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Year 1 reading levels and teacher support

51 replies

Dentvincent · 30/09/2012 12:07

DD has just started year 1 and seems to have slipped with her reading. Im not sure if she is being missed at school or isnt moving on at all. School sorts books into different boxes and there seems to be a mixture of different ort books in each box. She started on their box 8 in reception and is now on 20. She was on 20 when she left reception. I'm now looking more closely at these books and there is a big variation. Todays one is level 1 again!! Is there method here - last week she had level 3 but same box. I'm also getting slightly concerned about how often she is being read with at school - so far once all term! We read every night with her and she seems to gallop through most of her books but as they are being set for phonics from 1/2 term, how can they assess her if they don't read with her?

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mrz · 30/09/2012 16:03

The coloured book banding system has been around for a couple of decades and was intended to make it easier for teachers to match books from different schemes to the same level as publishers all had their own systems. Publishers have been using the colours for over ten years

pantaloons · 30/09/2012 16:08

So it will work out okay then mrz? At the moment they see it as a step backwards, but if it's a tried and tested method I am more than prepared to tell them to give it more of a chance.

mrz · 30/09/2012 16:09

For every so called rule there are so many exceptions that the rule is no longer a rule I'm afraid.

In English we have 44 sounds (slight variation according to accent) but we only have 26 letters in our alphabet so some sounds are written with 2, 3 or more letters. To further complicate things in English one sound can be spelt in different ways.

in day, in paid, in cake, in break, in they, in eight in straight, in apron

but one spelling can also represent more than one sound so in go and in got and in son ...

Tgger · 30/09/2012 18:32

Well, at primary age we tell a lot of "lies to children". When teaching about all sorts of things we give explanations that aren't entirely true, as we are giving age appropriate responses. In a way I see some of these old ways of teaching reading as just that. They work for a while, give the child something to grasp onto that they can then expand when given more information.

mrz · 30/09/2012 18:36

They aren't lies Tgger they are misinformation think about it as you teaching your child that 1+1 =11 think how confused they will be when the teacher insists that 1+1=2

Campaspe · 30/09/2012 18:44

I really don't think that you should be panicking yet. I had a browse on the TES primary forums, and there's a thread there with Year 1 teachers comparing what book levels their children are on. With a few exceptions, the majority of them are saying pink or red ie books for beginning readers as far as I can see. This seems quite a bit different from MN, where a lot of Year 1 children are apparently free readers, and/or on chapter books.

Just how common is it for a Y1 child to be a free reader? I'm certainly not aware of any in DD's class.

mrz · 30/09/2012 18:47

It depends how many reading scheme books the school has ... not enough so let's call them a free reader!

Tgger · 30/09/2012 19:18

Well, I'm not sure that's the case mrz. The methodical phonics approach is all well and good but there are lots of "but not in this case", or well, there's this alternative and that alternative too. Eg, DS had been learning the "ai" or "ay" or indeed " a-e" sound. Then he needed to write the word "great". Mummy, how do you write the "ay" in great- well it's not either of those is it and "ea" doesn't normally make "ay" does it, but it did in this case. Beat, heat, wheat, seat etc, but great too.

mrz · 30/09/2012 19:34

If a child has been taught that are all ways to write the sound /ay/ and they select the wrong one then it's a simple matter to say "Do you know other ways to write that sound?" if he does then all it takes is "in this word we write the /ay/ sound this way." If he doesn't just tell him.
But if it's been drummed into him that "when two vowels go out ........" then you say we write the /ay/ it puts an extra step in the process

Tgger · 30/09/2012 20:22

Don't worry I didn't even know that rhyme before Grin. I can see why it was used though, rather like the magic e, it's an easy thing to grasp, whereas all the different combinations of sounds take rather longer.
And yes, I did just tell him as "ea" isn't that common for that sound is it, it normally makes a different sound.

learnandsay · 01/10/2012 10:42

Simplicity has its virtues.

learnandsay · 01/10/2012 10:44

mrz, working with the teacher doesn't extent to having dictated to me what I will or won't teach my children or how I'll teach it. Any teacher who thinks that's possible isn't living in reality.

Tgger · 01/10/2012 10:57

I agree it's best not to confuse kids, but we "confuse" kids all the time. English language is confusing.

schmee · 01/10/2012 13:13

Given that the OP's DD's teacher doesn't have time to her read, I'd have thought she'd be glad of any intervention or help from the parent to help the child progress.

My child's teacher uses "magic e" btw, so I don't think it's a rule that people don't use that nowadays.

mrz · 01/10/2012 17:09

That's OK learnandsay you are of course free to teach your child any wrong information you so wish.

mrz · 01/10/2012 17:12

It was actually in a government guidance document that we shouldn't teach magic e or ie before e except after c ect and before that it was also in the National literacy framework schmee for very good reasons.

schmee · 01/10/2012 20:37

I'm sure there are very good reasons not to refer to magic e, but if teachers are using a variety of methods (and children are coping with this), perhaps it's not so awful if parents do their level best to support their children's development?

mrz · 01/10/2012 20:53

Teachers in different schools may be using different methods (we know they are by the data from the phonics screening check) but that's very different to learning something at home that contradicts what you are being told at school. Children who have been taught Look and Say often have problems when they change schools, just as children who start school having been taught to do something at home often find it difficult when school does it a different way, which is why I say work with not against the school.

mrz · 01/10/2012 20:58

As a teacher I value parental support, it makes my job so much easier when parents take an active interest.

Elibean · 01/10/2012 21:53

Just out of curiosity (dd1 was taught the 'magic e', but dd2 is not - presumably as guidelines changed in between the two) - what was the problem with 'magic e'? Just 'its not magic'? Confused Or that the rule has too many exceptions?

mrz · 01/10/2012 22:04

Yes there are exceptions - give, live, have ...and it isn't magic it's just half of a pair of letters that represent a sound with another letter in between... if a child knows is /ee/ then is still /ee/ and is still /oe/ and is still /ie/ (with some exceptions)

Noomininoo · 01/10/2012 22:23

So glad to hear that campaspe as I was starting to feel a bit inadequate.

My YR1 DD1 is on ORT 5 (green level) which I was assured by her teacher was very good. She's not a natural reader & has struggled every step of the way to get to that point so I was feeling pretty pleased with her.

Coming on here, however, I find so many threads about reading levels &, almost without exception, everyone else's YR1 DC seem to be so far ahead of my DD1 I was starting to get a bit concerned that teacher wasn't being entirely honest with us.

It seems reading levels (& reading in general) is a real obsession on MN. Parents are worried about books not being changed often enough, their DC being given books that are 'too easy'/too boring/too short/not challenging enough etc etc etc. I'm all for encouraging a love for reading but they're 5yo fgs, cut them a little slack...

Inneedofbrandy · 01/10/2012 22:29

My YR2 dd was taught magic e last year and my YR1 ds is being taught magic e. I'm actually quite worried about ds reading he didn't get it at all in reception, and is now gradually getting it. Only moved up to slightly harder keywords like are this week.

Runoutofideas · 02/10/2012 10:42

I agree Noomininoo - my yr 1 dd is also on green level. I am really pleased with her progress as she enjoys maths more than reading and is the youngest in the class, but if you go by what is written on here sometimes you start to think that they are struggling when, in fact, they are doing really well.