Reading and the new school year.

[caffeinated]

Hi,

Can't believe I'm starting a thread about reading already. But, my ks1 age kids have been reading tons this summer and loving it. Which has been wonderful for both their entertainment and my sanity.

I assume that their new teachers will assess them for reading when they go back to school and was wondering from any teachers, TA's or parent helpers what form of reading assessment they use in class. A list of words to decode? Excerpts from different levels of books?

No real reason for asking just pure intrigue.

[mrz]

There isn't a standard reading assessment.
Some schools will use a single word or sentence reading (decoding) test to give a reading age. Most will listen to the child read and talk about what they have read so base judgements on decoding and comprehension

[caffeinated]

I see. Thanks Mrz. It is standard practice for the new teacher to assess them? At my dc's school they rarely read with their teacher usually with a parent helper and the teacher just has them move them up when all the books in a level have been read. So am hoping the new teachers do assess because I'm sure they both need bumping up from last year.

[mrz]

Personally I wouldn't move a child up a level unless I had listened to them read and was satisfied they understood what they had read so I will be listening to all my class when we return

[AbigailS]

I usually send a new reading book home at the same level that was passed up to me from the previous year group so everyone can take a reading book home on the first day of term. Then I work my way through the class and reassess the level reading book sometime within the first week or so. I find that lots of children need to change level, but I do want some good one-to-one time with them to really assess them before I swap levels. It would be upsetting if we made snap decisions in a rush to get everyone's books changed on day one or two and we moved a child too far or too soon. The assessment I use is the same that I use throughout the year; hearing them read and discussion, against set criteria (including APP). Over the summer holidays I have analysed everyone's phonics assessments and Letters and SOunds levels and the High Frequency Word levels to identify children that I want to reassess in these areas in the first few weeks, so I can draw up a plan for some individual inputs.
All of the reading assessment time is also a great time to spend one-to-one getting to know the child, but it does take ages so it takes me at least a fortnight to get through all 30, and it does mean I don't start full afternoon timetable until I've finished.

[caffeinated]

Abigails thanks for sharing I found it very interesting. At my dc's school they only ever do guided reading as a group and nobody moves up til the whole group is ready. Guided reading book and book they bring home is the same. But they reshuffle classes each year so the initial teacher assessment seems to be how they're gauged for the year as they're not fluid groups at all.

[AbigailS]

"nobody moves up til the whole group is ready"
So much for personalising learning! It's fine if all the group are pretty close on skills and levels, but I find that even within a Guided Reading group that are all, in theory, on white level books there is a range of skills and different books within our scheme address differing needs.

[caffeinated]

I know! I agree. I have my issues with it. Especially because they group them into 6 groups of similar ability in September but kids don't accelerate with reading at the same speed so what may have been the most able 5 kids in September likely aren't going to be the same 5 kids come July. DS1 moved to the school in the Easter of Reception and the teacher told me at Parents' Evening that it was good fortune that he was reading around the same level as the girl he replaced or else he would've really struggled. Crikey! I keep my niggles to myself because their teachers are great. The kids are happy and making terrific progress. I figure that what they're doing overall must work.