Sorry if this is a bit long. DS is 6 and in Yr1. He has been on orange since about November, and we read his school books and lots of other stuff at home.
He has started to find orange books a bit easy. Since Christmas, his class have been able to change their school reading book every day and are free to choose any book from the box of the level they are on. He has been bringing hom Ginn All Aboard books, and recently brought home a Stage 5 book called 'The King's Porridge' which was really easy and he found a bit boring. He is a bit scatty, and I think he just randomly picks books from the box and then moans that he doesn't like them.
I put a note in his reading record, and his teacher then chose a book for him which was also labelled orange, but was Ginn Stage 7 (Bobby's Bad Day). Although the language difficulty was very similar, this book was FAR longer than the other books he has been bringing home. I am really surprised that it is the same level. I spoke to DS' phonics teacher (not his class teacher) about this and she agreed that there is a massive difference between the books, but that the literacy co-ordinator for the school had levelled all the reading books.
I am really not bothered what the colour on the label is, I just want DS to bring home an appropriate book for his reading level and to be able to fairly easily choose a book at the right level. He is really happy to read the Ginn Stage 7 books (which, interestingly, are in virtually mint condition despite being 20 years old), I am just surprised that they are considered to be the same level as books which seem much shorter and less challenging. Can anyone help explain?