the h is silent, he decoded it as W-H AT, I explained the "a" can be like "o" - he does know "was" but not "swan" etc, I also praised him for good sounding out).

In your situation, I would first check that they haven't mis-banded a book - if it's got "ch" for example, check they didn't miss that if they are only supposed to be doing CVC.

drspouse the OPs school are sending home books that require the reader to guess using picture clues. They require the child to use a variety of strategies ...guessing from the pictures, guessing from context, guessing from the initial letter, missing out the word and reading on then guessing what might fit, memorising words as wholes, looking at the shape of the word ...everything in fact except decoding the word accurately. They were written purely for that purpose.

That's pretty good, drspouse!

Wrt to 'what' - it's more that is an alternative spelling for the /w/ sound (we wouldn't refer to any letters as 'silent').

is always used to spell /o/ after a /w/ sound (was/what/squash, etc).

I'm getting stressed reading this thread. DS is in YR and ahead of expectations with reading though not at all exceptional. But it is very clear to me that he is reading most words by sight/guesswork - I try to remind him to use his phonics but he is lazy and stabs in the dark. But then reads by sight words I had no idea he knew ('surprised'). We have had no real information on what reading scheme the school is using. They change their reading book each day by selecting themselves from a box with the appropriate colour (he's currently on red) but the books seem to include a lot of old ORT that definitely can't be decoded. They have very few words per page and he mostly reads them easily. Having read all this I am now really worried he will fail the Y1 phonics check. Any advice?

Is he quite competitive? If so a healthy dose of bribery and competition might help.

He gets a chocolate button/grape/point for every sentence he reads accurately and uses his phonics to sound out unknown words. Any lazy stabbing in the dark and you get the reward.

Can he sound out words if he actually tries to do it?

FraterculaArctica

Flashcards are your friend. A lot of people seem to use flashcards for a little bit and then say "OK, they are ready for books now, no more flashcards" and that's it. But I personally continue using flashcards for decoding practice for, like, two years (as we move into the complex phonics), in addition to books. It is a clear way to a) make them decode properly b) check if they really are decoding or not! And then once they are reading them really well and are ready for more spelling practice, you can put the cards into a bowl and pull out a random handful every day for quick spelling quiz.

You can make your own flashcards with old cardboard etc. Perhaps some of the teachers here will have some recommendations for websites which have lists of which words are decodable for which phonics stages? (I use Phonics International).

Thanks for the suggestions, both good. I guess I am mostly frustrated that the teacher herself (who in general I think is good) is not giving clearer indications of what to do. All the general homework is about practicing individual grapheme sounds which we do, but DS is racing ahead reading books just mostly by whole word recognition! I don't really have any concerns he won't learn to read fluently, it's just he's not doing it the 'right' way.

BubblesBuddy, some children get reading(decoding) easy. They are the lucky ones. Just because your child had no problem, you shouldn't say it's ok for everyone.
I really started to think your general advice is very out dated. I feel my advice is outdated too, since my ds is in yr6. And teaching is improving, and great teachers keep up with recent studies.

I feel like I am saying this a lot lately, but I can not recommend the reading eggs app enough.

Our school is read write inc for reading.

My son had some speech therapy this year, before he started school in September. So I used the reading eggs app to reinforce the phonics they were teaching in the speech therapy.

It has been amazing and I've now signed older DD, year 2, up to it as well.

It's phonics games that moves to reading words. DS is really enjoying it and he's grasping the phonics really well and can read at stage 1 level despite the school not yet sending home reading books.

It moves onto comprehension excercisrs when they get older and introduces a great range of vocab.

I've never had the frustration over reading that DD had in the beginning (and she's an above average reader for her age). It's well set up to make it straightforward and fun.

Also recommend reading chest - they send you a variety of books each month at the right reading level:

Fratercula, don’t panic. Your DC is going to be fine, because you’ve got his back, and it does sound as though the school are teaching them phonics (eg by setting GPCs as homework), even though they unfortunately have a load of old books.

The fact that he’s keen to read is brilliant. My DD (now in Y3) was desperate to learn to read before she started school, and I read up on phonics and tried to support her appropriately. However, she loved reading so much and has an excellent memory, so inevitably many words became sight words, and she would sometimes read too quickly and ‘guess’ a longer/trickier word incorrectly. We always took her back to the word and helped her to decode it carefully, and reminded her to slow down and check what she’s reading. She worked out most of the GPCs through her own wide reading (and I think her mind just works that way), and of course the phonics taught at school has followed behind her and has been effective at consolidating the details.

You don’t need to force him to use phonics to decode sight words that are already firmly established in his memory bank. As long as he can decode them as and when requested, he doesn’t have to decode them every time. Just pick up on inaccuracies. My DD was very story-focussed so she often raced through a sentence/paragraph, adding or missing out a word here and there while retaining the meaning. However, that is not good enough! I set her a challenge to read the page ‘perfectly’, in terms of words, punctuation and emphasis. As a result she would sometimes pause at the start of the page, skimming through the details in her head, before reading it out loud. This satisfied her ‘storytelling’ streak as well as my insistence on good reading strategies.

Just to correct a point: my children were state educated when learning to read. Both of them. They were not surrounded by children who could all read very early. However the children did learn to read except a few with SEN. I do feel there is a huge industry that’s been built up around evidence and forcing children to learn in a certain way. I can see that it suits children who are not introduced to books and don’t have literate parents but plenty get a great deal out of learning with breadth and variety. That’s what my DDs were given. It was angst free. No pointing the finger at the school and no arguing about reading books from anyone that I knew. They certainly were from all walks of life too. We did not surround ourselves with the wealthiest of parents and never have - and never will.

So inevitably many words became sight words

This is where we are at the moment with DS and his reading target, which is to blend CVC words. He doesn't blend any of the CVC words we get in his reading books because he recognises them, so just reads them. He will at least try to blend longer/harder words where they are regular enough that he understands them and he recognises a good few of the 2 letter sounds though Magic E still confuses him and yes I know it's not called that any more. He's getting Red books home from school (and doing everything possible to not change them) and apparently will continue to get them until he's met his target. But the books are a crazy mixture (for him) of sight words and guesswork.

Last weekend though we visited his cousin and he had a good stab at his Blue level book. Which actually seemed much "easier" in that a higher percentage of the words were decodable. And it had an actual story line, so that he wanted to find out what happened next, instead of be harassed by his mother to pay attention to if it says No Floppy or Oh Floppy