Differentiation in phonics

[modgepodge]

My daughter has just started reception and is loving it so far. She was at quite a pushy preschool last year and was taught all the individual letter sounds and some digraphs, and I’ve taught her most of the other digraphs to the end of phase 3. She is reading books containing these sounds and common tricky words (the, to, go) fairly fluently, and has been since Christmas. She’s also writing words using phonetically plausible attempts, eg ‘macarony’ for macaroni and ‘pancacs’ for pancakes. I’m not saying she’s exceptional or gifted and talented, but she is a little ahead of the expected level entering reception.

They’ve started phonics at school but are only covering 2 sounds a week it seems. So far she has had wordless books for home reading. I spoke to the teacher this week and she said they’ll get books with words from next week but only using sounds she’s been taught in school. I said she could read already, so could we have books containing sounds I know she knows, but she said she can’t send home books containing sounds she hasn’t been taught in school.

So, it seems all reception phonics lessons and books being sent home will be a waste of time for her? I don’t understand why there’s no differentiation in this subject? For context I am also a teacher but not of this age, and would never just teach lessons to the lowest level and not extend pupils who can already do what I’m teaching, so this seems really odd!

School seems excellent generally, and from what friends have said to me this is universal across all schools with all phonics schemes, so I don’t think it’s just that the school is crap!

Any other parents with slightly older kids who entered reception got any advice on this or can tell me how their school handled it? obviously, we will continue to read our own books at home, but I had hoped to get some at the appropriate level from school.

I don't think is universal. My DC was given books containing sounds not yet taught all the way through reception. Never had a wordless book. It would have been very frustrating if this was not the case. Some phonics sessions were differentiated in school too.

Perhaps the school has only a set number of books and the reception group are assigned level 1-4 or whatever and the next year up have level 5-8 . So to give your dd a level 5 means taking one from a set allocated elsewhere.

Without meaning to be snarky, just go and borrow books from your library

How long ago was it? Things changed in the last couple of years and now the recommendation is to only give books with phonics sounds the child knows. Schools therefore won't give books with sounds they haven't yet taught, as if Ofsted came they would mark them down.

Eventually there will be differentiation, as kids progress at reading at wildly different rates. What you are seeing now might just be an attempt to make sure everyone has the same solid foundation? Maybe they haven’t had time to screen every child comprehensively?

in any case, don’t feel constrained by books you get from school. 95% of reading happens at home, and the most important thing is for your daughter to develop a love of reading. Look at the school books occasionally, but feel free to pick your own material - both books she reads to you, as well as more complex stories you read to her (where vocabulary and reading comp is really developed). Our local libraries have loads of phonics type early readers and she can pick ones she is interested in.

don’t get caught up on book band progression and make it a race - as long as they are reading daily, enjoying it, and showing progress term by term, she is doing well. Mine are y2 and sometimes they read up a level or two, and sometimes down a level or two based on interest as well as readiness to stretch vs. Need of a confidence boost.

I wouldn't be happy with that sort of inflexible, bureaucratic approach to teaching. But other than raising the issue and suggesting a different approach, I don't know what else you can do beyond continuing to offer more challenging reading and writing activities at home.

I've heard people say that one should not try to get one's DC 'ahead' of the curriculum too much because they just end up bored and frustrated in class.

Eventually there will be differentiation, as kids progress at reading at wildly different rates. What you are seeing now might just be an attempt to make sure everyone has the same solid foundation? Maybe they haven’t had time to screen every child comprehensively?

I would assume it's this. Do the school reading books and then get others to read at home. I wouldn't make a big deal of it.

She needs to learn the 'schools way' of teaching phonics as all teach slightly different and they want children to feel confident after they have put in the work their end.

Maybe use Library books?

My DS's school is outstanding. He is currently in reception, and their approach is to mix up all the books up to a certain level and let the children choose them as "reading for pleasure" books.

I was quite surprised, having taught this age group and used carefully controlled vocabulary (where you only use sounds they know) but actually it does mean they're able to enjoy more, challenge themselves within their zone of proximal development, and the ones who know their phonics already can read more, while the ones who don't aren't under any pressure to read the books fluently if they take something home that's past their level. So it can be done.

But even in a school where they're following a set pathway with controlled vocab, the children who are more advanced should have a baseline assessment and the teachers should be adapting the learning to meet those children's needs. To do anything else (e.g. purposely holding a child back by giving them something they already know) is inadequate teaching. One of the teaching standards is literally to adapt learning for students.

OP hopefully once they've done baselines they should be able to see the level your child is working at and give them the right level of work.

Give them a few weeks, then they'll probably send texts for different levels.

I have a similar concern about maths at my son's school. He has just started reception too and is doing maths tasks that he did at nursery nearly two years ago such as sorting shapes into the same and different. DS can count to 50+ and do basic addition. I showed him how to do it and he now does it on his own when playing e.g. what is 5 dinosaurs plus 5 dinosaurs. I'm going to let it play out for now because the reception teacher hasn't completed the reception baseline assessment yet so wouldn't know that he can do higher level maths skills. I will speak to her at the meet the teacher in a few weeks. His teacher will find that he has zero interest in writing though. I really wish her luck on that one 😂

You need to thank ofsted for this dumbwittery. Not allowed to give children reading books with any graphemes they haven't been taught at school. The teacher is most likely agreeing with you and cursing ofsted under her breath (or out loud) for this absurdity.

Its a load of bollocks for the high achievers (stagnates their reading and kills the pleasure of reading) and a load of bollocks for struggling readers. If a child is struggling with phonics it should be absolutely ok to learn sight words. Phonics is the best way to learn to read, but it isn't 100% infallible. Some children learn differently. Sight reading can be better for dyslexia for example.

Sorting shapes was probably part of the baseline assessment.

Speak to the senco. They're there for all sorts of educational needs which your daughter has

This is at least the second thread I've seen about teachers giving work that's too easy. It's only the third week in September! Surely they need to get to know their new class, make sure the fundamentals are in place before stretching? There's a long school year ahead.

(I'm not a teacher though.)

@ColleenDonaghy I was just thinking the same they are literally a couple of weeks in. Surely the kids are still settling into a school environment. We've been given an intro to phonics and been told keep reading at home and the books will start coming home soon.

Yes my eldest is one year ahead of this, I don't think we got books for quite a while. They're all so tired starting school.

They probably will differentiate later but they are 3 weeks in. The main aim at the moment will be to get to know the children and get them settled in the school.

My children were at this stage 25 years ago with parents stressing about reading. Honestly it all works out in the end! Can remember reading with my friends son . I thought his reading was quite behind his class and he was struggling. He has just recently finished his doctorate and a leading Dr in research at a top teaching hospital ! Really don’t worry.

I work in a primary. In reception we haven’t got all the children in yet. The focus is very much on settling in and doing baseline assessments. Phonics initially is whole class but once everyone is settled and assessments done they get shifted into differentiated groups - around the half term point.
i think you should relax about this for now, focus on your child enjoying reception, making friends, getting used to routines. She is doing well with her reading & phonics and a few weeks of not being pushed in that area isn’t going to matter in the big scheme of things. You can get reading books at home for now if you want. If after half term there’s no change go back and have another conversation.

Blimey they have just started reception and you've already got yourself in a state. We're still assessing ours!

(I also wish parents and schools would let 4/5 year olds be children, we've far too much sitting, carpet time these days in reception, no wonder we've social issues further up the school 🙄)

I think to a degree, differentiation at the more able end of things, where noticed and wished for by a parent, is that parent's responsibility. My bilingual dd's English teacher (not in an English-speaking country) is keen to differentiate but I wouldn't expect him to provide endless resources - I send her in with books to read and those writing workbook things. I also remember working dutifully through the reading scheme myself, though I was what would now probably be called hyperlexic. I read lots at home and the odd more advanced reading book at school, or wrote pages and pages of stories in English lessons. It didn't hurt in the long run - the reading scheme books were crap (Roger Red-hat, anyone?) but it had no effect whatsoever on my love of reading. I'd go with the flow for now and send in your own (or library) books if possible.

Edited because it's Roger Red-hat, not Johnny.

I'd ignore the school books and read your own for now, until the school books catch up to her level. It sounds like she's doing well.

Our school teaches phonics in small groups based on ability, rather than as a whole class. For all of reception and year one my child was in phonics groups with kids from the year above because she was reading ahead of her age. I would have thought your school should do something similar.

Not in the first month though, phonics won't be a focus yet surely, it'll be all about getting them settled.

Tbf if she was using phase 3 phonics she would have written
macaroanee and pancaiks
Just distinguish between ‘books to practise what we’re learning at school’ and ‘books for pleasure’