Shouldn't someone listen to my DD reading in school? (Yr 1)

[beagle101]

Since my DD moved into yr 1 in September she hasn't read aloud to either the teacher or TA at all. I was a bit surprised last term but am now getting more uneasy/irked about this.

I have spoken to some of the other mum's at the school gate - apparently none of the kids are reading aloud to anyone - one Mum had been in to speak to the teacher about this and apparently 'he will get round to it some time later this term'!!!!!!!

In the meantime DD is bringing home wildy varying books (in difficulty)sometimes books with 3 words to a page and sometimes really tough chapter books, they are selected by the TA - there is no sense of progression and when I asked the teacher at parents evening last week he just told me DD was a 'good little reader'

Okay - so is this normal and I am just being pfb and out of touch or should I be worrying about this?

Go and have a word with the teacher. It's past half-term and there is no reason that I can think of. They may well be reading in other ways - guided reading for example, but I cannot believe that they aren't being heard individually twice a week as there is a TA.
Do any mums volunteer in the classrooms?
And if you don't feel happy with what the teacher says you are entitled to raise this with the HT.

My dd is in year 1 too, and has only been heard once or twice since going back to school in September. This doesn't bother me at all - I think the teacher has lots of different ways of assessing reading ability, and they read a lot more in school than just their reading books iyswim. So I wouldn't be too worried about this. Besides, listening to each child read individually is incredibly time-consuming, and that means less time for all the other things that a teacher ought to be doing. You can hear your dd read at home, so let the teacher concentrate on the things that you can't do at home instead.

Having said that, I would be concerned about the wild variation in reading material that gets sent home. Are you sure that all of these books are intended as reading material for your dd, or are there some for her to read to you, and some for you to read to her? What is her reading ability like? Are the three-words-to-a-page books way too easy for her? Can she cope with the chapter books? It seems unbelievable that they would send home such a wide range of books unless they are expecting them to be used in different ways.

Thanks for the replies!

Nell - nope no guided reading or any reading aloud of any sort and we aren't allowed to volunteer to go in and read - I asked! The school barely allows us through the school gates and the school receptionist is an honest to God old fashioned dragon!

Magicmummy the books are for her to read to us - she started out the year with chapter books as she was reading quite well in Yr R - I thought it was a bit of leap but decided fair enough we'll give it a go - DD just sat there saying she couldn't do it - by reading alternating lines with her I worked out it wasn't the words that were difficult she ws just freaking at the number of words per page - I wrote a note in her home contact book to that effect and got a note home saying fair enough we will work on her confidence first and since then we have had the varying books - all from different reading schemes and different levels - todays story book has different size & types of font all over the different pages with poems in boxes in the middle of some pages and part of the story written round leaves in trees - totally upset DD as she felt she couldn't do it!

I think I will go and have a word with the teacher - or better yet send DH (he gets on with the teacher -I am not his greatest fan!) as DD is really beginning to become fazed by this ...

Sounds a bit weird to me. Although the teacher doesn't listen to our dd reading much in school, I'm entirely confident that she is getting books at the right sort of level for her, and that the teacher has an excellent measure of her reading ability. It doesn't sound like this is the case for your dd at all. I agree that one of you should probably go and have a word with the teacher.

What is it about school receptionists, I wonder?! Ours is an ogre!!!

We have the same as in reception, but instead of one book brought home - there are two! (and also there are 10 spellings per week to learn)

So we have 2 X guided reading sessions per week and 1 X individual reading.

In nursery it was just 1 X individual reading and 1 X library book of choice.

We have a few parent volunteers (although there aren't any in Year 1) but parents are often involved in the school in other ways and all parents are invited to school assembly once a week plus other shows and events. We tend to have mix and match various reading schemes but this term so far we have had just Ginn ones at the same level - but quite a wide range of books with 2 a week.

I wouldn't worry so much about no one hearing her read - because you can do that. (Not saying that it's right - just pick your battles)

Remember listening to a child read isn't the same as teaching them to read. They should be doing a daily phonics lesson when they are being taught to read. (If they aren't doing that then you should be kicking up a huge stink)

But, the random books being sent home would concern me. He needs to be on a certain level, and bringing books home at that level. From the books he's bought home can you work out which level he should be on and request he gets more of these?

Honestly, it all sounds a shambles and quite worrying.

How do you know they are not doing any guided reading?

I work in a Y1 class. The chldren are heard, in their guided reading group, once a week. this is recorded on their reading card, kept in school, and in the back of their reading diary, sent home daily.

The parents and children chose their own reading books from the colourd boxes int he classroom. Each child knows what colour they are on.

Dd was heard daily by her teacher individually in Y1, but a much smaller class.

I listen to each of my children (as a TA) once a week and record it in their diaries so that parents know they have read aloud. A parent comes in once a week and listens to them too so that is twice a week.

I have a very good schedule of keeping up to date with books and know which book band each child is on and move them up accordingly.

I would not be happy as a parent to have such widely differing books coming home and would speak to the teacher.

My teacher tries to listen to some readers too but not as regularly as I do.

Well I think I will definitely go in to talk about the wide variation in books - I would understand if DD was selecting them but she isn't!

Bruffin - I have asked DD and spoken to other parents - all confirm that there is jsut no reading going on (other than the kids reading things to themselves if they are able)- a couple of the other parents have asked the teacher who has confirmed that he is going to get to it later this term!

They are doing phonics etc and they do lots of exciting things in class - I am not that worried about what is going on in class and my concern really stems form the wierd variation in difficulty in books that come home!

My DD2 (Y1) is in a state school and every child in her class of 16 is heard to read individually every day without fail.It makes such a difference

Listening to a child read does involve teaching them to read. Error correction is extremely important and done badly, or not at all, can do damage.
Indigo is right to say that a daily phonics lesson should be in place, but as well as that a competent (usually adult)reader should be checking the child's performance.

Think of it like a piano lesson - the lesson is necesssary to demonstrate the skills but the subsequent practice is essential.
The more often the performance is practised and checked the greater the likelihood of creating a competent reader.

I find it surprising that a Y1 teacher or assistant is not hearing the children on a regular basis,and by regular I would suggest at least 3 times per week.

Keep on top of it! My dd was reading at level 7 & for 8 months not one teacher heard her read. She started to become bored & fed up of reading her school book, but would happily read her books here for ages.

They tested her at my insistence (her teacher didn't see the need, said she would be tested at end of year - which for us is Dec - before going into yr 2) and she shot up to level 16 in 3 weeks!

IndigoBell, I disagree! Yes, as a parent she read to me, without fail every night, but I can't tell her to move up a level/s. Her teacher was shocked that she hadn't been tested for 8 mths, but yet, it was her who was responsible for it.

There are other issues too, so we are actually moving her next year!

Sorry, I'm not saying that children shouldn't be read with in school - they should.

I was saying that if school aren't doing it it's going to be a huge battle to get them to start, and one you're unlikely to win.

However you can read with your child every night (or twice a day if you prefer) and help them, in pretty much exactly the same was as any adult in the school....

Ideally a teacher would be better, but children frequently read to parent helpers, who won't be any better.

Personally I would be looking at changing schools with what the OP described - but seeing as I'm always recommending that I was going to bite my tounge this time :)

I just think there is no way that the OP will convince school to change their reading policy.

DS's teacher (Y1) hears him read once a week and then sends the book home to be read again at home.

At the beginning of the year he was sent home with Rigby Star purple level, which seemed too difficult, then green, then yellow, now blue level which seems a bit easy now - but he doesn't read them anyway. DS only reads ORT at home with me.

Hello~ If I were you I would go onto ofsted's site and look up their latest report to see what they reported.That may give you valuable ammunition! Speak to the school about your concerns and if they are not dealt with you could always contact ofsted (you could probably get away with not disclosing your name)
My daughter is in yr 1 and is a good reader, her previous teacher heard her read once occasionally twice per week. Now she reads maybe four pages once a fortnight. This seems to be a common thing. DD previous school was worse, I was told reading was about much more than sitting reading and she would be taught a variety of ways in her normal day her reading skills,mainly through group activities. My arguement to that was how can you make an assessment on my childs progress that way?
So I have come to the decision that although it is not ideal I will have to make sure that she learns how to read properly like we were taught. She started off with the jolly phonics letter scheme and progressed onto read at home books, Ladybird read at home books level one and gold stars books.
I change her school book everyday or so and she has zoomed up to the end of the purple books, which are ks2 books at our school.
Maybe you coul drum up a bit of support from other parents, sounds to me like the teacher could do with some more training and obsevation from ofsted.
good luck x

The problem with learning to read is that most teachers have little or understanding of how we learn to read.
The psycholinguistic models of how we learn to read are not part of teacher training.
Not all children are cognitively able to read aloud, and not all children are cognitively able to use phonics as a method of reading.

Using Phonics is based on having good listening skills and being able to improve those good listening skills. According to the Medical Research Council 10% of the child population have some degree of Auditory Processing Disorder (APD) which would cognitively prevent them from being able to use phonics.

It is only the Sub lexical part of the brain which can process phonics the lexical part of the brain process pictorial representations or whole word images. Neural Representations of Visual Words and Objects: A Functional MRI Study on the Modularity of Reading and Object Processing . This goes back to how we learn to speak. Some learn to speak by reproducing the whole sound of a word, because they many not be able to cognitively identify the so called individual sounds which make up the whole sound of a word, and as a result they need to match the whole sound of a word to the whole shape of the visual notation of speech, the written word. These children are cognitively not able to do the so called phonic blending of the sounds which letters are supposed to represent.