to write a note in the reading diary saying...

[EvilTwins]

...that my DTDs are not going to read their reading books this holiday.

DTDs are in Yr 2. They each have 4 reading scheme books for the Easter holidays. At home, DTD1 is currently reading the first Harry Potter book, and DTD2 is reading The BFG. I am very very happy to listen to them reading these, and to write which chapters they've read in their reading diaries, but they find their school reading books so dull. WIBU to not make them read their reading books over the holidays but to listen to them reading their own choice of books instead?

[EvilTwins]

So far, I've not spoken to the DCs about their reading books. They broke up yesterday, and today I went through their book bags and discovered four reading books each. Generally, we read the books on the day they come home - they get changed 3x per week. My heart sank, though, seeing that DTD1 had the same book that DTD2 had the week before last. Both girls read a lot - they can read well, and are reading above expectation for their age group. In other schools they would be "free" readers. If they ask to read their school books to me this holiday, then fine, but if they don't, I'm not going to push it. I am much happier listening to them reading whatever it is they want to read.

[WorraLiberty]

Really? Sad?

I loved Oscar Wilde, Charles Dickens, Ernest Hemingway and actually I loved A Midsummer Night's Dream by Shakespeare.

And to be fair, I never told my teacher I found Shakespeare boring and nor did she ask...so I doubt you can safely say that every single child you've taught has found him interesting?

Literacy (like anything else) is about personal taste. You won't be privy to all your pupils thoughts about their personal tastes.

Anyway I meant to bow out ages ago.

My advice is if you think you know better than the teacher, either home school or change schools.

Otherwise you've got a very long road ahead of you and your kids.

[ravenAK]

But it's not micromanaging what they do at school is it?

It's taking a pragmatic line on what they do in the holidays.

I would argue that the scale of desirable reading activities in the holidays goes from 'reads nothing' via 'plugs dutifully through reading scheme books' to 'enjoys choosing & reading a range of texts which MAY include reading scheme books'.

[EvilTwins]

Agent - nope. I can say it perfectly confidently, thank you. Shakespeare is not boring. The language is unfamiliar and potentially difficult, but it's not boring.

[MidniteScribbler]

So really, this is about you finding the books boring? You had to listen to one of them already, so you don't want to do it again? Now your motivations truly become clear.

[EvilTwins]

Agent - I am very interested in my students' opinions. If they find something boring, I change the way I teach it. They don't find Shakespeare boring. What's boring about those stories? Kids find it tricky, but not boring.

[WorraLiberty]

Agent - nope. I can say it perfectly confidently, thank you. Shakespeare is not boring. The language is unfamiliar and potentially difficult, but it's not boring.

Yes to YOU it's not boring.

And football stories aren't boring to every child in year 2.

Now do you understand?

I doubt it....

[Itsaboatjack]

My dd1, now in yr 3, was getting very disinterested in reading because the books she was getting sent home with were so dull. I mentioned to the teacher at parents evening that it was a struggle sometimes to get her to do her reading and the teacher said not to force her. She was, and still is, above national average so I don't know if that made a difference to the teachers remark but she now loves reading and reads all the time, but books of her choosing. Some of those books are, imo rubbish, bloody fairy books and the like, but she is also currently reading War Horse. I actually don't think she's read more than 1 or 2 school books all term, and I've only written in her reading diary a handful of times, and the teacher has never made any comment about it and has only had good things to say at subsequent parents evenings.

[EvilTwins]

Football stories do not interest my daughters. I know that.

Children in my classes are not bored by Shakespeare. I know that too.

I am quite sure that some children in my DD's class like football, and would enjoy the book DTD1 has this holiday. Equally, some kids in my DD's class wouldn't enjoy the Rainbow Fairies books or The Magic Faraway Tree stories, so why would they be force to read them?

[WorraLiberty]

MidniteScribbler this entire thread has been about the OP and what she's happy to hear her kids read and what she's happy not to.

OK you all have my full permission to shoot me if I post on this thread again, because I should know better than to get wound up over the usual 'ex teacher knows all about PFB's schooling'...far more than their actual teacher.

[AgentZigzag]

at Midnite, the OP might have a point there though if the truth be known

I'm a huge reader and really value what they have to offer, DD1's the same and so is my Dad, but this isn't about them being put off by having to read things they're not keen on, if that were the case I wouldn't be such a fan of reading.

It's about you saying that because you can't see the value in it that you're not prepared to make them do it. I can understand that, but the aim of reading at school is about the process as well as the content, and they're never going to meet up for every child.

Some they win some they lose, you can't have the free education (or even pay for it) and not accept that's the case.

[EvilTwins]

I'm a teacher, not an "ex" teacher, and really, with twins, it's not possible to have a "PFB".

[EvilTwins]

I would argue that Harry Potter is more challenging than lime level reading books. That children are more likely to come across interesting vocabulary in HP than their school reading book, more variety of structure etc etc. So if they're doing something more difficult, why should they be forced to do the easier thing as well?

[WorraLiberty]

You are Mother of PFB personified if this thread is anything to go by OP

Really, just take a step back.

Yes your kids are the most wonderful readers that ever graced the earth but still they'll have to do homework like everyone else.

And sometimes it'll be down to their teacher and not you....

>

[EvilTwins]

My kids are above national average expectation, but in no way geniuses. I have two of them, born at the same time (ish) on the same day, so which one is my PFB?

I am not going to take a step back, if taking a step back means that they will be turned off reading by being forced to put down the books they are engrossed in to read the sodding books sent home by school.

[ll31]

Op you are sounding silly to me. Do you support school and it's aims or not? They've to read the books, it won't take long , so just get them to read them. .. really can't see problem.
Am hugely amused , tho, as mother of teenager, at your ability to read their minds. I would suggest a ... self awareness course for you"

[AgentZigzag]

Because they have to learn certain standard things, like in maths where you have to be able to show the working out so they know what they're being taught.

They might read the same and more difficult concepts in Harry Potter, but they have to be taught that they're there and have it explained to them why those things are so important in reading and the construction of a story.

Like even a basic thing like the recipe for the beginning/middle/end of a story and what they should contain, if you're just soaking up the atmosphere of the book you don't necessarily realise how important that framework can be.

[EvilTwins]

Hmmm. Not reading their minds - having conversations with them...

Yes, I support the school, and had a lovely chat with their teacher at parents' evening last week. Reading 4 books with 70 pages each will take a while though - time they would rather spend reading their own books.

Is it so bad to write "DTD1 read pages X to X of " in the diary though? I don't think so.

[MidniteScribbler]

Zigzag - spare a thought for me.... I get to listen to it read over and over and over and over with a class of twenty four!

I think I need to go and scatter myself near Worra. The OP is so firmly convinced that she is right and everyone else is wrong, so I wonder why she even bothered posting.

OK, so add a 's' to PFB. Whatever. You're still one of them.

Someone shoot me if I ever question my sons teacher the way some people question theirs. If you think you know so much, then home school them. But expecting them to be educated in a group setting means that sometimes they may need to do things that align with the group and not just what they personally want to do. That's life. Suck it up.

[ll31]

Also, have yet to meet child who can't see difference between
bt reading that they have to do, and reading that they want to do. Children are not stupid.

[EvilTwins]

Eek - midnite - don't let OFSTED hear you say that. Aligning with the group is not the way to do it.

[ll31]

I see, conversations-think back to your own school days op-do you remember them? Do you remember always telling teacher what you thought it telling them what they wanted to hear. .. teens seem't stupid either. .. good night!

[ll31]

It should be or! Really good night!

[ravenAK]

It's not really homework.

It doesn't have an outcome (eg. write an account of the footy match from the POV of a spectator, or 'we will be doing a class project based on the story next term').

It's just: read this book.

So it's entirely appropriate to ask - why are my children reading this book in the holidays?

It's so that they maintain their reading level. If they are free reading then that's taken care of.

Entirely different from reading a set text for further study, & any intelligent reader of any age knows the difference.

OP is hardly locking the book away & forbidding her dc to read it. It's just not a priority, because it doesn't in any way need to be.

I honestly don't know a single primary colleague who'd have an issue with this. They aren't setting the readers to be slogged through by otherwise enthusiastic readers who are reading something else.