Dd's reading books

[Lookandlearn]

Dd had a reading assessment yesterday and as expected she's taken a leap. She's reading the books that come home without a stumble and managing a 200 odd word book in one sitting. The teacher says she's going to keep her books the same until concentration improves. I understand her level of decoding and comprehension has soared. I don't really mind, but I have noticed at home that dd's concentration improves when the books are at the right level of interest, story and word wise. So makes me wonder if it's a chicken and egg situation where maybe concentration will improve when the books get trickier. What do other parents and maybe teachers think?

[blackeyedsusan]

Work on things like expression and stopping for full stops with the school books. read your own stuff at home.

dd doesnt concentrate when she is too busy looking at the pictures or worrying about a hard word. try spending time letting her talk about/ look at the pictures if that is a problem, but no guessing words from the pictures or else mrz will be reaching down those wires looking for my guts for garters...

ask the teacher exactly what she expects and what she needs to be achieving to move to the next level if you are worried.

try to be positive, she has been assessed and the teacher has given you some feedback. (difficult I know sometimes)

It is not that unusual for there to be a difference/ perception in difference in performance at school/home.

[Zettelbox]

blackeyedsusan my son's teacher actually wrote in his reading record that "he isn't using the picture clues to guess words he doesn't know" and I thought thank god for that, but apparently tis a bad thing, according to teacher. It's because I have relentlessly drilled into him that he has to look for the sounds...

Digression though - OP, I'd just get her library books that she'll read, and do the school books the teacher sets.

[Michaelahpurple]

THe picture thing is tricky, as one tends to immediately view that as "cheating" (at least I do!), but really the picture is part of the document, so so long as picture-reading isn't being used to paper over a problem, it is valid.
When deep in a really dull book and bedtime is behind, I do have to stop myself bellowing "Oh come on!" when DS2 is doing his ritual two page picture-scan before kicking off!

[Lookandlearn]

Think I will just carry on with school books and sit on it for a while. She is reading what comes home fluently and with expression but I think we'll just wait and see what the teacher says. Concentrating not prob at home, might need to wait for it to catch up at school.

[MrsH75]

At DD1's school the teacher considers deciphering the words from the pictures part of a reading 'strategy' the child adopts and that it's ok, AFAIK.

[blackeyedsusan]

zettlebox, I have mn history of moaning about reading books as dd can't have harder book than pink level because she doesn't get enough of the story from the pictures. (Sigh) using picture clues was all the rage 10 years ago but things have changed. I wrote a terse note in her reading diary that we were encouraging dd not to use the picture cues because it is strategy used by weaker readers as outlined in the Rose report. (which has probably just outed me to one or two people) Would you like to join me in banging head against brick wall emotion?

[violett]

My dd is in yr 2 and reads fluently at home and can answer correctly any thing you ask her about the story line, meaning of words etc....however she has been kept on the same level band for ages now and recently declared she hates reading and won't read anymore.

So, I have taken her off the reading scheme.Am working through the 200 high frequency words...and the ones for yr 3 and have bought a load of lovely books from the Usborne reading scheme.As a result she reads avidly....you want to develop a love of reading too and in my opinion, some of these boring school books don't do that !

[Zettelbox]

blackeyedsusan I just ignored the comment in his reading record, smiled and nodded at parents evening, and carried on doing phonics-based books from Reading Chest every day with DS, while the school send him home with non-decodable stuff. He knows he may be able to get away with guessing and looking at the first letter and the picture at school but doesn't try it at home :)

[Lookandlearn]

Storm in a teacup here at least. Dd came home with books at level she's been assessed at. Don't care about levels, but the stories are interesting and dd really excited about reading them. Hooray! Would def have got library books, but it's so much easier when you can work with the school. Good luck others. It's a shame when teachers seen threatened by parents asking about reading. I know there are absurd parents out there but there are also those who want to really help and challenge their children and need to be recognised as having a bit of understanding of how their child is doing. And picture cues being a necessity? Surely if they're reading and comprehending they're doing it?