What is the benefit of ORT levels 13, 14 & 15?

[WhattodoSue]

I am really to understand to point or ORT reading levels 13+. It seems to me that the stories are reasonably basic (which they would have to be given the length). The language is not massively challenging. I would guess there are some levels of nuance which are helpful for comprehension, but why aren't those written into more interesting stories with a richer vocabulary? I can also guess they are helpful for children who are not very into independent reading, but they seem to me to be a waste of time for children who are reading independently! I am open to being corrected, but surely it makes more sense to have a child read outloud a book they actually enjoy, with a more challenging vocabulary, so you can discuss language etc. in those. As you can tell, I'm feeling frustrated (and DD is feeling disengaged - which is worse). I would love to understand how they help.

[user789653241]

Can you ask the teacher if she can read what she likes instead? dd's level is high enough not to follow book level books anymore, unless there is specific objectives.

[HarveySchlumpfenburger]

I'd imagine they benefit OUP a lot.

[WhattodoSue]

What is OUP Rafa? Irving I have tried to find out the objective but failed so far, hence resorting to the collective wisdom of Mumsnet

[WhattodoSue]

Oxford university press . Duh. I was being slow. Surely the school must have a reason beyond making OUP richer??

[greenbloom]

Do they listen to children read in groups? If so the treetops series might be the only ones they have in multiple packs of six. Just ask the teacher.

[HarveySchlumpfenburger]

I cannot think of a single reason. I don't see how books at this level do anything that a normal fiction or non-fiction book wouldn't do.

Like wordless book at the lower end, I can only imagine that OUP have managed to convince schools that they have a purpose.

[user789653241]

Yes, what green says is what I thought. So, I don't think you need to read specific books for everyday homework reading. And there must be lots of children who doesn't even read a book everyday

[WhattodoSue]

Green they do, but not that often. But even with that - what is the point? The language is not hard so she could read a lot of more complex books. Tonight we read the book she is reading through choice. I can see the benefit of that. There are words and phrases she doesn't understand and nuances we can talk about. That is a way of increasing reading skills, but not wasting our time on something which is linguistically simple. Rafa what does your school once a child is past the earlier ORT levels?

[greenbloom]

I agree with your comments about treetops fiction levels 15 and 16. I like level 13 fiction and the non-fiction is very good for group discussion. But really I'd go and have a word with the class teacher and just ask if she can read her own books. Different schools work in different ways.

[HarveySchlumpfenburger]

Not in a school at the moment, but never been in one that goes past ORT 10 tbh.

They have a range of books for yr 2 and above. Starting with simple early reader type chapter books to more difficult ones depending on the age and ability of the children.

Group reading usually done with group sets of fiction or non-fiction texts.

justimaginestorycentre.co.uk/collections/book-packs/products/book-band-lime

Something like this. Julian stories always went down well in yr 2. As did Mr Majeika and a couple of other series. Personally I think it's much better for children to experience a range of authors and writing styles. And you can get stuff from the book people which will probably end up much cheaper.

[Shapebandit]

Off the point but the word less ones are actually really useful in a reception class!

[WhattodoSue]

Green I have asked already. I was told she had to keep reading the school texts. She reads one a week, but her bedtime book (and every other time book - she is a real bookworm) is her own. It just seems so utterly pointless getting her to read one school book aloud per week. But more worrying for me is the fact that she is totally disinterested in reading at school.

[HarveySchlumpfenburger]

And above, Shape. I love a good wordless book at ks1 or 2. My own link is making me jealous.

There is such a huge range of awesome children's fiction out there now that it seems a shame to be restricting children's reading to scheme books. There really isn't any need for it once they have mastered the basics. And I think the higher level scheme books are a relatively new invention. There certainly didn't used to be this many around.

[user789653241]

Can you just let her read school book to herself( which doesn't take long) and use her choice of books for reading aloud? They won't actually check which book she read, will they? My ds chooses books like murderous maths or computer coding for reading aloud to me some times, teacher never complained, actually gave him a encouraging comment about it.

[WhattodoSue]

That is a great link Rafa! It is great to know what 'normal' books are within the bands. I used to read Anna Hibiscus to DD when she was littler. We LOVED Anna Hibiscus. That is just so much better than any lime reading scheme books!! My DS went as Mr Majeika to world book day

Irvine I'm going to talk to the school again because it just seems a waste of time to read the school books at all at home. But I want to tell them that doing them at school is making her think of school as boring and easy. There may be some comprehension benefit somewhere, but only if that is what they are discussing. But I am not sure as to how much of that the actually do.

[WhattodoSue]

I could ignore what the school say, but I don't really want to do that because I don't think it gives the right message.

[greenbloom]

If you feel that strongly about it I would just tell them that your dd is no longer reading the school books.
My dd is year 6 and she case home with a few chapters of a group reading book to read each week. They are pretty poor, but it is a quick enough job to get it read. A whole treetops book is quite a lot.

[Ambroxide]

I had this in Y3 with DD. I went in and pointed out to the literacy coordinator that the school books she was being given were of approximately the same level of difficulty as what DD was reading at the start of Y1 with the school's blessing and asked what had changed. There was some chat behind the scenes and she was taken off the reading scheme. I did talk to the teacher first but she wasn't much help.

[TrainBridge]

I had the same experience as Ambroxide, except I seized my opportunity at a parents evening in Y3 and asked if she really had to read the school books as they'd run out of suitable (ie age appropriate but stretching) books and she kept spending ages hunting for something she hasn't yet read.

Her teacher was actually keen to do something different and she moved on to various classics (Heidi, Anne of Green Gables, The Secret Garden etc) plus a few fact books because if given a choice dd1 would choose to only read fiction. It's worked out well - the older books have really complex sentence structure and wide vocabulary, and she enjoys reading them.

[Ambroxide]

YY to classics. Brilliant for younger children with good comprehension and reading ability as they are so unscary compared to a lot of more modern books. E Nesbit, C S Lewis, Noel Streatfeild, Arthur Ransom, Rosemary Manning etc etc have been great for DD - challenging vocab and sentence structure and actually v educational in a wider sense (Mummy, what's a hansom cab/telegram/gangrene etc).

[WombatStewForTea]

I get my kids off reading scheme books asap! They are soul destroying! Sure fire way to ruin their love of reading.