Child being held back with reading

[Myleftfoot39]

My ds is in Year 2 and he is reading long chapter books at home and non fiction. When we have done the school reading book in the past we do the questions at the end and ds seems to have good understanding of the book.

My ds has been on the same reading level for 6 months now and we are at the point where he is now having to reread the same books from school because he’s read everything on that band. I mentioned this to his teacher and she said she won’t move him up yet because a teaching assistant (who doesn’t work in their class) listened to him read and said his comprehension wasn’t good. I was quite shocked because this is not my experience of his reading at all.

Also, my ds said to me he didn’t know why the teacher was lying, he had never read to the TA. I have put it down to him not being able to remember reading to the TA. The TA works in Year 4.

I don’t know what more I can say to the teacher about this? We’ve had a lot of problems with her and there seems to be a lot of favouritism in the class. AIBU to feel annoyed about this?

So, you express concerns that your child is extremely bored and frustrated with reading and re-reading the same books continually.
Surely the correct response from the teacher would be....
Listen politely to your concerns.
Spend some time listening to your child read and question them to gauge understanding.
Report back to you and, if necessary, provide more challenging books.
I'd speak to the headteacher.

We went through this particularly with my DS. Children are both advanced readers, but the books they had at school were Biff and Chip level and my DS hated them. I told school he would not longer read school books and joined the local library for variety. We mixed fact and fiction, Horrible Histories go down a storm at this age. I only asked questions when he read science books so that we could have conversations about what he had learnt, as I believe reading at home should be a pleasurable and relaxing bedtime habit. I volunteered at school once a week to help with guided reading after a conversation with the teacher who told me they simply did not have the time to read as often as they needed to with each child. With higher ability we read in small groups, but children who were struggling, usually those who didn't read at home, were individual.

@Myleftfoot39

Yes, he reads really well at home so I know the assessment isn’t accurate.

I feel like teacher doesn’t like my son, he’s a really good kid but never gets rewards, praise even though he does homework willingly and works hard.

We had similar it turned out DD was pretending not to be able to read

@TeenMinusTests 🤣

But I agree 100%!

OP, start recording the reading of other books in the record too, as well as questions asked and answered. Make sure you're asking a range of questions, so lots of inference and not just retrieval, questions about the genre of book or the blurb/cover etc.

The teacher should have heard him read in the past six months. I would say I'm surprised the school aren't doing some kind of guided reading so each child is heard weekly, but actually I know of a school who don't do it, they just have quiet reading at the beginning of the day. That's ridiculous, imo.

Comprehension is more important than reading.

Disagree with this. For some kids its the decoding and reading fast that's fun at that age and reading comprehension very boring. It all comes good around year 3 and 4 when they mature a bit, especially boys. Of course RC is one of the top priorities to teach but many kids are not there yet in y2/3. The boring books they read in the early years at primary must be a huge deterrent to overall reading levels. Our school is very academic yet the books they brought home were dull and ridiculous. Luckily we are able to afford buying books and the local library is well equipped.

Of course it more important @PaulaStrandsDebut
Recognising words is fine but you have to understand what they are saying

Your DS is a good reader, he has reached the expected or required level of reading for Y2. Likely in the teachers view she has got him over the line so to speak and she is likely spending more time trying to get other children to progress and hasn’t heard your son read for ages. There may be a ‘policy’ at the school (as in one the staff have decided upon) that means kids don’t go above x level at end of Y2. The school is measured on how much progress overall the cohort makes so pushing them ahead on levels now means they likely won’t make as much progress later which look bad on their ‘data’.

None of this takes account of the actual child and tbt demotivation caused by thinking they are not making progress. I’d tell my child they are already where they should be for Y2 which is great, we can have fun reading anything we want at home!

You also likely caught the teacher off guard when you enquired at the gate. In all honestly she probably had no idea off hand what level your son was on and when he last moved without looking at a folder or something in class. She likely panicked on the spot and said something to fob you off. The old his comprehension isn’t quite there/he read with someone else trick. What she should have said was I’ll check in with him in class and pop a note in his reading record to let you know. It’s not ideal but teachers deal with an extraordinary amount of admin on a daily basis, as well as looking after a whole class of kids and this year in particular has been challenging as we all know.

I'm surprised the teacher hasn't heard him read. I'm a TA and alternate reading groups with the four teachers I work with so that all the children are heard by both the class teacher and I once a week. Reading levels/ group are up to the teachers.

@Littlefish

Reading and comprehending are two different skills.

The teacher isn't saying that your son can't read at that level, or, in fact, wouldn't be able to read books at a higher level.

Did the teacher tell you what sort of comprehension questions he was less confident with? From what you've said, it won't be the sort where the answer can be found in the text, so is more likely to be questions which require inference, deduction or opinion. Eg, why do you think the author used xxxx words to xxxxx.

Littlefish is correct. Some children find this type of comprehension difficult. Work on asking questions of this nature. Read chapter books together so that you can stop and explain or ask questions. Encourage him to read non- fiction too. It has been a very difficult and unusual year for staff and I would take that into account. Normally the children should be reading every week to an adult. This could be an adult or TA. Your child might not know the difference lots of children just refer to everyone as ‘ the teacher’ and TAs do go on courses or work with the English lead teacher on improving reading.

This happened to my eldest (8)when we moved schools. He had a reading age of 12 1/2 + in his previous school but the new Headteacher (teaching) put him on the reading scheme. I went in and explained, she gave him another book for a week then reverted back but other children were allowed to be on free reading. Their parents were in different jobs - solicitor, architect, teacher.
I just gave him books from the library and listened to him read and asked questions. His grandfather listened to him too...he was a retired Headteacher!

He is still an avid reader. You could mention it to the Headteacher but since it is so near the end of term I wouldn’t. Look out for one of the reading challenges that the library or one of the book shops do in the school holidays.

Not all listening to readers is listening to them read their reading books. A teacher or TA might ask them to read out loud in class and make a mental note. Guided reading was being phased out which is a shame it was very valuable and most children enjoyed it.

My DCs school normally relies heavily on parents coming in and listening to younger children reading. Not happening this year coz Covid. That will have an impact on lots of schools/ children.

Biff and Chips books are so boring, even I have an ability to read them while at the same time be completely switched off from them, ie get to the end but have no clue what I have just read.

The repetitive nature of them, Biff found the Magic Key. Chip said "oh look a magic key". Biff said "let's have an adventure".....they are just so boring and repetitive.

But I'd definitely speak with the teacher and it's probably better to ask her to call you at a convenient time rather than trying to catch her surrounded by people at the school gates.

My DS1 was like this.

Don't bother with school reading books. If they can't be bothered to educate your child there is no reason to force him to read drivel. Let him read what he wants and put it in the diary.

The school can't actually hold back able kids, all they do is make themselves irrelevant with this catching-up nonsense. Your biggest challenge will be finding interesting and age-appropriate material.

As an aside, there is a school of thought that obsessive testing of comprehension levels is pointless. They argue that comprehension depends on subject matter. So your son might read at grade 5 level on topics that interest him, but not a topic chosen at random.

I’d be annoyed too. Making kids read the same boring reading scheme books over and over again isn’t going to foster a love of books or reading. The only time I’ve made my kids do it is very early on in reception, but once they’ve got the basics of decoding they only reread if they want to.

I’d just entirely ignore the books sent home from school and just read whatever your ds is interested in at this stage. If you ask on here you’ll get some good recommendations for non-reading scheme books for y2/y3 kids.

I’ve found that reading more to my dc has helped improve their comprehension and expression a lot.

Write the absolute minimum in the reading record (teacher probably isn’t even looking at it). KS2 will be a fresh start anyway.

@SmellThis

Of course it more important *@PaulaStrandsDebut* Recognising words is fine but you have to understand what they are saying

Kids have different learning styles. Some devour Harry Potter and similar at the end of year 1 and throughout year 2. They won't necessarily understand much about what's going on in the stories and that's ok because they will catch up eventually.

In year 2 and 3 my ds found questions on comprehension hard but was reading anything he could get his hands on. He really disliked the dull short chapter books from school though and I didn't make him read them as it put him off reading other books. With all the comprehension work in school he was confident and much more able with that aspect of reading by year 4. In Y6 he is deconstructing happily whatever he's reading. For some kids, the understanding part comes later due to their development. If they are keen to decode and read books without understanding that much, why not?

As much as you shouldn't have to maybe you could start writing in DS's reading record stating he read from x page to y page of z book, the level of fluency, stating any words stumbled over, the questions you asked him and what his answers were. If nothing else it's properly documented and will make things very clear for anyone to see.

As an aside, there is a school of thought that obsessive testing of comprehension levels is pointless. They argue that comprehension depends on subject matter. So your son might read at grade 5 level on topics that interest him, but not a topic chosen at random.

That makes perfect sense to me. I don't pay attention to boring books.
As an adult I generally give up and don't return to the book if it's not pulling me in and keeping my attention. But I totally switch off to boring readers and get to the end with no clue what we have just read.

I won't echo what other teachers have said again but fully agree.

When you're asking him questions about the book what type of questions are you asking to check he understands?

As a non teacher it can be difficult to ask a variety of questions types. You might find this useful.
<a class="break-all" href="https://www.google.com/url?sa=t&source=web&rct=j&url=www.literacyshedblog.com/uploads/1/2/5/7/12572836/ks1_reading_vipers.pdf&ved=2ahUKEwijtaKGiZnxAhU8BWMBHWZtAF0QFnoECDYQAQ&usg=AOvVaw2Kf2IeYmTxrGMmDEx0R9jX" rel="nofollow" target="_blank">www.google.com/url?sa=t&source=web&rct=j&url=www.literacyshedblog.com/uploads/1/2/5/7/12572836/ks1_reading_vipers.pdf&ved=2ahUKEwijtaKGiZnxAhU8BWMBHWZtAF0QFnoECDYQAQ&usg=AOvVaw2Kf2IeYmTxrGMmDEx0R9jX @
You adapt the question to the book he's reading. I'd definitely write 'answered inference questions about x' in his diary to show his teacher

OP we had the same experience with reading at school in year 2. Only listened to twice all year (and second was after we complained)
She was put on free reading as soon as she got to year 3. I think it’s teacher dependent unfortunately, she’s been listened to loads this year despite covid

Thanks, very frustrating! I feel like he is being left to coast with most things but it’s more evident with reading because we have a diary.

Monsterkidz I think there is some misunderstanding. I sent an email to the teacher but she made a point of speaking to me in the rain on the school gate. Why she would do this rather than respond back briefly by email I’m not sure.

Part of me does believe my ds, he’s not a liar and I honestly think the teacher just wanted me to go away.

Currently every entry in our reading diary from me is ‘ds read this book on x date but we read it again.’

How about rebelling? Put "DS did not read this book as he read it on X date, so instead we read chapters 3 and 4 of Different Book" (i.e. one he was reading anyway at home)

We have this. DS is a great reader but school don’t bother reading with them any more. For me the objective is that he can read - so we just read books at home - whatever is suitable.

I have had the same with both my children. I suspect there is some unwritten policy at the school that as long as children are at the top band expected for the year, they aren't moved on. With one of mine the focus was on intonation to a ridiculous extent. You'd think she was auditioning for RADA the voices she was putting on.
Will he have a different teacher next year?
Make sure the end of term report is accurate as that will be used to start him off in Year 3.

I would join the library and let him chose some books to read that he will enjoy and that might challenge him a bit more and forget about the book bands.

When my children were younger this used to annoy me too!
However.
My eldest took ages to read and plodded along. My second was close in age to him and between childminder and listening when eldest read at home second child could read when he started school. School did not like this. He started on simple no word or one word books. It was infuriating. I was back and for all the time asking for books and explaining he can read!!!
Fast forward a few years. Second son never really enjoyed reading. First son is an avid reader. When he was late primary and secondary we could hardly keep him supplied with books.
By the time third child who is 5 years younger was reading I didn’t worry so much. When she came home I used to let her read whatever she wanted . She would read her school book once (boring) then every time I filled in her reading diary I would write in it “daughter read xxx book page 32-40 , very well. “
As long as your child is reading and enjoying don’t worry. I know it’s frustrating but getting through “ the levels” of school books is really not important.
Just write in reading diary whatever your child reads to you at home.
If school don’t like it tell them to change books more frequently. 🤷‍♀️

I promise you that the most important thing is they are reading and hopefully enjoying.

I would challenge the teacher.

When I was 5 we started to read in school. This was nearly 50 years ago and there were not enough books to go around the class and I was not given a book. I could read and was desperate to read the school book and the teacher told my mother that if someone was off school then I could have their book. My friend had gone on holiday and I told the teacher that my friend was in Spain, she reluctantly gave me the book. The next day I told the teacher I could read it all, the book was Old Lob. Obviously I wasn't one of her favourites to originally have a book.

I was always good at spelling and reading, maths not so much.