Advice on how teachers assess reading levels before moving up??

[Heloisa]

Hi, first post here, apologies if I am asking a question that has been asked before. I did look first, promise :)

My daughter is currently on orange band of ORT. Recent parents evening it was mentioned her fluency needs to improve, she needs to put more emotion in etc. Yes, absolutely agree with that, she is very wooden when she reads.

What I am a little concerned about is she is reading 30 page books (Biff and Chip) and only needs help with about 2 of those words in the whole book. I feel the teacher wants to keep her on the easier reading until her fluency improves... but to my mind that's going to come in time anyway and I think she should be skipping these books that she is finding soooooo easy and being given harder ones with trickier words!!

Just wanted to know what you think, is the teacher right or should I go and have a chat with her about moving onto harder books.

Also, how are they assessed for their reading level??? Is there a measurement say 3 words wrong in 50 or 2 in 25 etc that is used.

Many thanks!!

If she can't read a "simple" book with emotion then how will she be able to read a "harder" book with emotion? Reading level is so much more than accuracy. I don't know what orange means but fluency, comprehension and understanding finer detail is part of moving up.

hmm, my ds is in year 3 and still on the biff & chip books.
Told by teachers that they will "try to hear the kids read once a term" other than that they need to read to parents at home and change their own books.

Basically its up to the child when they want to change the level.

Very little input from teachers ime.

Ime if they don't have to work out as many words they have more space to work on their expression. Decoding lots of new words gets in the way of that.

I believe the benchmark is usually 90 to 95% of the words should be read without error. So 1 in 10 to 1 in 20 should be new words or ones they need to work out.

I have a similar issue with ds who just read a purple band book and there wasn't a single new word in it but his teacher thinks he needs to work on comprehension a bit more before moving him on.
I understand the importance of this but the problem is with no new words, ds isn't getting any practice at decoding new longer words.
In recent books from this level the most new words there have been is two (but more usually one) which makes for a (grabs calculator and looks at words per page x pages) 99.8% accuracy level. Yikes.

So how to balance improving comprehension in my ds' case and expression for your dd but still encountering new words is the question.

Orange level is the book banding at the school which I believe follows the standard banding for ORT.

I agree with you regarding emotion but I know my D and she is never going to be an 'emotional' person, full of exuberance except at home. She is quite a quiet child.

She comprehends and understands the books she is reading and is able to retell the story - just not read with 'emotion'... she is 6.

So any ideas how to improve her 'emotion' reading with 'expression'?? Reading by example yes, am trying that.. difficult one :)

Ours are good at moving children up and ds(5) is on level 7, he skipped level 6 as he was reading 5 fluently. But a large factor in the skip was his understanding. His teacher would listen to him read in a group and then question them about what happened and why. She also asked me to encourage him to put more expression in, this included making sure he stopped for punctuation and slowed down a bit as well as speaking with expression.

It's an all round thing at their school, not just reading my numbers ifykwim.

Try reading alternate reading pages with her - so she can hear how "her" book could sound.

Or do it the other way - read the book absolutely deadpan, then ask her to suggest ways that it could be more "interesting".

Talk about what is happening on each page and show this by reading the key phrases with feeling to express your joint understanding.

If DD is a shy person she may always revert into a monotone voice when reading for a teacher or group.

I was always very shy and had to work hard to vary my voice and put in some intonation when talking in front of an audience - as an adult! So if she understands what she is reading then she should move up. The fact that she can't read with emotion may have to do with her personality rather than her reading ability.

I totally agree with you "mychatnickname", DD is exactly the same.

"gabid" that is exactly what I think with regard to eldest DD and her 'natural' shyness.. absolutely she can put more in but it just isn't natural for her.

Now if it was my youngest DD, I would feel totally different because she exudes emotion. Can't believe I have two that are chalk and cheese :)

Thanks for your great ideas to help, will try them.

Ds (6) reads ORT level 6 well complete with emotion and punctuation (rather too much emotion if you ask me). He has to read every single sodding book of every sodding level before he moves up to the next one. The only benefit is we do the reading homework in under 5 minutes!

I would leave her on that level at school and read other stuff with her at home. My dd has books from the reading chest, and she copes well with, and enjoys, books two levels harder than her school books.

My dd sounds similar to yours in that she's a quiet, shy type but her expression has come on in leaps and bounds over the last couple of months, through reading books which she found very straightforward at school. It also helps their confidence hugely to be able to read books without struggling - especially if she does group reading at school and has to read out loud in front of her friends.

I have to say that I agree with the teacher. It sounds like your daughter's fluency does need to improve. It also sounds like your dd is at an appropriate level for the sort of skills the teacher is working on.

Reading with expression and awareness of audience is an important skill, as is being able to talk about what you've read, linking it with your own experiences, discussing word choices, suggesting reasons why characters have behaved in certain ways etc. It's much easier to concentrate on this when children are not struggling to, or concentrating on de-coding text.

You can go to the library and get your dd books with longer words because that's what you feel she should be working on. However, it's obviously not the teacher's priority at the moment and therefore, I don't think you should go in and ask for her to be moved on to harder books.

I absolutely agree with Runoutofideas second paragraph.

as a teacher I move my children when they need to and although you don't sound like a 'pushy' mum we do get ones whose only aim is to whizz their children through the reading books as fast as they can because they think that means their child is better than the others. I am very glad to read all these posts from sensible parents who realize there is more to reading than simply 'barking at print' and that reading should not only be done with books sent home from school :)

I have come to the conclusion that what band they are on at school is largely irrelevant because DD1 is 'stuck' on one band at school so we diligently read those (far too easy) and read what we like the rest of the time. I am happy that she is enthusiastic about reading and that we are challenging her appropriately so have given up asking the school to change her band!