Reception DC encouraged to guess words from pictures. Afraid I've got off on the wrong foot with teacher.

[Satina]

DC2 has just started reception and we were excited for all the new experiences the next year would bring. I'm worried however that I've got off on the wrong foot with the new teacher.

Sorry, this is long:

When DC1 was in the same class she flew through reading books and was known to be a very strong reader. However she eventually hit a barrier and her progression stalled. School weren't bothered as she was still ahead of expected for her age but I, who listened to her read daily noticed problems. Specifically that she was guessing unfamiliar words which sometimes meant she completely misunderstood the meaning of the passage she'd just read.

I'd never helped a child learn to read before, so I did extensive research into how to help her and went back to basics of focusing on decoding unfamiliar words and eventually she flew.

Since DC1 was in reception the school has replaced their book scheme to one that's supposed to be more decodable.

I was eager to avoid the same problems occurring for DC2 and was optimistic that the new book scheme would mean decoding would be encouraged rather than guessing.

I was therefore surprised when the very first comment in DC's reading diary was 'DC has been encouraged to use the pictures to help guess unfamiliar words'.

All of the reading I did around the subject, when DC1 was learning suggests this is bad practice.

E.g. The Rose Report says:

"However, if beginner readers, for
example, are encouraged to infer from
pictures the word they have to decode
this may lead to their not realising that
they need to focus on the printed
word.They may, therefore, not use their
developing phonic knowledge. It may
also lead to diluting the focused
phonics teaching that is necessary for
securing accurate word reading.Thus,
where beginner readers are taught
habitually to infer the word they need
from pictures they are far less likely to
apply their developing phonic
knowledge and skills to print. During
the course of the review, several
examples were seen of beginners
being encouraged to infer from
pictures the word they did not
immediately recognise from the text."

I asked for a quick chat with the teacher who rang me at home. I explained that I was very happy with everything in reception so far but that I'd really prefer DC to be encouraged to decode unfamiliar words and not guess. She thought I was trying to push for DC to have more complex books and spent some time telling me why she thought this would be detrimental. I clarified that I definitely was not pushing for harder material and in fact would have preferred an easier, decodable book.

I said I wasn't expecting any changes to the way the class is taught as a whole, but wanted DD to have books she could decode with her current knowledge (which I'm happy to provide if they don't have enough) and to be encouraged not to use alternative methods until she was secure in her decoding.

Teacher then spent some time telling me the importance of using other methods as some children struggle with phonics and it helps them and that it's important for children to learn through repetition and using other cues aswell as decoding.

This is where I'm worried I overstepped the mark as I said that I appreciate what you're saying but all my research suggests otherwise, which I know must be really annoying to be told as a professional by someone who is not a professional in that area.

I said I'm happy to provide all my references which the teacher said she didn't need.

Ultimately, all I wanted was for my DC to become secure in her decoding before other methods are used, so as not to confuse her.

Teacher has now agreed to this with DD, but I'm feeling so guilty and anxious about having said anything in the first place.

I should have kept my mouth shut and just focussed on decoding at home and let them do their own thing at school.

Do you think there's anything I can do to improve matters and reassure the teacher that I'm not going to be a PITA parent all year?

When my little boy started reception they had books with no words just pictures and had to look at the pictures and tell the story. They learn phonics every day then tricky words which they have to just learn by memory so it seems like they take a mixed approach my little boy is doing well with reading. I think to be honest it was insulting to basically tell a qualified teacher shes wrong and offer to send her research that is patronising. I dont think you meant it to be but you did go about it the wrong way. I would really try and relax abit they are really little , just settling into reception it should be fun and if it helps think of all the adults around who learned how to read with out phonics / things change over time. You sound a lovely involved parent but very anxious and your little one is in her first weeks of reception.

Look at the letters" - kids point to their eye
Make the sounds" - kids point to their mouth
Blend the sounds" - kids make a swiping motion
"Confirm with pictures"

Everything I can find regarding KTC phonics uses the first 3 steps but not the last, which even sounds like a bolt on and immediately demoted good phonics teaching to mixed methods.

They learn phonics every day then tricky words which they have to just learn by memory so it seems like they take a mixed approach my little boy is doing well with reading

Excellent - your dc is one of the 80% that will do find with the methods you describe that haven't been good advice since Letters and Sounds was published in 2007. Shame for the rest of the children that the teachers haven't been trained in how to teach tricky words from that document or (obviously)any since.

*do fine

OP, I am sure the school recognise the work you put in etc.

You sound anxious, and as if you have your own very single track way of approaching things.

Maybe add ‘remember to relax’ to your list, and also observation is as important as written research.

If your Dc does start to stall in her learning you have some ideas to try and to discuss with her teacher.

Have you got a parents evening coming up? Maybe you could acknowledge you were a little intense and mention you just got anxious because of Dc1 experience

^^ This is what I would do - have done.

My DC first primarys school was like this - mixed method teaching while claiming to do phonics.

They also did emergent spelling and random spelling lists to teach spelling.

I'm still trying to sort out not guessing and poor spelling with mine despite years of work at home.

You may also find as PP said they talk of good readers not passing the phonics test and you may aslo have many phonics talks and lots of sudden phoincs homework right beofre the year 1 check.

I don't know if they will act on what you said to them - my experince was they kept up with their methods even when my children were clearly not doing well with them.

I would suggest getting fully decodable books at home or using reading chest and a good phonics based scheme like dancing bears done at home and in a bit start teaching spelling at home.

We use Reading Chest but be aware not all the schemes they send are phonics based.

You can tick boxes to ask for only decodable though.

They come in a big important envelope addressed to your child, which is very exciting

OP we had a very similar experience. DC1 stalled/started guessing when overwhelmed with not-yet-decodable words in non-phonics reading scheme. Lots of hard work to get him back to decoding rather than guessing. DC2 a few years later, we strongly reinforced decoding at home, including telling our 4yo that guessing is not reading, no matter what anybody else (e.g. the teacher) tells her. She is smart enough to understand that guessing is not reading. When she started getting the non-phonics books, we sent them back asking for phonics ones (as providing books at a child's phonics ability level is actually a statutory requirement). After a number of such notes, the teacher asked us in for a meeting. She said that they had run out of phonics books at her level. She said that she was ready/had the phonics ability for the next level phonics books, but the teacher didn't want to give her those, as she would soon run out of them too.
We calmly explained that we thought she was a great teacher - DD learned all her phonics from her, at school - but that we were not going to read non-decodable books with DD, as in our opinion and experience, that is worse than neutral, it sets her back. We also weren't going to make her re-read phonics books at the current level, seeing as even her teacher agreed that she should and could be reading the next level. So if school was not going to give her the next level phonics books, despite them being there on the shelf, well we would provide them for her, despite how ridiculous that is.
After that the teacher agreed to give her the next level phonics books.
DD didn't run out of them. She got moved onto the next next level by her new teacher, before she had read all the phonics books on that level. As she was ready for it.
I strongly assume that the teacher was annoyed, and thought we were 'those parents' - but I don't care. I don't care if she feels I am arrogant to think I know better than her. I may be arrogant, but I also do know better than her ;) If it takes the teacher being annoyed at me, and thinking me arrogant, that's a price worth paying if it gets the outcome desired - in this case, that DD was given phonics books at the appropriate level.

Don't be too apologetic. You were right to raise it. Learn from this that quoting research at teachers is not the best approach - they don't like that. But you are allowed to let it be known that you are well informed, not just making up crazy stuff. At the end of the day, though, remember, you got your result. If the teacher now doesn't like you, does that matter? The whole exercise was not aimed at getting the teacher to like you. It was about getting the result for your DC. The DC won't be more or less liked by the teacher after this, if the teacher has an ounce of professionalism, she will be at most be annoyed with you, and you are grown up enough to be able to bear it.

Wow brilliolic, you handled the same situation so much better than me.

From a scientific perspective you are 100% correct.
For reasons that I don't fully understand teacher training has lagged behind in putting research into practice.

We had a similar situation with my DC’s first school - sending home books that weren’t decodable at the level of phonics they were currently being taught, and being encouraged to guess using the pictures.

When I brought this up with DC2’s teacher, he said it was for “when phonics doesn’t work”.

Which was annoying because
(a) I don’t see how teaching children to guess at words teaches them how to actually read;
(b) the vast majority of words in English are decodable provided that the reader knows enough about phonics;
(c) the words the kids were being told to guess were actually words where phonics does work - words like moon, deer, washing, strawberry, mouse - they just weren’t words that can be decoded by children who have only been taught the initial letter sounds.

But as I lacked the confidence (and research!) to argue my case against a teacher who was sounding very very sure of himself, what we ended up doing was, at home, drumming into the DC that they weren’t to guess, covering pictures if they tried that, and either explaining the unknown phonics sounds to them (e.g. “oo” sounds like ....) or saying, “you’ve not been taught the phonics for this word yet so I’ll read it”. And we got some decodable phonics books (like the Songbirds series mentioned by other pp) for them to read at home and practice their phonics on.

And I’ve also noticed a number of pp’s suggesting that children who are only given phonically decodable books will be put off reading, presumably because they think those books are more boring.

I’m curious about whether these posters have actually looked at the decodable books available now for beginner readers (such as the Songbirds ones) - they’re mostly just using simple 3 letter CVC words, but the books have an actual plot, and there’s a simple story that a child can read.

Far too many of the non-decodable “guess from the picture” books we were given consisted of little more than a preliminary statement on each page along the lines of “It is a ...” followed by a list of fruits / colours / animals / actions.
Although I think the most mind numbingly boring was the Biff Chip and Kipper Book that just alternated “Oh, Floppy” and “No, Floppy” all the way through the book.

Whats wrong with letting school do it their way and you at home do it your way. If kids can become bilingual this way, then am sure picking up reading using 2 methods will work.

Not rtft then, vegancow.....

There is such a huge debate over the effectiveness of pure phonics versus phonics alongside other methods, the idea that the teacher simply hasn’t done their research is hilarious. The phonic screening check means your child WILL learn to decode but I personally would be encouraged if other methods are being deployed by the school as well (I teach in a Read Write Inc school which works perfectly well, but I’m open to and interested in other approaches out there).

Don’t we all need phonics and whole word awareness?

All fluent readers only decide new words (it would be v slow otherwise!) and dyslexics are better with whole word awareness.

I think it is vital to teach children phonics to become fluent readers but if a reading scheme includes a mix of phonics and encouraging whole word awareness, that seems pretty sensible to me.

I would be careful to criticise teachers unless you ask them, first, the whole curriculum and can contextualise what you are criticising. And, given that you helped your first child read, why can’t you do the same with your second? With reading, a lot of the heavy lifting is done at home. One of the main purposes of reception is socialisation, not hard core learning. In many countries kids don’t start school until far older.

As to what you can do, drop the teacher a nice e mail explaining that you get stressed about your children (as you said here) and overstepped the mark. If you show a bit of humility you will be quickly forgiven.

Don’t we all need phonics and whole word awareness?
What children need is to use phonics as the only method to decode to build up their knowledge of words that they can recognise to automaticity which is ultimately the aim.

Are you confusing asking children to use phonics to decode an unfamiliar word with sounding out every word out loud? That isn't phonics and no one expects that.

Teaching children to read using the whole word, without phonemic awareness or reading the sounds from left to right, is another method of teaching decoding, and an ineffective one. We know that some children are confused by using this as another method, we know that it isn't the most effective method, and we know that it hasn't been the guidance for many, many years. Children taught only this method tend to work out the alphabetic code for themselves - nowadays we tend not to rely on osmosis.

Some children who are taught a mixture of these methods struggle - around a fifth of a class of thirty, which isn't the case when phonics is taught as the only method of decoding.

All fluent readers only decide new words (it would be v slow otherwise!) and dyslexics are better with whole word awareness.
This isn't actually the case - latest research shows that even the adult brain is still decoding the sounds, but so rapidly that we don't know it. Your 'dyslexics' comment is nonsense - the vast majority of programmes from dyslexia professionals are for explicit systematic synthetic phonics teaching.

@MoverOfPaper

You're so shit hot on reading, but don't know that the word is entrenched not entranched ???

*When it came to teaching my child to read I got on with it myself. My child can read. They learnt a lot at that school but not how to read.

The reception teacher has moved on to SMT elsewhere. There are a lot of struggling readers in what was that reception class.*

How on earth do you know that it was only you that managed to teach your dc to read? Did you make sure that they did not take part in any reading lessons in school? Surely that would have been impossible?? Also, how do you know how many struggling readers there were in that class? Do you have some insider knowledge?

Isn't this method totally acceptable at very early level, parent of helping them learn:understand the realisation between letters and whole words before they are quite ready to fully decode? That's what I've understood through 6 years of primary and work with a broad age range over many years. Also not all words can be decoded and again pictured can help at early level. That's why some early reading books have no words at all and why when they do they have very descriptive pictures. However you can use whatever method you like at home and let school crack on with theirs. Most reading is done at home anyway so you could have saved yourself the embarrassing call.

So rude. It's probably a typo, but as if anyone would post about it!

I taught my ds to read, definitely. He was fine in Recption, but they switched methods in Year 1 and he didn't make any progress at all. They changed to whole word books and only taught phonics in ability groups three times a week. He was in the middle group, who by March were still only on Phase 3. Christ knows where the bottom group were.

His confidence plummeted and he was no longer interested in reading.

We ignored the school books and I brought decodables home from school. Later, we used Reading Chest as he enjoyed receiving the envelopes.

He progressed, began to enjoy reading again, and just before the school's Y1 phonics check I stopped teaching him new sounds. He didn't meet the standards of the check, along with 60% of his cohort, but I didn't see why they should benefit from my phonics teaching. We took off again in July and he was a fluent reader by Y2. Because of me. I taught him to read, just like Moverofpaper and brilliotic had to. Anne of course we know that. We had to actually unteach the school's guessing methods!

Also not all words can be decoded

Oh dear. All words can be decoded if you actually bother to teach children the code. Please do some reading and do so if you are still teaching.

I am pretty pro phonics it's certainly better than the whole word method I was taught but I do have an issue with some phonics books - esp songbirds they use very unfamiliar language / vocab which imo (unscientific/ my own two children only) really confused my children as they could blend the word but it was to them meaningless as it was not a word they heard in every day life. I would of course explain its meaning etc but they didn't know if they were right and the stories were so light / weird that context was hard too.

You may hate Biff Chip and Kipper but at least my kids understood the words and so when they sounded they out and got the vocab and comprehension their confidence and love of reading grew massively. It was not what I expected but it was what I saw, twice but may be that is just my kids

I am sure there are excellent phonics schemes out there with a good balance of sounds and familiar vocab (we had some better ones occasionally) but my kids school did not invest in them sadly.

There is such a huge debate over the effectiveness of pure phonics versus phonics alongside other methods

There isn't a debate. The research shows that pure phonics is the most effective way of teaching the greatest number of children to read.

Calling it decoding to the teacher made you sound like ‘ that parent’ I’m embarrassed for you .