Please help ORT and reception - totally confused

[Alexironingboard]

My DS is almost 5 and started reception in September. I am very happy with his progress since starting school. Parents evening (conference) was in September and concentrated on how DC were settling into school. The main parent's evening isn't until March 2012. I feel the comments made by teaching staff are being lost in translation and it feels like I should be more aware of how this system works. It is very difficult to talk to teaching staff without other parent's being there.

I have no experience of Oxford Reading Tree and am very confused. The ORT Chart doesn't really help; I think the books used in my DS's school are different??? The book band and ORT stage colours in this chart are different from those on the books my DS has. He is on green 'Stage 2 Stories' also annotated 'Book Band 3 Yellow'. I think this set of books mean he is reading age group 5- 6 - which is more or less his age group. I think book band Lime , ORT Stage purple 11 should be reached by most children by age 7 - is this correct?

He received 3 books at half term with the comments 'He is on stage 2; there aren't many of them. Let's see how he gets on'. He immediately read all three books quite well but needed help with new words like 'concrete and pair'.
Thanks

Does anyone understand ORT?

You could have a look at the Oxford Owls website.

www.oxfordowl.co.uk/

ORT is rather complicated as it has changed substantially over the past 3-4 years but schools obvioulsy still have many of the older books. These were not phonic books so the ORT stage may well not match up with the reading band colour. So whereas now Stage 2 is BB red, previously Stage 2 might have been BB red or yellow. ( If you know the name of his current book we can try to check!) Obvioulsy if he is being taught phonics, the books he reads should ideally be phonic based too-which the new ORT books shown on the chart are-but this doesn't always happen!. You would hope Lime would be reached before the end of Yr 2

Hope this helps!

Thanks Duchess - free ebooks look like a great idea to me. I'll take a good look at this site.

Snowball this helps a lot. They ones I have must be the old set - 1986 updated 2008; that is why the chart doesn't correspond. A search of 'What a Bad Dog' brings up two versions.

Reading other ORT threads some DC are obviously way ahead but I am happy with his progress. He is about where he should be imho.

Yes, What a Bad Dog ( the original version!) was a Stage 2 but Yellow Band book. Yellow band includes some books from stage 2 up to stage 4!

And you are quite right not to be worried about the level of books he is reading, Yellow Band is perfectly acceptable ( indeed pretty good!) for someone who only started reading in September.

Thanks again snowball

I think some parents remember Kipper, Chip and the gang and seem to know all the jargon. Off to google Fred Talk.

Its strange, last year when my eldest was in reception (a littly with a July birthday) I was worried about reading levels a bit.

Now she's all grown up and in year 1 I see that it really, really doesn't matter what level they are at. Each level is only designed to reinforce a new sound or phonic and give them practice at it. Once they have mastered that sound they'll move up.

Please don't stress about levels, it sounds like your DS is doing just fine.

Not worried about levels as much as decoding comments about progress and ORT jargon in general.

'He is on stage 2' - should I have welled up?
There aren't many of them' - books in the series? Still .
Let's see how he gets on' - fine

Fred is the Read Write inc frog who can only talk in sounds!

Each level is only designed to reinforce a new sound or phonic and give them practice at it. ilovedjasondonovan unfortunately the old ORT doesn't do this but still good advice Please don't stress about levels