to believe that kid's should read to their teacher/TA everyday?

[sparklyjewlz]

given today's news that 1 in 10 boys leave primary school with the reading age of a 7 yo.
When DS1 was in primary this happened. He's now 18, so that was a while ago. By the time DD (now 13) was in primary this had dropped to once or twice a week. Not sure why. Squeezed out by other government initiatives probably. DS's reading came on in leaps and bounds.
This seems a simple, basic, achievable target.

How long should I be reading with a 6 and 8 year old a day? Is 10 mins a day - everyday better than say 1/2 hour 2x a week as have lots of clubs -Is in the morning ok?

Half an hour straight reading seems long to me.

I go to my dd's school and listen to a group reading - four children taking it in turns over half an hour and some children find it very long to sit for all of that time.

With my dd1, I just listen to her for 5 minutes or so, dh listened to her last night, I listened to her this morning at the breakfast table.

Parents need to be the ones putting in the effort. Just a few minutes every day (or every other day) makes a huge difference.

I volunteer at my local primary school as a 'reading helper', which involves listening to children who's parents don't speak English well read aloud. It's amazing to see the difference it makes.

Noah - "I remember my Dad teaching me to read 'in my head' so he didn't have to listen to me all the time"

I had totally forgotten that you have to learn how to read "in your head". That's so weird.

I think it was up to about 200 years ago that all reading was done aloud.Thus silent reading a relatively recent phenomenen. People who don't read with/to their kids every day are neglecting their basic duty.

sparkly, that was exactly my point.

They struggle to do it ONCE a week, so asking them to do it more often without additional resources is unfeasible.

Afternoons, when there is no TA, how can the teacher read one to one whilst simultaneously looking after the rest of the class?! Especially as there are two ADHD boys who cannot simply be asked to work whilst she is doing that.

I honestly don't know how some teachers cope, let alone demanding even more of them.

That was my point really.

sparkljewlz - yes I agree with you and no I dont buy the arguement that teachers dont have time and parents should do it.

I'm thinking back to 1970 here as that was when I was in Primary school learning to read at age 7. We had a class of 30 in a village Prmary with mixed ability and 2 year groups in a class and no TA.

The way it worked back then was I would go up to the front and stand by the teachers desk to be listened to read for about 5 minutes about 3 times a week. I was a very good reader though. The weaker children were listened to a lot more. This was the traditional old fashioned method. My parents hardly ever listened to me read. They assumed that was the job of school. They only listened to me occassionally to make sure I actually could read.

My parents did read a lot more with my younger sister because the 'new method' of teaching was brought in to the school by a trendy young Head after I left and lo and behold my sister struggled to read and my parents had to pick up the slack.

That 'old fashioned traditional' system I learned to read with could surely be done today with a TA in the classroom.

The problem as I see it is that there is too little emphasis on getting the basics sorted out and too much emphasis on higher level skills that could safely be left to later in school life. A child who cant read cant do self guided research into complex topics - which is what my 8 year old gets given by his teacher as homework - unless they can all read really well.

Sorry but teachers and the National Curriculum need to get back to delivering the basics, like listening to children read, learning times tables and using column methods in arithmetic.

At DC's school they were listened to every day.
Parents also listened to them every evening. The result was an astonishingly high literacy level.

Compare to the school where I volunteer. The children are listened to about once a week and the majority of the parents do not listen to their children read at all.
Levels of literacy are terrible.

Beertricks- me too. I remember feeling really grown up because I could read Enid Blyton silently. I had just totally forgotten that I actually learned to do it, rather than just did it.......a bit like "joined up writing".

Getaboook, often but for short bursts (10 mins) is better but also depends on the child.

My oldest would find it hard to get started, but once going got into it. I read with hime 2 or 3 times a week for half an hour.

His younger brother (5) loves reading but due to his young age gets tired after 5 or 10 mins, so we read more often but for shorter amounts of time

HTH

Pressuredrop, it is quite a rewarding experience isn't it?

I think there is a point to be made that the teaching basic skills need to be improved in schools in the UK, literacy and numeracy in UK schools is very poor on a national level.

But just telling teachers that they have to listen to 30 children reading every day, is not going to help without changes in teaching structure.

And parent have to realise they do bare some responsibility for their own children's abilities.

Riven- dont think so, but I think before children are confident readers then reading out loud helps identify problems.

Interestingly, children who read in their heads from an early age often have words which they "mispronounce" in their heads.

eg I used to think the word misled was "mizzled". I knew there was also a word which was pronounced "misled" but I didnt connect the two at all. Not a big problem- just a bit embarassing when you get unmasked reading out loud in English Lit at senior school

I agree, reading is essential. I'm going to volunteer at my local school in the new year.

"Bear in mind as well that subjects are taught differently (literacy is taught across the curriculum) so there is more focus on reading and related skills than there used to be anyway."

Very true - DS1 (10) had a lightbulb moment the other day. The school have just signed up to the iamlearning website and he was on that - doing science questions.

There was one bit that was really a oomprehension test (the answers were there in black and white for him to read) and after I'd gone through it with him and made him break down the bit he'd read he said "oh this is like comprehension we do in English"

And that's key - comprehension. Ds1 read the short bit out to me in about 1 minute - perfectly. BUT it took a good 5-10 minutes to go through the comprehension. As someone else had pointed out - 5 minutes a day (3hrs....) with each child just wouldn't be enough to do the comprehension and that's vital.

There is no point in a child being able to read Tolstoy perfectly.....if they don't understand what they've read and 5 minutes a day isn't going to be enough to make sure they have that skill.

Interestingly DS2 (just turned 7) is weaker at "reading" (he stumbles over words and struggles a bit - although has improved a lot recently) - but his understanding of what he's read has always been good.

BeenBeta, the National Curriculum has been introduced since the 1970's and it is HUGE! Plus there is a lot more centralised control of what should be taught so teachers cen't just spend the day reading - unless they're VERY brave

Lots of depth and breadth to fit into the school day and all children have their entitlement to all subjects, plus look at how much time kids spend infront of the TV...

When I was at school in the '80s we got listened to a lot, but the kids who were struggling with reading/writing/maths DIDN'T do lots of other things - they focussed on the basics.

Reading is essential, esp as it supports their writing development so much. It does need to be a partnership between the school and parents. Basically the kids who read at home and are surrounded by books and see their parents reading for pleasure are the ones who (generally) are better at reading at school.

QED - yes children should be heard in school, but they need to be heard outside of school as well, and have BEDTIME STORIES, not bedtime TV or DVDs or videos or computer games! They're our children - it's up to us....

I went to primary in the early 70s - one teacher to a class of 30. I don't remember much one-to-one reading going on with the teacher (not saying it didn't happen, just can't remember if it did).

But - we had a simple 10-question spelling and mental arithmetic test every single morning. We were sent home with 10 words to learn each night, and tested on them the next morning, from the age of about 7. I think it was pretty effective.

We also often used to read the same book as a class group, with each child taking it in turns to read a paragraph, the others following the same words with their finger. So effectively the teacher would hear each child read individually each session, even if only one paragraph.

Some of the people who blame teachers want to spend a bit of time in a classroom before they wade in with the criticism. I volunteer in a middle school (9-13), helping with maths and reading. Most of the poor readers (and I mean level 2/3 so very weak) have one of these factors
(a)SEN-usually without a statement so no help
(b)Parents have SEN and poor or no literacy skills
(c)Other home factors e.g. family have many childen and mum struggles to manage, parent/s have mental health issues

It's really not as simple as "parents/teachers can't be bothered"

It's "kids". Not "kid's".

(runs away)

I'm going to add a quick plea here - if you want to help with reading please consider volunteering in a middle/upper school. I am the only parent volunteer at my school and there are a lot of older kids who desperately need the help. They're not cuddly 5 year olds but it's very rewarding

Phew, jamaisjedors, I was lurking, hoping someone would point that out, particularly as the OP is apparently a teacher and discussing literacy.

exactly Gold