AIBU - not enough reading at school in year 2

[DaisyArtichoke7]

My child is in year 2 and does guided reading at school once a fortnight (we read every day at home). How often does your child read to a teacher at school? AIBU to think that the school should be doing more reading?

The school I teach in does guided reading once a week and any children who need support are listened to more often than that in Y2.

My daughter’s Y2 class have done GR fewer than five times this academic year, and she’s read with about twice a half teto... even then they don’t check her understanding, just her decoding. It annoys me a lot!

Teto = term

I'm a year 2 teacher and my class reads (taking it in turns in a small group) once a day.
They also have chapter books that they are welcome to read at break/ lunch time and before school if they like. They are also encouraged to read to their parents every night and have their book signed.
BUT. I have 3 TAs so it is possible, most school's don't have this luxury.
Why don't you volunteer to go and listen to the class read 1:1 each day for an hour or get together with other parents so that this is possible?
Reading aloud is extremely important for progress in reading and you are right to be concerned.

the school should be doing more reading

Apart from the obvious rejoinder that schools don't have a monopoly on books and libraries are free, you do realise that your Y2 will be reading for a lot of the day in school?

While much of the teachers direct teaching will be oral a lot of it will be supported by text written on the whiteboard, on instruction sheets, there will be written problem solving in maths, research questions in other subjects, accessing information from online or book based sources. At two thirds of the way through year 2 an average child will be reading a wide range of texts, instructions, information, captions etc.

While reading to a teacher or ta is important to keep track of progress, increasingly most of your child's reading will be for information, and embedded in other work, which is after all what the purpose of reading is .

AIBU to think that the school should be doing more reading?

possibly. Have you volunteered to do a few hours reading at school?
You won't be in your kids class, but that would still be a step.

What book band is your child on? It may be (rightly or wrongly) that there are other children who need more help/don’t get the support at home that you give your child.

I have no idea tbh! But I think she does plenty of reading and I don’t need to worry about it. Mine is in year 1 and has to read 3 books a week at home. At 32 pages each, that ends up being 96 pages a week! She 6. It’s ridiculous and I’m on the verge of not making her do any of it as our evenings are exhausting and she often ends up in tears. As long as your dc are reading at the level they should be and enjoy it, it probably doesn’t really matter.

My child is on turquoise and is starting to get left behind his class. I support him by listening to him read every day and I read to him at bedtime. The library is on the way home so we use it regularly. My child doesn't read fluently so the incidental reading as part of the other work isn't enough. We got a diagnosis of dyslexia today so hopefully we can get extra reading time at school.

As a child of the 80's I remember doing much more reading at school and the headmaster listened to us all read individually each term. I am just surprised that the teacher only does it once a fortnight now.

the classes are too big, there are too many children, not enough support and too many boxes to tick.

I am not surprised at all. I think it's very wrong, but it's standard. There's a reason why schools are asking for volunteers.

The teacher cannot regularly let 29 kids doing independent work whilst they are listening to one child - and that's if they haven't got SEN kids who need extra support but no funding for the extra staff needed.

I am not looking down at SEN kids, I have witnessed kids having a meltdown and a teacher having to deal with that as well as the rest of the class. Reading one to one? When on earth do you want them to do that.

Reading 1:1 with the teacher isn’t a great use of teacher time. 29 children are ignored while one reads. Assuming no TA and Assuming there are 30 in the class, remember for each 5 mins of 1:1 reading your child does with the teacher, they’ll be ignored for 145 minutes - almost 2.5 hours. Are you happy for your child to be ignored for 2,5 hours so they get to read aloud for 5 mins?

Yes, some classes will have a TA so the above is simplistic, but the point stands that 1:1 reading is inefficient. That’s why many schools do guided reading/whole class reading. Don’t forget they’ll also probably still be doing phonics plus a daily English lesson.

If your child is slipping behind and/or has a diagnosis, hopefolly they will receive additional targrted support. Keep doing what you’re doing at home, it will definitely help.

Does she read to a TA or to a volunteer?

There isn't 29 in the class there is 20. I think they do group reading 4 / 5 at a time with the teacher and obviously a TA manages the rest of the class doing other activities.