What To Do With Oxford Reading Tree?

[Guest tinkerbell]

I have had a heart to heart with my HT as i will soon be talking to the parents about the phonics/reading evening chat I will be giving.

In the past we have talked about phonics ,we have always had a structured scheme (not as fast as Letters and sounds) and then talked about how we teach reading (searchlight method)

So all change ,we have now bought guided phonic reading scheme ORT songbirds and have started guided reading with the reception these are the books I think we will have to send home. Old ORT will not fit the new way.

HT said we should look for another scheme(phonic based) we have the money.

I thought I would box up the old ORT and put in a cupboard (perhaps send to link school in Bequi)

 

What are you all doing????

Thanks Tinkerbellxx

[narnia]

well, we don't have this 'problem', as we're a preschool, but I'd say,yes, box up the books and send them to a charity which can send them for use in developing countries....they are desparate for reading material.Anything but box them up and stuff them in the back of a cupboard....

[Guest]

What are people using instead of Oxford Reading Tree our school literacy co-ordinator asked me to ask you all.

[Guest]

We are still using a mixture of schemes heiniennman rockets ort etc

our school hasn't the money to change as we spent a bit a few years ago on books which supported the keywords.

I like using a mixture as not all children find phonics schemes their cup of tea and i really do like children being able to enjoy their stories and being able to relate them to their own experiences.

I have started letters and sounds and have found i have had to slow the pace to suit the majority of my children- my able children go at a quicker pace and so far i have found no problems with the development of the reading will let u know how it goes after christmas

 

def dont stick in cupboard maybe basket and allow for free reading in classrooms in addition to your phonic scheme which will go home

[apple]

having just purchsed the ORT we have had a general outcry from parents that the books are too easy... i suppose thats the problem when trying to switch over to a new scheme when some parents are used to the old. Although no longer in Reception but in Nursery, when going through the ORT books with reception staff we found the early readers not as good as some of our original books PM starters so we are keeping those in Reception and then feeding into ORT. We are looking at uth Miskin stuff for more manageable decodable books but no funding for these as just spent budget on ORT

[Guest]

another good set of 'decodable' books we use are Jelly and Bean... they can get a bit tedious but serve a purpose for sure...

 

... and out of interest I asked my class last year which books they enjoyed taking home the most... and atleast half the class said Jelly and Bean... and on asking some of them and their parents, they preferred them because they could decode the words... and read 'whole books' which made them feel much more confident with their reading...

 

I still maintain that they're not the most exciting books the children could be reading... but alongside others, they definitely serve a purpose!

 

~ Porl

[Guest]

I would think really, really carefully before you get rid of the ORT books. As has been previously posted some children are not at all 'phonic' minded and would really struggle with just phonic books. (This is personal experience too)

 

Can't we all use our common sense here? Do a mixture - we do a combination because what suits one child might not suit the next. We have just invested in the Big Cat phonic reading scheme (Collins) as a supplement to ORT - we also use Sunshine spirals/starters. So far we are quite impressed because they have a lot of non-fiction texts which look particularly appealing (My skateboard etc)

 

Also some 'phonic' reading books often don't really have a story and can be very tedious to read.

 

Please, please be aware that some children's phonological awareness is not very good BUT this does NOT mean that they won't be able to read. My own daughter (aged 8) could not sound out cat but is and was a very good reader.

[Guest]

Hi there,

Just pondering on this point myself! I have a very young class this year, who are no way near ready for the introduction of the ORT. However, at the end of last year we had some money to spend in a hurry!!!! We purchase some of the Jolly "Phonics Read and See" books which progress in difficulty. So far, with the children who are ready, they are enjoying the achievement of being able to "read" a word, which is lovely for them. The books have a word and a lift the flap (using sounds taught) and progress in difficulty. After half-term I will begin to introduce the ORT using the "Flop over" big book. We also have purchased the phonic books from the ORT which I will be interested to see how they go.

Unfortunately, we do not have enough of the wordless story books, which I think are essential in order to build up children's understanding of story book language and love of books before subjecting them to text - which many of my children will not be ready for.

I strongly believe that children need to have acquired a variety of skills before they are given "text" to read. I emphasised this at last week's parents' evening. It is a battle sometimes to emphasise the importance of the complex nature of de-coding text and that nothing can be more demoralising for early readers than to experience failure at such a young age.

Guided reading is the way forward - this is when the skills of reading are actually taught and reinforced. Hope this is of some help - sorry to have a rant!!!!!

[Guest]

hi i would support what bungalow is saying, not all children are able to read phonetically, i was one of these children. we need to provide a range of phonetically decodable books and sight word books and MOST important 'real' reading books with real stories, a good reader has a love of books and reading not just decoding words on a page.

[Susan]

You sound more confident Clare. How's the new job?

[Lorna]

We use a large mix of books but start eith the Nelson- sound start books- really decodable, lovely pictures, follow up work on computers. We also have the song birds for use after the Sound start for those children still needing extra support- I think these progress very rapidly. We also use story world, nice pictures and quiet alot of repitition and we also have ORT, which we use. They are good for children to learn about other strategies other than phonics and also introduce lots of new vocab.... but I only really use them when children are more confident with reading.

 

Then of course we have a range of books that are colour coded and the children choose these to take home to read.

 

L