How do children get moved up the reading band?

[Orbiton]

DD is in Y1 and making steady progress with her reading. She's had a great leap forward after a massive regression in the summer holiday, however the school is very slow to recognise that. For instance we read at home book bands 9 & 10 and she is just fine. I help her with the odd word but she easily reads about 90-95% and her comprehension is very good. I think she does need to work on reading with expression but other than that I see no issues.

She brings home book bands 6 from school which she finds very easy and really not challenging at all. I get that probably the school knows what they are doing but I still think a slightly higher level would make her progression faster. Do I bring this up with the teacher or let them sort it out themselves?

Are they doing AR quizzes? Might be too early in year 1. That’s how my children always moved up. Personally I have a stock of books at home and used to read the school book with my child and then whatever we had at home (Biff and Chip etc). Both my kids are GD readers now, so it must have worked. Don’t wait for the school.

My school used to use AR quizzes which works on the comprehension of the book instead of the reading fluency. However this was only used up the school.
With younger children it is usually based on a mix of comprehension, reading fluency and sight words. It might be that she reads very well but isn’t showing a strong understanding of the book/ story and is still working within band 6 of the reading strategies.

(Er the school might not do Accelerated Reader..)

Do they have a reading record? If so do you write their easy? Etc. I have previously emailed teacher about reading with my dc. Ds1 was on bands way above his level, struggling etc so requested we went back. DD’s very good readers and at times found some bands a little dull or easy. I emailed about it, rarely moved up go through the motions etc. I found reading our own books then and filling in the record meant they were moved up, or failing that DD’s expressed their non enjoyment of reading books that were easy or to simple. Dd6 is in yr2 and on lime she has been told as have I she has to go through all the books in that band before she can move on, or after Easter which ever is first. I would do both.

We asked to move up when we felt the books were too easy compared with what we were reading at home, but were told they didn't have the next band up available for his year. To be honest we just got our own choices out of the library to challenge him so not a big deal.

I’m not sure how the quizzes worked but my DD would read books from home as her school never encouraged her to take challenging books despite being capable. She would quiz herself in this books.

it would be interesting to hear a teachers thoughts.

I’d ask the teacher.

If you do that, then chances are they’ll either assess her and move her up, or they’ll be able to give you a reason why she’s not being moved up yet.

Which reading scheme do they use?

When she reads band 9-10 books at home is she decoding and comprehending a new book each time or is she re-reading familiar texts?

There is increasing understanding of the importance of reading fluency. If this is weaker than her decoding and comprehension they may want her to develop her fluency before moving her up, but you will need to ask her teacher to be sure.

It really depends on what scheme they are using and how they are using them.

For example, some schemes are linked to the phonics they learn in class, so the books they take home have those phonics . They can't just have random books, or books that contain phonics they haven't learned yet.

For some schemes the children get tested on speed/fluency. So a child might be able to decode or even understand a book ,but if they're doing it really slowly either due to ability or nature(DD was fucking slow in everything because she couldn't be arsed) they don't move up.

In some schools ,sadly due to lack of staff/time children only move up once they read with a teacher and that doesn't happen often enough.

Just have a chat with the teacher, ask what scheme they're using, how do children move up and that you've noticed/think your DD could move up and could they assess her .

Thank you.

They use a variety of reading schemes, which means some books are easier, others are harder within the same reading band.

She read with her teacher on Mon and the comment on her reading record was 'super reading, great comprehension. Still a bit quiet, but fluent' something along these lines. She's been on band 6 since the beginning of the spring term. I feel it's time to move on.

When she reads a band 10 book (usually the Reading Champion ones) we don't go over the same book again, she reads/decodes and then we get a new book. Should we read a book more than once to help with fluency? She is a little slow when she reads as she is very keen on comprehending the story and never moves past a page until she fully grasps what's going on.

She is in a private prep and I think they give the books based on ability, so if your child reads chapter books they'll get a chapter book home, regardless of the phonics they've done, if that makes sense.

I'll probably need to speak to the teacher and find out what holds DD back.

Which phonics scheme then?

Yes, reading the same book multiple times is excellent for fluency. On the Little Wandle phonics scheme children read each book three times: once for decoding, once for comprehension, and once for fluency. It also really helps if you model reading with expression to her while she follows along, or use ‘echo reading’ where you read a phrase and she repeats it back, again following the words on the page. You can have fun with it by changing your tone and intonation.

If she is slow to comprehend then the content may be a little too challenging for her even if she can decode it.

Sorry Little Wandle.

Thank you, I'll try to do that with her.

She is reading slower the higher band books, however she's flying through the band 6 ones as far as I can see so I still think the band 6 is too easy now.

On band 10 I would expect a child to be decoding 2/3 words maximum and I would absolutely be encouraging them to read the book at least twice to help with spelling too.

Honestly, don’t rush it. My daughter sight reads and whizzes through the books but we spend far more time talking about the words (usage, synonyms, spelling patterns etc.) than I have with the others and that’s been really nice and I think, overall, will be much better for her.

Thank you, that's very helpful to know.

She does only decode a couple of words, perhaps about 3/4 per book and she's also interested in patterns/rhymes/synonyms so maybe I should just let her explore the language more.

And I'll definitely encourage reading a book more than once.

Thank you all for advice, very helpful!