reading progress

[itsthewayitellem]

I know they are all different and its about comprehension as well as reading but what would be considered good/adequate progress with regards to moving up book bands during a school year?how many book bands would a child usually go up on average?

[lovecheese]

How long is a piece of string. Are you concerned about your DC?

I honestly cannot remember with DD1 ;
DD2 started reception on pink, obviously, and finished r on blue, so 4 levels. She skipped green and orange band at the start of year 1 because her reading really took off over the summer holidays and went straight onto turquoise, and finished yr1 on white band, so 4 levels again. Now in year 2 she has gone from white to brown and is about to be reassessed to move up, hence 3 levels so far. However, at my DC's school they have loads of books in each level, and sub-levels too, but another school may have a totally different system. HTH.

[Elibean]

Which year is your DC in? Lovecheese is right, there is a huge range of 'average'! It also depends on the school, the way they move kids (some make them spend AGES on one level, others don't, some have just one reading scheme, others have many, etc).
Do you have a concern about your child's reading?

[ExpectoPatronum]

IME, it will depend enormously on your school's approach to the reading scheme. Some believe in progressing the children fairly swiftly in order to present them with constant challenge. Others believe in breadth of reading at one level to consolidate what they've learned.

In the interests of my sanity and blood pressure, I have recently decided that my older two children will not be reading any more of the school reading books at all, the whole thing is such a farce in our school.

[sageygirl]

No advice I'm afraid but this is worrying me too - should I worry if DD is not reading by end of yr R? My lovely DD is on stage 1 ORT and can read "the" but has little/no interest in expanding her reading abilities. Runs a mile if reading is mentioned, whether scheme or anything else.

My DS got up to ORT 5 at end yr R and I felt quite content with this.

I wish I had expectopatronum's attitude and simply ignored the whole thing but constantly feel the need to try with the reading scheme stuff - will try to play it cool this summer term.

[ExpectoPatronum]

sageygirl, rest assured I have only developed my 'and...breathe' attitude after three years of throwing my toys out of the pram about it, challenging it on every parents' evening, making appointments with the head, you name it!

Should perhaps point out also that I do get them all to read loads, and I find out as much as I can about which 'real' books correlate to approximate books bands, to help ensure that they're reading things that are pitched about right. But I've given up on expecting my DC's school to do this for me.

[meditrina]

I found that mine all learned to read in little leaps - ages at one stage, then something clicked and they'd race through the next couple, then longer again etc. I remember it being agonising with the eldest, as I really thought something was wrong the first time he "stuck" at a level. But it really does all even out.

And I think ExpectoPatronum is exactly right in getting them to read lots - sometimes easier, sometimes harder, often longer; but anything the child is interested in, really.

[IndigoBell]

In the UK system you should worry if your child can only read 'the' by the end of reception.

There used to be a target of kids being able to read 45 high frequency words by the end of reception. This has been dropped, and I'm not sure what it has been replaced with, but I'm fairly sure a child should be able to read CVC words and have some other sight works (like 'the') by the end of reception.

What does her teacher say?

[sageygirl]

Her teacher says a lot but rarely listens much. At parents evening just before the easter holiday's she said she was "just where she should be" for nearly everything, including reading. I did query her but didn't get far! I want to go to the US and have madamdeathstars experience - it sounds sensible.

I think the main problem is a complete lack of interest, we have loads of books at home but DD is giving them a wide berth and I don't want to force it and make things worse (though I am regularly tempted to). DD is 5 next month and prefers the sand pit, the bath, digging in the muddy hill, glueing and sticking, painting and anything else that gets her nice and messy.

[IndigoBell]

Maybe in school she is actually doing more than just reading 'the'?

Often school send home ridiculously bad non decodeable reading books - but in classroom use decent enough phonics instruction.......

[sageygirl]

Possibly, I remember my DS had the opposite problem, did loads of maths at home, quite complicated stuff in his head, but according to the teacher was unable to tell the time to the hour, add up number bonds to 10 or count past 20. This has sorted itself out though it took a few years. I'm not too worried about DD yet, she is still young, and may decide to have an "I like reading" phase soon. But I will keep an eye on her progress and if there is a problem do something about it. They do lots of phonics at school and she knows her letter sounds - they use THRASS, I'm afraid I can't remember what THRASS stands for.

[ClenchedBottom]

THRASS - Teaching Handwriting, Reading And Spelling Skills, I think?

[blackeyedsusan]

depends who you talk to. dd started at school on pink and is now red Rigby rockets.

At home she was on yellow when she started school and is now on about purple. (best guess because read all sorts from the library and only occasionally do we find a levelled book)

with the red books from school, i ask her to read and follow the instructions in the front and back covers as this is good comprehension practice... she did have a little trouble with reading the word structure and read illustration as illustrator...

cynical, me?



EP Just about got to the and breathe stage...

sagey dd's teacher doesn't listen either...

in reception, they all start with reading games and then work their way through pink until easter and red after..

[redskyatnight]

I think it depends a lot on the school. DC's school really does not push the reading books in Reception (probably as many as 50% finish the year on pink or red levels so 0 or 1 level of progress if that's the only measure you use) so many children take off in Y1. DS could not read CVC words at the end of YR (though he used context methods to actually read quite complicated books).