Query about book bands

[MilkRunningOutAgain]

DD was excited during the run up to Christmas that she was about to move up from purple to gold level. And today she brought her first gold book home, but is disgusted.

Until this school year her school banded books by ORT number stage. This year they have started to use colour bands.

The purple books she was on were a mixture of ORT stages 8, 9 and 10. The new gold book is stage 8 and DD thinks gold books are therefore easier than purple and that her teacher thinks her reading is not improving.

Oh dear. I suppose ORT numbering and colour bands go by different criteria? Are we likely to get any ORT 11s, which is the only thing that will mollify DD?

I suppose I will explain to her teacher.

No gold is roughly ORT stage 9 stage 19 is white and 11 is lime book band
The ORT colours aren't book bands they are the stage colours

I should add the offending book is a More Robins book titled "William's Mistake".

Show her a book band chart such as www.readingchest.co.uk/book-bands which definitely shows gold is harder than purple!

Thanks cumbrialass I will, it's a good idea. Not sure what the school is doing though, the stage 9 and 10 books she brought home last term had big purple stickers on them. And the stage 8 book she brought home tonight has a big gold sticker on it!

I will ask DDs teacher to explain!

ORT books banded purple range from "Max makes Breakfast"-Stage 6 to "The Secret Plans" stage 10. William's Mistake is definitely Gold ( as is William and his dog -Stage 7) Stages and bands don't fit!

www.oup.co.uk/oxed/primary/customer/bookbands/ shows the "links" between stages and bands

This is how most schools do reading now (colour bands.)

I'd be slightly more concerned that she's so hung up on reading levels, what about reading for pleasure?

Thanks for the link cumbrialass, this explains it perfectly and the school has its books sorted correctly into book band colours. DD has read just under half the gold books already owing to the change from ORT stages to book band colours.

DD is a great little reader but she does it to be teachers pet rather than for pleasure and it does worry me Bobyan. I really don't mind what level she is on, purple books were fine and quite long and complex enough in my view, I wish there were more of them.

In the holidays she read all her books in one massive session, and said openly this was 1) to get it over with and 2) how pleased her teacher would be. DDs school is too keen on getting the kids through the bands, and all the kids are extremely aware of their band and of the bands all their friends are on, not at all sure this is healthy. And then there is her elder DS who is always stressing what a baby she ism which doesn't help.

How tedious. Not your DD's fault if the school are getting the kids to think like that. I'd encourage her to find some books she really enjoys in the library without colours or bands. You can get a mix at that level of reading, some easy but fun and some harder if she likes. But as others have posted, reading for pleasure is not for all children at least to start with and perhaps it is good enough she is keen to read her school books!

There has never been any difficulty about getting her to do her reading, or spellings, and we do visit the library and she enjoys choosing a pile of books. She wouldn't dream of reading them herself, they are for me to read to her! But that's fine and I hope reading by herself will gradually develop.

Does she get "reading time" before light's out? And choose her some library books yourself that she could manage and leave them around her room. Sounds like she's doing great though, and no need to push really if she's happy with what she's doing.

She has not touched a book I've chosen for over a year, well she puts them in a pile in the middle of the floor in her room and makes a point of giving them a wide berth until its time to take them back to the library! It's actually really funny. Perhaps one day she might get over her stubbornness and open one..

Ah, ok! Perhaps time to back off . Would she carry on reading something you read to her if choose something she can manage- would she enjoy sharing reading? DS quite likes doing this now, I read a bit, he reads a bit, sometimes he carries on reading by himself. If she gets to choose it she can have control?