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Read Write Inc

17 replies

Curlzm · 01/03/2024 22:47

Hi, my daughter in year 1 is currently on Read Write Inc yellow books. She finds them very easy to read but has been put back to start reading them again. I think this may be to do with her writing - but the school are very difficult to communicate with. Is anyone aware if they do writing as well in reading in this phonics program and if this is part of the assessment they do evey 6 weeks ? Thanks

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Sageyboots · 01/03/2024 22:52

my gosh yes, we got these over and over, they are supposed to be better for teaching phonics but there’s no storyline and the pictures are rubbish. We loved biff, chip and kipper with our older kids.

Sageyboots · 01/03/2024 22:52

But sorry I can’t answer your questions, I just thought I’d sympathise

Thisismynewusernamedoyoulikeit · 02/03/2024 09:43

Unfortunately there's no one answer to this - some schools do RWI for reading only, and some do reading and writing.

The local library might need to be your friend here

lifeisafunnyoldgame · 02/03/2024 09:46

If you go on the Ruth Miskin website there are videos for parents you can watch and help your child to progress. We don’t do the writing element at our school but we are told the programme works better with it included.

Tamuchly · 02/03/2024 11:35

They just have to repeat the same colour books until they reach the next level on the phonics assessment. Some schools do the writing too but I’ve not heard of being held back due to the writing element though.

Curlzm · 02/03/2024 13:24

Thanks. She hasn’t even got through the whole series of yellow books, but half the class has moved up and half repeating from the start. This seems to be because others from a lower group have joined. So she can’t progress. Do you know if they have other books which they do at school other than the book bag books ? She went down a group last year because she couldn’t keep up with the writing so trying to find out from the school what the reason is.

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Caravaggiouch · 02/03/2024 15:21

DD is in year 1 and had completed all the grey books (which I believe is the last set) in RWI last term but her whole phonics group have had to go back and re-do the blue set (which she read in reception). Her teacher told me it was as a result of some kind of refresher training they’d all had which was emphasising consolidation or something - perhaps this is something all RWI schools are having to do?

As far as I’m concerned she’s finished that reading scheme and we just read chapter books from the library at home, I’m not pissing about with books she could easily read 8 months ago. And the RWI ones are so dull!

rainbowstardrops · 02/03/2024 15:31

At my school, the children were assessed and put into their relevant RWI groups. The group would read a book for a few days/week together and then they have a 'comprehension' sheet to answer questions at the end of the week to gauge their understanding. Some children can read the words but not actually understand what they've read!
That's the structured group RWI.

Aside from that, each child took a coloured band book home too. Different from RWI. We regularly listened to them read and moved them up a band (colour) or down as required.

They only moved the actual in-school RWI band (if required) each term after an assessment.

Appreciate this might not be the same for all schools though!

Imitationzone · 02/03/2024 15:41

You’ll see many parent’s frustrated threads on here! Just read what interests her and outside of school. We ignored the RWI books completely and chose whatever looked interesting.

GetTheGoodLookingGuy · 02/03/2024 16:41

Writing is part of RWI lessons (some schools choose not to do the writing part, however) but it's not assessed on the RWI assessment. To progress from Yellow to Blue, your daughter needs to be able to instantly recognise the first six Set 3 sounds (ea oi a-e i-e o-e and u-e), as well as the Set 1 and 2 sounds she's learnt before (she will have needed to know these to get onto Yellow in the first place). She will also need to read words with these Set 3 sounds in, and read a passage from a Yellow book at 60+ WPM. The passages in the assessment are all edited from the Yellow books she'll be reading - the one I've attached is from Book 6 "Do We Have to Keep It" (one of my faves!). I've attached an example of the words and the passage, as well as the assessment guidance listing what children have to do to move up into Blue group.

It sounds like because she hasn't moved up, but lots of children have moved up to Yellow, they have gone back to the beginning with the books because they tend to get harder as you go along. If the group was mainly comprised of children who had already been on Yellow, they probably would've continued from where they got to.

I would see if you can find out what it is she's not doing that's preventing her from moving up (sounds, words, or speed) and work on that a bit with her at home. I suspect it's speed - children often get stuck on Yellow because it's the first stage that includes a timed element. But also make sure she's got access to other things to read so she's not getting bored of the same books all the time. See if you can sell it to her as a chance to show off and be fantastic at those books because she's already familiar with them. I would imagine re-reading will help with her speed, and she should move up at the next assessment if she's been making steady progress to this point. Yellow at this point in Y1 is a little ahead of the curve anyway.

Just seen your question about books - there are books they use in class, and each one has a matched book bag book sent home. So if they've read The Gingerbread Man in class, they bring home The Hungry Fox, which features the fox sniffing out different things to eat but finding nothing smells as nice as the gingerbread man did. Since Covid, most of those books are available as PDFs on various school's websites - just google the name of the book and "RWI PDF" and they come up. You can also find a full list of all the RWI books by googling "full list of RWI books" - it's the first hit. Children should bring home a paper copy of the book after they've read it in class so they can read it at home, but some schools don't do that because they don't have enough copies/they find the books don't come back.

GetTheGoodLookingGuy · 02/03/2024 16:43

@Caravaggiouch RWI advice is now for children to read every book, especially at Blue and Grey level to consolidate sound knowledge and ensure they're not moved off the scheme too soon. It does seem crazy, though, to move children back on after they've been told they finished!

I do like some of the RWI books, though. The early ones, particularly, are dull - I guess because there's only so many words you can make with the limited sounds they know at that point.

frenchnoodle · 02/03/2024 16:59

Curlzm · 01/03/2024 22:47

Hi, my daughter in year 1 is currently on Read Write Inc yellow books. She finds them very easy to read but has been put back to start reading them again. I think this may be to do with her writing - but the school are very difficult to communicate with. Is anyone aware if they do writing as well in reading in this phonics program and if this is part of the assessment they do evey 6 weeks ? Thanks

My 6 year old is on blue, I can't imagine your daughter's handwriting is worse than his.

Read Write Inc
Caravaggiouch · 02/03/2024 17:07

GetTheGoodLookingGuy · 02/03/2024 16:43

@Caravaggiouch RWI advice is now for children to read every book, especially at Blue and Grey level to consolidate sound knowledge and ensure they're not moved off the scheme too soon. It does seem crazy, though, to move children back on after they've been told they finished!

I do like some of the RWI books, though. The early ones, particularly, are dull - I guess because there's only so many words you can make with the limited sounds they know at that point.

She’d read them all already, the books she’s bringing home now are ones she brought home last summer term. Just feels like a backward step to me, but we have parents evening soon so I will seek a more detailed explanation of why this isn’t a waste of time. The non-fiction ones RWI books are not so bad but the others are really dull, IMO.

Curlzm · 02/03/2024 19:41

Yes agreed. We don’t generally read them and read library books out instead. From what i can glean the teachers don’t seem to listen to them read on a one to one basis…

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Curlzm · 02/03/2024 19:48

Thank you for such a detailed response- this is really informative.

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HelloDarlingWhatAreYouDoingHere · 02/03/2024 19:53

It's down to the teacher, but yes usually some sort of writing is usual.

GetTheGoodLookingGuy · 02/03/2024 20:36

I just realised I never attached the pictures of the assessment I said I was attaching! I blame Mumsnet for not warning you when you're about to do that like most email programs do now!

Anyway, here they are!

Read Write Inc
Read Write Inc
Read Write Inc
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