Could the average Primary Year 2 child (ie aged 7) do this?

[Greythorne]

Reading ? example :
Crabs and lobsters have shells which are a sort of hard skin. A lobster has a shell. It flaps its tail to swim. As the lobster gets bigger, its shell splits. The fresh shell is soft to begin with, but it soon hardens. There are lots of different sorts of crabs. Some are good at swimming and some have long thin legs.

-- Children should be able read this text comfortably and, after reading, say what it is about without looking at it.

-- They should be able to try to explain one or more of the words in bold and should be able to describe crabs (good at swimming / long thin legs).

-- They should then be able to talk about shells for a few minutes in correct English

Yes! ( I see you have tried again )

did not know how to amend title (is it even possible?)

I am fairly certain mine could.

It is not possible (which is very annoying)
Why are you asking about the task? Do you have a year 2? Are you worried about them getting work that is too hard or too easy? Would love to offer more to you here.

yes mine could
he is sept baby though
if he was august baby could he? hmm probably but his reading would be less fluent

I answered on your other thread. My yr2 DD could do this.

carrotsandcelery

we live abroad so English is the DC's second language. They will be expected to do this level of work to get into the after school programme for English we want. I am a bit at this level for DC when it is their second language.

interesting to see everyone is saying their (presumably) monolingual DC could do it comfortably.

But many are saying their DC are above average or slightly above.

no idea if our DC will pass the test (it's in a few years, yet!) but I worry how we can get their reading / comprehension level up to this standard.

I wanted to guage how hard this would be for monolinguals.

Thanks for the responses.

My DD would struggle, not 7 until July.

My Dc are still small, but our ambition is to get them into this afterschool English programme. but i have no idea how to get them up to this level by 7.

I also live abroad and have taught DD1 to read myself (I am English but English is her L2 because from the age of 1 she has been in nursery/pre-school and from this year school, all of which are in the local language).
She could do this (actually it looks to me like a passage from a Jolly Phonics green reader). (In theory. In practice she would strop and say she's not interested )

Oops, meant to say: DD1 is 7 and I've been teaching her to read for about a year and a half, with great resistance on her part. But she has done really well, whether or not she wants to admit it!!

I've just asked my Y2 (middle of the year, top litracy group) and he did it fine but added that crabs are reptiles . He is bilingual but good at english and really only a toddler level in his second language that his father is suposed to speak to him in.

Sorry to be a pain but I know mine could..she's year 2 and aged 6 and a half.

Mine is not above average but is at a tiny prep where they get a LOT of one to one.

I think otherwise she would not.

BTW, what does one say about shells for "a few minutes"? They are hard, on beaches, come in different shapes and sizes... Erm, am running out of things to say...

Greythorne...the test sounds similar to the level expected of a year 2 child sitting exams for prep school juniors.

If I were you I would get hold of some of the Bond Assesment books on Amazon...they'll help you.

I posted on your other thread, but wanted to add for reassurance:

dd1 could not have read any of that in French (her second language) a year or two ago. She probably could make a stab at it now in Y2 - with a few words she wouldn't be able to de-code - even though she has NEVER been taught to read in French. Simply because her ability to de-code, and her general comprehension and vocabulary, are up to it now in English.

French is so different to English in terms of phonics, and yet once she could read in one language she was able to start to read in the other - I remember the same thing when I was a child, for that matter.

So depending on what your DCs first language is (eg if its Chinese or Arabic, they may have more problems), they may well be able to translate some of the reading/comprehension skills they develop in that language into English - by the time they are 7. So getting them to that level may not be as hard as it seems now, iyswim.

HTH and isn't too muddly

wimple
np, noit a pain at all

keen to know what levekl most monolinguals are at
good bench mark

the DC have excellent spoken english, would definitely pass for monolingual english, no accent etc but the reading is a different kettle of fish, esp as they do not start to teach reading here (in france) in French (ie majority manguage) until year 1

so not much time to get reading well in french then transfer the skill to english

Yy to being taught to read in one language and transferring it to the other without being specifically taught to -- that's what I did too.

Assuming the grasp of spoken language is fluent in the second language, and the written form doesn't involve a completely different alphabet, there shouldn't be any difficult transferring reading skills from one language to the other. Writing possibly takes a bit more input, as you have to learn the spelling and punctuation conventions for the two languages, and you might get 'leakage' from one to the other in terms of spelling. But that shouldn't really affect reading.

And yes, my Y2 child could read the passage comfortably and answer questions, I don't think it's exceptionally challenging, although I'm sure there are lots of native speaker dc who would struggle with it.

Just tested my yr 2 ds and he could do it easily. He is average at reading in his class and is a summer birthday.

My son could easily read the passage and answer the question- but talk about shells for a few minutes? A few minutes is a long time on shells. Football, yes. Shells - 40 seconds at most..

My dn is bilingual Greythorne and although she is bright she is moving a little slower in both languages as a result.

The research we have done suggests that is normal as there is a lot more to process for them.

In the long term they will be at least the same as others but will have two languages and an inbuilt understanding that things can be expressed in different ways which supposedly opens doors for other languages in the future.

English is her first language and the language she is taught in at school.

If you look at the passage, although the words might be unfamiliar they are all words which can be sounded out if they have learnt to read phonetically. That might be the case for all passages and a clue to the way you should introduce language to your dcs in preparation for the test.

Good luck - you are offering them a fantastic opportunity.

My dd aged 5 can do that task.

My DS1 has just done it, he is 7 and in Year 2.

However, he did struggle to talk about shells for several minutes. Mainly because there really isn't that much to say about them. Having said that he could discuss them if IU were to have a conversation about them with him I suppose.

Seashells of Long Ago

1. By comparing fossil shells with today's seashells from warm and cold climates, scientists discover what the climate may have been like in different regions millions of years ago. Snails Grow Larger Shells
2. Snails take calcium carbonate and other materials from water and food and use it to enlarge their shells. The body part called a mantle builds the new portion of a shell. Hermit Crabs Find New Homes
3. When hermit crabs outgrow their shells, they look for a new empty snail shell to take over. If it weren't for snail shells, hermit crabs would have no homes. Shells Come in Many Colors
4. Mollusks can turn their shells different colors by eating a variety of colorful food. For example, red seaweed gives some sea animals a red shell. Adding Protection
5. Some animals have carrier shells. They attach other shells or shell pieces to their own shells with a kind of glue that they make. The extra shells add protection and camouflage, helping the animals hide from predators. Fun Fact
6. The turn of a snail's shell is called a whorl. In 99 percent of all snail species, that whorl goes in a clockwise direction.

you can classify shells by their physical characteristics; shape, size, color, type.
~ To begin to identify seashell start by looking at your shell collection
~ Lay them out on a flat surface ready to compare
~ Start to sort your shell collection into sea shells and ocean shells of similar characteristics
~ Look at the different weightts
~ scroll down for some indentification of seashell guides

we studied shells last term