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Original poster

anyone with a child aged 7ish on ORT in year 2 - what level is usual

70 replies

gigglewitch · 18/04/2008 15:50

My DS1 is dyslexic as far as we know, and he is still on the level 5 books. c'mon, what do you nice lot know??

OP posts:
MrsWeasley · 19/04/2008 10:02

my DS is in year 2 and his ORT books are level 7 at school. I think he is behind in his reading but his teachers are happy because he is starting to progress.

HTH

bluenosesaint · 19/04/2008 10:16

My lovely dd1 HATES reading with a passion. She is 8.3 and on stage 13 (and is in the bottom half of the class with this ). She has been pushed through the stages and can read well, BUT, she cannot read expressively and as i say, she HATES it!

I think she would be much better off lower down the levels with books she could read easily to try and claw a bit of self-esteem back. As it is, she won't read anything unless she is made to - i think this is really really sad . I love reading, and hoped that she would have the same love of books that i have.

i think the moral of my story (if i get to the point, eventually, lol) is that if your ds is happy reading level 5 then that is great! Far better to be happy to read IMHO.

angelstar · 19/04/2008 13:55

My ds is 7 and in year 2, he is on ORT level 5. He has an IEP for literacy and numeracy. The school say he is still too young to look at the posibility of him being dyslexic.

handmedownqueen · 19/04/2008 14:35

God hate these sort of threads - they become competitive without meaning to be and the person who started them feels even worse!
My dd (7 in June) also still on L5/6 and has an IEP. she has two very bright older brothers - one who just nearly got full marks in the 11+ - and she is certainly behind where they were at this stage in y2 but not that much. she is a completely different kid, different talents and just as bright but not mastered the technicalities of reading as quickly as they.Dont get bogged down angelstar, reading is just a skill to pick up, it does not predict future academic success and if the school offer extra support grab it with both hands - nothing will bring him on quicker than a bit of 1 -1.

KateF · 19/04/2008 14:51

dd2 is 7 next month and has moderately severe dyslexia. Her spelling is worse than her reading and she is on ORT Level 9 which is average for Yr2 Term 3. You can find out about the ORT Levels on their website.

WigWamBam · 19/04/2008 15:09

Dd is 6 and in Y2, she's reading ORT chapter books and non-fiction from the All Stars range (I think they used to be called Tree Tops). She's on level 12. By the same token, though, one of her friends in the same year (no SN, no dyslexia) is still reading books from level 4 and 5. She is by no means the only one.

There is still a huge variation in ability at this stage, even without adding dyslexia into the equation.

Buda · 19/04/2008 16:45

You are so right WWB - there is still a huge variation at this age - esp with boys. And then one day it just clicks and they take off. Or find something that interests them and therefore are more motivated by being interested.

DS's best friend is on level 12 - he is 6 months older than DS. Another of their friends was on level 12 in Yr 1 - he won't actually be 7 till September - although he is particularly bright.

I think it is good however to see where your child is so that you know if you need to either worry or just encourage a bit more (or sit back and relax!).

Finding a way to encourage the more reluctant readers is vital - when they find something that interests them and they then find they can read about it and understand is fantastic. I was a voracious reader as a child and really wanted DS to be a reader. He has really gotten more interested in the last few months.

seeker · 19/04/2008 16:52

ORT level 5 according to their website represents a reading age of 5.5 to 6 and an average of year 1 term 3, if that helps at all. But they are all different - that is just the mythical average child!

singersgirl · 19/04/2008 16:56

Anyway, schools vary a lot in how they use reading schemes and how quickly they push them up the levels. DS1 had his first two years of school in a different school from their current one, and even the fluent readers weren't 'off the reading scheme' by the end of Year One. In their current school, loads of children are 'off' the scheme by then, and some by the end of Reception. They're not better readers, but the school just uses the scheme differently.

Having said that, from my volunteering I can say that in DS2's current Y2 class of 30 half are reading whatever they choose, a quarter are reading easy chapter books/stage 10-12 and the remaining quarter are on levels 5-8 ORT - apart from a couple of statemented children whose reading levels I have no idea of.

dinny · 19/04/2008 17:40

heck, dd is in Year 1 and still ploughing through level 4 (she is six in a month)

dinny · 19/04/2008 17:41

singersgirl, does it reflect reading ability later on, do you think, this reading level in years 1/2?

singersgirl · 19/04/2008 17:52

I don't think so always. There were some fantastic early readers in both DSs' classes who have remained fantastic readers, and there are others who have suddenly 'got it' later and become just as fantastic.

All the children about whom you might have thought, in Reception, "Wow! They're good readers" are still excellent readers, though. None of them have 'fallen off' or 'levelled out' or anything - just some others have caught up with them.

dinny · 19/04/2008 17:54

hope darling dd catches up, she just isn't very interested in being able to read, though she loves being read to

annh · 19/04/2008 17:58

DS2 who is in Year 2 is finished with ORT - I think the last level is 14? However, we still haven't finished with reading scheme books as his school use a mixture of everything known to mankind - New Way, ORT, Ginn etc. so now I think he is on Ginn Level 9, although I am hoping that we are approaching the time when he can become a free reader. The scheme books are getting to be a chore and he really just wants to read his own choice of book.

I read with his class once a week and there is a huge variation in the group. Most kids seem to be on about level 9-11 but there are a few who are on 4-5 and one or two who are on a completely separate, simpler scheme. No-one is a free reader yet.

CrossnessMaureen · 19/04/2008 18:20

giggle - boys in Yr 2 will be on a very wide range of ORT books, if DS's class is anything to go by. Some have been free-readers since some time in Yr1 (but it doesn't mean anything if they aren't) and some will still be on ORT 5-11 by now in Yr 2. If he is dyslexic, and getting support for that, and has an IEP, then I would say he is doing v well to be on level 5.

ORT is quite hard because it is based on word recognition rather than pure phonics - that's why 'hard' words appear quite early - but you will usully find that they are repeated often durng the story. ORT is also meant to be read with an adult who reads hard words along with the child etc.

In DS's class, his freind who has an IEP for dyslexia is also on level 5 - but is reading some other scheme as welll which is much more phonics based. Pheonix? Something like that.

oiFoiF · 19/04/2008 20:32

i havent got a clue what level ds1 is on in yr 1
does that make me worse than everyone else?

yurt1 · 19/04/2008 20:35

PMSL - just ask ds what colour books he's on. He may not be doing ORT anymore. I think Levels kind of disappear once they move off those. Don't worry, I don't read with ds2 anymore (which apparently means I border on a bad mother according to another thread )

RIELOVESBACARDI · 19/04/2008 20:37

is this the books with biff and chip?

sphil · 19/04/2008 21:23

Yes and bloody Kipper - very confusing for DS2 (5, autistic, in Reception) who thinks Kipper is a dog who talks like Martin Clunes .

I never bothered about the names when DS1 was doing them, but now I am really wishing they'd given them normal, human sounding names.

Btw, DS2 is on Level 1. He can't read them but he has just learnt to point to Floppy[smile}.

Original poster
gigglewitch · 20/04/2008 22:40

so looks like maybe anything goes then?

lol @ yurt and what colour books he's on

Those blardy names kill me - the first thing that ds1 [as described] could read was sodding "Kipper" not his name, bed, dog, anything errr, sensible.

OP posts:
yurt1 · 20/04/2008 22:42

ha ha - yes one of ds2's first words was Kipper as well. Mind you better than last week when my Dad took him to the loo in a motorway service station. "young girls wanted for sex' (read out loud) "grandad what's sex? why do they want young girls?'

TsarChasm · 20/04/2008 22:52

Dd was reading one about a trip to the beach and all the things they find there. She wondered if that was where Kipper came from

I have no idea how ORT works or how many levels there are or where/why we're at.

Dd reads them as a bit of extra help alondside another colour band set of books which I also don't understand. I asked once but the teacher was very vague about it all

KateF · 21/04/2008 12:44

dd2 gave up trying to sort out Chip and Kipper quite early on, she calls them Chipper

oiFoiF · 21/04/2008 12:51

lol yurt

I mentioned to ds1's teacvher that he didnt want to read with me anymore and he preffered to read on his own...she thought this was fantastic...so I am pretending I am not a bad mother.....

CountessDracula · 21/04/2008 12:53

ooh singersgirl
explain
how does the school use the scheme differently? (I take it you are a parent helper to know this)