Ruth Miskin, jolly phonics or what something else?

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Ruth Miskin, jolly phonics or what something else?

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sarsky
Member since 27-6-2008

hi, we are starting a brand new reception class and I d love some opinions on what to buy for our phonics requirements. Do you think the government letters and sounds is enough or do you use jolly phonics, letter land or something else to guide your phonics instruction. Ve read that Rith Miskin is good but I d love some opinions from the field, as it were. Many thanks, Sarsky

Posted 27-2-2012 12:55

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DiscoBec
Member since 3-6-2010

We use Read Write Inc throughout our school and find it fantastic in the main. I would say it's something that needs to be continued throughout school or certainly throughout the infant years as one strand builds on another progressively. We've had it for just over a year and more and more children are coming off the scheme as time goes on and are accessing more genre based work planned by teachers. In time we hope that it will only be used in the Foundation Phase (3-7 in Wales) and for those with Additional Needs. The only issue with it is that it's a significant expense to buy the whole scheme as we have. I'm sure that you would be able to dip in and out of the scheme as you wish but we've opted to take it all and run with it. If you get in touch with Oxford University Press, they'll send someone into school to give you a talk. Hope this helps a bit

Posted 27-2-2012 17:26

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rgilligan
Member since 27-2-2012

Hey Sarsky, Have a look at gilligangames.co.uk they have loads of activities/fun worksheets for phonics and general early speech sound development. Some of them are particularly for kids who need special help with speech but lots can be used with any/all children in reception.

Posted 27-2-2012 17:43

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sarsky
Member since 27-6-2008

Thanks guys, useful feedback. Any more views? I haven't taught reception for a long time so any recent experiences of any resources appreciated. Our boss thinks jolly phonics is good but I m wondering if it's worth spending on a scheme to teach phonics or is the free government letters and sounds stuff good enough. There is a lot to be bought for the new classroom so want to spend the budget wisely.

Posted 28-2-2012 19:41

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hurny
Member since 23-1-2007

I've taught both Letters and Sounds (in a previous school) and Jolly Phonics (in my current school). Jolly Phonics is a good scheme for introducing the phonemes as the children in my class really enjoy the storylines and Jolly Songs and they have been very effective in helping children with GPC, but it does have its limits and the Jolly Readers are a bit boring.

I have used JP to teach the phonemes but incorporated L&S's phase 1 oral segmenting and blending activities and some of L&S's phase 2,3 and 4 activities. Also websites such as Busy Things, Phonics Play and TES I Board have good IWB phonics activities (we love Busy Things in my class!).

The government are match funding phonics resources so if you are buying into a scheme this might help with the costs.

If you haven't had recent phonics training it would be well worth your while to spend some of the budget on it. Proper enunciation of the phonemes is something I wish all teachers and early years practitioners would train on (and parents if I had my way!)......sorry digressed there.

I have observed Ruth Miskin Phonics being taught and it completely bored me to death! Sleepy .......it could have just been how the teacher taught it though.

Posted 28-2-2012 20:07

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sarsky
Member since 27-6-2008

Thanks for the input. V interested to hear your comment on Ruth Miskin....don't get many people critiquing it. Your suggestions re gov matching funding is great but in our case not possible. We are a private nursery in Spain so not subject to gov funding, perks etc. it also means no chance of any training courses. Fortunately I ve also taught eng overseas so my knowledge of phoneme pron is good...if you re familiar with THRASS you ll know what I mean.

Posted 28-2-2012 20:54

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Msz
Member since 31-12-2006

Also not a fan of RWI Ruth Miskin(agree about the boring ) but it does get results and is better than THRASS in my opinion which strictly speaking isn't synthetic phonics.

Posted 28-2-2012 21:02

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maizie
Member since 3-3-2004

If you are in Spain I suggest that you contact Coral George here: http://coralgeorge.com/

Posted 29-2-2012 9:02

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daisy_hayes
Member since 7-10-2009

Hi I am just wondering if you have used the Jolly Phonics assessment. I have been using the JP programme for the last couple of years but have always just done my own assessments and am wondering if the JP assessment pack is worth investing in

Posted 1-5-2012 18:18

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GemsEYFS
Member since 25-9-2010

Hi, I haveused all threee RMI, Letters and Soudns and Jolly phonics.

I think there are pros and cons to all 3. Our reading levels in school were significantly below expected, so RWI was brought in across the board. I have to say it did increase our reading levels a lot across the school, however i dont feel it had the same effect on the chidlrens writing. Sessions are very perscripted and can get boring i agree. It was good to teach letter formation, but did not (in my opinion) give the chidlren enough opportunities to apply their knowledge.

I know teach using letters and sounds, but i also use jolly phonics. I use the jolly phonics songs and JP images and teaching resources. i sometimes yse the teaching material from the JP interactive CD that we bought as they are very interactive and the chidlren enjoy the rhymes.

Hope this helps!

Posted 1-5-2012 20:50

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senteachinginfo
Member since 12-11-2011

You should be able to get evaluation packs for most schemes. I got one last year for RWI. I decided against it as it looked a bit too reliant on plain looking workbooks but it may be that I didn't look into it enough. I was worried that teachers wouldn't be creative enough. We currently use letters and sounds as a guide but then build our own ideas around it using resources we've found/made ourselves. However, some staff are still finding it difficult so perhaps a bought scheme would be good for them. If you can have enough INSET time together, though, you should be able to help each other and come up with good ideas on your own.

Posted 2-5-2012 0:23

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kdsouthall
Member since 22-11-2011

I'm currently a TA working in foundation stage, we use the Ruth Miskin programme and, in our school, it works really well. As someone already mentioned children can progress through the different stages and they enjoy learning each new sound. The only thing we have had trouble with in the past is the parents pronounce the sounds differently, or when they have no idea how to help their child with their RML homework sheets. We resolved this by putting together parent workshops for each key stage, where in a sense, parents were taught an rml lesson, and shown how to say each sound. :)

Posted 2-5-2012 17:07

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clawdeer
Member since 8-12-2004

we have been using read write inc since september and so far it is brilliant. i wasnt sure before we started it (strucured and formal), but the results speak for themselves. The kids are doing so well, and we as a staff are enjoying teaching it. we still use jolly phonics and other websites / resources, but on the whole we love read write inc Smile

Posted 2-5-2012 20:42

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loudleah14
Member since 10-11-2009

RWI is brilliant. I am in my second year of using it and, like you, I work overseas so we didn't have any training. The school bought into the whole scheme however currently just F2-Y2 are using it. It is thorough and gives all the opportunities needed to say it, read it and write it. As the children improve more and more writing is available and there are fiction and non-fiction storybooks to use. the children get excited to move up to the next colour band HOWEVER, we have had children progressing at such different rates that we no have 3 classes for phonics between 2 reception classes. It works okay as the TA takes the top group which consists of 8 children and we mix the rest of the children up between the class teachers. We didn't have any training and it was easy to teach once you read through the large teacher booklet. The progress of the children has been fantastic as they are reading and writing daily.

Posted 5-5-2012 12:29

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FS_Lou
Member since 4-4-2012

We use Letters and Sounds right through FS and KS1 and think it works really well. Lots of resources now refer to L&S phases, for example picture & caption matching games. Our reading scheme is also written for the L&S phases and sets of letters, so I know that a child won't meet any unexpected letters or tricky words in a particular book. We tend to use Jolly Phonics actions, or make up our own as L&S doesn't suggest particular actions.

Our Year 1 teacher has just had training on the new phonics tests and said that we need to practise more reading of nonsense words than is suggested in L&S.

Posted 5-5-2012 14:46

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Ucan2
Member since 9-8-2005

We follow letters and sounds but use Jolly Phonics actions which help chn to learn sounds. We also use Bug Club for lessons which is online and has video clips, reading, writing and games.

Posted 5-5-2012 15:47

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Ruth Miskin, jolly phonics or what something else?