Guest Posted August 24, 2009 Share Posted August 24, 2009 Hi We are having training on this at the beginning of term and although I have heard that it is a really good scheme I am a little concerned with how much time that I have heard is devoted daily to the scheme. I teach F2 and if its an hour a day I am concerned that I will struggle to fit other things in. I am due to start a LA maths scheme which requires a daily input plus we will be involved with ECAT. What are other peoples experiences with it and do you still do other CLL/Lit inputs during the week on top of the phonics.? This would make my timetable very much CLL dominant. Any opinions or advice would be great thanks Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
Guest Posted August 24, 2009 Share Posted August 24, 2009 Hi!, I have heard of this scheme, I saw a programme about it on Channel 4 last year. It was very time consuming, but did reap rewards. The message that I took from it was that regular daily inputs will make a huge difference to the children, and I have to say that from working with Letters and Sounds daily, this is the case. However, we do only 20 minutes phonics input daily and I have cut down the rest of my Literacy input as the children simply didnt get enough freeflow time, learning through the area of provision. An hour a day, i think is far too long for the children, although I dont remember what she did for the youngest ages in the programme. We also took on board her way of splitting the children through ability for phonics (F/S &KS1) so a Nursery child could be working with a poorer yr1 or even yr2. The children have no problem with this at all, and the parents are fine as we had a meeting about the whole Letters and Sounds scheme. I will be very interested in what you think about the training. Pease let us know! Anj Hi We are having training on this at the beginning of term and although I have heard that it is a really good scheme I am a little concerned with how much time that I have heard is devoted daily to the scheme. I teach F2 and if its an hour a day I am concerned that I will struggle to fit other things in. I am due to start a LA maths scheme which requires a daily input plus we will be involved with ECAT. What are other peoples experiences with it and do you still do other CLL/Lit inputs during the week on top of the phonics.? This would make my timetable very much CLL dominant. Any opinions or advice would be great thanks Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
Marion Posted August 24, 2009 Share Posted August 24, 2009 You might want to look at the FAQ section http://www.ruthmiskinliteracy.com/faq.aspx#2 Not a fan of the scheme Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
Guest Posted August 24, 2009 Share Posted August 24, 2009 It is the time factor that I am most concerned about, I have been involved in our LA CLLD project which was about 15 minutes every day which was fine and has improved the children's phonic skills. For our school it seems to be that it is those children in KS2 who haven't been exposed to the CLLD project that SMT are concerned about. I don't think I would like F1 being involved for that much time as they are only in for 3 hour sessions anyway and their session and ours in F2 shouldn't be dominated by it. Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
Marion Posted August 24, 2009 Share Posted August 24, 2009 It is the time factor that I am most concerned about, I have been involved in our LA CLLD project which was about 15 minutes every day which was fine and has improved the children's phonic skills. For our school it seems to be that it is those children in KS2 who haven't been exposed to the CLLD project that SMT are concerned about. I don't think I would like F1 being involved for that much time as they are only in for 3 hour sessions anyway and their session and ours in F2 shouldn't be dominated by it. Ruth Miskin has a number of programmes Read Write Inc which is intended to begin in reception (should last 2 years- 1hour a day) Get Spelling which follows on for children once they reach a level 2C (approx Y2 -6 8 -20 mins a day) and Fresh Start for those KS2 who are still struggling (aimed at Y5) Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
emmajess Posted August 25, 2009 Share Posted August 25, 2009 Ruth Miskin has a number of programmes Read Write Inc which is intended to begin in reception (should last 2 years- 1hour a day) Get Spelling which follows on for children once they reach a level 2C (approx Y2 -6 8 -20 mins a day) and Fresh Start for those KS2 who are still struggling (aimed at Y5) I feel similarly to you about the Foundation Stage scheme, but wasn't aware of one for level 2c+ or Y5. Are they any good? What kind of level of struggling is Fresh Start aimed at - what level in y5? We are in real need of some more support in KS2. How do they compare, in your opinion to Sir Kit's Quest and FLS? Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
Marion Posted August 25, 2009 Share Posted August 25, 2009 I haven't got my copy of Fresh Start handy but from memory it goes back to basics - think it's intended for children working at NC level 2C or below. I have introduced the Get spelling in KS2 as a 10 min session each morning for all children and we use Lexia as an intervention programme for 1-1 or small group support. works well but expensive. We haven't found Sir Kit's and FLS particularly inspiring Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
catma Posted August 29, 2009 Share Posted August 29, 2009 (edited) I think any system will work if you do it properly and there is fidelity through the school but I'm not a fan of this one. My concern with RML or Read write inc as I think it was re-branded as is that it is not really about application into reading and writing as part of a wider CLLD curriculum as there is no focus on reading for meaning, it's more focused on decoding and it takes up huge amounts of time. Children have to work in mixed age groups as they are streamed and the delivery can be variable depending on the capabilities of the staff delegated to do each group. One of our CLLD targeted schools uses it and the children did no better or worse than those using Letters and sounds. Cx Edited August 29, 2009 by catma Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
Guest Posted August 29, 2009 Share Posted August 29, 2009 hi everyone, my flatmate is at an 'outstanding' school who use this and their results are unreal! in their f2 they use it for less than the reccomended time and make the books really interactive and good fun! i dont use it and i feel its a bit too prescriptive for my liking but in the hope of making you feel better they have fantastic results! Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
Marion Posted August 29, 2009 Share Posted August 29, 2009 I have to agree with catma that the "success" of Read Write Inc is more to do with the rigour the programme is delivered than the programme itself. I feel any good phonics programme can achieve the results if taught in the way RWI demands. Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
Guest Posted August 29, 2009 Share Posted August 29, 2009 yeah i agree, plus sometimes your school decides to do these things and you have to be on board so you just do the best you can to engage the children and make it enjoyable. i lurvvvvvvvve teaching phonics though! Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
Guest Posted August 29, 2009 Share Posted August 29, 2009 We've been using it for more or less two years now and although it's not perfect the children are a lot more confident at reading and writing. Mind you we have never used letter and sounds as we had booked the training before it got distributed. The programme is intended to be an hour a day but in the first term when the sounds are being introduced its 10-15 mins a day then it extends to 30-45 mins. By the end of the year we joined up with year 1 and had an hour slot but my group of more able year R children had mostly finished within 40 minutes so we would either play a game or they would play for a bit. I do tweak the programme a bit for year R children as I don't think they would cope with it all at the beginning. I also think, as with anything, you have to make it fun. At the beginning of each year, the year 2 children who still need it are mixed with year 1 and year R do their own thing with a sound a day in classes. After Christmas, year 1 and 2 continue and year R are split into 4 groups (ability) and either redo sound a day, or do word building, or the ditties depending on their level. At about Easter, when year 2 stop doing it, year 1 and R join together. It seems to work well. It will be at the end of this coming year we will really see how much difference it's made as the first cohort will have finished year 2 but i was impressed with the progress made in year R last year. Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
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