Junior school reading

[dozydrawers]

DS is in Y3 and is expected to be a level 5 for reading by the end of the year. We have no problem with finding reading matter for him and the school have so far been great. I'm just wondering what we can hope for/expect them to do with him for the next three years at junior school (I have asked but got a fairly vague answer.) Have any of you with similar DC got any suggestions of things that have worked well? Thanks in advance.

Sorry, not quite sure what you mean. Are you wondering if you're DS will get bored at school?

I think there's plenty of books to keep him going.

As I said, finding books is not a problem, he reads very widely. I am also not really worried about boredom as he is interested in an enormous range of topics and is very good at informing himself. My question is about the kind of work beyond level 5 that he may be given, so that he continues to make progress.

Agree with Pixie, if it is just about reading and he is already proficient and motivated, he can take it to any level and progress will quite simply continue happening. My dd was reading Vanity Fair by Yr 6. Which I would certainly define as continued progress. Didn't cause any problems whatsoever. And writing can also be pretty well limitless in terms of complexity: you can always write a better poem or a more advanced, more carefully crafted essay.

Other subjects may be trickier, but certainly not beyond the capacity of a well run school.

Progression isn't necessarily defined only by the complexity, length or size of the font of a book. Even simpler reads can provide opportunity for our DC to learn to formulate and express personal views and broaden their understanding of the world.

So you might expect the school to develop DC by working not simply on comprehension of the text but on debating the issues, establishing his own ideas and supporting them with valued arguments; looking at the characterisation and thinking about why characters behave they way they do, how he feel about them and why.

Personally I did find it more difficult to find texts for DS than DD but they are out there.

Have fun. I have 1 who reads and 1 who does not. I now know which is the most fun :-)

The difficulty, I find, is in finding books of a sufficiently high reading level (vocab. and imagery etc.) but avoiding very adult subject matter and themes. We are going back in time and 'doing' a lot of classics with our DTSs. If anyone knows of a website that has a list of books which are hard but not too adult I would be really grateful because at the mo. I have have to pre-read all the material for my 2 DC!

Is he nearly Level 5 for writing too, or just reading? I would imagine that the school would want to get his writing up to speed with his reading skills. How's his maths? It's fine for him to plateau a bit at reading if he needs to be concentrating his energy in other things.

I'm doing a lot of that, too, Candleshoe. How old are they? MNers always recommend Enid Blyton for very young precocious readers.

Thanks for all your replies.

Cory, did your DD actually work on books like Vanity Fair at school or just read to herself at home? DS is progressing all the time with the books he reads of his own accord, I'm just wondering whether he will get to discuss/consider them at school.

Florabear, thanks for your suggestions, that is the kind of stage we are at at the moment. We try to discuss his books with him at home but that means reading them all - and I fall asleep too quickly to keep up!

Ragged - I will find out his exact level for writing at parent's evening in a couple of weeks time, but I suspect he is probably a 4c or 4b. His content and vocabulary is fantastic but he doesn't always concentrate as much as he should on his handwriting and punctuation. Fot maths he is among the top few of the top group, but nothing out of the ordinary.

OP - It is not unusual to have kids ranging from level 1 to level 5 in a year three classroom - I'm sure the staff - now and in the future will do their best to meet his needs. At my DCs school the top groups in Y6 aim for level 7s.