Orange reading level - how much of a book should DD read at home?

[RoastieToastieReastie]

DD5 (reception) is now on orange reading books. Initially she would read a whole book at school and then the same one at home when she came home (she gets a new book every day from school) then as she progressed up she would read half a book at school and then half with us at home.

She's now on orange which have more words in than previously and the ones we've had home over the past week or so have roughly 24 pages and school seem to be doing approx 4-6 pages a day with her, leaving up to 20 pages for us. If I ask the school whether we are expected to finish the book at home every evening I get a generic 'whatever you can do at home will enhance reading' etc etc but we're struggling to keep DD motivated to finish the whole book, yet we've uo to now always had a book a day so it's in my mindset that we need to finish it. I just wondered what the actual expectation/ideal/realistic view is of this and what other people do. I'd love her to finish the books and set this as a target, but since she seems to be reading less at school this term (another issue I won't go into) I wondered at what point/level does the 'book a day' plan not become appropriate given the longer stories. For background I know some parents aren't that strict with finishing books or reading at home every day with their Dc but DD has absolutely always finished her reading book at home every day bar illness. She generally likes it and doesn't complain too much .

[HarveySchlumpfenburger]

I would say 10-15 mins, then only carry on if she wants to.

If she's struggling with the length, then that's your cue to not read the whole book. .

Orange level would be about right for splitting a book over more than 1 day IME.

[RoastieToastieReastie]

Thanks Rafals, I think we're going to have to start splitting it maybe then. I know we have to at some point but I'm not sure at what point the books become lengthy enough to not do a book a day.

[jamdonut]

As books get lengthier over the colour bands, I always remind children they do not need to read a whole book in one sitting. Orange could easily be spread over two nights.
Some parents seem to think it is a race ,and it should be a book a day, but as they progress you need to check for harder vocab. understanding, reading with expression, and comprehension of what they have read. So as you go up the levels, the books should be changed less often.

[RoastieToastieReastie]

Thanks jam, that's reassuring. I suppose I'm concerned if we don't read the whole book her school will read even less with her every day as if there are only a handful of pages left in the book we send back they will read those and spend less time with her as they will leave a new book for staring at home so she'll lose out on time with them. Maybe I'm overthinking this, I'm just concerned her school aren't spending as long with her reading because she's doing relatively well and they don't seem to have any problems with her reading and tell me she's doing really well so I don't want this to be a reason for them not to develop and stretch her (I'm not a pushy parent. Honest)

[Smartiepants79]

Around 8 pages I would suggest. A 24 page book for a 5 year is too much in one sitting. Split it across at least 2 nights.

[AppleAndBlackberry]

DD1 was probably on too high a level at this stage (turquoise I think) and for ages we just read 5 pages a night and kept the book for the next night. She got more stamina towards the end of year 1. DD2 will read several books in one evening but she's probably been a stage or two too low all year, plus she's a different child.

[AppleAndBlackberry]

Is this private school btw? My kids at state primary get read with less than once a fortnight in school...

[RoastieToastieReastie]

Yes, private school. tomorrow we're going to try 5-10 pages rather than most of the book and see how that goes.

[Pico2]

Given that she is doing really well, I think the best thing you can do for her is not put her off reading. So follow her lead.

My DD's school asked that each book was read twice, so changing 2-3 times a week. Some of the books are so dull, but lengthy, that this was frustrating DD. Her teacher said it was ok to be flexible as some of the books are dull.

Clearly there are many different models of home reading, so fitting it to your DD is probably fine.

[sirfredfredgeorge]

DD4 gets a book on Monday and a book on Friday, I don't think we've ever spent more than 5 minutes on a book, often do it the morning before school as they're all pretty dull so don't get motivated too before - only on green though, so maybe they get much harder.

It seems quite surprising the relative difference of experience people get, and we seem to be on the lower end of school expectations of homework.

[Rosebud05]

I would go by time/her interest rather than a set amount of pages to 'get through'.

So 5-10 mins a night is plenty for reception, in addition to being read to.

Then let the school know that she hasn't finished the book, and can you keep it for another night.

[mrsvilliers]

OP do you think orange is the correct level for her? DS (also 5) has just been moved onto orange and he can read them easily bar the odd word and if I'm honest I think the length is fine if there is no difficulty with the language. A book a day sounds heavy though. If she's struggling/unenthusiastic then the school's running the risk of putting her off.

[RoastieToastieReastie]

Mrsv DD can read I'd say 85-90% of the words without any help and reads (when she wants to) relatively quickly. She seems to manage the words and story itself, it's just the length/amount. Tonight we are going to aim for up to 12 pages.

[mrsvilliers]

She sounds the right level then. Maybe it's the reading material, they are pretty insipid. Would you consider not bothering so much with the school books but getting some other books for her to read that she is interested in? We're state so DS only gets one reading and one library book per week but I supplement with other books.

[sirfredfredgeorge]

I'd've thought 1 in 10 words needing help on a graded book sounds to me more like it's too hard a level, DD is green level, but can read 90% of any book, she barely needs help on any word in any of her school books.

[mrsvilliers]

Sirfred DS's teacher told me the right time to move up a level was when they could easily read (and understand) 90% of the book. Maybe a teacher will come along and tell us!

[RoastieToastieReastie]

Hmm, I will see how much DD can read of her book tonight for a more accurate %age as it may be higher.
Mrsv problem with getting DD to read non school books is she just always tells me they are too hard and doesn't want to try and is scared off even when I know she easily could manage them. She sometimes reads books to herself a little or baby books to her toys etc, but it's very much on her own terms.

[mrsvilliers]

We had this with DS too, two things made a difference, the first was him choosing a school library book to bring home (he'd somehow got it into his head that he should be reading it rather than me) and me introducing 'relaxing time' when I put him to bed half an hour before his bedtime and he lies and looks at / reads books while I put dd to bed. I was an early reader and loved it (still do) so I find it hard that he is so capable but also still reluctant. I'm trying hard to relax about it and not push!

[Pico2]

DD's reading books (green) seem to vary a lot in the number of sentences on a page, depending on which reading scheme they come from. The difficulty of the words is similar, but some are really long and others are fine for a single reading session. There are also a few that seem to have a dual banding - so difficulty green, interest gold. I think these may be aimed at older readers who still need easier material.

Perhaps you could ask for shorter books. The Oxford Reading Tree ones seem very suited to reading in one go. Things like the Magic Key ones. Though we've only got to green, so this might change.

[EnidClowes]

This is perfect to read, I've been splitting our orange books over two nights, sometimes three. They just seem so much longer than the previous levels, the content is fine just the length seems off-putting. I have been wondering if I should be trying to up the reading each night but there's some nice reassurance on this thread to just go with flow.

[RoastieToastieReastie]

This is interesting, and reassuring, thank you.

Speaking of different book schemes and content of books I've been on reading chest and the books DD has been bringing home have roughly the amount of words per page as the purple and gold books than the orange book band examples on their page (which are comparatively much more simple than the orange books DD has been bringing home).

Thank you very much for the reassurance about this, I'm feeling much more relaxed about it now.

[catkind]

Reading 90% independently seems a lot too little to me. Is that actually needing help for 10% of words, or just needing to stop and sound out? If the former, are the books properly matched to phonics she has learned? Even with the latter, that sounds like a challenging level and I'd expect to split it.

[RoastieToastieReastie]

Ok, tonight she read about 8-10 pages. A short story and a poem in the book, the short story she read completely without any help at all but the poem (taking up two of the pages) she needed help with about 5 words (although they included random things like 'mirth' as it was an old fashioned poem) but this is unusual, so I'd guess 90% was an overestimate of help.

[RiverTam]

What on earth are these books? DD's is 6, year 1, and has orange and turquoise books (no-one was in orange in reception!!) and the books don't sound anything like yours. We're reading Pearson 'bugs' books.