Primary school reading books

[Anniemabel]

I’ve always had trouble getting books for my child to read at home. The school rarely let them change their books and so we usually manage 1 or 2 a week at most. We read them twice and then the kids get bored and have to wait until they are allowed to change them again.

My eldest is now reading chapter books so we can just buy them for him which is fine. My second child still needs to use reading scheme type books (year 2). He has not had any between March and the summer hols because he wasn’t in school. Now he’s been back for 8 school days (11 days in total) and has only brought home one book.

I’ve raised the issue about 30,000 times with the school in relation to my eldest child and I just got told they don’t have time to let the children change their books more frequently and they should just reread the one they have until they have the opportunity to change it. The teacher listens to them read once per term (ie 3 times a year) to assess their reading level.

Is this normal for schools? It seems like such a missed opportunity.

There is more to 'reading' a book than decoding the text.

One night should be decoding the text, another building fluency, read the text out of sequence to test their decoding / phonic skills, another night discussing the pictures, inferences in the story, unfamiliar vocabulary, alternative endings to the story, relating the characters experiences to your child's own life experiences - "have you ever...." "how would you feel if..." "what would you do if... happened to you". Does your child know any other stories that are similar? In what way? If you've really exhausted all of the above move on to reading books from your own stock at home - using some of the prompts from above.

It is quite standard to only change books weekly.

Crazy, I'm sure many dc need that but others including my dd would be put off reading for life.
She needs momentum.
Some teachers seem to think any child slightly ahead of age expected reading can't possibly understand what they are reading.

Both my dd, one exceptional reader, the other struggling, both understood the text, what's going on, happen next etc.

Flexible approach is by far the best, within reason to child's needs.

My year 2 kid.
Gets two reading books. As long as I write a comment in her home reading they will switch the books. So last week she had 8 different books.
The teachers also listen to them in class. I think she has been listened to about 4 times already.