school don't read with 7 year olds

[anja12]

Hello,

My son is in year 3, he is 7 years old. He gets homework where he has to read a specific book at home at least 3 days a week. We fill in another book to say he has read, this earns him golden time at school. School do not however do any reading with him, if they read at school it is on their own (in their heads) so no one hears them read... I think this is wrong... do you?
They tick the book we write in, but there are no comments on what we can do better... just the title on his new book.

How am I supposed to teach him to read??? I don't know how to, I don't know how many of the words he is supposed to know, and how to teach him to read the ones he don't know... any ideas???

Am I'm being a bit oversensitive here... aren't schools supposed to teach our kids to read???

Can he not read yet? In Y3?

If he is Y3 and can't read then there is a problem and school need to do a lot more work with him.

If he can read, than school don't need to read with him 1:1. Although they almost certainly will be doing 'guided reading' where the teacher does hear them read.

I had the same issue with my DD's school. On entering the juniors, they seemed to stop listening to the children read, unless they had a particular problem with reading. We on the other hand, were still expected to listen to them read. The teacher even admitted that they don't bother.

Ridiculous. A child who has mastered the mechanics of reading still has a lot of improving to do. I listen to all of my class read every week. If I listen to them in guided reading I still record it in their reading record.

Please bear in a lot of primary school there are far fewer TA's in KS2 to help listen to children read. I have no adult in my year 3/4 room who is not allocated to a specific statemented child and yet I have another 29 children to teach. It is not possible for me to listen to them all individually. I listen to most as part if guided reading and only a few (about 5) get one to one from me. I don't like it but I simply have no time.

Teachers don't teach children to read by hearing them tbh.

I agree I am sure he does guided reading at school - ask though if you want to find out more.

I used to help in a year 3 class and what I did was heard readers - this was basically to assess their progress. TBH altho the teacher very rarely heard them read, any feedback I gave was not news to her (eg XX is ahead of this level, YY is really struggling).

But I agree OP, if he can't read in yr 3 then you should talk to the schol about extra help.

Schools should be hearing children read in guided reading time and recording their progress using the new APP criteria plus any other assessment tools they follow.
The problem may well be one of recording for parental scrutiny. I use APP record sheets with an AT and a SC for each activity and make specific notes per child. That then stays in my reading file for me to use the information.
I used to write comments in their RJ, but policy changed and now time constraints mean that I have time to write one comment whilst they read, and that's in my records. If I want to write in their RJ as well, I have to do that in my lunchbreak.
Go and ask the teacher what reading is being done in class and what records are being kept. Just because it's not in their RJ any longer may not mean that it's not happening.

DS in yr3 will only be listened to by the teacher once a term but guided reading is once a week.

I feel that children would benefit from being heard by the class teacher more regularly in Y3. Guided reading is often taken by parent volunteers in our school I believe. I think APP assessment can be fairly arbitrary with a class teacher perhaps subconsciously expecting to find a child close to their KS1 results in terms of potential and ability. Is it not possible that a child in the 'middle' of the class in terms of current attainment has the same skills and reading ability as a child at the 'top' that's being accelerated more quickly? If a teacher isn't regularly assessing children and reading with them how do they gauge real current ability and potential? We don't have a reading journal.

In our local prep the classes are small enough for the teacher to read regularly with the child and gauge progress and current attainment. I get the feeling they know the children better as they don't have the same pressures and their time isn't inevitably constrained.

Perhaps it doesn't matter as they all get there in the end anyway? Not sure.

In our school the children are heard by TA's or volunteers nearly everyday (mums, dads, grannies etc). Especially the children who struggle. My ds (dyslexic) is in year 4 and still reads regularly to someone. They also have guided reading once a week.
Maybe you could suggest this to the HT, or volunteer yourself?

Thanks everyone, just found it odd that we no longer got any comments or feedback regarding his reading. He is an ok reader, not brilliant and I just find it hard trying to teach him words he clearly not get... Thought that was what school was for (feel sorry for the kids who don't have parents who read with them at home, they are in essences lost already at the tender age of 7 as school don't really have time to teach them).
But thank you everyone, this has helped :0)

Dd1 rarely reads to anyone at school (1:1), i think they read as a class (take it in turns) and read on their own (silent reading), she brings a book home from school but TBH i never listen to her read the book as she already reads her own books at home and reads well.

OP please don't worry about children who are not heard to read at home (well you might want to, but not for the reason you say) - I am sure the school is teaching them to read!

They just don't do it by the time-extravagent method of hearing them one-by-one.

TAs and Parent Helpers probably do read with the kids who don't get read with at home.

Plus school will be teaching them to read all the time. Just not by listening to them 1:1. You need to read instructions and displays and worksheets and textbooks and the internet and your own work and your partners work.........

All children in our school up to Y6 read in guided reading group sessions. There are usually up to 6 children reading the same text. There's more to reading than just 'hearing' them. Reading is complex and even at 11, they need to be taught specific reading strategies and to improve comprehension. Teacher WILL NOT have time to 'hear' every child read individually, although some may benefit from the 1:1 if they have specific difficulties. Our children take home a Home Reader which is then checked by an adult in the class once every fortnight to check they are actually reading on a regular basis but no formal assessment is done about it. It's encouraged to get children into the 'habit' of reading.