Reading Plus

[littlemummyfoofoo]

Dear Teachers and those of you in Education,

My son's school started the children off with Reading Plus a few weeks ago. I'm lucky my son loves reading anything so he is fine doing it everyday, It's not a chore for him. However, I am confused that it seems after he took the original set up test, all his peers started on the same level. His reading age is 3ish years a head and this is great for his age. He was started on level C - which he found easy and got 100% all the time, he has already progressed to level F, where he makes a question mistake every 2 or 3 stories. (I am aware teachers have set it up so each level is 10 combos or 20 stories, and each school sets up different amounts). I was told that the AI learning function, would alter the questions for his level, and in a way that benefits him. This seems very subtle as the questions don't seem to stretch him that much and some you can answer without reading the text as the options are just daft. Part of me wants to trust the school, can see the benefit in him reading a range of topics which he may not have done before - he has started to enjoy more non-fiction for example, I am interested in his reading speed, how it has improved with the guided reading etc but part of me feels he isn't really grasping the nuance of the text, answering questions in a complete comprehensive way that you would need to in a test. Normally, we'd talk about a text and I can get him to clarify the meanings and use them in a different way to cement meanings. We still read other books and text and talk about those.

What I'm hoping for is some behind the scenes information - do teachers see a huge improvement across the whole ability level?

Is their a group that it simply doesn't benefit?
Are there any issues with the reading per minute levels?
Is there an expected reading level/wpm level to aim for for each year group?

Do children who are already motivated to read benefit, more than if they had just read their normal books.

I have had feedback from some parents who hate it, others that love it and have found it easy to incorporate, some dislike it when their child is told they are reading too fast. Why does this happen. the school will no doubt ask for feedback.

And any other further information you may have would be useful. The positives and negatives, hopefully from schools that have used it for a while.
many thanks,

Hi OP, I currently work in a school that uses Reading Plus.

The majority of students I work with dislike the programme which means I’m not the biggest fan of it; I find it takes the fun out of reading. The students constantly request for me to alter the reading speed and they often get put on hold for reading too quickly (this happens when the students don’t wait for the text to turn grey in the independent reading mode which is set at the pace the programme believes they should read at. This could be because the student is rushing the reading or they genuinely read at a faster pace). I much prefer reading a book with the students and asking them comprehension questions as I go along. Unfortunately, my colleagues and manager love the programme so I have no choice but to use it.

We do see improvement for most students but I think that’s inevitable after prolonged use. The students who are less motivated though don’t tend to show much improvement as they don’t use it properly so don’t really get much benefit from it. The students who love reading tend to like the programme and compete to win the “most words read” award. In summary, it’s great for those who are motivated and love reading but tends to be disliked and misused by those who need more help to enjoy reading.

Happy to answer any other questions you may have.

Thank you so much for replying so quickly.
I guess it is hard to find something that suits all children. They also use accelerated reader and my son often answers the questions on this too. Both sets of questions from AR and RP seem very easy. He frequently laughs at the stupidity of the options that are clearly wrong.

Interestingly, what you talked about for the reading speed happens to my son all the time. He has gone from 211 to 220 but he has to stop whizzing through the reading, as it tells him off. He also finds the constant space bar clicking annoying.

As a parent, I cannot see the backend of teh programming so I can't tell what's changing. If two children pick teh same story will teh questions be presented differently so they are working on their weaknesses. As thsi is what I thought should happen - but in my research to find out I discovered videos and videos of answers for questions - which makes me think they aren't adapted for the child. If they aren't then it isn't really doing hat it is suppose to!
Do you know if it is?

Ps sorry about, 'the' being spelled incorrectly!

If your son waits for all the text to turn grey before clicking the space bar when reading without the reading bar, even if he’s finished reading, then it shouldn’t tell him off for going too fast. The aim when we check the data is for the words per minute to be similar for the guided reading and the independent reading.

I think all the questions are the same for each person regardless of level (I can’t remember 100% as I’m on mat leave atm so haven’t looked at RP for a while). There are just more books available with more words and difficult questions as they go through the levels. Eventually the reading bar isn’t a requirement once they reach a certain level.

A little tip- if you’re son prefers to read about a certain topic, he should explore some different topics now and again as RP will offer books on that topic less frequently in order to encourage them to not just read about sport for example.

Thanks again, the variety of topics my son covers is pretty good - when I see them in the circle, I can click and look at the different topics and it shows he is reading a wide range, which is the main part of reading plus I like. Before this, he generally only wanted to read fun fiction stories.

I can see that it is beneficial for my son, but there is no struggle with him and reading. He does it everywhere, he loves stories, he even reads on the loo, we have to insist he stops to do things he needs to do, get ready for school etc,

However, it's not so much for him I'm concerned.

I am really wanting to find out I guess, if it actually does what teachers think it does.

My son told me hr had an assessment at the start and it decided what level he was - yet all his class started on C, and there is a wide level difference in his class.

When I asked the teachers in parents evening, they were a bit baffled how it work, and simply hid behind the new system excuse.

The adverts for RP infer AI would adjust the questions based on thebreaders weaknesses, to help them practice and improve - yet the questions and answers seem to be the same as other children and you can find them online. I sit with my son, and we talk about why any questions are incorrect. But if I'm not there while he is doing it - I can't go back with him after the story is finished and help him see why he answered it incorrectly. I believe understanding your errors are fundamental to learning- especially for tests.
This is a huge issue.

I have the same problem with the termly tests. The teachers dont go through their test papers and help them understand their mistakes. PIRA, PUMA and GAPS are annoying that I can't see the question style to help with exam technique

Many schools don't use the writing section at all in RP and I wonder why

Thoughts.

May I ask a couple more questions - how many stories are read in each level at your school/ does each school set how many a child needs to complete for each level?