Thoughts on “little waddle” reading method?

[Golaz]

My DD has just stated reception. We had a phonics workshop today where they described this methodology for teaching children to read and showed some examples of the books they would be using. It sounded really dumb and boring and the books look shit. I didn’t get it at all. Does anyone have any insights or experiences to share? Is this likely to be helpful in actually teaching my child to read and enjoy reading? At the moment she loves books but can’t read at all.

That should say a-e makes the ai sound

I was suspicious of phonics because I learned to read early by memorising etc. as a child.

But my DD has absolutely flown through the phonics levels and the boring books and almost finished the scheme now. She couldn’t read at all a year ago (could recognise her name and a few words but I don’t think that counts) and now can read chapter books from the library such as the Worst Witch. Where there’s a word she hasn’t encountered before she’s able to have a stab at it using phonics and generally work it out from context etc. As a method of teaching, phonics seems like it really works (most of the scheme books are so dull though!)

Phonics can be deathly dull and repetitive but it is so effective! It also doesn't stay dull for long because students move through the programme.
My advice would be to link the books to your life, use the pictures, topics or vocabulary to infer information that is more advanced than the text and start a conversation - "The cat sat on the mat? Who do we know that has a cat? Wow, does Grandma's cat sit on mats? What do you think the mat feels like?"
Praise your child for effort in using their sounds and completing books using their new reading skills.
Keep reading interesting books to them at bedtime, visit the library etc etc.

Never heard of Little Wandle but phonics has been the primary method for teaching children to read in this country for decades and English children have some of the best literacy and reading rates in the world. Once you've taken a child or two through the phonics process (as many of us did in lockdown) you really see the benefits.

https://www.thetimes.co.uk/article/children-in-england-are-best-readers-in-the-western-world-jzs2kpqmm

I was dubious and it seemed counter intuitive to me but within 2 weeks of reception my little one was reading the very simple early books. It blew my mind how quick she picked it up. And she's hitting where she needs to be, not above. She's year two now, loves reading and flying through books

"English children" - should be "children in England" of course. (Over half of kids at our local schools speak English as a second language and they come quickly up to standard from speaking one language at home to being at the same level as their native speaking peers in the phonics system.)

You might think that you weren’t taught like this but you were to a certain extent. You learnt that /a/ made a certain sound and /c/ made a certain sound and you would have been taught to split
a word and blend it back together. Everyone uses phonics to read. It’s just the sounds each letter or combination of letters makes.

Another one who absolutely hated it, but can’t believe how well it works. My eldest is in Year 2. When they started reception they couldn’t recognise their name and that was it. Now I get facts from Horrible Histories books read to me!

Thanks all you are making me feel better!

It was explained to me that children who pick up reading easily will always pick up reading easily no matter the method. Using phonics helps those children who find it harder while still being a perfectly good method for the more able readers.

Also, the government now require one of very few programmes and sets of reading books, to be used in a very set way

And you can, if you are like me, leave the boring phonics to the the teachers in the school day and read the exciting books at bedtime. Ambitious, exciting stories with good characters. Then your child is getting the best of both worlds.

My son started reception last week. He can already read but is starting the little Wandle programme at the same point as all the rest of his class.
I’m concerned it’s going to turn him off reading.
He was laughing that he’s learning “m” and “a” at school this week. I’m not sure how long it will be funny to him.

I was taught to read words by sight. I could read pretty fluently before I started school. If you learn through that method, the phonics I think comes intuitively. Like you work out that certain combinations of letters make certain sounds .

Also, my daughter failed the phonics screening in the summer, but she is happily reading Roald Dahl’s George’s Marvellous Medicine to me at bedtime.

If a phonic scheme is taught well and children make expected progress they will be reading well by the end of reception. The amount of text increases quickly as the number of sounds increased. All single letters and consonant diagraphs are taught by January.

Keep your child I tested in books by continuing to read them lovely stories, sharing picture books and listening to audiobooks.

The associated phonics books are only to learn to read and practice sounds learned at school. Your child will also be exposed to stories with actual plots via English lessons.

It’s this kind of thing that concerns me… like surely the goal is to be able to read and understand stories not pass phonics tests?

She has to continue doing phonics lessons and will repeat the text in the summer. I’m not sure what she is missing by having these phonics sessions.

To be honest, we just ignore it and carry on reading the books she enjoys and going through various work books together.

I think the phonics test is a silly and unnecessary government policy but that doesn't mean the whole phonics method is. I think it's incredibly unusual for a child to be 'good at reading' but struggling with phonics - as a pp said children who will learn to read easily will learn to read easily with any method.

You can't understand a story which you can't read. Phonics has been proven to be the most efficient method of learning to read, those that say they sight read have just intuitively learned phonics- which is fine for those that do so but those who learn to read by sight and DONT pick up the phonics will eventually struggle when their ability to sight read reaches its limit. The phonics screening check isn't a test, it is used to identify those phonemes that the child hasn't yet grasped. The vast majority will have no issues with the check, we had 93% last summer. Those that haven't grasped all the phoneme grapheme correspondences will just get extra time and support. A small number might need some additional strategies but the number should be very small indeed. Once you can read a book fluently you will have a much better chance of understanding the meaning.

Phonics has been the standard method of teaching reading for years and works for the vast majority of children. The best way to encourage a love of books from a young age is to read to your kids at home, but phonics is by far the best way to get them reading by themselves. The two aren’t mutually exclusive.

Some ‘progressives’ are inexplicably anti phonics. There has been a battle over this issue in the States which this article covers: https://abcnews.go.com/amp/Politics/millions-american-kids-struggle-read-states-address/story?id=102934286

Yes deathly dull and repetitive! At first but as others have said rapidly moves on.

Dont be alarmed at “ failing” a phonics test - although they are told if it is a made up word, some children who are readers will try and “ read” it as a real word, even though they are quite able to sound it out because they have a firm grasp of phonics.

Funnily enough my husband came to England aged 19 with no English - even now at 69 he struggles with some of our “weirdly spelled” words eg through/threw

I'm assuming you mean Little Wandle? We're in our second year of using it and I love it. The phonics scheme is very explicit and structured and provides lots of opportunity for review. The books are good quality. There hasn't been a single one the children haven't enjoyed. We can see the difference in the reading levels of our children too.

But I can obviously read very fluently , but I’m not sure I could pass a phonics test 😂. Honestly, I’m baffled by the individual sounds that the letters supposedly make.
I agree that if you learn to sight read you intuit a lot of phonics, but it seems to me that for many (not all!) children that might be an easier and more intuitive way of learning rather than starting with each individual letter/ sound and having to sound each word out by it’s component parts and then put it back together?

Little Wandle was viewed with great suspicion by the majority of the staff at my school when it was brought into action a year or so ago: another bloody government scheme involving massive expense was the general consensus! It has proved however to be incredibly effective in getting children to read and our KS1 outcomes are the best ever.

@Golaz
But you said that you learnt groups of letters made specific sounds- that's all phonics is! So you should ace the screening check😁