Oxford Tree Reading Tree V's Read Write Inc Phonics (Ruth Miskin)

[craziedaisy]

DS is reception and has been doing ok with reading but I feel he has began to slow down. His books have been up to now on level 2 (red) of the OTR scheme but the last 2 nights he has been bringing home the Ruth Miskin books on level 1. He is not so happy reading them and prefers the OTR (Kipper, Biff etc!). I am a bit confused as these are level 1 books and the OTR are level 2. Does anyone know if they are parellel in the levels ie is he bringing home more basic books again or is level 1 on the Ruth Miskin higher than level 2 on the ORT?

I don't know the Ruth Miskin books so I can't help with level comparison, but as a general rule I would want a child in my Reception class to be able to read 80-90% of the words in a book independently but find a bit of a challenge in about 10%. If your son can read the whole book first time with ease, he probably needs a bit more challenge (but he may of course have read the same book at school before bringing it home, in which case it will seem like he finds it easier).

Why don't you just ask his teacher? Or put a note in his reading record. Teacher needs to know if you feel he has slowed down with his reading anyway - you could just mention it and ask teacher if she (or he) agrees.

The Ruth Miskin books are decodable and children who have got into the habit of ORT find them hard work because there is less repeated text and no clues in the pictures. I would't worry about the levels on the books as they are not directly comparable.

Is your son actually reading? That is, can he still read the ORT books without looking at the pictures? I wonder if Riverside Mum has a point about some children finding Ruth Miskin a bit harder because they have to decode rather than relying on the pictures.