Reading Plateauted?

[JennyPen]

My dd is 6 and starting to get really stuck into reading. She now reads every night to herself once i have read her a story and often doesn't want to put her book down. Over the summer holidays she has read the daisy chapter books by kes gray and i have bought her the kitty books by bel mooney. My question is though, i really think she has plateaued now and how do I help her step up a notch or 2. Tricker words in the books she is reading she tells me she just skips over, misses them out. I ask her about the book and she is able to retell the story perfectly, great comprehension, she'll laugh away if its funny, but she is still skipping out a good few words she doesn't manage to sound out.

At school, and she returns next week, she left P1 having finished ort stage 6. She would actually easily manage 7/8/9 easily too as she has a few old books at these stages at home and reads them perfectly. I don't want to rub the teacher up the wrong way and say i want her in a higher group etc and she manages much higher levels at home but on the other hand she has suddenly zoomed over the summer holiday and left to library books and not dratted biff and co she has started to love her books each evening. As I say though she has really plateauted. She left P1 in the 2nd highest reading group and her teacher felt her reading was very good but she was too shy and didn't speak up enough in group discussions in this group, so I also have this issue with lack of confidence in school and feel she sometimes gets overlooked.

I'd wait a couple of weeks and then if your child's teacher is fairly sympathetic, I'd just say some of what you have posted here. ie - That she seems to have really taken off with her reading over the summer and would it be possible for the teacher to check her reading level as you think she may be getting bored by the level 7 ORT.

If the teacher will not reassess her then don't worry too much. Just do a bit of ORT as a "chore" but then have fun with the variety of books your daughter enjoys. She will learn through reading all sorts of books, especially if you are helping her, encouraging her, hearing her read and reading to her from whatever books she likes. You could say, "OK read x pages of ORT to me while I get tea ready (or whatever) and then we'll read such and such at bedtime." With the books she likes, take it in turns to read a page each or let her read 2 pages, then you finish the chapter. There's nothing particularly magical about reading schemes in general. Children will learn through reading other books too.

A good strategy is to go to the library regularly as this introduces children to reading a wider range of books and will help them to try new authors, series etc. They get the chance to browse and see what they think they would like.

It sounds as if your daughter has already taken off with reading so try not to worry, just keep encouraging and helping!

Also - with helping her move on:

If you are hearing her read bits from her own choice of books you will come across words she doesn't know and will be able to help her learn them, even if the ORT are too easy.

Thanks Sarah,

we have been to library quite a lot recently, there are so many series out there which i know she'll love but which are still quite tricky for her. With her reading by her self i feel as though she isn't learning new words, however i will start spending more time with her just listening and getting her to sound out what words she can't read.....only thing is by evening time i am pooped myself, she is reading till sometimes 930pm and if i try and get her to turn her lamp off earlier she begs me not too, saying "But I'm really enjoying the story mum"

Why isn't she able to sound out some words? Has her reading matter outstripped the limits of her phonic knowledge?

Skipping words is not a good habit to get into; the chances are that as her reading matter becomes more complex she'll find it harder to work out the meaning if she misses words out.

I would be looking to help her fill the gaps in her phonic knowledge - helping her to sound out the words she doesn't 'know'.

'Learning words' is a limiting strategy because there is a limit to the number of words anyone can learn to recognise as a 'whole'. Knowing all her letter/sound correspondences will give her the tools she needs to be able to work out most of the words she will encounter.

There are far fewer correspondences to learn than there are words

You could always get her to read just a page or two to you, with sounding out where relevant, then leave her to read on by herself for however long. If you want to be more structured about it, you could make bookmarks out of old birthday or Christmas cards and as she reads to you, jot down anything she gets stuck on on the back of the card. When she has finished the book you have a list of words you can use for some more structured sounding out practice when you and she are less tired

Hopefully too, once she is back at school she will be more tired and won't want to read for as long?!!

Try not to worry too much. It sounds as though you have the makings of a very avid reader!

I know skipping words is a bad habit - great idea to get her to jot down any words she doesn't know - thanks. I purposely also have limited what she chooses in the library to prevent her choosing tricker books. She usually sounds out really well, i think if the word is quite long, she gets a bit lost/muddled with sounding it out, however, with me to guide her she manages really well. She has actually always been a phonic reader, never particularly memorised words at all. The words she gets stuck on are obviously unknown to her phonic knowledge, something i guess that will be contined to be taught in this next year. If I knew the exact phonic rules I would teach her myself!

If she is jotting them down herself- I'd just keep it to a few per book, otherwise she may get frustrated and lose her enjoyment of reading. Otherwise you could jot them down for the few minutes she reads to you but practise them at another less-tired time.

some useful info on phonics here
www.phonicsinternational.com/

Thanks guys, the words she gets stuck on are often those with a soft c of g for example, last night centimetre and emergency she sounds it out to start with a hard c, otherwise she pretty much perfectly sounds out!

I had that with ds and the soft c and just told him that sometimes a c becomes a 's' sound when it's next to an 'e' or before a 'y' at the end of a word. Possibly not the official phonics explanation but it seems to have got through to him.

Great, that makes sense, i must investigate all these common phonic rules to teach her. She is back to school tomorrow, I really doubt the phonic teaching that goes on, i really hope they get onto these phonetic rules soon with her. As previously said, what she wants to read and what she enjoys reading is now getting into phonic methods that she hasn't yet been taught. Unfortunately her school uses ORT, however her teacher last year was wonderful at teaching phonics and sounds and the new scottish curriculum for excellence encompasses phonic teaching hugely.....however I guess a huge expense for the school to rebuy a completely new reading scheme.

This is a great site though and I have read many posts with interest for the last year now. Knowing how important phonic reading rather than memorising is I myself have taught dd a lot, and invested in a good few phonic books at the beginning. She now really manages so many more normal books in the library.

c followed by e, i or y often represents /s/

ceiling
circle
cycle

or
nice
lacy

Try getting her to chant " i, y and e make a softy of c" (also works for the majority of soft g words too!)

To help memory I have sometimes inflated a balloon, securing it with a bag clip. Then got the child to use a dry wipe pen to write a large c on the balloon. Finally we make a "tail" out of light paper (tissue, crepe) and write the letters "i" ,"y" and "e" on it before attaching it to the neck of the balloon.
Finally we take the clip off while the child holds the neck tight. Child then holds balloon up high, shouts "i, y and e make a softy of c" and lets go!

Result - child enjoys various "rude" noises made by balloon as it wizzes round room. They get a visual demonstration of the c on the balloon going "soft" and hopefully start to remember the letters that do this! If nothing else it's fun!!

oops - 2 "finally"s - but you get what I mean!