Can anyone enlighten me as to how reading is taught in Reception these days?

[imaginaryfriend]

I feel we're a bit unlucky as we seem to have a Reception teacher with zero communication skills. I've tried, I really have tried to get her to explain how reading is being taught. So I thought I'd ask you guys.

So far I know that the teacher is being very cautious in handing out reading books. She spent the first 6 weeks running through the alphabet phonetically with the kids then they had level 1 reading books. Dd's in the 'top' group of 6 children and the teacher moved them to level 2 books about 5 weeks ago. Because I go in as a parent helper to listen to the kids read once a week I can tell that all the children in dd's group are really gaining nothing from that level of book, they're racing through them immediately first time with no challenge at all. I've mentioned it to the teacher but she doesn't want to move them on a level yet.

My questions are:

1. Is just 1 reading book a week, only listened to by the parent helper in class, enough / typical?
2. The only time the teacher hears the children read is when they do group guided reading once a week. Is this enough for her to assess where they are with their reading? What the hell is guided reading???
3. Is it ok for me to be reading ahead with her at home? - she's reading ORT level 3 with me with no problem at all with comprehension / vocabulary.
4. Is most of the reading now done through synthetic phonics or are there still some sight words? I'm worried I won't teach dd in the right way to read if I'm moving ahead of what they're doing at school.

And if you wouldn't mind telling me what your experience of Reception teaching of reading is I'd love to hear and compare. I do feel we're getting a rubbish deal but maybe it's the norm. We're in an inner city London school with 'Excellent' Ofsted reports every year. I've no idea how they get those reports from what I've seen so far.

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badly I imagine. Mine first 3 all read before they started school and the teacher went nuts because they might not have done it 'properly'. This is despite them reading fluently.
But what your saying sounds normal. One size fits all from the teacher. But there is no right or wrong way to read long as they end up ENJOYING IT.

1 - Yes that is normal AFAIK
2 - I don't know - never heard of it.
3 - I personally wouldn't read ahead on the same scheme as she uses at school, because when she has to go through them, she will be BORED
4 - If you can read it phonetically, they are encouraged to do so - if not, they just have to learn it.

the most effective way to learn to read is to read, IMHO, so I'd just go to the library a lot and get lots of books. She will learn far more from you than she ever will from the teacher at this stage.

ds1 is in reception, in a (worst in area but better than city) state primary - he sometimes has 1 book for 3 weeks, sometimes 4 in a week. He is read with alone once a week - ish.

he chooses his own books from the level box (currently Songbirds) and we plough through at home - a week later the teacher will tell him to go an pick another after hearing him read - or the TA will but she has been there for 15 years, I trust her judgement too!

The SAT scores for the school are abysmal but with 53% SEN in the group who took the SATs, I think they are doing well.

Agree with colditz about reading ahead. Things WILL get harder, and if your dd finds it all super easy, then her confidence will soar - let her enjoy!!

I wouldn't say she finds it all super easy. The books the teacher uses for home readers aren't ORT, they tend to be a mix but they are really very simple, the level 2 is simpler than level 1 ORT. So I've been doing some ORT with her at home.

We read lots, she's very interested, but not at the expense of any opportunity to run around being Tinkerbell.

DD only reads once a week at school, usually to a parent helper. She's in reception and is on ORT 2.

I have been reading ahead with her at home as I bought alot of the ORT books to help DS2 who was struggling in YR and Y1.

TBH I think I may have done more harm than good, as she now knows the stories, and therefore doesn't have to sound out the words to read them.

I've switched schemes with her at home now, shes doing the Read With Me Ladybird books that I remember from the 70s!! She does already 'know' the rest of stage 2 and most of stage 3 though!

The school are teaching them synthetic phonics, which is alien to me, I was teaching her by sight which is how I learnt, and how my DS's (who were at a different school in YR) learnt.

She started learning a letter with an action for that letter, and then went onto 2 and 3 letter blends. All the phonetic words are learnt that way, and then the non-phonetic words (they call them tricky words) are learnt by sight.

DD is doing really well despite my (well intentioned) medling!!

We teach ch. to read mainly phonetically, with the exception of words that can't be read phonetically (eg. 'the' which phonetically would be 'th' 'eh'). Those words, (tricky words as sarah573 said, are taught by sight). If there is a child having real trouble with the phonics, I would probably try other methods too, such as more reading word by sight. But generally this doesn't happen.
Guided reading is when the teacher sits with a small group for about 20 minutes and reads a specific book with them and listens to them reading. This group is streamed, so they can all be reading at the same level. (And it isn't always 'one size fits all'). It is a chance for the teacher to teach specific reading methods, go over unfamiliar words, have a discussion about the book to help with comprehension, etc. It is also a chance for the teacher to assess how the child is progressing with their reading, and see any sticking points.
In my class (Y1) we do guided reading with each child 1x / week and the TA does it 1x / week.

I can imagine it's a problem to read ahead with the books they're reading at school as they do learn them by heart very quickly! In fact it's quite hard for me to tell what dd's learnt by heart, what she's sounding out and what she's reading 'properly.' Which is why I'd like to leave it up to the school except she really is totally bored by just having the one reading book a week. She can read it immediately perfectly and after going over it again 2 or 3 times she just doesn't want to know.

I've got her a range of different books to go through at home, both ORT and other schemes so I think I'll keep adding to what she's getting from school, just gently, so she doesn't get bored and give up on it. She needs a bit of a challenge.

Our primary seems to follow the same sort of system as yours IF. Long introduction to sounds. Group reading once a week. One book home a week. It has reading results "well above the national average" to quote its recent OFSTED report.

We also has quite a lot of parents with concerns about the number of books coming home. The teacher said that much of what they did in school was centred around reading. We just don't see that. All we see is the one book home a week.

TUM do you think the school does well because of the intervention of the parents? Dd's school has such a glowing report and excellent results but I really haven't seen any evidence of that being the result of the school so far. Maybe it'll change when the pace ups in Y1?

Well, I didn't intervene as such...

I didn't do any extra reading with ds for example.

And he has made good progress. He is 6.5 and a free reader.

The teacher told me that they did all they wanted to do in school in reception. And what they wanted to do was give a really sound understanding of the phonics stuff. And to encourage the children to read with enjoyment and expression (hence the group reading, and re-reading books they really know by memory). Before, as you say, the pace ups in year 1.

She said our job at home was to encourage them by praising their "reading" and making books part of every day. Which I hope we did and still do, mostly by reading to him, and latterly by hearing him read properly (this started in year 1, although still in a pretty relaxed way).

My dd started reception last September. She knew most of her sounds when she started and had started souning out words. I was pleased that they started working through the sounds at the rate of a sound a day and had gone through them all by October half term.

Initially we were sent the Biff and Chip without words home, I felt these were a waste of time. My DD had been doing that look at the pictures and tell the story thing for ages. We then started getting books home at the rate of 2 a week. They were being read with on a 1-1 with the TA twice a week so a new book twice a week. The same book they were reading was being sent home. We are now in January and she is still on level 1+. For quite a while I have been getting other books from the library and we have always read to her. I had to ask for more books to be sent home just after Christmas and really get the feeling that they will do things at their own pace and that the children have to go through all the books before they are put up a level. My dd reads the books very easily however my experience of approaching the teacher or TA is that basically they have to go through all the books and they know best.

As regards how they teach, we havent been given any info other than that they are using Jolly Phonics. So I get my DD to sound out any words she is unsure of and we work through any tricky words. So in answer to your questions:

1. This depends on the child imo. For me knowing my dd - one book is not enough and they should be reading to someone who knows/understands the levels!
2. My dd doesn't do guided reading, personally I would prefer 1-1.
3. I would and am reading ahead although I try and use books I know they havent got. Agree with other posters that your dd may get bored
4. I think most schools are using a reading scheme - try and find out what they are using as this will help. There will always be sight words as not all words can be sounded out.

Yes, I'm sure the school are using a reading scheme although I'm not sure what the rhyme or reason of it is. The books we bring home are never ORT and seem to be a very mixed bag of schemes. The guided reading books are often ORT (because dd tells me about Biff, Chip etc.). But the Reception class next door are bringing home ORT books to read as my friend's dd is in the class.

So I'm at a loss.

I'll ask very direct questions at our progress report meeting a week next Monday. I'll probably make myself very unpopular with the teacher but what the heck, I do need to know and I feel I've been pretty patient so far.

DD (5 next month) is in reception and after the first week of term last September has been getting a ORT book a night (except holidays). She has to read it to her teacher or TA as soon as she arrives each morning. In addition she gets 25 key words per week to learn by sight.

On Friday she was only 2 away from finishing the green books (is this Series 2?) so they were both sent home and she didn't have a problem reading them with us before school this morning. She is hoping to be on the blue ones from tonight.

Normally we read the ORT to her as part of her bedtime reading and then she has to read them to us in between watching Milkshake and getting ready - not always easy.

We don't generally read ahead (she is your typical Julia Donaldson/Charlie and Lola/Winnie The Witch type of girl) although
she does have a ORT 4 book of her own which so loves as Floppy goes to the vets. She is now able to master that one from a) words she knows now and b) memory.

Interesting about the words Butkin. I know about the key words they are supposed to know but the end of Reception however the school does not give us anything. My DD knows them as 'tricky' words as that how they pitch them at school. They seem to be doing them at school but very slowly.

I think what I am struggling to understand is why schools are doing things so differently and why most schools seem to be so bad at communicating.

I don't understand the differences in schools either. Or the differences between the two Reception classes at dd's school.

If at Butkin's school the teacher or TA gets to hear a child read every day then how is it unreasonable for me to be frustrated that dd's teacher or TA have never heard her read, even once, apart from guided reading, since she started last September?!

IF - KG children start arriving from about 8.20 and they don't have to go to assembly until 8.50. Therefore they seem to have time (there are 18 of them in each class) to whizz through their ORT with the teacher/TA. Once they have read they can mooch off and do something else like jigsaws, contruction, IT etc.

They have a reading booklet in which the teacher/TA writes the name of the ORT, the date and a comment/smily face so we know what is going on.

Parents are discouraged from anything more than minimal communication with the teacher upon arrival so the kids can get full concentration.

I guess if they are pushed for time they do a few children after assembly as well before starting off on their published ciriculum.

Butkin, dd's class has 27 children (the other class has 29 ) and they start school at 8.55am. So they'd never be able to do the same scheme. Is yours a private school by the way?

am at 25 sight words a WEEK!

CS I don't think dd would manage 25 sight words a week in hindsight. Maybe 5 or 6.

not to mention the fact that it is 950 in a year!

Yes ... there is that ...

Yes private but principle is the same. Although there is a difference between 18 and 27 your DD's school could perhaps work out a rota where each child reads to their teacher/TA every other morning. If DD's school can do 18 in each class your school should be able to do 13 1/2.

The 25 words we get aren't tricky. They are the fundamental words that crop in ORT. Words like The, Said, They, Everyone. We just get a letter each Monday asking us to make sure that our children can read these by the next Monday using sight and not sounds. If they can't do them to start with we have to keeping telling them until they know them.

Then they learn the more difficult words using phonetics but at least they can bounce along over the more usual ones.

Oh and I expect the number will decrease when the more common words are learned!

Butkin I have a friend with a ds in a private school and it really is very different. I think he's in a small class like yours and there is a lot more teacher support staff. I don't think my dd's teacher with just her and the TA physically could hear the kids read every day. I do think they could manage it once a week though so the children get 2 books a week and get to read to a parent helper and a teacher.