Reading in Reception

[Plonker]

If your child brought home books that she was struggling to read, would you ask for simpler books, or would you just get on with it?

Dd is struggling a little with the new books set on a new level. She could read the last level well, with a little guidance in places, but appears to be finding the new level rather difficult.

My instinct is to ask the teacher if she feels the level is appropriate, but then I think she wouldn't have given her the books if she didn't think she was ready for them, right?

Dd isn't particularly stressed by it, btw, however I'm finding that I'm reading quite a lot of it to her, rather than her reading it to me.

Any advice?

Is this the first book of the new level as I've noticed that the difficulty of some books within a level can vary quite a lot? Although they are not supposed to.

You say you're reading a lot of it to her but is she not sounding it out the new words? is it phonetically decodeable book or one with sight words in which would make it alot trickier?

The teacher should have assessed her so she should be on the right level and as she doesn't seem to be stressed by it, I wouldn't ask for her to go down a level. My dd tends to be much more stilted in her reading after a level change.

I'm sure someone will be along soon to give you some proper advice.

Yes, she gets two books a week and these are the first two in this level. The number of pages are quite daunting for her too.

She decodes words well and is quite good at chopping and blending. She finds the trickier words, well, tricky

I've just asked her if she wants to try again, she gave a very firm "no" answer, bless her. I've told her we'll have a go later and we'll read a page each ...she's a little happier with that suggestion.

I might write a comment in her book about her finding it difficult and take it from there. I'm very wary of her being put off reading (my older dd's are very reluctanct readers) but I don't want to piss the teacher off by insinuating that she hasn't assessed dd properly

I would comment that she had struggled a little with them and had required a fair bit of adult input. I often think ds3's reading books are a bit easy for him, however, I think that gives him confidence and he is always really keen to read. I do also think reading a page each is a good idea.

I used to read a page each with DS1 sometimes, particularly as the books got longer. I found it helped move the book along, and he often copied my reading style, so became more fluent.

I would keep going, but make a note in the reading record.

Also, the other thing we do (now with DS2) is to play around with the book, so look at the phonics the book covers, practice these first. Then read the book, and look for the phonics within the text. Sometimes it's easier than being confronted with a long book and just ploughing through it.

Was she reading the last level easily? I've found with both my DC that they have a period of adjustment when they move levels - they are so busy coping with longer stories/more complex sentence structure/no pictures that they seemingly forget how to read things they could easily read before. Also as has been said books do vary at the same level. I would continue to support as necessary and see how she gets on once she's got more used to the harder style of book.

I would just carry on with the books the teacher is issuing and if your DD struggles with a word, you just read it for her and don't let her struggle over it. When you write in the reading diary, you can write, DD read the book OK but could not read: x word, y word, z word....

That way, the teacher has full info to make a judgement.

I have also found that some levels are not that different from the previous level but some levels are quite a jump from the previous level.

I was always told that children should be getting 90% of words correct for a reading book, so it depends how many words she needs help with.
However, if it is really putting her off reading, then talk to the teacher.

Can I ask which reading scheme?

I did in year 1 with my DD. She had started a new level, was finding it more difficult and, most importantly, her confidence was ebbing away (she got really quite distressed at trying words and failing).

I wrote this in the book log and her teachers agreed to drop her back a to the old level, but sent double the books home in sstead.

DD then went to the new level a couple of weeks later. By which time, we had managed to build her confidence again.

She still found it tough but I was better prepared to help her and ready to slap on the praise!

Thank you for all your replies and input

redsky - yes, she could read the last level pretty well.

Mrz it's ORT.

I think red ORT is a huge jump from blue.
And within red is ridiculous differences of difficulty.
But what do I know!

And some orange is far easier than some red.

I found this useful in gauging how easy or hard an ort banded book should be. For example blue band books can be stage 3, 4 or 5 and if you include play scripts stage 6.

fds.oup.com/www.oup.com/pdf/oxed/primary/ort/BookBandListing2011.pdf

OP it may be worth looking at this.

Okay, looking at the link, one of the books is band green and the other is band blue.

I think I'll persevere a little longer but will write, as suggested, exactly what dd is struggling with. That way the teacher can re-assess if she thinks it's necessary. Is that the way it usually works?

Plonker there will be lots of words in ORT books your child (and most others) won't be able to read independently when they are first beginning to read. The best way is to tell her the word rather than let her struggle and become disheartened. It's the type of books being sent home not the level that is the problem. I'm sure give a decodable reading scheme book she would cope much better with the new level.

Mrz if you don't mind me asking what do you think of ginn books? They seem more easily decodable than ort. I can't bear kipp and floppy and co.

Well I sent all our Ginn 360 books to South Africa (which was probably very uncharitable of me). Ginn are Look and Say and rely on repetition of key words (although admittedly they don't introduce words like aeroplane as early as ORT )

I should say we do use Ginn in KS2 because there are some nice stories in the later books

Oh dear. Which scheme do you use?

I have a year 3 boy who read Ginn 360, and agree that the higher levels are good, but we found the lower levels tricky. he had to memorise a lot of words.

DS2 is in reception now, and the school have completely revamped their scheme books. He is reading the Songbirds books, and these seem great.

We have lots of phonic based schemes in reception and KS1
Songbirds
Phonics Bug
Rigby Star Phonics
Floppy's phonics sounds and letters
Project X phonics
Rag Tag Rhymes
Big Cat Phonics
and just introducing Rapid Phonics & Project X Code books

I introduce other books once children have the knowledge and skills to read them independently without needing to use pictures or initial letters to guess work out the words.

I should also say children share storybooks and non fiction books with adults for enjoyment but aren't expected to read them independently.

Slightly off topic, but following on from Mrz post, what do you do when your child is too lazy guesses a lot? I know that it is not because she doesn't know/ can't decode a word, as sometimes they will be words that she has reliably been reading for months. Just that she will start a sentance and then assume that she knows the ending without reading it. It is often the b**y ORT books. She is otherwise doing well, and has a cheeky smile when I catch her, so she knows she isn't taking care, and then will read the word with no difficulty. Any tips to stop dh doing the same; which don't cause an arguement would also be appreciated!

3duracellbunnies, your little girl predicting ('guessing') what might come next is an important part of the 'message-getting, problem-solving' process of reading. What then needs to happen is for her to check the storyline, picture, sentence structure and letter detail to confirm her attempts.

To become independent readers we need to learn to check things for ourselves. One of the best prompts to encourage independent problem-solving is "Try that again". If the error is repeated, try asking:
"Does that look right?" (if the print's being ignored)
"Does that make sense?" (if the sentence structure is wrong)
"Does that sound right?" (if the mistake doesn't fit with the picture or storyline)

Dear Plonker, (it's hard to write that and keep a straight face! ) try introducing the books to your daughter before she reads them by giving her a brief overview of the storyline and tackling some of the tricky words and phrases before she begins at page 1. That may help to give her some footholds to make her feel more secure with these more challenging books.

I agree with missmapp:
'children should be getting 90% of words correct for a reading book...
However, if it is really putting her off reading, then talk to the teacher.'

Your dd's enjoyment of reading has to be a priority, so let's make sure discouragement doesn't set in.

(My ideas come from Marie Clay - whose decades of research into early literacy produced the Reading Recovery Programme)

Mrz; My dd's very small school only has the old-fashioned ORT books. She moved from First Words to First Sentences. Does it help if I add Songbirds or Floopy's Phonics which I could borrow from the school where I work? Will that make reading easier for her or just confuse matters?