When to move up a reading level?

[Cat98]

Ds's school don't have levels at the moment (reception) but I signed him up for reading chest and I'm just wondering at what stage he will need to move up a level.. It says 90% of words should be correct but does that mean with no help or hints at all? He's reading red band at the moment and got every word in his book yesterday but a couple of them he initially guessed and I had to say 'try again, sound it out' - then he'd get it right. So does he sound ready for the next level up or not yet?
Thanks

[redskyatnight]

(not a teacher but my opinion) The red books are so short, I would say he should be able to read them through fluently with no help or hesitation, maybe just needing help/to go back to the very odd word or 2. Books also seem to vary within a book band so I would want him to be consistently reading every book at this standard. If you're not sure, I would say he probably is not ready :) IIRC correctly it is a bit of a jump from red to yellow, so don't push him on too early.

Also be aware that reading is not just about knowing what the words say - does he understand what he's reading? Can he pick out (e.g.) the main characters?

[learnandsay]

If the new books are more difficult you don't have to complete them.

[newplan]

I would go carefully. You want to build up his confidence and it's not all about knowing the words.

I would say to move on from red he would need to be fluent and not need help unless it was a tricky name / place etc.

Concentrate on talking about the book, silly voices etc. as they move higher up these will become more important.

DS was stuck on blue for MONTHS because although he was fluent, his expression wasn't great.

We hadn't paid much attention to that in the past so it was a struggle for him.

[Cat98]

Thanks for the advice. I think you are right, we'll stick with the red ones for now. His comprehension is pretty good I think and if he doesn't get something he asks me, but I agree he's not quite solid enough yet especially as its a big step up.

[simpson]

My DD is also in reception and signed up to the reading chest.

I kept her on red level until she consistently got them right the first time of trying and then also when she was getting every book right too iyswim. Rather than putting her up a level once she had got one book right....