Give me a break...tired of hearing people go on about reading levels!!!

[sereka]

"My DD or My DS can read before starting reception." or "The teacher is sending home books which are too easy." Oh spare me. Children develop at different paces and if your child can read dont worry about the books the teacher sends home. Read books at home and join the local library where you can choose books which interest your child.

My DD is starting reception next week and I am very happy with her progress. Just enjoy your kids. I am so excited about her start at "big" school and she is likewise very excited.

great posts Rabbitstew

rabbitstew - no not presumptuous.... since the child COULDN'T read it.... She claimed to read it. She had no idea what was going on in the plot, nor could she anticipate what happen might happen, she has no sense of implied information, nor could she tell me about the characters, settings, really do I have to go on?
She couldn't even decode enough of the words to get close to doing the things above! So in my opinion the book was not suitable for her at that stage. Since I was her TEACHER I think I am qualified to make that judgement.
I think a lot of parents get madly caught up in the "race" for the first free reader (and yes I have been there myself with my DD and slapped myself for being so daft!) and by pushing their children into books that they are not ready for, they can kill any enjoyment of it. Then I end up getting them in year 3 not willing to read anything and it effects their progress.
I'm always amazed at the number of parents who stop reading to their child when they become free readers!

When they get to 10 yrs no one knows (or cares) whether they were fluent at 2 yrs or it took tham until 8yrs-it isn't a race. The important thing is to read for enjoyment.

I have to say I'm feeling the love for Biff and Chip at the moment, once they get their hands on the recreational drugs Magic Key it all gets a bit more interesting. BUT what happens when you get to the last level? Is it like "Goodbye Mog"? Do they bumped off in an entertaining denouement?

I agree with you Over40. DS1 (nearly 8) wanted to read The Chronicles of Narnia a few months ago. Bearing in mind that English is not the language that he has been taught to read in, it was a bit heavy going for him and although he could read the words he couldn't fully inderstand the meaning. So we have put them away for him to try again in a year or two, or possibly either DH or I will read them to him.

missbeehiving: The last I saw of Biff and Chip was in Level 8. Both DS1 and DS2 skipped Level 9 for some reason, but by Level 10 there was no sign of them. They are replaced by cross dressing men who do the cleaning when their wives are out (I'm really not joking)

Who cares knows what happens to Biff and Chip!

There is more to learning to read than getting children through reading levels. There is more to reading than barking at print. Also there is more to life than the bl**dy Oxford Reading Tree!

My son progressed quite slowly through the reading levels compared with his cousin. His cousin was a free reader by the end of year 1 where as my son was a free reader in the last two weeks at the end of year 3.

However my son enjoys reading and always has his nose in a book. His cousin has to be bribed inorder to practice reading.

Another type of parent I detest is the one always bagering the teacher to change their darling's book ten times a week. My son's school provides one book a week and I met plenty of parents who whine about this.

If mothers want their children to have more books then there is nothing to stop them from getting off their fanny and taking their child to the library.

DS - I love a mystery. I thought the pissed horse in Level 6 was a bit risque - but I'm looking forward to the cross dressing now.

People on mumsnet seem obsessed with ORT! There are other reading schemes - and life beyond Biff and Chip!!

my first son became a free reader in yr 1 or something ridiculous, when he reached ORT 6 I think...totally bloody crazy, oh he could decode the words all right, but his comprehension was no-where near ready..
but being competitive with pfb, I was thrilled... at the time.
ds2 was at a different school, only became a free reader at the beginning of yr 4, because they insisted he read all the ORT chapter books to level 15, including plays, poetry, non fiction, fiction..all sorts of stuff...
ds2 is a much much better reader than ds1 with much better comprehension and I wish ds1 hadn't been pushed ahead.
so let that be a lesson to you.

Fair point, Over40 - I guess I read your message more as implying that a Year 3 child would not be capable of reading The Hobbit, rather than that particular child, but you clearly did mean just the child in question. It sounds as though she was trying to show off to you and got caught out! I wouldn't have thought The Hobbit was beyond the reach of all year 3 children, though - in my naivety, I thought that was a pretty good age to read it (having read it at that age myself).

For what it's worth, my opinion of parents who worry that their children will be put off reading if they are given books that are "too simple" at school is that their children aren't actually that interested in reading at all, but in pleasing their parents and showing off to them. Of course such a child is going to be disappointed if a book is easy, because then they can't show off - they are not assessing the book by its level of interest, but by its level of difficulty (as if most adult readers ever choose books because they think they will be difficult, rather than enjoyable...). This is different, however, from the parents who worry about their child's reading levels because they have genuine concerns about their reading ability and what they should expect of a child of that age - ie fears that they might actually be struggling to learn to read. There is nothing wrong with such parents wanting a bit of feedback on what they should expect, whether their expectations are too low or too high, etc.

On that level, I agree with sereka's original post, although I felt her later comments did somewhat marr the spirit of the original...

Well in my dds case, the reading books bored her, so she refused to read them. Then she refused to read her own books.

She hadn't been tested for 9 months (I recently found out) and the teacher hadn't heard her for all that time either. Don't know how she slipped through. She was tested. And has gone from a level 7 to 15 over 3 weeks. Thankfully, once again she loves reading, because what she is reading interests her.

So I say sometimes you know your child better than anyone & if I hadn't asked for her to be tested, she'd still be on lvl 7!

I rarely sit down and read ds's school reading books with him any more - it's more fun reading other books with him. Nothing ever put him off reading for pleasure at home, though - I don't see how anything could put you off reading books you have chosen yourself for pleasure. However, some children when still learning to read and therefore still finding it a little bit like hard work, obviously need some sense of reward and personal achievement to keep trying and I guess that comes from moving up book levels in school. I still don't connect that with the enjoyment of reading, though, just the enjoyment of having been recognised to have progressed.

It's nothing to do with personal reward/achievement. It is all to do with making sure she is at a level she should be at, that challenges her to improve. If the level is too easy, it is boring & she gets nothing out of it.

agree with differentname, it's not always possible to just read books from the library as you don't know what's pitched correctly. For the most part, they do all catch up in the end, exactly the same as baby milestones.

I remember my sister getting quite angry with her school for not giving her books with words in and afterwards easy books. She wasn't particularly bright, just competitive with her brother who was a year older and so had learnt all his words at the same time. Definitely wasn't driven by our mother, but could see her tuning out of school. If children switch off in primary school then they never seem to switch back on again, so it is am important issue. A particular problem with boys as it is.

Agree though at times, parents are either being pushy or showing off. IMO what's wrong with a little bit of showing off and being proud of your DC's achievements.

I think differentnameforthis was quite right to question the school about her dd's reading level - to be on a reading level that far below the one she has suddenly been put onto for such an extended period of time is indicative of a teacher taking her eye seriously off the ball, which as a mother would concern me generally, as I would want to know what else they didn't know about my child that they ought to.

I disagree with ClimberChick about just reading books in the library, though - a mother who knows her child's reading ability well enough to question the teacher's judgment ought to be able to choose appropriate books with her child (unless, as said above, they question the teacher's judgment because little or no assessment has actually been made of their child's abilities in the first place and there is an obvious disparity between their ability to read and comprehend and the level of books they get from school). However, this is said from the perspective of someone who has never had trouble getting her children to read, it has always been their greatest passion, despite being boys, so I just haven't had to think that hard about it, nor have I had to worry that their abilities won't be noticed, because a genuinely fluent, expressive reader is going to be noticed by the school, even a not very good school, provided the teacher does read to him or her at some point.

As for boys switching off in primary school, I don't think it is because they are given reading books that are too easy. Possibly many boys find Biff and Chip too boring as a concept, so easy words or hard words, they are going to be bored by those books. (A trip to the library to find something more interesting might help a bit...). Reading for some of them will only be of interest when they have a good enough reading vocabulary to read instantly exciting adventure stories about monsters, wizards and battles, hence the popularity of the "Beast Quest" series...

We had a similar problem to differentname, DS2 was reading to the TA rather than the teacher and because he was quite happy and enjoying the books (he loves pretty much any stories) they were just leaving him on the same level despite telling me that he was very able at reading. It got to the point that he was reading ORT Level 3 in school but things like Roald Dahl and Mr Gum at home!

I didn't want to be pushy about it, but at parents evening I mentioned what he was reading at home. This prompted her to read with him the following week, and he was moved from Level 4 to Level 10.

I didn't have a problem finding books in the libarary though, I just let him choose himself and work by trial and error at what he could read and understand. If he had trouble reading it himself I could always read it to him, that way he still got to enjoy the story.

He still borrows books which are technically too "easy" for him, but I let him borrow what he wants as that way his love of stories and reading will continue. One week he might borrow a 100 page novel, the next week a picture book. It is all up to him.

there's so many schemes in our school that I have genuinely no idea what level DS1 is on.

Not that I would have any idea what a level is supposed to mean

I know this is all a very emotive subject (have been there with DD!) but would like to ask Mums to just relax a little!! Personally I think that choosing the right book is more of an art than an exact science and the teacher has 30 children not just one to worry about. I'm sure I will be shouted down with "well that's what the teachers job is about" but I have never met a Reception teacher that didn't take this aspect of their job very seriously but it is only ONE part. I can't begin to describe how many other things they are doing and if a child moves up a little too quickly or perhaps not quickly enough once in a while it is not the end of the world. The biggest impact is the amount and quality of the reading the child is doing at home as this is the most 1:1 they will ever get, far more than school can ever do! If you feel your child can read more then the book coming home then ask if you can borrow other books as well. We let our Mums. Also use the library. Afterall the book that comes home is not every thing!
I was once trying to encourage a Mum to read a little more with her child and she responded with "I'm not paid to do it, you are"! Scary!
Just wish more parents would read to and listen to their children when they get to Year 3...... Sorry to generalise but they all seem to lose interest then!

Interesting point Over40 regarding parents not reading any more with their children when they get into juniors; DH still reads to both DDs, yr5 and yr2, every night; DD1 has just become the first free reader in her year, and DD2 is top of her class for reading. Probably completely unrelated and co-incidental, but maybe there is something in it...

lovecheese - there is a direct link! It's not the whole effect but children who are read to generally perform better in Literacy then those who don't. As an adult you can allow your child to access books they might want to read but are not quite able to access themselves. The advantage is they get exposure to a wider range of vocab and syntax which you allow then to access and provide an explanations as required. A wider vocab and turn of phrase will always have a positive effect on a child's writing.

I have twins and we have always read to them - they are both good readers but are worlds apart when it comes to writing. Oddly the child who reads the most and understands a larger vocab, is the one who has the poorest writing.