At what stage do children normally get heard reading at school less often?

[namechangesgalore]

If they are a good reader does it mean they tend to get dropped down in reading frequency at school?

Who else would do it though?

Teachers have planning and teaching and meetings and targets etc. There is just not enough time in the week to do everything!!

At our school there are loads of parentsd wanting to help. They are given jobs like taking down displays while the teachers/TAs deal with learning.

Lucky you. We have enough trouble getting parents to answer the phone when their children are sick, never mind getting them in to help.

Same here Panzee.

We have trouble trying to get the parents to fill in the homelearning diaries or get the dinner money into envelopes instead of flinging £2 at us!!

That's really sad - I've worked in some very deprived areas but have always had a few parents on side, even if collecting in the money was a nightmare!

I'd think that in an area like that where there was no parental support, hearing children read would be even more of a priority. Certainly as a teacher I would make it one of my focus areas.

Collision I worked in a school akin to yours-I took down my own displays,many teachers do.

How important are Xmas displays anyhow?

I do think it's harder in schools like yours though,I get quite annoyed at how much our school expects from parents most of whom dutifully do as they're told,it's very much taken for granted. I think a lot of the teachers would find life an awful lot different in some of the schools I've taught in.

Weaker readers listened to twice a week? You are joking right?

That is nowhere near enough for kids who are struggling.

My DD gets listened to twice a day - she is still really struggling and nowhere near the holy Grail of being able to read. And she is in year 3.

There's a lot of evidence that good intervention programmes work - hope it clicks soon for your dd Indigo, and I hope she's getting the specific support she needs.

Actually I was shocked that teachers at ds's selective (grammar) school hadn't realised in Y7 that he was dyslexic - apparently his reading and writing weren't any different from many others! Something went wrong with a big group of those bright boys.

Yes, I am absolutley shocked how many children went up to the Juniors on a level 1, and how complacent the school is about it.....

(However they quickly learnt that being complacent about my DD is not an option )

At dd's school all children are heard daily in yr to u2, regardless of ability. Patents expected to hear them daily too. Stronger readers are expected to read daily and to parents every few days.

In y3 they read approx every other day, with those struggling heard more. Plus they gave a class reader. To read daily at home. Parents to hear every few days.

Dd in y4 now. They have a class's reader? Any struggling will have support sessions and read to the support teacher twice a week plus to parents. Even in y4 children are expected to read daily and to patents every do often.

It is important that even good readers read aloud to someone regularly as it is a very different skill to reading in one's head.

However I work in a u2 class in an infant school. Children are heard once a week in a group. Weaker readers may get heard an extra time. There is no requirement for parents to listen to readers but it is recommended. Some do, some don't. You can generally see the difference. But IMO it is not enough. But hard for school to fit more in without parent Hellers.

Hula is the school your dc goes to private or state?

DD's school is private. The one I work at is state. DD is in a class of 15, mine has 30.

I have been having the reading discussion too!
My Daughter is in yr 1 and is five.she is a good reader near the end of the scheme. At the beg of academic term a letter came home saying they would read once a week at least. A few weeks later reading went from weekly to fortnightly then once a month.So after xmas I spoke to the teacher who said they have been busy with xmas.Last week was week three again of no reading, she has only read twice when I have asked if she can move up to the next level.Now he says they haven't the time to hear the children weekly! there is one TA between two classes of 18 children.Today the TA heard her read hurrah! and wrote a nice catty comment about how her reading could be improved, when normally she'll write great reading etc!

what sort of catty comment?

Surely it isn't catty for a teacher/TA to write a comment about how a child's reading could be improved.

What's the point of the children reading in school if the only feedback they ever get is "great reading" etc. Personally, I want them to write comments about how dd could improve!

Can someone please tell me what "guided reading" is?

I think, magicmummy, the point is that the critical/constructive! commment was only written after the parent had asked to move her up! prior to this she had only been given positive feedback... the "catty" remark was simply to reflect this "coincidence"!!! I think?, because agree the comments should reflect how the child should improve, but this shouldnt be only when the parent has asked to move up or questioned the reading policy?

My children are past this now (they are 10 and 11) but there is no way that dd needed a whole load of teacher time to listen to her reading aloud as she really didn't find it difficult at all. ds on the other hand struggled for years and absolutely hated reading. For him forced reading aloud was I suspect totally counterproductive - what he needed (and eventually got outside of school) was to be taken back to the basics and taught to read again.

I remember vividly from junior school how incredibly boring it was for me to be forced to read aloud (so slow!) and how painful it was to hear the 'remedial' children struggle. I'm glad that newer methods have been introduced.

dh went to a training session tonight to be a parent reading coach. He is being assigned three children to help for twelve weeks, all children on the borderline who need extra support but not specialist teaching. The children who are doing just fine do group and guided reading, those that are struggling get specialist support and those in between have extra sessions to read aloud 1-2-1. Seems a pretty good system to me.

I'm also wondering what jobs/careers require the ability to read aloud. Many jobs require good public speaking, but that's a totally different skill (the best speakers don't use notes, let alone a script) learned more in drama and debate IMO.

I can remember being quite cross with the school when DS was in year one and was heard by the teacher maybe once or twice a term, similar again in year two. The school didn't exactly say, but we thought there was an unstated policy of more effort into the weaker readers. DS certainly had picked up the phonics code really easily and had whizzed through the reading scheme.

But the school completely missed his dyslexia.

Had he not been written off as "fine", I think his dx would have come a year or so earlier than it did.

notsureatall Guided reading is a small group of children of a similar reading level all reading one book, probably once a week. Methods vary but I tend to do it like this:

Choose a book in the 'instructional' colour band (harder than ones I send home). Introduce book and say I'm going to ask them to read it to themselves to page x. Revision of how to approach unfamiliar words. As they read quietly to themselves, I'll go around and listen to each one, asking them to read aloud when it's their turn. I'll help if they need it but will generally just listen and assess their reading.

Then we'll discuss the book or the pages so far. Often guided reading books will have a phonics or grammar 'theme', e.g -ing words, rhymes etc and we'll discuss those. Or I'll check whether they've understood what they've written.

To me it's much quicker and more effective than individually listening them read a book they may have already read at home.

Thanks very much