Why are people so anti ORT?

[seeker]

They are often funny, they are often anarchic, they show children lots of different ways of living, the pictures have lots of interest and detail, the vocabulary is lively - you can usually find one that has something to interest an individual child, they are proper stories - what's not to like?

When I think about the Janet and John type of books people of my generation had - ORT is in a different universe!

[Lilymaid]

DS2 and I loved ORT. We moved 200 miles so he went to a new school when he was on Stage 5 and the nasty teacher made him start again with their reading books (ancient, dog-eared borig ones)from the absolute, no words, beginning, so I bought the entire set of ORT and read them with him. He would have ended up illiterate otherwise. Books were eventually donated to the much nicer school we then moved him to after the horrible school.

[mrz]

I'm a teacher and it gave me great pleasure to scrap ORT (and Ginn360)

[seeker]

Why, mrz?

[seeker]

What do you mean you don't believe in letting them guess or memorize? How do you learn to read words like rough or bough or learn the difference between wind as in gale and wind as in string if you don't guess from the context then memorize

[mrz]

seeker because fifteen /twenty years ago they were probably the best available but fortunately there are now far better reading schemes being published.

[seeker]

Which ones do you like? I'm interested in this as a school governor!

[misdee]

am also interested seeker

dd2 started off really well with the get reading right books.

[VanillaPumpkin]

I love ORT. What is not to like? Our school uses a range but one of the other schemes they use had words like spaceman and dinosaur in their apparent level two. The children can only get those by using the picture clues which is great in some ways but I felt the words were too big for dd at the time when we were concentrating on phonics and shorter sight/tricky words.
I also would love to know the better alternatives.

[mrz]

Rigby Rockets/Stars
Collins Big Cat /Big Cat Phonics
Get Reading Right
Jelly & Bean
Story world
Literacy world
Discovery world
Rigby Navigator

[misdee]

yay get reading right is in there.

i think that works brilliant for early readers.

[VirginiaWoolf]

ORT (at least, the bog standard stuff) is old fashioned now and doesn't fit with how the govt wants schools to teach reading....

[Clary]

lol at looking forward to doing ORT with 2nd child.

If you ask me "floppy Floppy" is the best argument ever against having a 4th child

I like ORT actually, agree re funny pix and engaging stories (all the boys like the ones about football).

Also I like the names as the kids seem to grasp them very quickly. It's good IMO as they are not the names of anybody they know.

I like Rainbow Magic too. But then I have a very unwilling reader so after that I welcome anything that gets the children reading.

[Clary]

madness what's wrong with reading by guessing or memorising?

It's the only way to read some words. And it's how DD does it most of the time.

Is it not OK then?

[LyraSilvertongue]

I love the ORT books. I even bought DS1 his own set, which will be used by DS2 when he starts learning to read.
Our school uses a variety of books though. DS1 rarely comes home with two ORT books in a row.

[fircone]

ORT excellent. Ds and now dd love the stories, and I must admit I often chuckle at them, particularly as we have our own grumpy neighbour who is always glowering over the fence.

Those other schemes mentioned are DULL. Humourless turgid dross.

And as Seeker says, of course you have to guess words. And ORT books usually have a good clue in the illustration if an unusual word crops up, and also the context is clear. The English language is undeniably difficult - you can't plod robotically through text relying on phonics.

[charmkin]

i refer mlud to my previous argument
HERE

[LIZS]

not read all thread . imo It isn't ORT per se , more the competitive measuring of ability by it when in fact each school applies the scheme slightly differently, soem read every book at every level , others the core stories , others dip in and out and use oither shcemes alongside. Also it isn't phonetic based so does n't directly correspond with the move to synthetic phonics.

I liked the content and humorous overtones, way beyond most kid's reading of them . Also Magic Key/Biff, Chip and Kipper books are what is being most commonly referred to but they form a fraction of the scheme itself .

[VanillaPumpkin]

ORT do have Phonics books.....

[VanillaPumpkin]

That should say some phonics books.
I don't think we can be too phonics dependant with the English language though. I think it is a great skill and building block without a doubt, and has revolutionised the way some children learn but there are lots of 'sight' words too that have to be learnt and that are in the ORT scheme.

[mrz]

ORT publish "Floppy phonics" and Oxford Union Press publish Songbirds which are phonics reading books written by Julia Donaldson (The Gruffalo) the problem is many schools invested thousands of pounds in ORT many years ago and just don't have the money to buy new schemes.

[VanillaPumpkin]

Ah, it is Songbirds I am thinking of. They have some at my dd's school. I guess we are lucky then.

[Anna8888]

Oh God, the ORT pictures are vile. My daughter (3.6) does ORT at her (bilingual French-English) school and is already bringing the horrible books home (I am pretty acquainted with them now as my nephews have been through them).

[Anna8888]

OK, mrz and other properly informed people, I am going on a school outing on Tuesday with all the teachers and children.

Which reading scheme should I be lobbying the school (private, money for teaching English, competitive issues with other Paris bilingual schools) to invest in now?

[mrz]

Personally I wouldn't stick to a single scheme as children can be fluent readers in one and struggle when they meet unfamiliar texts because they have become reliant on the predictable style. In my school we use Rigby /Songbirds/Big Cat Phonics as our main reading schemes with some Get reading right books. Hopefully I will be able to broaden this with some Jelly and Bean books when there is more money in the budget.

[mrz]

Sorry Anna should say that would be my choice for initial reading instruction more experienced readers Heinemann Literacy World Discovery world & Story World. W have also bought in some great non fiction books from National Geographic. [http://www.mcgraw-hill.co.uk/kingscourt/themesets.htm]