Helping DS1 learn to read

[arewehuman]

DS1 is in reception and his school don;t seem to follow a programme such as the Oxford Reading Tree in teaching pupils to read. He just brings home random reading books (an has had the most recent for 10 days!). I want to help him as much as I can and am thinking of using the ORT at home series.

I am wondering if this is going to help him or just confuse him.

Thanks

Worth mentioning to his teacher? Just saying that you are keen to help him, but don't want to confuse the issue, asking if she/he has any advice/ info? I think teachers like to feel you are working with them rather than just doing it off your own bat (but I am a teacher-phobe- see my own thread here to see how hypocritical this answer is!!)

Does he go to the library? I find letting them choose their own books (with some guidance!) is good!

A reading scheme such as ORT does not help ur child to read any more than actual 'proper' books. im a teacher and personally feel that reading schemes are a means to an end- a child who is encouraged at home and school to love reading and books will inevitably become a good reader, you don't need a stage or number to tell you that. actually sounds like ur sounds school is quite forward in their thinking- i would be rejoicing. just remember that reading at ur ds's age is just as much about the chat, pictures, what does he think is happening, going to happen etc, as the actual words on the page- higher order reading skills ( in teacher speak 0 so go and enjoy reading with ur ds

thanks. I feel that i need some guidence on how to help him iykwim. He recognises some high frequency words and I am helping him to sound out others but am abit lost as to how to help him progress and what level to keep things at. I thought maybe a reading programme would help me guide him in a natural progression.

Go in and speak to the teacher-tell her that you are keen to help and ask for advice. (I never know why people are so keen on ORT)

Would agree, talk to teachers first. we use synthetic phonics alongside ORT first words. I would advise buying the jolly phonics DVD and the workbooks and doing a bit at a time. Once they can learn to 'sound' out words correctly, progress seems to develop a lot more quickly.

My DS loves the ORT books (from school) but only since they became Magic Key ones - stage 4? onwards - can't quite remember. We have a few read at home ones but I found they covered quite a broad range than the many numbered stages covered in the schools books so there were times when he couldn't get quite a few words whcih he often got cross about.

you can get the ordinary school ort books online but probably better not to duplciate anything the school might be doing. I found a really good way to get him into reading was to read to my DS and then occasionally ask him a word from the text I knew he knew (eg cat) and then one or two words (no more) that he didn't (eg "ran" and "car" or "him" and "and" or something simple)so that he gradually learned new words that way but without losing the fun of the actual story or learning vocab in an overwhelmingly difficult or laborious way. Now he's at the stage where we might read a story like that but each taking a word in turns.

You could choose books to do that with on subjects he's really interested in, eg space?

just in case I wasn't clear: so your DS would read pretty much every instance in the text of the new word you were trying to get him to learn, eg "and" (depending on his tolerance for this technique! Mine would sometimes get so fed up with me continually asking him what the "and" was he would SHOUT it out !) Still, he learned it that way!!

I would use the library-they generally have early readers. Buying reading scheme books is a waste of money IMO.

Try these - www.starfall.com. American, but DD (5.5, reception) loves them. Also, the Alphablocks games from cbeebies are great for this age!

I'm an early years teacher and I also work with older children with reading difficulties.
The easy answer here is to teach your child to read yourself using a better tool than random books selected by your child, whose choice will be whimsical at best.

There are now several types of commercially available decodable books for beginners.
The UK REading Reform Foundation gives information about teaching children to read and lists decodable reading material.
My favourites are the I See Sam Readers from www.piperbooks.co.uk

I have just subscribed to www.readingchest.co.uk. It's a book rental for children's reading books and has loads of different reading schemes - not just ORT. I think they've got phonics schemes too. Its brilliant for my DD (also in reception) as she brings home a different book every couple of days but likes to read two or three at time. Her teacher says it is good to read the same book over again but it just seems to turn her off.

My dd2 had the same experience. As the books did not build on previous knowledge it was hard to get any momentum. If the school wants the children to learn through recognising whole words they just make it extra difficult by not providing in-built repetition of words that is provided by a reading scheme at the very early stages.
As they progress sticking to one reading scheme often leads to guessing and only being able to read words in context, so thats why schemes are mixed up.
The solution is to use phonics books that they can sound out. I did this at home and dd2 made very rapid progress. I spent alot of money on phonics books but at least she is not learning to read through guess work and is much less likely to suffer from dyslexia etc because learning through phonics leads to 'phonological awareness' - the main thing dyslexics lack! Try Ruth Miskin's books.

I agree about the phonics books ? much better. I bought some Collins Big Cat phonics books. They were really good but quite expensive . It seemed to get my DS out of guessing so many words.

Interesting discussion. I too used to be a primary school teacher and believe that the most important thing you can do as a parent at home is to make sure that your child loves books and listening to stories. If you read with your child every day and make the whole experience a pleasure your child will want to read and more importantly will become a life long reader not just someone who can decode books. I have taught too many children who had been turned off books and who thought reading was a chore. So by all means use a scheme at home but make sure it is a pleasurable experience for you both.
One of my children loves photos so I made a few simple photo books from this companywhich were a huge success.

I used the Ruth Miskin here books too and some Jolly Phonics flashcards here from e-bay.