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Read Write Inc: criteria to move up group

14 replies

MsCarrieBradshaw · 19/03/2023 23:34

Hi, my daughter is in Year 1 and reading really well. She is reading early reader chapter books by herself. At school she is doing Read Write Inc and she is in the blue group, so the penultimate book colour before completing the scheme.

She has been in the blue group since November and has read most books. She gets given two books a week: one she has already read and a new one. She can read both easily, she reads them fluently the first time round so we don’t read them twice. We listen to her read her chapter books instead.

We had parents’ evening and asked the teacher why she isn’t moving up to grey as the blue books are too easy. She replied it was because she wasn’t confident with all the sounds. We didn’t think about it straight away and didn’t ask her to clarify.

Now we’ve had some time to think about it, we are a bit confused: the blue books are too easy, so we know she can read all the sounds easily. Does the teacher mean she isn’t confident writing all the sounds? Is it how Read Write Inc work? How is it assessed and how do teachers know when to move the children up?

Just to clarify - we don’t really mind as she is doing lots of reading at home, we just want to know how the scheme works and is assessed. Thank you!

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Anothernameanother · 20/03/2023 07:04

They're assessed periodically - usually 4 times per year. In between, some schools don't move groups at all. Others only move them if the teacher is very confident they're ready. If she's as far as blue in Year 1, they probably won't want to move until the assessment point. If she joined the group in November, she's either had one assessment and not passed, or she's not had one but there's one coming up very soon.

Heckythump1 · 20/03/2023 10:36

Honestly, when we got to that level with RWI we didn't really bother reading the school books, they are so boring and easy... we read whatever DD fancied and didn't worry about whether she moved up or not.
I think RWI is a brilliant scheme for when they're first learning to read, but not so good as they are get to be really good readers.

GiantPandaAttacks · 20/03/2023 10:42

The new fluency program encourages the reading of texts multiple times until the child is completely fluent in all words. If you aren’t doing that and moving her on, then she won’t progress quickly.

PartySuziPlease · 20/03/2023 10:52

Read write inc is assessed regularly. It is likely that your daughter is learning the 'easy' blue books off by heart as she has read them so much, then when it comes to the test where there are different words (sometimes even 'alien' Aka made up words), she is becoming a little stuck. Until she is absolutely whizzing through this, she will not be moved onto grey books. To help her move on, I'd ask what the blue book sounds are and do lots of practise of different words out of context from the books as well as alien words.

ticklemepinker · 20/03/2023 10:57

Read lots of lovely books to/with your child and just keep going w the readers. Honestly it is sooooo important to embed the sounds and spellings at the start. You can read all you want at home so keep going w lots of stories too.

MsCarrieBradshaw · 20/03/2023 11:25

Thanks a lot, it is really useful!

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Nectarines · 20/03/2023 18:47

With RWI, you don’t give children books with their new sounds in straight away. They learn speed sounds and then segment and blend words with those sounds in phonics sessions but when it comes to story books, they should only contain words that the child can fluently read as they confidently know all sounds needed.

ZebraKid71 · 20/03/2023 19:10

It may be from when they check their phonics knowledge, my ds has just moved to blue books and reads them fairly fluently too but some of it is because he can predict what is coming and recognises words by sight rather his phonics knowledge, if that makes sense.

MsCarrieBradshaw · 20/03/2023 20:23

Yes that makes sense. I am glad I posted yesterday as it is now much clearer. It is hard to know how each particular scheme works!

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Grammarnut · 21/03/2023 12:17

And predicting should be discouraged because it ceases to work when texts become more complex.

MsCarrieBradshaw · 21/03/2023 13:10

Yes, definitely. However she can read new blue books (fluently from the first reading) and she is also reading early reader chapter books easily. We are trusting the teachers though, they know what’s best for their pupils.

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Grammarnut · 21/03/2023 13:37

Her teacher is probably waiting for the next assessment to do anything. Reading words out of context should help your daughter.

GetTheGoodLookingGuy · 21/03/2023 18:00

I work in a school that uses RWI. Here are some parts from the assessment. The first shows what they need to do to move up to Grey. The second picture shows an example of the words they would need to read to move up, and the third is the Set 3 sounds. If you show her those sounds, can she tell you them immediately?

The books she's bringing home should be easy - the sounds in the books deliberately lag behind their sound knowledge so the children can read them fluently. If she was having to decode multiple words per page, the books would be too difficult for her.

Read Write Inc: criteria to move up group
Read Write Inc: criteria to move up group
Read Write Inc: criteria to move up group
MsCarrieBradshaw · 21/03/2023 19:08

Super helpful, thank you.

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