Point of old ORT reading books?

[Teddyreddy]

Can anyone explain what I should be doing with the old ORT reading books DS's school sends home?

They teach them phonics at school using Read Write Inc, and are progressing quite slowly - they are only half way through the alphabet. They will apparently start reading RWI books in class after Christmas, they won't be sending them home. However, presumably because DS already knew most of his letters, they are sending home reading books already. They are the old Biff and Chip ones, mostly very well worn (his current book dates to 2003). He's lucky if he can sound out more than 2 or 3 words in a book, the rest are either irregular or beyond his current phonics knowledge. Each book says it is to practice a small number of words (e.g. me, you, he) but they contain lots of other words (e.g. Monday). There doesn't seem to be a lot of repetition between books - so DS isn't actually learning any of the so called keywords from them as the next book has a different set and without reinforcement he just forgets them. I'm struggling to get the point of his reading books given he doesn't seem to be learning anything from them - is there something about the ORT scheme I'm missing?

Nope. Pretty much sums it up.

It's over 20yrs old but schools can't afford to bin them all and buy hundreds of new books so, they are just making do. It's all about funding/budgets I'm afraid.

You can get packs of high frequency word cards from Amazon that I found really useful to work with alongside the phonics. My DD loved playing games with them (find the word, making bets over how many she could read etc). I'd highly recommend them as there are plenty of words they need to master which don't work phonetically. They were a real help with getting them started on the ORT books after they'd mastered the letter sounds.

Yeah we have this issue too. To be honest we just briefly look over the school books then I use our own phonics books with her. I mentioned it to her teacher who basically said she knew it was crap but they can’t afford any more books at the moment, and to keep reading our own books at home.

Relieved to hear it's not a lack in DS / me doing it wrong. I'd rather they didn't do reading books at all than the current ones - it's putting DS off reading and it seems a waste of the teacher / TAs time reading them with him twice a week at the moment when he's not remembering any of it.

@Esptea I've tried making my own flash cards but for some reason irregular words really aren't sticking with DS - he keeps trying to sound them out. I can tell him them and the next page he's sounding them out again... Flashcards weren't sticking at all either and were making him cross so I've stopped for the moment. I'm hoping he'll be less resistant when the school start teaching him tricky words with RWI - but they aren't doing that until after Christmas....

I'd just read them to him. If a word comes up that you know he can sound out ask him to help you with that word. In the reading diary, I'd just write DS could sound out cat, dog, pig correctly.

We got in DD’s reading diary today ‘she struggled to sound out words such as ‘kitchen’. Well yes, because she hasn’t learned the phonics for those sorts of words yet!

My ds is in a similar position. And it’s not a budget issue for us because it’s a fee-paying school. It’s a lack of faith in phonics problem.

I wouldn’t teach “irregular” words as wholes. Even if he can’t read the whole words yet you can let him read the sounds he knows and fill in the sounds he doesn’t.

So for example, to read “Chip” I say the c and h together say the “Ch” sound, can you sound out the other letters and figure out what the word says...

If it’s a really long word he’s got no chance with I’d sound it out for him so he understands that all words are made up of sounds, he just hasn’t learnt all the code yet.

That’s how I try and do it ArfArfBarf.
I’m finding it difficult because when DD1 started reception she could already read (started on ORT blue level) so we didn’t go through all this. She didn’t learn through pure phonics but she basically taught herself to read so no angst for me! It’s harder with DD2, she’s an August baby so isn’t as far on, she has easily picked up how to blend cvc/vc words, but the books given don’t reflect the level of phonics they’re at!

Some words are sight words though. Just read with him. The enjoyment should be reading together. Talk about the pictures with him. Does he get keyring words yet?

Some words are sight words though

I think there are much fewer words than you’d imagine which can’t be read only using the phonics taught in ks1.

Most words have some sounds in that they can identify after just a few weeks of phonics. For example, my ds came across the word “could” in a book a few weeks ago. He knew the c and d but was unsure how to read “oul”. I told him the sounds those letters made. After a couple of times of seeing it he remembered without prompting. He then came across “would” and “should” and was able to apply the same logic. Much more useful than memorising the shape of the whole word.

"he keeps trying to sound them out" he should be sounding them out

"Some words are sight words though" it really depends on what you mean by sight words ...if you mean that they need to be learnt as wholes rather than decoded then no that's simply not true. All words can be decoded once you know the code.

I don’t really remember a problem with ORT in this way, but we could take home any books in the appropriate colour code and the school would work through ORT for assessment. There would be ORT home readers we could choose, but also picture books like The Hungry Caterpillar, or whatever. All the books on the shelves were assessed by the school as ‘in line’ with whichever of the ORT reading levels, and you could change them daily if you liked.

I do remember though there was period of battling to get through at the start of reading - sounding out all the time etc. and getting used to tricky words - before fluency increased and reading became something my children were consistently keen to do.

I’d say don’t give up - insist on even just a few pages each day - and get other books to read from the library. At some point things will become easier for your DS. Read tricky words for him if necessary and don’t sound out; use letter names to spell out. Don’t expect the school ‘teaching him’ tricky words to bring about the break through you expect to see - there are loads and you’ll need to build on the work the school is doing to ensure mastery - ultimately reading regularly is the best way you will help your DS.

Read tricky words for him if necessary and don’t sound out

The National Curriculum states the exact opposite.

Tricky words are not non-decodable. They're words which contain part of the code which hasn't been taught yet. Decode the word from left to right, highlighting the tricky 'bit' as you go.

E.g. 'said' - in this word, is code for /e/. /s/ /e/ /d/

I'm a ks1 teacher. There is no point in these books. Books for practising reading skills should be decodable until reading is fluent. Schools often send out the old ones as they are strapped for cash to buy new ones but IMO buying decodable books should be the number one priority as learning to read is the most fundamental skill.

I had been sounding out and explaining the words he can't yet decode but as the books increasingly have more words he's lost patience with it and won't let me do it anymore (his latest book has 16 different words of which he is currently only capable of sounding out 2 so there's quite a bit of me explaining). I was also finding it hard work, I don't think I was ever taught the phonetic code so I'm having to do a lot of looking up the rules to be able to explain more difficult words like diary and journey!

@Bowerbird5 he actually enjoys decoding / blending when I get him decodable books, which is why it's so frustrating they send him home books like this.

A phonics spelling dictionary is quite handy to help work out and then explain what's going on.

I bought quite a few early reader collections from thebookpeople (Songbirds was a particular favourite, plus Reading Champion and the more recent Biff, Chip and Kipper ones - generally just 50p-£1 per book) and then donated them to the school when DS was done with them.

Send them back and ask for books more in line with his current phonics knowledge?

Arabella schools can't afford to bin them all and buy hundreds of new books so, they are just making do. It's all about funding/budgets I'm afraid
This argument doesn't wash. There was matched funding around, and the key job in infants is to teach reading by phonics.

We have ORT at my school, loads of them. It costs about £45 for 6 so very expensive to replace. Remember to read home books too.

The chn always learn to read though!

Unfortunately many children don't learn to read because the old ORT books rely on ineffective strategies that leave children with no way to tackle unfamiliar words once the pictures are removed.

The chn always learn to read though!

Yeah. The national pass rate for the KS2 reading test isn't 72% and there is no adult illiteracy at all, honest.

The matched funding didn't come anywhere near the amount needed to replace the sheer quantity of books needed for eyfs and ks1 in our school. Plus, most of it had to go on teaching resources rather than just books to send home.

Why? And I disagree - £6000 was plenty to replace books