TES thread: PM benchmarking, book bands and phase 5 phonics

[Susan Godsland]

Thread on TES primary forum.

PM benchmarking, book bands and phase 5 phonics

http://community.tes.co.uk/forums/t/641294.aspx

I have two questions and would really appreciate some guidance especially from debbiehep, Mrz and friends.

- If you are deciding where to place a child on a book band do you use the 95% accuracy rule (I think that’s the right %)? If so do you count ‘sounding out a word correctly’ an error? If not do you apply a,"the child should be reading, without sounding out, 95% of the time” type rule? Or is there a different % for how much sounding out is ok for a child to be doing as they start a new book band level?
- When is it appropriate to teach phase 5 phonics – is it when the child is secure at reading many words that use phase 3 phonemes without sounding out and a range of less common words that use phase 3 phonemes by sounding out? Or must they be secure in spelling (vast banks of, a certain amount of) words using phase 3 code?

[john walker]

I went to the forum with the intention of answering the query but decided that there was nothing to add - you nailed it, Debbie .
Sadly, many teachers are so tightly bound by their own bands, they can't see the chasm between what they are teaching in their phonics lessons and the books they are expecting their pupils to read ! Let's hope some are listening to what you had to say.