Listening to children reading is not a good use of a teacher's time.

[seeker]

Honestly.

The children learn to read through all sorts of classroom activities. Reading aloud to an adult is only one small part of it, and one which can perfectly well be done by anyone who can read. So if you hear your child read every day, don't worry if he doesn't read to the teacher very often- he will be having lessons in all aspects of reading which he then practices at home with you, and in some schools on parent helpers, other volunteers, year 6s- anyone who will sit don with them for 5 minutes.

The teacher meanwhile is doing loads of other things- things which you need to be a trained teacher to do!

gaelicsheep UNESCO put the UK literacy level at 99% ... personally I would question the reliability of the DM

Gaelic, WHY is 10 minutes with your child (and nearly 5 hours when they WON'T be taught) going to teach them more reading than a properly planned half hour reading lesson with 4 or 5 other children in which they read, explore books answer questions and move on towards their next objective?? I don't get it.

Also, in case you missed it, I teach during small group activities. I teach a group. I challenge the most able, I work with a struggling group, I make certain that a group that is attempting a new task for the first time grasps it fully, I question children closely about what they are doing and why. I am not AVAILABLE to hear a reader because I'm teaching - just as when I teach guided reading, I'm teaching reading...

I'm not particularly bothered whether you believe me or not, gaelic - habitually 90 odd percent leave each year reading at level 4 and above, with the 2 or so children that do not typically leaving us to go to a special school (statements for autism, etc.) We usually get 75ish% level 5s, but dropped to 50% this year for reasons I won't bore you with.

We do not hear 30 readers individually every week. We teach for those 5 hours instead - most of it reading. Properly.

Five hours is one hour a day. I am not saying that children shouldn't be doing small group work at all, and surely this is when the teacher can take children out to hear them read. 5 minutes might even be enough, that's half an hour a day. I would prefer the TA was supervising small group work, especially if it's art or craft or whatever, and the teacher was helping the children learn to read - not the other way around.

I have no problem with a TA listening to my child(ren) read rather than the teacher. Once every half term with the teacher would be fine, imo. The TAs are trained to listen & help kids after all. Tbh I'd rather the teachers spent their time on other teaching activities. But I don't know how I'd feel if my child was struggling. You wouldnt want a problem like dyslexia or whatever to be missed, or even on a simpler level if the teacher hears a child who is having problems in a particular area (eg recognising 'ch') then they'll know they need to go over that again. However, if parents in general could relax about it then the teacher wouldn't need to listen to all the kids every week, then they could focus on listening on those who do need the extra help.

Who supervises the other 29 if a teacher is taking a child out to read?
I don't have a TA

UNESCO put the UK literacy level at 99% - perhaps UNESCO should ask universities and employers about that. And as for numeracy.

Gaelic, not sure why you aren't grasping this - I help children learn to read by teaching them to read. In guided reading. Properly planned, properly assessed, dedicated reading teaching for a whole half hour, directed at your child and a few others at the same level, in which your child will probably read for 5-10 minutes AND be taught AND answer questions AND explore a new book.

MUCH better than a quick 5 minute reading rehearsal with NO teaching input, which is what 'hearing readers' is.

Obviously my DS's class does have a TA, but I know that TA cannot spell for toffee herself. So excuse me if I don't have much faith in her abilities to help my DS become literate.

Why don't you have a TA mrz? Do you have a class of 30 KS1?

Absolutely no reason to apologise at all. I have a similar experience but in reverse! I too have had children join my class who have come from English schools. I have two nieces who live in England. I visit them regularly.

There are huge differences.

When my brother and SIL phone to ask for advice I am often at a loss as to how to advise them.

I would hope that children are not given worksheets just to 'be busy'.

I don't get this. I wouldn't dream of steaming in to a medical thread full of surgeons and presume to tell them that their way of performing open heart surgery is crap, their survival rate is too low and that I know how they should do it better, despite having not one jot of experience in medicine other than having been to the doctors!

We actually teach children to read every single day, gaelic - we know what works and what doesn't.

~~United Nations Educational Scientific and Cultural Organisation data

Gaelic:
Children in EY and KS1 get phonics lessons every day of the year, which teaches them how to read. I believe Scotland set this in motion with synthetic phonics.
They are also heard to read for about 20 mins or so once or twice a week in a small group with challenging texts (i.e. above their home reading level) in guided reading, which will enhance comprehension, vocabulary, expression, decoding, punctuation skills.
parents should also be reading with the children at home.
In other subjects at school, they talk, write and read.

5 minutes reading with the teacher and 3 hours messing around doing bugger all won't match all that.

So if you hear a child read, you aren't helping them to sound out words, helping them to find clues in the pictures, etc? In that case, what exactly is the point of the child having a reading book at all? What are we as parents supposed to be doing at home?

DH and I are very confused about exactly what methods, if any, are being used to teach DS to read at school. They're doing phonics, but those awful ORT books seem to be look and say style, or look at the picture and guess. We're not at all sure whether DS is supposed to be reading or memorising, although it seems to be the latter.

If it's art and craft () I'm usually teaching a specific skill and the teaching the small groups as they paint, etc. to improve their work throughout the session. Plus we only get an hour and a half Art a week. My afternoon subjects are PE X2, Science, ICT in the ICT suite, History, Geography, RE, Music, Design Technology, Art, PSHE and French.
We also have assemblies, but as I lead most I can't hear readers then. I do all but one afternoon playground duties, every morning playground duty and half an hour every lunchtime.

I do feel you are making assumptions without really understanding the full picture of how school works.

I have a TA for one lesson a day - I am certainly not going to waste hers/mine/the children's time making her supervise Art.

yes onefatcat I teach 30 Y2 pupils

without a TA

Forgot to say, no TA either.

Ah, there you do have a genuine bone to pick with your school, gaelic - they should not be sending home whole word reading skills for your dc to practise their phonic skills with.

Sound out words - done in phonics.

Find clues in pictures - what for? To help to read the words - no, that's done in phonics. To discuss how pictures enhance the information (and sometimes contradict the information, to humorous effect) in the text - done in guided reading, especially when comparing the role of pictures in fiction and non-fiction texts.

Reading book - for rehearsal at home of skills being directly taught in school, both in terms of the teaching of phonic decoding and the skills of comprehension, expression ec that are taught in guided reading. Agree with your comment on ORT, it's made many times here.

Gaelic, the phonics lessons teach them the sounds in words which they will put together in order to read. At the same time they will learn irregular words that they will need to read on sight. The phonics lessons (ours are 1 hour per day) are reading/spelling lessons.

I agree that sending home ORT books as first readers is silly. We are doing that (budget problems) but hope to invest in a some phonics-based home reading books soon.

Is there a reason why no TA? All the schools I have worked in and dds y2 class have at least some TA time each day- if only to change books and hear a few readers.

Ah - thank you! Actually DS's teacher intimated as much, but apparently they can't afford new books to match the new teaching methods (although the school can afford for the headteacher to swan off to god knows where in Europe every couple of months apparently).

The TA said not to worry the reading's all about memorising at this stage

Yes I have many bones to pick, and I'm very glad for the children of the UK that my problems with my DS's school are not universal. I am in the same position as an earlier poster, stuck with the local state school in the back end of nowhere. This is, however, supposedly a good school.

I know I'm not making myself popular, but honestly this thread is much more informative than anything else I've read on the topic recently. The problem is that there are too many people like myself with experiences like mine who, I'm afraid, will tar all teachers with the same brush unless told otherwise.