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Refusing to put dc on next reading level or even assess

645 replies

Blueschool · 19/11/2012 18:57

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?

OP posts:
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mrz · 19/11/2012 22:24

teta how do you know your child hasn't been assessed?

Feenie · 19/11/2012 22:24

In Y2 the assessment is likely to be more closely monitored than anywhere else in school - it relies on constant and very thorough teacher assessment, using lots of different sources of evidence.

It is very unlikely that this Y2 teacher does not know EXACTLY where every child is in reading, therefore.

Brycie · 19/11/2012 22:25

But she's not reading ORT at the moment. I know a lot of people hate ORT. But they have a great thing about them which is a plot development over lots of books and lots of stages. It's very motivating and fun.

Blueschool · 19/11/2012 22:26

No other teacher has told me dd has problems with reading Feenie. Where have you got that from? Infact the opposite is true. Or at least has been.

Reading has always been her strongest skill. Her head-teacher told me before summer she was one of the top three readers in the class.So why now there is such a difference months later that she is languishing on the same level and stagnating , and getting nothing but negative feedback is frankly beyond me.

The only element that has changed is the class teacher.

Why is the teacher not concerned at her lack of progress? Thinking about perhaps the paramout questions should be ;what is the teacher doing about it? Just telling me crap dd is and she will resest after Christmas IF she feels it worth it is not striking me as a proactive teacher.

I would feel more confident if there was a constructive plan in place really.

OP posts:
teacherwith2kids · 19/11/2012 22:26

It may not be that the teacher is 'wrong'. It may well be that the reading that a particular child does in school is not at the same standard as that she does at home. It may equally well be that the teacher's interpretation of the child's reading ability against standard descriptors is, for valid professional reasons, not the same as the interpretation of those descriptors by a parent.

On the other hand, it may be that the teacher IS 'wrong', in the sense that the child could well be able to read the band above... but in the global scheme of learning to read, it is perhaps not a huge deal as long as that child is surrounded by books and stories throughout the school day and at home.

I can think of two children who were on Purple books for a long time. One arrived in my class from another school. He was decoding 'badly' and seemed quite bored when 1 to 1 reading of books at that level, but showed an impressive range of reading skills in terms of comprehension, deducation, interpretation etc when he joined a much higher guided reading group temporarily on his first day. He has jumped 2 levels in the last 2 weeks and I am about to move him up a third.

Another can decode very fluently, and her parent perceives this as being the only important reading skill, so puts great pressure on to move the child through the levels. However, when questioned in detail about plot, characters, possible alternative endings of the story, text features, punctuation, even meanings of specific words, this child has serious gaps in their knowledge.

Without a really detailed knowledge of a child's reading - and I gain that daily from pretty much every lesson across the curriculum, not just when 'reading 1 to 1 with a book band book' - it is very hard to say whether a specific MN child should be moved up or not.

Feenie · 19/11/2012 22:26

To me this is typical of a state school

How many state schools have you direct experience of, to be tarring us all with that daft brush, teta?

yellowsubmarine53 · 19/11/2012 22:27

blueschool, what types of books does your dd read for pleasure?

mam29 · 19/11/2012 22:28

Ahh last 2terms what can I say its been a nightmare.

she spent entire summer term on ort level 3banded as red during end of year 1-this does not even transalate as level 1 on national currciculum yet she got a 1b for reading?

Lets get onto year 2

we level 4ort-go in and say to teacher look shes bored to tears its just too easy.

ok she agrees we then put on ginn level 4 which seems harder at least.

We were only allowed to read 4pages a night was taking over 1week to get through 1book. we complained and got told off for reading too much, teacher kept banging on about questions and comprehension.
we showed her orien early reader chapetr book she has read at home and even then she was skeptical and said she read with her but wasent 100%perfect but as we piling on so much pressure she could try ginn level 5 and we should be greatful.

To be honest it destroyed any good working relationship we could maybe of had.

We moved schools half term.

new teacher said she cab decode as in read well.
she can comprehend its fluency that comes with reading more and more variety!

Old school only had ort ginn.

new school has 6different reading schemes banded by numbers so she can choose a book from box 6/7.
According to reading schemes converter shes turqoise shes not reached purple level yet.

Her new school also do online reading-bug club.

we go local libary lots and read different stuff and stepped it up over summer hols it helped.

But reading on stuff at home dident help dd self confidence,.
So many people in her class were on higher levels she used to say mummy im rubbish im never going to catch up.

Luckily new schools much more positive we can pick the books, read as smuch as we like her confidence slowlly growing.
Agree bigg /chip ort is boring.
dd likes non fiction so try to get mix of both shes read 10books in 2weeks.

Im feeling more positive and moving her away from obsession with levels as she knew what everyone was on in old school.
One boy told her she was on baby books and upset her.

Im slowly becoming more relaxed about it and annoyed as feel old school have held her back.

I know parents can do what they do at home but sometimes child needs reassurance/recongition from the school and the teachers as it affected hat table she sat on as bottom table for literacy and numercay.

For while it upset me great , consumeed. stressed me now im angry and slightly sad how its worked out all I did was try do right thing by questioning them as trusted them year 1 and she as bottom of class.

good luck in sorting it out.

Feenie · 19/11/2012 22:28

No other teacher has told me dd has problems with reading Feenie. Where have you got that from?

Where did I say she had? Confused

Brycie · 19/11/2012 22:29

Anyway she might chose books that are way too hard, and get discouraged by being unable to read them, or she might choose unsuitable books. I think sometimes the parent knows best. So it's nice to choose books, but if the aim is to help your child with reading, then what's wrong with a reading scheme. They're still books. Just because they have a colour code on the side doesn't stop them being books.

Funny how people are saying "but there's so much to say about your child's xxx book" Mr Biff or whatever it was. But then the same people say "don't buy a reading scheme, it's boring and limiting". I mean, make your minds up.

mrz · 19/11/2012 22:29

" I know a lot of people hate ORT. But they have a great thing about them which is a plot development over lots of books and lots of stages. It's very motivating and fun."

It makes them easy to read because they are predictable and follow a set pattern which is why some children flounder when they encounter other books. IMHO it is best to read across a wide range of publishers and authors

Feenie · 19/11/2012 22:30

Happy Families isn't a scheme, Brycie.

harbingerofdoom · 19/11/2012 22:30

I had many arguments with my DDs teachers. They just didn't believe that they could read.

I've got enough letters to plaster a loo!
Go by your own instincts.
Both now at good universities.......

teacherwith2kids · 19/11/2012 22:32

I 'assess' reading every time I read with children individually or during weekly guided reading sessions. I 'assess' them every time they read something from the board, take notes from an on-screen text in ICT, read a sentence from the story I am reading to the class, talk about the features of a new type of text that we might be writing in Literacy, explain the meaning of a word in History, predict the end of a religious story in RE.....

There are probably parents who still believe that I have not 'assessed' their child this term....

Brycie · 19/11/2012 22:32

Feenie: it's a book to teach reading though. And it sounds really boring.

mrz: "It makes them easy to read because they are predictable and follow a set pattern which is why some children flounder when they encounter other books. IMHO it is best to read across a wide range of publishers and authors"

Why can't you do both though?

harbingerofdoom · 19/11/2012 22:33

Why do you let the school dictate?
I found that ridiculous 15 years ago.

mrz · 19/11/2012 22:34

If your child chose a book that was unsuitable would you buy it or would you explain and get them to choose a different book?

alcofrolic · 19/11/2012 22:34

Just because OP's dd has to wait until after Christmas to get moved from purple to gold books at 7 years old does not mean that she won't get to a good university.........
Her reading is on the good side of average. The teacher has reasons for keeping her on purple for the next month or so. Why stress about it?

Feenie · 19/11/2012 22:34

No it isn't, it's a 'real' book, from a series by Allan Ahlberg.

'And it sounds really boring.'

Grin You sounded about 12 then!

Brycie · 19/11/2012 22:34

Some children might flounder but for lots it's really motivating and cracks their reading on. My son was a huge reader for years afterwards until he found xbox age 14

teta · 19/11/2012 22:35

The teacher told me Mrz.She wasn't prepared to assess him as he is already categorised at a high level of reading [age 9].She has said that he is not ready to be moved up as his sentence construction is still simple and she would rather have him read these books as they will teach him more about writing.This is a child who got 100% in the phonics test last year and wrote beautiful stories [his previous teachers words].My family reckon he is extremely intelligent [extremely academic family -i am not so]and he really is being sadly failed by this particular teacher/school/whatever.It is so so frustrating,but in the scheme of things will be relatively minor i guess.

yellowsubmarine53 · 19/11/2012 22:35

Mr Biff the Boxer et al aren't reading scheme books. They're books written for young children which some schools 'level' within their reading schemes because they're books that a lot of young children enjoy.

The teacher has advised reading widely and OP says that her dd reads for pleasure all the time. If OP's dd reads for pleasure all the time, what on earth is the purpose of restricting her to one reading scheme?

teacherwith2kids · 19/11/2012 22:35

Brycie, Mr Biff the Builder is one of the (really quite funny) Happy Families series of books by (I think) the Ahlburghs. It's not a scheme book. We also have books like Titchy Witch, Seriously Silly Tales, Flat Stanley etc 'banded' within the books available to readers at diferent levels - because becoming a reader is about exploring and understandign a range of texts.

Brycie · 19/11/2012 22:36
Grin

It does sound really boring though! but whether or not I think it's boring - so what who cares doesn't matter - it's whether the child thinks it's boring.

teacherwith2kids · 19/11/2012 22:37

Massive X-post there, apologies. I'd take Happy Families over ORT any day of the week...