Reasing help ks1-fluency? how to improve

[mam29]

dd year 2

got 1b reading last year.

This year readings progressed does seem like its clicked.

Last term felt books were too easy and kept having to say to teacher to reveiw.
We were limited to reading 4pages a night which took week half to read a book had to work through books in sequenece and work way up levels they only had ort/ginn 360 ended term ginn level 5.

The teacher kept going on about how its not just decoding its reading comprehension-we ask her questions after each story so really struggled to work out what issue was.

Anyways she started new school been there a week.
They not so preoccupied with levels like old school was.
theres no limit on how many books they can read.
euther child or parent can pick book ourselves from libary.

feels so weird, they use variety of reading schemes plus online bug club.

I was speaking to teacher she said

shes strong at phonics knows all her sounds
shes can decode
no issues with comprehension.

She needs to improve her fluency?

what does this mean

we read a lot at home as mentioned before old school reading scheme was boring, limited and slow.

it appears shes moving down a guided reading group with average year 2 and some year 1s.

The school seems very focussed on reading and thinking thats a good thing.
teacher just said keep reading with her.

[simpson]

It sounds like she is on the right path and tbh I think it's important to nurture a love of reading in her and then she will want to read iyswim.

3 sub levels in one academic year is more than do-able....

[mam29]

wigglywoowoo-do hope so , wish year 2 dident have added pressure of sats. shes got 1b so needs to climb up 3sublevels to reach 2b,

Not sure if reading level should match up to nc level as end of term 1 ort level 3 as below a 1b.

Shes on ginn level 5 still that should be roughly equivilant to 1a/2c according to reading chart.If they do match up then hopefully between now and sats she has time to get to where she needs to be,
Do worry I lost 8weeks last term as school were holding her reading back.

last school just used ort and ginn 360 and had levels.

new schools has loads diffrent reading programmes not colour banded just comes out of numbered boxes in libary we been told to work way through box 6 then start on box 7.

Tonight we logged onto pearsons bug club as been given school log on, user name and pasword.

we read 2books 1 non fiction meerkats-quite tricky one. Then jack and beanstalk. dd read through it then we pressed read story and voice reads the story and exagerates the voices ect. it had list of comprehension questions and she got bug points.

So thinking every night as we no longer have pressure of numeracy homework or spellings tests we read one old fashioned book from libary and 1 bug club book then other other weekend go local libary and make commitment to take more books out.

I think i need to read more stories with her as thourght letting her doing the reading was good thing.

for xmas will get few new books and considering some story cds too.

I read goldilocks with 3year old tonight and realised i do natually raise/lower my voice and use diffrent voices to differentiate characters think some short simple storys lend themselves to that approach whilst others do not.

I also think the old school had obession with just moving up the levels and streaming-they dident instill a love of learning and were very controlling,

Some of the parents but mostly the kids in dds old class were very competative and used to know what each other was on and dd would come home crying saying she she was bottom table and never going to catch up.

[wigglywoowoo]

Glad that she is settling in ok, the new school does sound much better than the old one! 2b from what you've said sounds an achievable end of year target especially if she is trying hard. I agree that there has been some good advice on here.

mrz I am one of those adults who finds reading fluently aloud while doing different voices difficult No problems until I get to books like current bedtime story - Charlie and the Great Glass Elevator and it is much harder to predict who is going to speak next, which slows me down. I've also never had much need to read aloud but practice is slowly making me perfect.

[mam29]

Thanks guys some useful advice.

wigglywoo yes moved her to village school which is half size class of 29mixed year 1 /2 done one week going well.

Old teacher led us to belive it was comprehension holding her back.
feelt e hit a road block now i understand what school need for her to progress hopefully we can move foward.

The aim is 2b by end year 2 and hopefully be confident reader who enjoys books.

Unsure what to do in terms of stop start as shes clearly still thinking and decoding some of the text.

will try reading to her more using diffrent voices..

Do like the read with attitude.

Im worried the old school have held her back by being so slow, restrictive and formal.

when teacher told her she choses her books she mwas amazed.

she loves no fiction and we have 2of those in her reading folder.

Think they do songbirds for lower level.

Also logging onto bug club later.

[mrz]

No the different voices aren't essential but they do indicate that this 5 year old boy understands what he is reading and that he finds reading enjoyable ... it also shows that he is reading fluently as he smoothly moves from one to the other appropriately (something some adults find difficult) and this is when reading a book he hasn't previously seen.

[Malaleuca]

I use the books from www.piperbooks.co.uk for fluency building.

They are one of the best series of decodables, gradually increasing in complexity, without introducing too much new vocabulary in any one story, yet continuing to give practice of all that has gone before.
They are short story format. They do not overcue as some decodables do.

I do fluency work with books that are already 'mastered', not those presenting new material, or with the sub-skills. One sub-skills is knowing all letter-sound correspondences to automaticity - not just knowing them!

I like 'reading with attitude' - my phrase is 'read like you talk'.

There are data for reading fluency for children. www.readnaturally.com/pdf/oralreadingfluency.pdf

[wigglywoowoo]

Thanks that sounds reasonable :O)

Mam29 sorry for the hijack. It sounds like she has settled in ok and that she is at a school much more suited to her. Did you move her to the village school you posted about?

[simpson]

Not sure about 6 different voices, DD certainly wouldn't (she is in reception) but she would use a very different voice when someone is speaking to the rest of the text iyswim...

[wigglywoowoo]

Thanks Simpson that is a fab suggestion. So they are really required for example to use 6 different voices for the 6 characters in an ORT book?

[simpson]

She is still very young...

When I think back to how DS read in yr1 (ie with very little expression at all!!)

One thing that does seem to be working is to try and find simpler books than they can read normally.

DS (yr3) read one of DD's song birds books (stage6) which was a play and he had to come up with a different voice for each different character he was reading (both kids loved doing it as they got to read together)...

[wigglywoowoo]

She's just turned 6 in Y1. I just think she doesn't have the confidence to do this yet but as she reads well the teacher expects more from her.

[simpson]

How old is your DD??

DS is quite shy too so this is not helping....

[wigglywoowoo]

Sorry to hijack but are different voices for each character necessary to be reading with expression(attitude)? DD will do sad, angry, happy etc but not in a different voice. Her teacher has indicated that she would like more expression but DD is quite shy and I don't think she will ever do other voices.

[simpson]

Sorry for hi- jack OP

Sounds like your DD will do so much better at this new school

[simpson]

I like the reading with "attitude" I might stealtry that!!

I do re-read passages to him exactly how he has read it and then re-read it again with expression and ask him which one he would rather listen too.

He is not totally wooden in his reading (far from it) but he does need to work on it....

[mrz]

I used to tell my Y2 class I wanted them to read with "attitude" ...they understood that better than with expression

[mam29]

Thanks simpson.

her confidence during year 1 and last term knocked keeps saying shes bad at reading , she never catch up. The kids were very competative knew what levl books and boxes they were on.

I do think at times she sees reading as a chore boring and frustrating.

she did read an early readers orien chapter book and loves it as felt she was reading grown up book.

We praise her constantly her reading has improved.


Im sure reading more to her and dd reading wider variety other than dreaded ort will help she loves no fiction books, loves going to libary and completed reading challenge over summer. Her new school seems much less formal and more fun.

[Ferguson]

I used to tell my 'flat' readers that they sounded like a robot, and modelled the sentence in a halting robot voice; they found this very amusing, and soon got the idea!


{I do hate these US spell checkers that tell me there is only one 'l' in 'modelled' ! But it is Ubuntu Linux, and it's free, so I shouldn't really complain.}

[simpson]

The OP's DD I mean....

[simpson]

When you read, you naturally exaggerate the words to make the book more exciting so it is different from every day speech...

[simpson]

I think if you read to your kids a lot then then reading with expression should come naturally to them.

Obviously in some cases it doesn't.

But I read to DD every day and she reads with fantastic expression, DS who has refused a bedtime story since he was 5 because it was babyish does not and has to work on it now.

I think in the OP's case, it is probably due to her lack of confidence in reading over issues with her previous school iyswim and the obsession with reading levels and only allowed to read 4 pages per night (WTF)...

[mam29]

Thanks guys that makes sense.

We read with her frequently last nite read three little pigs and tried to mimic the wolfs soft voice.

She can read all the books getting 95%words corect but guess their are some pauses/stops and starts as she thinks and decodes.

Felt the old school were holding her back and she was starting to hate reading and get upset most of class were higher levels.

New teacher says shes not as confident as other kids in her class wants her to read widely and enjoy reading.
There is no homework apart from reading so hoping by end of year 2 can embed some good reading techniques ready for juniors .

Old teacher never mentioned fluency just comprehension and she was so bored as couldent read whole book.

will read a book each night and maybe online bug club enthuse her more too.

would audio books help do you think? if teh demonstrate and use expressive voices?

[learnandsay]

So, simpson, how would you distinguish what you're saying from reading with expression? Or are you simply saying that you believe children reading fluently should also naturally read with expression?

[mrz]

I have a girl in my Y1 class who reads every word correctly without any difficulty but she is mechanical and while she can retell the story and answer questions about what she has read she isn't as good a reader as the boy reading books at a lower book band who reads with expression, who puts on different voices for different characters, who has a questioning voice and an exclamation voice ... Interestingly her mum hears her read every night while his reads to him every night.

[simpson]

But I think the 2 go hand in hand, you can read very quickly in a wooden voice and I would not say that that particular child was reading fluently iyswim...