Reception Reading (I like to follow a trend!)

[Ismene]

DD is 4 and a January starter. They have reading level books every week (amongst other books during the week) and I'm not sure how challenging these books are supposed to be for her. Her teacher has told me that she assessed DD reads around 130 sight words and decodes and understands more than that with phonics. The books she currently brings home she whizzes through and then flings them back in the book bag. I think they are too easy, she will need to sound out maybe one word in the book and even then not every book. I'm petrified of being pushy, but equally I'm not sure DD is being encouraged to make an effort and to me that is more important that how much she can actually read IYSWIM. WWYD?

[Ismene]

More important than how much she can actually read. Which is more than her mother is able to spell.

[Littlefish]

Reading scheme books are dull. Take her to the library and let her choose books to read with you. She only needs to read the school book once.

When is parents evening?

[Ismene]

Thanks Littlefish. We do that anyway and our house is full of books (DD's, Mine and DH's) so she has access whatever she would like to read providing it is appropriate. I think this is where she has picked up what she already knows TBH.

So I should just not worry about the reading level books then? That is fine by me! Parents evening is next week. I do know that she has been moved to a different reading group, so I'm not questioning that the teacher doesn't know what she is doing, more that I don't know what I'm doing!

[Ismene]

Yes, good point squidgy, she probably does 'perform' differently at school. I should have thought of that, especially as I just said as much on another post.

[Lookandlearn]

I would question it if your dd can read the books with extreme ease. Happened with my dd and I wanted to do the reading the school set but also for it to be meaningful and useful. Luckily we have a scho that listens to reasonable parents (and me!) and with no bother the books soon became challenging. Everyone happy. Simply questioning in a reasonable way does not make you pushy IMO.

[Lookandlearn]

The thing is though squishy, I really agree with you and do all of that with dd, but that doesn't mean that the books shouldn't also be at a suitable level decoding wise. No benefit of keeping them on unchallenging books as long as they are decoding and comprehending.

[Ismene]

I can see what you are both saying squidgy and lookandlearn.

All these terms are so new to me. Is comprehension her understanding of the story, why the characters might do/say something, finding something funny etc? For example, at home we read Roald Dahl together(repeatedly!), which she finds hilarious and seems to understand the stories when I ask her about them (which I think I just do naturally anyway). Yet the books for school are more on a level of 'Where is the cat. There is the cat. The cat is on the mat' etc.

[Lookandlearn]

I think a combination of more appropriate books from school and parents supplementing this with books from home is best. Otherwise they might think they can only read school books or alternatively that work or books from school are easy, dull and a bit of a waste of time.

[AbigailS]

The theory we were taught is 90 - 95% independent accuracy for it to be educational. Comprehension vs decoding is another matter ...

[piprabbit]

I read a very interesting article today about some children who start reading swiftly at a young age who may not be comprehending what they are reading. They can decode the words but not really understand the book. Apparently it can lead to problems later on which can be harder to fix because of the mental reading habits they formed early on.

Perhaps you could talk to your DDs teacher about what/how they are hoping you will read with your DD, maybe there is something you can do to enrich her reading before she flings the books back into her bag .

[piprabbit]

It was in Junior magazine - the May issue I think.

[maizieD]

I read a very interesting article today about some children who start reading swiftly at a young age who may not be comprehending what they are reading. They can decode the words but not really understand the book. Apparently it can lead to problems later on which can be harder to fix because of the mental reading habits they formed early on.

I'm really sorry but that sounds deeply suspect to me.

Please understand that comprehension is very closely linked to a child's vocabulary, both receptive (i.e words they understand when spoken to them, but which they may not use themselves) and expressive (i.e words the child knows and uses correctly). They will not 'comprehend' words that they read if the words are not in their receptive & expressive vocabularies. This has nothing to do with the age at which they learn to decode the written word, though, obviously, a child with a limited vocabulary (whatever their age) is likely to have difficulty understanding what they are reading.

I am rather intrigued by the OP's idea that reading should be an 'effort'! Why? I know of no surer way to turn a child off reading than to make it effortful...

[piprabbit]

Must admit I've not read the books on which the article is based:
"Your Child's Growing Mind" by Jane Healy
"Boys and Girls Come Out to Play" by Sally Featherstone and Ros Bayley.

I'll be really interested to hear from anyone who has come across these books before.

[Ismene]

Oooh no MaizieD, I don't mean she should be working hard on every word and for the whole book to be an effort, not at all! I did not word it very well in retrospect. All I meant in the OP was that it didn't seem that the books she had contained anything she needed to try, she could already read them really quickly. I'm not expecting them to send her home with Shakespeare or anything, I'm just wondering if it is right that she whizzes through them quite so quickly. Like Lookandlearn and Abigail said - I don't want her to think school is easy and boring, I want to encourage her to try at something, so maybe one or two new words are introduced in a book, which I thought would reflect Abigail's 90-95% accuracy?

There is some really good advice and ideas on here, I feel more informed now. I'm just planning on doing what I have been doing and I do trust that the teacher is quite capable of assessing what DD can do.

[skidd]

Ismene - my DD is the same - she doesn't seem to even read the books as rushes through them in about 5 seconds. I did tell the teacher this and she put her up a level. I think the problem with my DD at least is that she looks at the reading books at school and gets to know the stories so she already sort of knows them. I also agree that it should be A BIT effortful or else they aren't learning new stuff.

BTW re children who decode well but struggle with comprehension, there is a name for them - poor comprehenders - I am currently doing a research on this group, and as maisieD says, it is closely linked to language skills generally, not just reading.

[maizieD]

OK, OK! I agree. A BIT of effort is not a bad thing.. I also agree that whipping through a very easy book is not much use either. Just do be sure that she is reading accurately, though, however easy the book seems to be.

It is amazing just how innaccurate some children can be and it is usually a consquence of too much sight word learning and over emphasis on 'reading for meaning'!

@skidd.

Your research sounds interesting. What are you doing it for? Will it scotch the myth that good decoders aren't good 'comprehenders'