Reading with the teacher in Y3?

[Cortina]

In our school there is little, virtually none, individual reading with the teacher in Y3. Children are in graded 'guided reading' groups where they concentrate on comprehension etc. These groups generally stay the same. We have 30 in our class. They tell us they think parents should be doing the individual reading at night. 20 mins a night is the suggested amount.

My question is surely reading with the teacher would also add value? Children could be more accurately assessed and progress noted?

Does it work the same way in Prep schools?

Apart from once a term maybe, my children never read with the teacher one-to-one, all their actual reading was done in guided reading. But children learn reading in Literacy, and phonics especially, so I've never thought the one-to-one was important. At the school I work at we do the 'teaching' of reading and the parents do the 'consolidating'. We occasionally have helpers in to listen to readers.

Personally I like individual reading but that is very much against how schools/teachers have been told to teach by the government and advisers.

Has the teacher said that they concentrate on comprehension in guided reading? Guided reading covers fluency, expression, discussion and sorts of stuff in our school.

Yes, it I believe it covers those things too, Lee.

Mrz - why??

Guided reading is promoted as a more effective use of teacher's time. The teacher can focus on teaching a group who are at a similar level the skills they need to progress. In theory there should be movement between groups however if you are moving all pupils in the group on (as should happen) the difference in ability will remain.

Ideally, as I see it, time should be made for both individual reading and guided reading. Thanks for explanation, mrz.

But if it was a weekly thing then a lot of the time the other 29 children are doing unsupervised activities. Children who are behind or don't get listened to at home hopefully get focussed TA time at school, either in a group or individually.

The curriculum is so overcrowded I'm afraid

It happens in KS1 though? We find time then?

I was talking about KS1. Doesn't happen here!

Really? The teacher doesn't listen to the children read individually in KS1?

Hi Cortina:

What you describe seems to be the case at our DDs school. So it means that reading at home with children reading out loud to you is really important. It also means that you should also add in some of your own book choices, especially if book selection at school isn't riveting listening.

I'm rather evil, so DDs are forced to read Charlottes web with me. DD2 was too young still, so we had her read the odd easy sentence, but DD1 had to read every other page with me. I think it is important that you read to - the power of not asking them to do anything you're not doing yourself.

My feeling is that higher ability groups get very little direct teaching input, but are supported by TAs, Middle level group depends on their ability level - if they need a bit of shoring up, they will get a teacher working with them 1 or 2 times a week, but the focus will be on the lower ability group and improving their reading skills/ comprehension.

This is in the interest of the entire class - because poor reading skills spill across to other areas of the curriculum - reading instructions, following captions on a diagram, etc... which ultimately slow down or misinform group work in other subject areas. It's hard to engage with history, for example, if you're a struggling reader.

Once a half-term max. Maybe a handful ad-hoc if not progressing as expected. Obviously the children go up levels when ready and not just when the teacher does one-to-one. Personally I don't think any more is doable.

As I said Cortina teachers are expected to do guided reading and not "waste" time hearing individual readers

My ds1 has never had individual reading with a teacher regularly - maybe once/twice a year to assess?

He is severely dyslexic so this did come as something of a shock to me as he really needs the help. I remember reading to my teacher as a child 1-1 (back in the 1970s)

Ds1 reads each night the books he gets from the school library are dire. He reads books from home he finds interesting.

Thing is though...the school have an accelerated reader programme. Ds1 is on 2.8 (whatever the hell that means ) but at home he can read an Usbourne Level 3 reader Which I think means he is at NC level 3c?

Its VERY confusing!

What value do you think it would add?

I assume you're talking about children who can read fluently. And assessing them and moving them on is about inference and comprehension etc.

A child who still learning to read in Y3 is different. But in that case reading once a week with a teacher still won't help. (they'll need ore help than that)

My Y3 DS who is fluent is listened to by his TA (not sure how often). I don't know why or how it's meant to help him. He can read.

What he needs now is more reading practice. Of longer and harder texts.

Do you mean the Usbourne Young Reading level 3 because there are also First Reading level 3

There is no individual reading with the teacher throughout school in dd's primary. Children are assessed and assigned a level each term and more often sometimes. Children choose books from that level (all books in the library are given levels) to read at home. No one has to follow a reading scheme either.Children who might not get support from home are listened to by a TA during assembly time or at library club at lunchtime.There is a Rocket Reading scheme in place to boost the children who are maybe struggling.It seems to work dd hasn't read to a teacher apart from the assessments throughout school, now in year 4 she loves to read and reads well and I seem to have avoided Biff, Chip et al

I have 30 children in my year 3 class, if I spent 10 minutes with each child listening to independent reading it would take 5 hours. That means each child would be doing something with no teacher input for 4 hours and 50 minutes (about 1 day of teaching time) and still I would only hear each child once a week which would have limited impact.

We do guided reading, group input on letters and sounds for those that still need it and a 'priority' reader list for those that are below free reading and need extra support- essentially my TA will hear them read as often as possible and then will hear others if there is extra time. Most of my class can read fluently and need to work more on understanding the text and other things discussed above so we do that in ability grouped guided reading.

My son is currently the most able in his guided reading group, rather a theme that's followed him through primary school. Not necessarily negative although I've always felt he benefits from working with those with higher current attainment.

I'd rather he was really challenged as opposed to continually working within his comfort zone. I also feel he'd benefit from hearing some really sharp insights and opinion in the next group up.

That said, he's doing well. I feel that there are huge benefits to hearing a child read individually. Personification, synonyms/metaphors, alliteration, sibilance, what complicated words mean - all can be touched upon when they are encountered. My son came across Edgar Allan Poe and his story about the Purloined Letter for example. He's 7 and he had no idea. I was able to try to help. A teacher could really expand and explain and add to understanding. I don't always have the time. A stand alone assessment at the beginning of term won't always show all a child can do and in our class the groups are all exactly the same number. I don't feel children are always developed as they might be.

But in guided reading the teacher is hearing each child read individually. They each take turns reading a line, a paragraph, a page, a character in a play.

So discussing alliteration etc can be done with the whole group rather than just one child.

It is very easy to differentiate in guided reading. The teacher will be asking your DS harder questions than other children.

Sorry Cortina but do you really think a teacher has time to do that with 30 pupils every day and still teach all other subjects

I do hear you, MrZ. I'ts just I feel that my son gained so much from the one-on-one reading in KS1. They seemed better able to gauge his developing ability. He was also heard individually once a week by a TA and sometimes a parent too. We're told that one-on-one reading is vital even when your child can read reasonably fluently.

Indigo - in our school guided reading often seems to be 10-15 minutes once a week. A short passage is read usually silently by all the children in the group and then there are a few questions which are answered in exercise books. Some get through more questions than others. The teacher will ask a few questions orally and one or two will answer the bulk, all will write a similar answer in their book.

Do any schools do it differently? I appreciate it's probably a 'nice to do' rather than a 'need to do' and resources are limited and properly better allocated elsewhere.

mrz sorry - young reading level 3

my son is currently the most able in his guided reading group

My ds3 is in P1 and is a really good reader. I know this as he reads magazines, newspapers, cereal boxes and computer game instructions and appears to have good comprehension as he can follow the instructions. I know he is in the top reading group in the class at the moment as he tells me what books everyone is reading but I have no idea where he is in his group and am amazed that they would tell you.

In ds's school the children read individually to the classroom assistant once or twice a week and to a P7 buddy weekly. They do guided reading daily and are heard by the teacher individually every couple of weeks. We don't have parent helpers as there have been several incidents where confidentiality was breached and it was stopped.

I think the reading you do at home is the most valuable in consolidating their learning.