A small reading question

[treedelivery]

Because I see there are some reading gurus about.

So, this child can read her yellow band book on sight. SHe can decode or part decode and figure it out, or remember, or glean from the picture, or something. Anyhow, she goes straight through the books. Mostly ORT and BigCat books. She learns her High frequency words after being told them once, and can spell well, or at least in a phonetically sensible way.

She can relay the story to you, talk about the capital letters and exclamation marks and so on. She has a good bash at Horrid Henry, First Bible Stories [how random is that?] and a few others. They take her longer but she can do it and follow the story.

So, would you feel pleased and let her carry on, or think about moving her on and stretching her?

From a parents point of view, should she make it look this easy

[RoadArt]

You need to understand the school's phylosophy on the reading book scheme. Some schools dont focus too much on it, other schools change books daily. Some keep all the kids at same/similar levels, some extend rapidly. They are not all the same and you cant compare your friends kids school books to your own kids especially when different schools involved, as wellas different teachers.

I wouldnt worry about what the school does, her reading skills will be evident through other testing schemes in school and they will become more aware if they are no already, and just carry on and let her read what she is reading at home.

[RoadArt]

Talk about the books, encourage discussions to ensure she is understanding what she is reading. How could she change the story, pick out same words, similar sounding words, similar spelt words. Read book backwards, this is could to check they can read words and not memorising.
Encourage different voices, expressions, these are all good to develop their reading skills.

Dont let her know either that you are concerned about the level of books coming home from school - this will/could cause issues.

[Panzee]

What does she read in class? I send home books a band below their 'instructional' level. As far as I'm concerned they do the hard work in school - home is for relaxing.

[treedelivery]

Hello thanks for replies. Sorry wasn't around, I had to go to work.

RoadArt, thanks for your reply. CAn I ask about reading backwards. You mean starting on the last page?
We try to put expression in as we go, and dd self corrects on this. If she sounds out a sentence, she will often re-read it straight away putting in exclamations and changing her tone. It's nice to hear

Panzee, thank you too. That's an interesting point about the idea of home reading being more about relaxing.

Cheers [smle]

[23balloons]

Sounds like she won't have any problems with reading so I wouldn't worry about the school books. take her to the library & let her read books at home. Ds1 was a nightmare reader (still is) & I have spent many hours worrying about him. Ds2 sounds like your dd & I haven't stressed at all. He stopped bringing school reading books home in Y2 & hasn't had one that I know of in Y3. I really don't care as he has 100+ books in his rooom & reads every night in bed. Reading just came naturally to him and it really is a blessing.

They are reading all sorts of different things as part of doing their school work anyway.

[camicaze]

From what you say, of course she should go up - Horrid Henry is light years more advanced than yellow band (even if she is only having a bash at it).
Some schools assess regularly and move kids up and others don't - for whatever reason. I would have one conversation with the teacher to see what she says and otherwise just carry on as you are - you are giving her lots of reading yourself.

[nickeldonkeyonadustyroad]

I personally would get her a bunch of books that she can read in her own time - doesn't matter what kind (as long as suitable for her age)
picture books, normal reading book - Usborne firt reading series is good, I aM REading, Ladybird tales, some of the first Horrid Henry books, that kind of thing.

Fairy tales re-written (Macmillan does a nice liftthe flap series of fairy tales)

a book of poetry?

she'll dip in and out of those.

it does sound like she's making her way through to independent reading, though, so I think you don't need to push her, just amke sure she's always got something to read!

[RoadArt]

Hi Treedelivery

I used to sometimes get kids to read the words from right to left as nonsense reading and to make it fun, just to check they could actually read the words.
A lot of kids have excellent memories and they can read a book once and remember the words, but if you pick a line, paragraph, chapter out of sync it confuses them. By doing random selections, it helped confirm their understanding and abilities to read.

As mentioned by others, just be happy your DD is reading and continue to encourage, but I wouldnt push too much on finding harder books. She is still very young and will enjoy books written for her age group.

The school books follow a process step by step and are introducing the written language, full stops, commas, speech marks, paragraphs, tenses, etc and sometimes if you jump the colours children can miss out on these stages. Whilst it doesnt matter quite as much when reading, it is important they learn and are aware of them so that they can be introduced into their writing.

[treedelivery]

Thanks folks!

Just to say, the Horrid Henry books are the early reader ones, so I think they must be much easier than the standard. So she is well within normal standard ablity I should think.

Dd isn't actually that keen a reader, she would rather do sums. She doesn't like to tuck up with a book or anything, yet can easily apply herself to her homework reading. So that's good.

Ok, I'll let her pootle along. Which was my plan, and there will certainly be no pressure or steering from us. We are cool letting her pootle, she has plenty of books. Mainly about dinosaurs and planets .

I was more sort of concerned about what I see as a mismatch in her school stuff. You know? I'll let it ride and see how it goes. If I see her stall though, I think I should say something. I know she is bright nad therefore isn't going to need massive input to reach all the measurable targets. However I am still keen that she reach her own potential, not be left to meander to the average potential of the average child and stay there. Oh does that make sense?? It sounds rather arrogant. It isn't meant to. She lacks some social/play sklls and has plenty to learn from school and those around her.

RoadArt, I like those ideas about silly sentences. We'll try those. I was wondering if, by jumping a band, she would miss some input on structure etc. So that is interesting. Thanks.

[camicaze]

Re Horrid Henry and my comment on its difficulty. My dd is at the stage where she can now read those easy ones with pretty few mistakes. She is on about ORT Level 10.

[treedelivery]

Hi camicaze. That's interesting. Are we talking about the same early reader ones like these? DD can read one through, and she is book band yellow, ort stage 3. She needed help on about 3 words on her first read. Her reading was halting and clumsy as she decoded like mad. SHe is pretty fluent now though.

I wonder if I'm doing the wrong thing in giving her books that are beyond her taught level.

[camicaze]

Just checked - yes we are talking about the same books.
There are lots of different views on how easy/difficult reading books should be but if your dd can decode that stuff then yellow band verges on farcical as a level.
There is an assumption behind the phrase 'taught level'. That is that all the children in your child's class are at the same level and having a significant part of their teaching day focused on reading teaching that focuses them on moving them on. Both assumptions are likel;y to be false.
First, all the children in your child's class will be on different levels and so there will not be much whole class teaching thats directly relevant to all. Second, in most schools the majority of progress comes through reading individually with the teacher or in small groups when the level should be very much in line with the kids ability. You are not meant to hold your child back - the teaching should be there to meet your child's needs and move her on from where she is.
To be honest it sounds like your child is quick learner and would always have outstripped many of her peers, you can't feel bad about encouraging her to read!

[treedelivery]

Thank you camicaze. Apologies for not getting back sooner. Work got in the way.

Hmm. I'm not convinced there is any reading going on in groups, just one to one with parents who offer to come in for an hour or two.
They do the carpet time phonics as a group of 30, looking at the sound they are learning that week.

I maybe need to ask. I don't know.

[maizieD]

" looking at the sound they are learning that week."

They are only learning one sound a week? If they are, then

[treedelivery]

Do you think so maizieD?

Thing is, this school has good attainment levels according to the blasted league tables and offstead and all that jazz. So they must be doing a good job?

Feel a bit worried now. My number one fear of sending any child into formal education that I haven't been able to truly choose to suit that individual, is that they will never get the love for learning. The feeling that everything is there for the taking, and can bring deep satisfaction. Dd1 would benefit from an academic formal style. Dd2 might be better suited to free flowing and less restrictive teaching.

But that's all probably a bit heavy for a SAturday night. However, I do worry that dd is able, and therefore not being 'lit up'. I wouldn't be so deluded to say she is bored, but there is a chance she could just disengage whilst waiting for the class to be ready to move on.

Oh dear.

Mind you, her writing sucks. She has plenty to work on.

[camicaze]

Its that love of learning thing (or lack of it) that upset me alot at my dd1's first school. A feeling that with all the best intentions in the world she was not actually being stimulated and that expectations were rather low. The way that a school doesn't seem to expect that some children make progress in reading well beyond the norm or accept it when they see it, seems to illustrate low expectations.
I do now think that a child's potential can be way in advance of what schools generally deliver, as illustrated by how much progress many children make when a parent is very keen on helping them with their reading. Also the astounding progress dd1 made in maths when we took over and did it ourselves.
Its very valid to say that you don't want your child taught to their potential and are happy with them simply meeting expectations. But Im not happy and I think its becasue I place a high value on intelligence and think it comes with learning and isn't just innate. I don't mean I want my child to become a prodigy at the expense of their happiness but I do want them to experience 'the joy of learning' and, for example, have strong reading skills so that they can have access.

[qualitystreetrosescelebrations]

Not to rain on the parade - this may not be the case with your dd, but just to give my experience.

At primary school age - my dd was an advanced reader, always got 10/10 in spelling tests, top group etc etc.

Unfortunately at secondary school it was discovered she's severely dyslexic, she just has photographic memory and very high IQ. If someone doesn't show/say the word she has no idea what it is, as soon as she's told it the image is there.

I don't know what the answer is how to prevent this being hidden.

As I had my son tested young as concerned as he was doing all the same things. Ed psych said 100% dyslexic (this is a very very rare thing for an Ed psych to ever say and especially at such a young age). School say no problem, as he's top group.