reading - at which age did your ch start

[jinna]

my son is in year one and is 5 - he has just started reading and has sight vocab of about 40 words - he is on level one of the oxford reading tree - i was just wondering if he is at the correct level

Our 5 yr old has just started formal reading at school and is on same level of ORT. By the time it reaches home he can usually "read" the book through although he has a good memory so may well not actually sight read it. Not sure his sight vocab is quite 40 yet though but haven't really quantified it.

We are outside the UK and I think that his contemporaries back home are a term or more ahead of this. They also do a letter of the week using Jolly Phonics in class (largely revision for him) and he has handwriting practice based on this. The system used here may differ in pace from that in the UK because kids of different nationalities in a class come to school at different levels of literacy.

Will be interested to see how others post - from the information pov not competition!

Sounds OK to me. My ds is nearly 6 (just started class 1, i.e the one after reception) and is on band 4 I think of ORT. I'd say he knows most of the frequently used words we were given but not all. I think there were about 40 odd in that list. Anyway, I'm not worried, he'll get it in his own time and at his own pace. HTH

I listen to my dd1s class (Y1) read,as a volunteer, and it really helped me get things into perspective with her reading. As I hadn't any comparisons. But there is a huge range of reading abilities in her class, that really, at the end of the day it dosn't matter. As long as you feel that they are being challenged in line with their abilities, i.e. not too easy/hard, and that they are enjoying it. As a general thing though, just from what I've noticed, it seems that boys take longer to get going with reading, but once it's "clicked" then it evens out about Y2. HTH.

Just rechecked his ORT book and it's actually Stage 2.

jinna - he sounds as if he is doing fine. The literacy strategy has 45 words as a sight vocab by the end of reception, but 40 is perfectly OK. I've been testing my new Y1's and some have as low as 0!! ORT Stage 2 is also OK - it's quite a broad stage, so he may be on it for a while. As long as he is enjoying waht he reads then you have nothing to worry about. ORT is good because it increases the vocabulary and length of the sentences without making the book horrifically long - like Open Door. My son jumped from reading a book that was about 10 pages long to the next stage which was 30 pages!!! Needless to say he wouldn't read them, so I brought ORT books home from school for him, and he loved them.

Sorry jinna - I meant to say stage 1, not 2.

If you google for oxford reading tree you will get to their website. It has activities for kids and it also gives the approximate reading ages for the level books.

HTH

Message withdrawn

i think he may need to be on the next level as he can read most of the words in the books sent home - i've written a note to his teacher and see what she says
sb34 - my son has a new book sent home every day and he will be getting spellings sent home soon - if your son is enjoying reading i don't think he is being pushed too much

As far as i recal Educational Psychologists use 95% as the correct level for a child's reading book. That is, the child should be able to read 95% of the words in it unaided and relatively easily (I think this includes words that they spell out alone). If they can read more than this the it is too easy for them - they need a more challenging book. If they can't read this much it is frustrating and they need more practice.

The Oxford Reading Tree age/year guide is here.

The colour scheme used in many schools is based on "Book Bands" which can be found here - along with the Cliff Moon stages and how they relate to the spit National Curriculum.

My Ds is in Y1 and on stage 3, though I know that a lot of the children are still on stage 1, I have noticed that some parents seem pushy to get them up a level.

My dd is like Batters, a very competent reader (age 6 just started Yr2 at school). Last year she could read easily the books she was given and worked through them all very quickly.However I was given to understand that there is no advantage in skipping stages or even books within the stage as each one is introducing and building up new vocabulary and certain words will be missed.

My DD was 5 in June and has just started in Year 1. She has been on ORT L6 for the past week or so and last night was given a L7 book for the first time which she managed well but got stuck several times on 'chariot'. According to the ORT reading ages this level is designed for 6 years 6 months to 7 years. This seems well ahead of her age - too much I wonder?!! She gets a book a night to read so at this rate I'm not sure what she will be reading by the end of this year!

Thanks for all your input - i was just wondering how often teachers hear children read at school - i think my son has only read once to his teacher since he started yr1 - he does read every day with myself

Thanks for all your input - i was just wondering how often teachers hear children read at school - i think my son has only read once to his teacher since he started yr1 - he does read every day with myself

Thanks for all your input - i was just wondering how often teachers hear children read at school - i think my son has only read once to his teacher since he started yr1 - he does read every day with myself

sorry!!!!!!!!!!!!

I helped in a yr1 class last year and that teacher liked to hear every child read every week, that also happens in reception here. (They are also heard reading by other classroom assistants most days).

In P1 (which is equivalent to Reception in England) dd read to her teacher daily. She's P3 now and reads three times a week to her teacher. HTH