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.

The phonics test is just reading a few made-up words. It’s not a big deal. If you can read fluently of course you would pass it.

The screening check included a non-phonetic word in this year’s assessment.

Both my DC learnt to read through phonics (including my youngest DC Mr Thorne on YouTube in lockdown!) and are both now keen readers, the youngest well ahead of his age expectations now in Y4. I was sceptical at first but it does work.

Haha thanks for the vote of confidence 😁.
god maybe I should take one and get more of a clue.
Just at this session today they played a video of a kid sounding out each letter in the alphabet and I found it quite baffling. (Obviously some were obvious like “t”). And trying to read a word that way - by sounding out each individual sound and then trying to put them together to recognise the word honestly makes my head hurt 🤪.

Phonics are great for learning to read, our school use read write inc. Where they are not great is for when spelling becomes a bit more important. (Year 2) but that's a small matter as children do still learn how to spell correctly eventually.

Yes the books are generally shit and boring I agree. They get better as the reading progresses and we found Biff chip and kipper to be bearable.

Ahhh I see

Tell me OP, do you always dismiss things you don’t understand first time?

No

Without being rude... It isn't actually about you, though, is it? As you point out, you can read so it doesn't matter if it confuses you! It's about what is most helpful for your daughter and for children more broadly and the evidence is that phonics is the most widely effective method.

I think you do have to try and get on board with this stuff if you don't home educate. I suspect you won't like how they teach maths either, but no method they'll teach in school could be more damaging than the impact of having a parent who undermines, even just implicitly, the learning they're doing there.

I recommend the podcast 'Sold a story' which is about teaching of reading in the USA. Will make you pleased we do phonics in the UK!

My main problem with phonics is that the English language is batshit so there are so many exceptions. But that a not the schemes fault!

good Lord 😂, I thought we were having a discussion/ conversation. I am speaking from personal experience as it’s all I have to go on. I understand of course that this isn’t about me. I’m just skeptical because of my own experience.

I’m curious, expressing my curiosity and interested to hear the experiences / perspectives of others.

Tbh I was really deflated by the workshop today. I took time off work to attend as my DD’s education is important to me and I thought I would learn something that might enable me to support her. Instead I learned very little (if anything) about how I might help , and I was shown examples of the books she will be working from, which lacked any sort of plot/ narrative or general sense! Even the pictures were crap 😂. I was a bit gutted tbh as in terms of well-being/ environment I have been delighted with the school so far.

I came on here to ask for others experiences / opinions and am definitely encouraged to hear that the general consensus seems to be that this method does work and the books get better , fast.

I def now have some concerns about how they might teach maths 🤣😭

I was very sceptical about phonics but actually it’s a great system for teaching kids to read. Unfortunately though schools over-fixate on them because of the Y1 phonics check, at the expense of practicing actual reading. Little Wandle is terrible: my DD point blank refused to read the books. I think ‘decodable’ is great but not at the expense of the child’s motivation. My older kids had Biff, Chip and Kipper which they loved. So you have to do all you can to promote the love of reading yourself really.

The thing is, Op, is phonic schemes like Little Wandle are developed on the basis of years of research into how children learn to read. Also good teaching of phonics makes children more confident in their writing. They become less afraid about spelling as they use their phonics knowledge and phonological skills to guess how to write words. This makes them more fluent in writing and braver in their word choices. That's been one of the big differences I noticed with my year ones last year compared to previous years.

A scientifically perfect book is no good if it’s so boring the kid won’t read it!

Op, maybe you could buy some CVC match up card games to play instead.

Little Wandle books aren't all about phonics and decoding. They also aim at improving prosody and comprehension. That's why they are read over three sessions.

Some Little Wandle books

Legends of land and sky, The secret of Loch Ness, Dark unicorn and, a particular favourite, What is Snot?

The books very quickly become story books which are engaging, entertaining and sometimes yuck! Don't base your views on the earlier texts, there's only so much you can do with s,a,t,p,I,n !

Thanks all, I really appreciate the insights. Definitely feeling more positive now.

@Storynanny1, what would you do with a child who could ‘look and say’ some words, but who couldn’t get to grips with phonics in a real life context. Who could recognise phonemes and match them to graphemes in an exercise, but not in decoding? At the moment, 8 years later, we are battling on with phonics but very discouraged.

The Secrets of Loch Ness went down a storm with my class last year. The very early Reception books are a bit basic but they do get better. My pupils obviously liked some more than others but there wasn't a book they didn't enjoy and engage with. It's such a change from trying to get them excited about Biff and Kipper etc.

Actually I like your typo, I’m going to call it Little Waddle.
It’s a bit ironic calling it little wandle - 2 very difficult words to work out phonetically!
There must be a story behind the name, I’ve retired now, last few years were Read write Inc which we secretly renamed Read Write Stink.
” It’s all a lot of nonsense” said Mrs May ( the teacher in Biff etc)
She had some good ideas.
Anything that went wrong in a classroom I used to say “ It’s the weather” said Mrs Storynanny.

English is almost completely phonetic - it's just that there are multiple phonemes for each grapheme (sound - spelling) and vice versa.
There's a good list of the common/simple/first taught correspondences and then the next ones to go on to, here:

https://www.jocelynseamereducation.com/blog/46913-phonemes-and-graphemes

It seemed odd when my two DCs came home learning "-igh" very early on but it's a really easy one to learn as it basically NEVER makes any other sound than "I" but other spellings of that sound aren't as consistent.
So you learn the consistent ones first then the less consistent ones.

I remember hating phonics as a child, can't explain it but I didn't find it helpful at all. When DS started school though of course was super enthusiastic about the scheme the school used to support them and to support him, and it worked wonders. I know teachers aren't perfect but they'll note if a child isn't responding well to it but most do.

My little boy loved this book last year too. He also really enjoyed The Great Fire of London. We spent quite a bit of the summer holidays learning more about it, when he asked me questions that I didn’t know the answers too.

Try not to be too disheartened op, the books really do get better. And in my (very limited) experience the scheme works.

Well I’m not sure what the current thinking is as stuff changes all the time and I’ve been out of the classroom for 4 years now. I think the school view will be set in stone because of the gov guidelines and should be supporting your child in persevering with phonics. However, they are probably absorbing some knowledge without realising it and although not always able to use it, will be making links to be able to read new words.
Dare I say though, as I’m now retired and not accountable to anyone, there are some children who never click with phonics, and just learn their own way and use their own strategies, ending up as perfectly adequate readers. Sorry not to have been able to help more.