Yr 3 DD and reading levels frustration - wwyd?

[PiedWagtail]

DD is in Yr 3 and has always been a fab reader. She's very confident, can read anything - is reading Enid Blyton, Harry Potter, Michael Morpurgo, lots of horrible histories and non-fiction etc and is on green level at school.

I asked her teacher at parents eve if she can go up a level as she has been on green since November and is getting bored with the books as she can read them so easily, and also demotivated. Teacher agreed but, after parents eve, got a note in book bag from TA saying that she has to read more green books first!

WTF! What would you do, leave it or go and see teacher again??

Do you mean Lime?

Anyway, I would drop a polite note. Sounds like a miscoummunication between teacher and TA.

This document is interesting for getting an idea of what they are expecting between levels.
education.staffordshire.gov.uk/NR/rdonlyres/6276FB49-C18C-4C1A-86AA-EAD1CF4E8E29/17210/BookBandsNCReadingLevels.doc

Personally I'd just go to the local library and let her choose anything she wants to read. Don't really understand book levels for good readers.

You must mean lime, not green, surely? Is there competition amongst her peers to be the first "Free Readers?"

They call it 'hard green' in our school - and the stickers are dark green - it's after blue and before silver. Andyes of course there's competition - you're talking about 8yo girls!! ;-)

What's actually inside these books? Why is your daughter finding them so easy? Do they have any interesting vocabulary in them? Or are the children being asked to read them simply for the sake of reading them?

Bizarre. Just nod and smile and take her to the library. If she's whiz zing through them in 5 minutes just think of it as an exercise in discipline, rather than reading.

If you choose school you have to put up with a fair amount of pointless time wasting across the board.

Important for her to know you are sticking to the teacher's rules though. (however pointless you think they are in private).

Not familiar with these books though, can't comment on levels or whatnot. Our s hooks were happy for kids to just free read once they were out of levels. Yr r, yr r, and yr 1 for mine. Yr 3 is juniors. Round our way only the children who were struggling were on reading schemes in junior schools, although I gather some of the schemes may have been extended now. (dd2 is 8, so same year.) she hasn't read a scheme book since yr r.

All schools are different. Your job is to agree wholeheartedly with the teacher, (for reading. Because it really doesn't matter, as she is reading for pleasure elsewhere) and make sure dd does as she's told.

It's important to stick to teacher's rules even if you think they're pointless? Heh, what? Surely only an idiot does something pointless.

On the other hand, the fact that one person thinks it's pointless, doesn't mean that it actually is.

learnandsay you see, people whose children are already in school will give similar responses as on the other thread regarding supporting the teachers in front of your child.

I think your school may have a different scheme (Actually haven't ORT recently shuffled the book bands) as on our scheme green comes after blue and before orange.

I would continue to let her read what she wants at home if she is enjoying it.

But actually, as you were given a different message at parent's consultation, I would ask to have a quiet word with the teacher if she doesn't move in the next week or two.

It maybe that they are being given more challenging work in guided reading or something (clutches at straws)

Allotmentlottie, can I just say thank you for your link

I have been looking for something similar for months and never found it. Really useful.

Learnandsay - not at this age. At this age it's important for the child to see home and school as united on things as pointless to get het up about as reading levels.

Plenty of time later for children to understand that parents and adults can have different views on things.

If you take the 'school' option, it's only fair on your child to maintain solidarity with the system for the first few years. Otherwise you are setting them up for problems.

Only in front of the child, obv.

You can disagree as much as you like.

But a parent saying 'mrs x is talking rubbish and this book is no good for you. That school are hopeless and they don't know what they are doing, just ignore it and don't read it' is setting up their child for a whole host of turmoil.

School is to teach kids to do as they are told initially, not to weigh up whether they want to comply or not.

Later on they can get into personal choice.

If you don't want children to blindly follow their teacher's instructions for primary school, remove them and home ed. if you choose a system, you owe it to the child not to confuse them by setting them up to have to choose between mum and their teacher.

Plenty of time to develop into well rounded human beings capable of rational thought and decision making later.

Thanks all :)

madwomanintheattic, I wish there was a 'thumbs up' button!

• were

bloody hell

AllotmentLottie very interesting link. Learning opportunities according to book bands are particularly interesting.

I would want to know what the teacher's reasons were, not because I doubt them but because they probably know things I don't about developing reading.

My DD2 is predicted a 5c in reading at the end of this year - she's in Yr4. The school have recently brought in a reading scheme that's aimed at readers beyond L3, this is new to them and I'm pleased, because it will enable my DD and her teacher to evidence what she is doing - I would think this is much harder with non-scheme books ? My DD's teacher knows she reads a lot at home and is happy for her to bring her own books in as well as reading the scheme books - the flexibility works. The new scheme books are entertaining books too, not hard for her but they hold her interest. Perhaps something similar could work for you and your DD, OP?

My DS is also yr 3 and has a high reading age (11.5, comprehension higher), but is on level 13 of the reading scheme, which he find painfully simple (reads in 10 minutes). However, I make him read the book (3 times to get his team points) then let him read whatever he likes at home and write it all down in the reading record. The teacher has commented how it shows that he is really well read and to keep it up!

He goes through long books in 3-4 days and something like a Roddy Doyle Rover book in an evening. I would be holding him back by keeping him on the scheme books only.

[I think they are keeping him on scheme books is that his writing age is significantly lower (dyslexic) and they want him to do book reviews of 'simpler' books.]

mrsbaffled What colour is level 13 at your DC's school? I am a bit that he could read a book in 10 minutes and then a further two times; what kind of books are they? The fiction books at my DD's school at their level 13 would certainly not be able to be read in 10 mins, think 150-200 page chapter books. Just curious.

No colour, just a number on the spine. They are fiction books, quite small text with some pictures every few pages. Only about 50-60 pages, though. He read this last week www.amazon.co.uk/Oxford-Reading-Tree-TreeTops-Pirate/dp/019916925X (it's level 14, but rebranded as 13 for DS's school)

He IS a fast reader.

I think the level refers to the complexity of the language and difficulty of the vocabularly, rather than actually how long it is. The books above was interesting because it was wirtten in the voice of a pirate. They are shorter stories, but designed to give a wide breadth of writing styles.

Just a thought but does your DD pick out her own books? If so, does she always pick the same "sort" of book? When DS was last moved up a level the teacher was keen for him to first show that he'd read a variety of books - fiction (different sorts),non-fiction, poetry, play script etc.

though if this were the case it would be helpful for your DD to be told :)

DS is in yr3 and all the children are still reading scheme books. It is to ensure the breadth of non-fiction, poetry, plays etc. How many DC choose a poetry book from the library over Fairies or Astrosaurs? Bet you can't even find an age appropriate play.

Agree with madwoman.

There's play scripts in ORT, I think about level 6-7.

OP here - DD does pick a mix of fiction, non-fiction (plays are very few and far between!!). She's on the top readng level in her class. Am at the poster who said that her dc were free readers by Reception or Year 1!! Doesn't happen in our school. At all. (And ours is an OFSTED Outstanding school)

I think "Free Reader" means different things in different schools. My friend was shocked DS wasn't a free reader when her DS was....I thought it meant being able to choose any books at all from the library (incl novels), whereas she thought it meant choosing any books her DS liked from the band 10 box (so 'free' as in free to choose rather than having to read the book the TA assigns them).

In our school they can be 'free readers' (by my definition) in year 2, but are put back on the reading scheme in year 3.