Refusing to put dc on next reading level or even assess

[Blueschool]

Dc in in year 2. Has been on same reading level since September.

My dc may not be good at a lot at school, but reading is dc strong point. Not the top of class but quite advanced. Not just my opinion but her previous teachers and helpers.

Her current level is not a challenge anymore. Mentioned this weeks ago. Given a huge list basically telling me why dc is a crap reader in teachers opinion. Very surprised as one area always was praised on reading.

Took it on chin and we worked hard to resolve the issues like "not enough expression".

Dc reading is just fine. I can not find not fault.

My comment I wrote last week was the "book was not a challenge". Teacher took a whole page up in dd reading record to again tell me how crap dc is.

I felt the comments were utterly unfair and do not reflect reality at all. She also told me I could buy books to read at home! Very unfair assumption dc reads for pleasure all the time and has 100+ at home.

She said IF she wants she will assess her after Christmas she will.

My issues are

• I thought parents and teachers were meant to be in partnership with education. How is this a partnership?

• IF dc is genuinely reading badly at school WHY? Why is there such a difference? Why is her educational environment not making her feel confident and supported to show her real abilty?

• Another parent has told me they have had similar issues as the teacher gets herself stressed. Im sorry, but holding a child back because you are stressed is quite something.

What should I do?

In our school the teacher keeps a group of 6 back from assembly about 3 times a week for guided reading. On the other two days, guided reading is done in class and the children are given a reading task to complete which I as the TA support during this time. 5x20 minutes is not the same amount of time as 30x10 minutes.

If a class has a permanent TA there's no reason not to do one to one reading every day.

Brycie I don't think you are listening. I have already tried to tell you twice before that I think reading to an adult at school is only valuable if children are not reading at home!!

I suppose one to one reading every day all day with a TA would be a bit much.

I don't think you are listening either! I've already tried to tell you that's not true!

Surely all of the children's reading is valuable. It's practice.

I hear you, but it doesn't mean I agree!

I am not saying it is not valuable, it is. But once again, if you listen to your child read every day at home for 20 minutes, why is it so important that your child reads at school with somebody elses parent who is in to help? why? I don't get it.

I could understand you wanting the teacher to read with them, but some of you are saying why can't a parent helper come in to do it? This would only be helpful if the child never read at home.

Ahem, can someone let me know if OP answerd my question?

Teachers genuine question. Do you think you are expected to teach too varied a curriculum which leaves too little time for the basics? What would you do to change it?

I don't agree with you either! You just said it wasn't valuable, so which is it?
In the same post you say -

"I am not saying it is not valuable, it is."

and then you say

"This would only be helpful if the child never read at home."

They contradict each other!

Don't you understand about children and school and what they like and what they think is important and how significant these things are to children? How motivating? How important motivation is?

My TA's typical day:
Assembly - read with SEN/children who don't read at home
Session 1 - run own RWI group
Session 2 - Guided reading group + support numeracy group
Afternoon - handwriting group, then support creative curriculum work OR precision monitoring OR forest school OR other interventions/support tasks. (I have two less able children working towards L1 who need lots of support.)

How would she fit 30 1:1 readers in?

I don't have a TA permanent or temporary

The home parent's style is also going to be different from the person in the school. The home parent probably supplies words if the child gets stuck. The school listener may well not. I'm all in favour of all the reading possible.

Is that because of budget, or by choice, mrz?

I'm a bit by the fact that none of the teachers have said the level Blueschool's child is reading is quite low for a Y2. Blue no reflection on yr daughter, I'm sure you're right in saying something's wrong with the levels.

Does that mean that is the normal reading level now for a six to seven year old?

bit depressed that is

I would have expected teachers to respond with - "that seems like a low level for a six to seven year old. Are you sure your daughter doesn't have any specific reading issues? If she doesn't then yes she should be reading much more interesting and challenging books."

something along those lines.

I read with yr2 kids yesterday and none of them that I read with we're over ORT stage 6.

Were!! Blooming iPad!!

It's by choice alcofrolic

But isn't ort 6 is more challenging than "Biff went skipping. Biff went running."

Feenie, I think you're misunderstanding me. Yes, I do think in year 1 that it should be possible for the TA to follow the teacher's instructions while the teacher does some 1:1 reading. It's not some dark art at that stage! And just to reiterate, I come from a family of teachers, albeit secondary and sixth form. I don't get why you couldn't contemplate the TA/parent helper assisting with the classroom, following the teacher's instructions, in order to allow the teacher to do the 1:1 reading, or should that be done solely by the parents?

Right, simpson. But are they at or below stage 6 because they can't read a stage 7 book or simply because they haven't got one to read?

When I was a teacher I heard every child read at least once a week.I used to spend a couple of afternoons where all the children read with a partner and I heard readers coupled with hearing readers in lunchtimes,playtimes,assemblies etc.I also heard each guided reading group once a week.

Things have changed a lot since then,not sure the curriculum would allow it now and I think it's a shame.

I think this focus on guided reading as the only time kids are heard by their teacher is wrong.You have targets to focus on which are group targets not individual and some children just don't like reading/answering questions in front of their peers so may read a lot better at home. Individual reading is important imvho but not sure how you an incorporate it in todays classroom.

The situation you have now is that only the poorer readers are getting individual attention and that's wrong particularly when in some cases it's because they're not heard at home.Good readers need and benefit from individual time just as much,I don't get why their needs are deemed as being not as important. All my 3 were free readers by the Xmas of Year 1 and pretty much never got heard on an individual basis.My dd is in year 3 now and the last time she was heard individually by her teacher(only once by a helper too) was the March of year 2.

To the op I just didn't bother with school reading books when this situation cropped up.3 quite self conscious children rarely heard by the teacher meant they were galloping ahead at home and not getting books that stretched(in any way) at school.Sooooo we just did our own thing.I wrote down what they read alone and with me at home.They'd often read the school book in one sitting which cleared the rest of the week for decent stuff.Books were rarely changed so we were able to do this.

Far too much focus on reading schemes as the only source of words imvho. Totally see the value in schemes in the earlier stages but when they start to fly real books are so important imvho. The more kids read the better they become-libraries are a treasure trove which encourage avid readers.Most libraries have a scheme shelf if you want to play safe and not go for real books so at least they get a bit of variety.Imvho schools should send out a list of real book titles which are the same level as reading scheme titles.That way you could go sideways in a more interesting way and you wouldn't get so many frustrated parents but not sure how that fits in with the new phonic approach.I think actually reading real books gives kids confidence and hooks them into reading as a pastime in a way that scheme books just can't.

Once they're becoming fluent.

Moving away from the (short excerpt of) a particular book read by the OP's daughter - Purple band normally maps to Level 2c.

The way I generally describe it to parents who ask me is that to be a 2c, the child needs to be able to demonstrate all the Level 2c / 'low level 2' (depending on whether the particular tracking system used is APP-type or whether it puts skills in particular sublevels) reading skills on a Level 2c book..

So a child who can decode a Purple book but cannot yet demonstrate all the appropriate reading skills is not yet a 2c, whereas one who is practising some 2b skills on a 2c banded book before moving on to show them in a slightly trickier / longer text is a high 2c heading for a 2b.

2b is the 'expected' level for the end of Year 2, so while the excerpt from the book (which we have to remember was selected by the OP to illustrate a point and may not be illustrative of the whole text - I don't have the full text to hand as it's one of the Happy Families series I don't have at home) does seem simple, the fact that the OP's daughter is reading at 2c at this stage in Year 2 would indicate that she is on track to reach expected levels at the end of the year. In fact, as most schools target a full level of progress during Year 2, if 2c in November it may well be that the child will achieve a 2a or even a 3c by the end of the year.