Do less able children get much more attention

[grandpainmypocket]

At our school, the kids who are struggling with reading get heard every day but the others get heard individually only once a week which is not a lot. I can see they should get extra support and it helps the class as a whole as well as them but it seems quite imbalanced.

If the less able dcs were heard for example four times a week and the others twice a week that would seem fairer.

I guess this is a bit of a AIBU to think that?

What's the norm?

"It is typical schools bringing everyone to the median, rater than pushing each to the maximum."

That hasn't been our experience, to be honest.

Not sure how much it depends on the school but I have one child who was a very good reader, another more average and third child has real problems with reading. He gets lots of extra help and really needs it whereas other two get much less help but I think this is right - they can be encouraged at home / it doesnt really matter they will learn to read regardless, whereas child who is struggling needs expert help from the school.

Algebr, We do as much as we can to encorage parents to support their children at home but some just never will. I've known families that have books and other reading aids sent home with the child and they never even bring them back let a lone use them.

I'm not a teacher by the way, just a TA

Nospring's perspective is interesting.

Scruffy - but maybe the middle group get more out of the whole class stuff as it is pitched at their level, hence the top group and the bottom one need more support to progress at their own levels?

DS had someone listen to him read only two (count 'em, two) times in all of Y1. He wasn't on scheme books, the school didn't feel the need to check his reading attainment levels with that particular instrument, and it didn't bother me.

More meaningfully (for him and me), he did Guided Reading with his table every couple of weeks or so, which meant working on higher order literacy skills such as comprehension, inference and analysis. As part of whole-class literacy activities he did the sort of poetry, drama, and narrative-ordering exercises that every Y1 pupil does. Just because they're not getting listened to regularly does not mean that more able readers aren't being educated.

20% of pupils at DS's school start YR with no English at all. Hearing DS read individually would have been a sinful waste of resources IMO.

DS gets lots of extra help due to ASD, ADHD, Dyspraxia and probable Dyslexia. I have always read to DS and he loves cuddling up for a story. Reading is very difficult for him though and although I dedicate time everyday to this it's a slow process. He is now in Yr3 and in the process of being statemented (thanl goodness).

In my experience, a child who is a free reader does not need to read aloud to the teacher so often to be pushed to the maximum; there are other, more efficient ways of ensuring that such a child is pushed. I am all for able children getting the support they need, but do not see why one should assume that they need the same support as less able children.

I read with the child I support daily as he does not read at home and has always found reading hard.

But the other children are not by any means free readers. They are in year 1 and mostly on yellow or blue books.

I agree cory they shouldn't get the same support as those who are struggling but the difference between once a week and daily is quite marked.

Devexity they have not done any guided reading yet this year.

ah now see the assumption being Cory that it is the teacher who is doing the reading with her, but its not. She never gets read to by the teacher, never gets any teacher time. The only reason DD gets read with more often is because of people going in and helping with the reading for her little group whilst the teacher concentrates on doing phonics with the rest of the class. She has to be able to do something rather than being forced to keep going over and over things that are too easy for her so they take her out to do reading. You could say it was more for the convenience of the teacher than for pushing DD further with her reading.

Being read with once a week in Year 1 for a kid who is not struggling seems absolutely fine.

They don't (only) learn to read when they are reading to someone - they learn to read in phonics lessons.

Do you really think the teacher reading with your child is more valuable than you reading with them? - It's the teaching to read which the teacher is invaluable for - not listening to them read.

Fair point Indigo.