Great at reading words, not so good at punctuation, flow and inflection - move down a reading level?

[JesusChristBenton]

DD1 is 5. She can read most words. As a result she is on ORT level 10 (white band). In most of the books she is sent home with she has no problem with any of the words BUT her reading is slightly slow, she often forgets to pause at punctuation marks so the words loose meaning, she rarely puts emotion into her voice as she reads etc.

In these circumstances how can I help her reading? Its much harder than teaching her to sound out words, that was easy, how do I teach her to understand punctuation etc? Would it be better to move down a level or two and concentrate on these things? I am also worried that some level 10 books are aimed at older kids and the subject matter leaves her cold.

If she is reading at this level I would use normal story books rather than reading scheme books to develop her understanding of punctuation and how read with meaning

But how would you go about doing that Mrz. I try to talk to her about pausing at full stops and doing the character's voice is there are speech marks. These two things she sort of gets and often tries. I have got nowhere in explaining the comma, question mark etc.

DD does not love reading. She sees it as a bit of a chore. I fear this is because she has been put on such long books when she has only just turned five (ORT white level is often 32 pages long and she is expected to read 4 a week). Last week she was sent home with a book from another scheme, it was Hansel and Gretel, she loved it and was so excited that she asked to read it four times in one evening. It was the first time she has ever derived real joy from reading but so few of the school books are like that and the school is so strict about reading the books they send home.

Choose a book with clear sentence breaks and if they require silly voices all the better (picture books are often the best ORT most certainly isn't) and model how. She's 5 she needs to learn from doing and hearing.

Having the same problem as you. Also a 5 yr old on similar level.
I am reading much more simplistic texts at home to focus on flow and expression, noticing punctuation etc.

So far, only a teeny improvement if any.

I was going to ask the same Q as you. But, I'm thinking and hoping this will improve with time.

Am trying to make sure he notices how I read his bedtime stories. I'll ask him why I'm reading a question like this or why I changed my voice like that..

At that time of day, he's pretty tired so maybe I need to read to him earlier in the day.

Why not read sections to her in different ways - silly ways that don't help the words make sense and sensible ways that help you understand the meaning of the text, so that she can hear for herself the importance of tone of voice and pauses?

Is this a state or a private school? I would be seriously worried that they are turning her off reading permanently.

You read a page, then they read the same page straight after. Get them to dictate a sentence to you, you write it down then get them to read back. Hth.

it takes foreeeeevvvvvvvvvvvvvveeeeeeeeeeeeeerrrrrrrrrrrrrrrrrrrrr. (well it seemed like it) it does come. eventually after you have torn your hair out and screamed in frustration several times.

try to get her to read books she is familiar with and has had chance to hear you read to give her the idea. ask her to read it through to herself first and then read it to you. ask her to reread bits where she misses the full stop, show her how first. read her bedtime story in a monotone very quickly so she can hear how boring it can get. make a joke of it and pretend to fall asleep if she gets monotone (depends on her sense of humour)

My DD year 1 is reads some easier books alongside her school reader (ort 7 I think - turquoise) just for fun generally and I think its definitely helping her fluency and punctuation. We do lots of silly voices too. Some of the books she reads are just books she knows well from me reading them so again she knows the words already.

Thanks for all these tips. I got her to read Room on the Broom last night and we alternated reading each page so she could hear how I did it. It went better than usual but half the time she just forgets to look at the punctuation.

I also wrote a long note in her reading log about how the ORT books are putting her off especially as level 10 is aimed at older kids. I'm interested to see what response I get today. Her teacher is lovely but over worked (class of 31, two statemented children, many with English as a second language) and I expect she just hasn't had time to think about DD.