Which 'Read at home' level is your Reception child on at this point?

[WiganKebab]

Mine is on 1+, but I wondered if there was a benchmark of roughly where she should be around now?

[WiganKebab]

Wow.....I'm off to read all these replies!

[GW297]

I like children to get to at least blue level by the end of YR but children generally go up to Year 1 on every level from pink to lime! Continue to read daily at home and I agree that a wide variety of books is important.

[learnandsay]

For children who get substantial amounts of reading material at home I'm unsure of how useful school reading books actually are. I don't think my child's school books are extending her reading at all. We've got an instruction manual on child development at home which is beautifully illustrated and she's purloined it. And today she was sounding out the phrase "additional information."

[learnandsay]

Of course, if the child doesn't recognise the words at all then she's not reading the book. That's not what I'm saying. My daughter can sound out all the words in books substantially longer and more complicated than her school books. So, she can read them without help. But that doesn't mean that I want to march into her school and say that she should now have adult Ladybird books as readers. I know that the only reason she can read these particular books is because she's very familiar with them. But if you pick lines out at random, or phrases at random she'll read them perfectly for you.

[mrz]

No the child can not read the book at all they are reciting the words. Turn two pages and the child will carry on reciting

[learnandsay]

The reason for the confrontation in that case is because both the parents and the teacher are right. They've just got two different definitions of reading.

The parent is saying she can read this book well. And she can.

The teacher is saying, yes. But she can't read these others.

Instead of the teacher just calling the parent wrong and carrying on merrily what she should do is literally show the parent what her definition of reading and struggling means. Because if she doesn't then the misunderstanding is set to continue.

[mrz]

It makes for confrontation Cat ...parents claiming the child reads well and the teacher saying sorry but they are really struggling ...and child caught in the middle.

[lljkk]

Problem is the kids get it so wrong about their relative ability and even their sticker colour. DSs have repeatedly shown themselves clueless about their relative ability to other kids. DS-yr5 announced he wasn't in top sets after all regardless of what teachers told me about his high attainment, because he didn't get Mrs. X for teacher and he reckoned she always got the cleverest children.

yr4-DS says he is on top table for English but I know he's only very average at literacy. I suspect he was put on that table to minimise how much he distracts others & is distracted by them. Either that or his is a class of the turnip-brains.

[learnandsay]

Or maybe neither helpful nor unhelpful, who can tell? But certainly nothing particularly wrong with it. But what seems to be happening now is that my daughter is whizzing over the familiar bits of text and sounding out the more challenging words. According to a lot of people's definitions this wouldn't actually be called reading, as such. In some ways it isn't. (And in some ways of course it is.) But it's certainly a reading-like activity. And these books bear no relation to her school books.

[Cat98]

Oh yes l and s - we had this with the gruffalo. Perfectly normal and possibly helpful. But I don't think mrz means that!

[learnandsay]

Oh, I see what you mean, drilled to fool the teacher. No, that's not what I'm talking about. I'm talking about simply being very familiar with some favourite books.

[Cat98]

Wow mrz that's just bizarre and counter intuitive - must make your job so much harder - you might think a kid can read and then realise they actually can't very well!

[learnandsay]

Lots of things aren't "really reading", depending on what your particular view of really reading is. But that doesn't mean that they're not helpful.

[mrz]

I've taught children who were drilled so that they were ahead of the class Cat ... usually the child tells you mummy has been teaching me the books at home or they come unstuck if not given the book mummy had taught them

[Cat98]

The books ds had from school were a little hard to start with, I couldn't have pushed him to do it - to want to do it he needed books at the right level. Maybe it's just my ds!

[MrsMelons]

Sorry Maizie with the wink added to it I thought you were suggesting it wasn't a good thing - my apologies!

Mrz If the phonics check had existed years ago it may have been spotted that my friend could not read and I actually believe the outcomes for him would have been so so different. I am glad those sorts of checks are in place but I have read lots of negtives on MN about it so maybe I am a bit naive about it?!

Lljkk I think its the children that actually know the reading band and tell the parents. My DS definitely did. The same way as the children seem to know the level of group they are in for subjects in general.

My DS (6) and his friend were telling me what groups they were in the other day and whether it was top group, 2nd, third etc. I wasn't sure if it was actually correct or not but when I was at the school for a family session the groups were only the wall not very cleverley disguised by using shapes. Circle being the lowest going up to a hexagon being the highest.

The DCs think they are just coloured groups but of course they are based on the number of sides. Its daft as the children still know which is the top and bottom groups. I wonder if it is for the parents benefit

[Cat98]

Yes mrz, and as you say that's not reading. I really don't think I could have pushed ds into actually reading - he got it when he got it. He could perhaps have been later if I hadn't practised with him but this wouldn't have been pushing him because he liked books, if he was saying 'no stop' there isn't really a choice but to stop as he wouldn't have absorbed it anyway!

[learnandsay]

I think I know what push reading means. I think it means go on about not only doing it constantly but doing it above the child's ability, a bit like the mother who tried to force her son to learn the Koran and then lost the plot when he didn't seem to be learning it fast enough.

[mrz]

texts not tests !!!

[mrz]

I think it is possible to drill a child so they memorise whole tests but that isn't really reading although some people seem to believe it is.

[Cat98]

I don't think you can 'push' a child to read. Well you could chain them to a table and make them do it until they can read war and peace, but I really don't think people do this irl... I know from my experience, when ds has had enough, he's had enough. You can encourage, provide books, listen to reading most days, but why is this seen as a bad thing? I don't understand this mindset. Sorry.

[maizieD]

I am assuming you are being sarcastic about the phonics check Maisie

Indeed not; I think the Phonics Check is a Good Thing. I was being ironic...

(apologies for not keeping up with the thread; I've been out..)

[isthatallyouvegot]

Pretty sure my Ds was on ORT stage 6 in reception, then ended up back on stage 3 in yr 1 even though his reading was fine, still have no idea what happened there. he is in year 3 now and just finishing stage 7 due to him being put back.