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Primary education

Join our Primary Education forum to discuss starting school and helping your child get the most out of it.

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Original poster

Tell me about how to help early readers with their reading - especially reception teachers

19 replies

thegrammerpolicesic · 03/10/2009 10:55

Ds is 4.4 and can read probably equivalent to ORT level 1+ - so basic stuff but he will do a mix of word recognition and sounding out well at this level.

However, with new books, he memorises the story really quickly (maybe all kids do this I've no idea) - after one or two reads with me so then doesn't always 'read' the words. Do I need to keep getting new books all the time or is there a way to get round this.
Not sure if I've explained this clearly. Maybe it's a stupid questions?!?

Any advice?

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ThingOne · 03/10/2009 11:06

My DS1 doesn't like reading ORT books twice either. We have definitely noticed how quickly he remembers it!

Original poster

thegrammerpolicesic · 03/10/2009 11:10

Sorry to clarify, it's not ORT books he does this with (although hey you can't blame them not wanting to read those too often!!) - just mentioned ORT to give an idea of where he's at.

What do you do Thingone when he just memorises them?

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Avendesora · 03/10/2009 11:14

We only read books once, it didnt occur to me to re-read them. It seemed to work quite well. DD changed her book at school every day. We also used the library and the packs (Songbirds are v good) from The Book People.

flaime · 03/10/2009 11:21

My DDs used to love reading the same book over and over but also used to remember them rather than read them pretty quickly.

We found the more different books she read the quicker she moved forward so she used to ask to change her book most days and we used to get lots of library books too.

By christmas of year1 she had got to the end of ORT 12 and equivalent and became a free reader.

cat64 · 03/10/2009 11:44

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Original poster

thegrammerpolicesic · 03/10/2009 13:54

Have just read one of the books we have read a few times before but he wasn't actually 'reading' the words before but this time he did decode the words and follow them with his finger so maybe it doesn't matter if we do it this way.

What is the trigger recommended by teachers for moving onto the next book then?

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cat64 · 03/10/2009 15:36

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maverick · 03/10/2009 17:18

thegrammerpolicesic, I hope you find the following leaflet helpful:

www.syntheticphonics.com/pdf%20files/parentsguidanceforreading.pdf

seeker · 03/10/2009 17:22

Why not just get him a new book every day? At our school, the books are in boxes outside the classroom labelled with the appropriate colour, and you can change them every day if you want. They ask you not to take books from a different colour band without discussing it witht he teacher. But the children or their parents are free to change books whenever they want.

Ican't see any point in reading a book the child finds easy more than once unless they want to.

mrz · 03/10/2009 17:33

Being able to memorise the story is a good skill in itself so unless you are reading the books for the sole purpose of teaching him to read then I wouldn't worry. Young children love familiar stories and ask for them time and time again. Long after the adults are fed up of them.

Original poster

thegrammerpolicesic · 03/10/2009 17:36

To be honest mrz this is very much with those learning to read reading scheme books in mind - when we are reading other books we read our favourites again and again and I have no qualms about that!

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norfolklass · 03/10/2009 19:46

I posted on a similar subject the other day. My DS has also started reception and he is both sounding out/word recognition and guessing the words from the pictures but because the book is so small he just remembers what comes on each page so like your DS is doing. I mentioned it to his teacher cause I was concerned if I was doing thr right thing and she said its a perfectly normal thing for them to do and their brain/eyes will have actually looked at the words so it will all be a benefit. Ive been changing his books twice a week (Tues/Fri) so we read the book,then read it again and then Ive been getting him to try and tell me the story without words to see if he totally understands it. I use the word "story" very loosely of course!

I suppose we could change them every day if we wanted to cause the books are there but I already feel bad because we have sheets on the table to fill in every time we change a book and DS has already had about 10 (Obviously most of these were the first ones with no words) whereas most of the other children have only had 1 or 2 so am conscious of being labelled "pushy mum" and Im really not. DS is just very into words etc and loves books and I just want to help him with something he enjoys at the moment. We've got some of the songbirds ones as well so might look through some of those and I looked at Starfall on the computer on friday night which he really enjoyed as well so might be worth a try if you haven't looked at that yet...be warned its got an american accent tho!

ThingOne · 03/10/2009 22:04

In reception we got to choose a book each morning. Now he's in year one he has to do it himself but his book is checked to make sure he's ready to change.

Acinonyx · 03/10/2009 22:12

Dd is 4.3 and in reception and just starting to read words. The teacher changes her books (2) about twice a week when she sees I have filled in her rreport book to say we read the last lot. Dd also gets a library book but I can't figure out the schedule for that.

We've had 10 from school altogether so far and I agree they memorise them so easily it's pointless rereading them (of course this doesn't apply to the other books that are read all the time, just the super-easy ones for actually learning to read). I thought this would happen and I've saved most of her baby/toddler books for this purpose too.

Original poster

thegrammerpolicesic · 03/10/2009 23:06

I'm really perplexed as to why our lot haven't started any reading or letter learning activities (the latter not too relevant for ds as can read but still...) at school.

Ah well, ds is happy and loves reading at home but seems a bit strange given half term isn't that far off!

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blithedance · 03/10/2009 23:10

DS is just 4 and started on ORT 1+. He's had a new reading book almost every day from school, that seems to be their approach. (School send the books home, I have no input except reading at night whatever is in the bookbag).

Original poster

thegrammerpolicesic · 03/10/2009 23:24

Have just ordered a really cheap set of phonics books - 24 for under £10 from one of those book clubs so that should stop ds second guessing and memorising for a while thanks to some new reading material

Sod's law school start sending a ton of books home this week and the above book set will be superfluous.

Would go to the library but the council kindly shut our local one and I can't be arsed travelling to the next nearest.

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Original poster

thegrammerpolicesic · 03/10/2009 23:25

Sod's law school start sending a ton of books home this week and the above book set will be superfluous.

Would go to the library but the council kindly shut our local one and I can't be arsed travelling to the next nearest.

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Avendesora · 04/10/2009 21:31

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