How much do your YR read?

[jenbird]

I have read on here about people's 5 yr olds having finished the ORT series. My daughter is 5 with a December birthday and in YR. She is a bright little girl and currently on Stage 5. We read every night. Her books are changed M,W,F and we currently read one a night unless it's a tricky one. School issues the ORT books including wrens, sparrows etc, then we do snapdragons and then fireflies (so tedious). It takes a while to get to the next stage. I am just interested in how much others read and what they read. I thought my daughter was pretty able until I read what other peoples children are doing on here. I also thought we read quite a bit but now I'm not so sure. Our school is v small (49 pupils) and rural so we live in a bit of a bubble so I was just wondering how much others do?

ps. dd had to read though everry sodding book on the scheme. reading the parent instructions at the beginning and end of the books waas the only challenge for her. she had been capable of reading the books provided a year earlier, or more. (it took a long while to go through those books)

oh and ds has books that are too hard for him at the moment. can't win.

(head desk)

Schools have very different approaches to reading. My DS2 is in the middle level reading group in reception and he is on level 5, but I think he would be much better off on level 2. He can just about get through the level 5 books with quite a bit of support, but I think he would enjoy easier books more, and this would be better to reinforce the phonics rules.

DS1 was at a different school in reception, and there they went much more slowly through the reading scheme, so that very few ended reception above level 2 or 3. I overheard DS1 (now in y3) and his friends from his old school (who were on level 2 at the end of reception) chatting about what Roald Dahl book they like the best. They are all keen and fluent readers now.

The point is that it really doesn't matter. Schools do things differently and children progress at different rates. But provided there is no underlying issues, it evens out by the time they are in y3 or y4. OP - it sounds like your DD is doing really well, if she is comfortably reading level 5 at this stage.

Don't take any notice of all the talk on here . . . it is not . . . ahem . . . representative

My DS2 (in year R) is a fantastic reader (better than my DD was at that age and parent helpers always used to come up to me and say how good she was with this sort of face ) and he isn't through all the ORT books yet. There will be kids in his class who are still struggling with a, b, c.

I don't feel that being finished with ORT is a sign of anything much.

I would say however that although my DS2's reading is fab, his comprehension isn't as advanced as his reading, so there would be no point putting him on to Harry Potter or anything - your DD may be different.

Just get your DD some books that she will enjoy to read at home.

Iamnotinterested - I have better things to do than rifle through book bags thank you and we aren't even allowed in the school building so that would be impossible should anyone even want to.

no I have the rough info I have (I did say I THINK not I KNOW) because I had an in depth discussion with the school about my daughter due to her visual processing issues. It happens to be the case that my daughter and the other particularly good readers are a literacy group working on different things to the other literacy groups. My daughter is also one of those who talks about school a lot. I have spent a lot of time in primary schools over the years helping out and most of the time the children in the class know exactly who is good at reading, who is good at maths, who is good at PE, who tells good stories, who draws the best pictures or makes the best models etc and they know what they can do. My daughter is very observant and many of the kids in her class know which children choose books from the boxes outside the classroom rather than the ones inside the classroom which are the majority. It isn't rocket science.

It doesn't bother me where the others are, she can read very well. It was a comment for information for the OP that out of 30 children only a minority are on higher levels and that level 5 is very good for reception. I actually would prefer she wasn't one of the best unless there are a decent number of them as if there isn't a good group of them then they won't be challenged in guided reading because it will always be easier for them.

Presumably the children only know who's good at reading what they're given to read. Some children might be excellent at reading Aleksandr Solzhenitzyn in Russian, but the children wouldn't know it. The book level the children are on might have more to do with how insistent their parents are than what the children can actually read.

well yes to a point but equally they do tend to know who can read things on the wall etc, who can read written instructions. anyway I did only say I THINK in the first place so what is all the fuss about.

OP, I wouldn't take seriously everything you read on t'internet...

Early reading is indicative of, eh, early reading, not particularly anything else. Literacy is a marathon, not a sprint.

Now my dd is towards the end of Y1, I can say that my experience is that the school reading books are great at the beginning but by the time they get to level 5 or 6 there is so, so much more variety that they can read.

The reading scheme books should just be stepping stones to reading, not a whole thing to angst about in themselves.

very true christinarosetti, once they get to 5/6ish there are so many 'normal' storybooks they can read themselves which are much more fun. reading schemes used to stop at about level 6ish I think which was far too early as obviously there is a lot to learn beyond that but it is a good indicator that once they are at that level they can read lots of other books and can try anything. For me it was important that my daughters felt they could just pick up anything and give it a try - junk mail flyers through the door, the tv channel information, a story that they liked the look of, signs on shops etc.

I'm not Cute, Not Now Bernard, Where's my Teddy, Annie Rose is my little sister, Mr Pod and Mr Picallili, Peace at Last. They are an example of books around level 5/6ish which you will certainly find in the library. I'm not Cute was in one of the bookstart packs I think if I remember right.

I think a problem might be that if you're not switched on to reading books in general, as a parent, you might get misled into thinking that the school reading books are all that your child can read. The drip, drip format that those books come in could give the impression that that's all the child is capable of. (That mistake isn't only true of reading it's true of all school subjects.) And anyone who's not careful can end up saying, when school is finished, .... if only I'd done more ....

yes Learnandsay and for families who don't have much experience of some of the wonderful children's books out there then children MIGHT think Biff chip and kipper are as exciting as it gets which is such a shame when there are really so many books which are truly enjoyable and have much more varied language.

But then isn't that the point of reading schemes? Just like the quiet roads that driving instructors take their pupils out on aren't representative of real life driving conditions. Like the scheme books they're chosen deliberately. I don't think you can expect someone who has only ever had lessons to drive as well as someone who also had a year out on the road with family and friends. In the same way that a child who has only read scheme books from a large scheme in scheme order probably won't read as well as one who has read everything printed she could lay her hands on.

OP I'm another one who thinks you should take the extraordinary achievements mentioned on here with a large pinch of salt.

Level 5 is great reading for Reception. You sound like you're doing a great job reading with her each night. Keep reading exciting stories to her as well. All good.

Also my experience with 2 dcs and reading so far is that at a certain point they appeared to plateau with reading, with no discernible progress for aaaaaages and then suddenly were reading properly iykwim?

Gosh!! I am genuinely shocked by this. My Ds is in in reception and on stage 2 red there is no one in his class on anything above a stage 3!! I help in a yr 1 class and I help with reading and no one is above level 5. Our school is a very good school but they only read the level that they can cope with and we often have letters about parents competing against each other as to what reading level there child is on. The school will only send home a book lower than the level that the child is on at school so they can read it confidentally and I can honestly say that the attitude to reading in the school is amazing and the kids love it as there is no pressure!!!

At my school they don't have to read all the books on the level before moving up, that would be tedious!

Some levels mine have skipped all together.

Very unusual for all kids to still be on level 3 at this stage reception you would think some would be ahead of this

I help in a yr 1 class and I help with reading and no one is above level 5.

I am genuinely shocked by that! In my daughter's Y1/2 class, most of the children were higher than that at the beginning of the year (about a third were not).

Also, I think my daughter would be very bored if she were still having to read level 5 books at school. No pressure has been applied - she just happens to like reading and is quite good at it.

To add some balance here. I listen to readers at my DDs school.
Our current YR class:

• still has ~3 children who cannot read the word 'can'. (I think this is due to mix of lots of time off / young in year / lack of parent showing any interest)
• ~5 on pale blue (sorry don't know the ORT equivalent)
• everyone else on a range in between these two.

My DD is in y3. The best reader in the class is independently reading HarryPotter4. My DD (probably 3rd quartile), sort-of independently reads Horrid Henry. One of the children who was one of the weaker readers start Y2 is now in the top 5 for the class.

My advice?

• 10 minutes a day, even in the holidays.
• If school doesn't change frequently enough for you, suplement with the local library.
• it's not a race, it's a journey
• don't push them too fast, they need to get the basics
• don't believe everything you read on mumsnet about reading levels!

I think though there is a common misconception that those on higher reading levels need help and therefore shouldn't be there. We need to remember that a child who was 5 on September 1st quite possibly CAN be reading at a higher level than a child who won't be 5 until August 31st (and no age doesn't always come into it but it often does at this stage in education). If the same child had been born 20 minutes earlier they would be the youngest in Yr1 and therefore people wouldn't think anything of them being on the same reading level.

If my daughter needed help with reading her school books I would be the first to say they were too hard for her, in actual fact I sometimes help her with 1 word in an entire book, she does the rest herself, sounds them out if she needs to (rare), asks what some words mean etc, she understand its all, she can predict what might happen, offer opinions on it, relate it to other things she knows or has read etc. so she is capable of doing the things she needs to be able to to do to justify being on this level of reading book. If she was still bringing home level 3 books we would be skipping through them and then she would be reading her own books. it would be a pointless exercise for her and therefore wouldn't be furthering her education at all.

I think if a child is keen, wants to do it, enjoys reading anything and everything then it isn't pushing them to let them progress appropriately. If a child is reluctant and it is a struggle then noone should be making them do harder books. Surely though we know our own children (and so do their teachers) and therefore they MAY genuinely be reading at a higher level than the average, that is after all how you get an average.

Also, its not just can they read the words. Can theyunderstand the characters and their motivation and emotions, can they understand the punctuation, do they know what chapters, paragraphs, contents, etc are for. Do they read non fiction and fiction, can they use an index, can they understand how a library system works. All of this is important.

My dd is on the highest reading level in her class, she could easily read the next level but she doesn't always understand the characters emotions as she has the has the empathy of a five year old which you would expect as she is five! There is a lot more to it than jutting reading the words in my view

some of them DO though givemeaclue. My daughter reads both fiction and non fiction as well as history. She uses chapters, paragraphs and punctuation in her own writing, she uses contents pages and index to work out where something is in a book and find the bits she is especially interested in, she looks things up in a children's encyclopaedia, she offers opinions on why someone might have done something in a book, what the author might have based the story on, why the illustrator drew things like they did and how she would have done it herself (her version is nearly always better obviously!) and she genuinely DOES understand at a higher level than you would expect of a 5 year old.

Exactly the point I am making, your dd can do those things, but many can not aged five so even if they can read complex words they are not able to understand books that are more complex.
Some people find the reading levels a race, there I so much more to reading than just recognized words, all of the things you mention your dd is able to do for example

We read for about 10 to 15 minutes a night. By MN standards DS is struggling as he is still on red level books, but he can pick up pretty much anything now and have a good go at reading it.

We read his school books once each, and he chooses some from the library to read as well. He gets 3 new books from school once a week.

I think you are right to think your DD is very able OP!

Periwinkle, I mean your dd has much wider skills than just reading words.

In answer to the much earliervquestion im glad my dts are not reading level 10.... There is no challenge in terms of decoding the words but it def gives us chance to work on pace and expression and ds has asked loads of questions about punctuation which im sure he wouldn't with a harder text. Also he feels so confident as it's easy and he can be a delicate little flower if pushed too far! The school very much takes a steady approach and encourages non scheme books. He has no idea or interest in what the other kids are reading but another mum helps and says others all on red and yellow - and it's a high achieving school. Also content wise level 10 not geared to age 5. I teach at same school and have prevented 9 yo reading l16 as lots about war and complex emotions in there. Your library is a much better bet and at least the characters there have real names!! Fwiw op your child would be top of 90 at our school!!

My dd2 is 5 and in reception. Her teacher really isn't one to rush them through the levels at all. Dd2 is on stage 3 ort and is one of the highest in her class. She reads these books easily and I know that she could manage stage 5 or 6 as we have a few at home but there's no point in arguing with her teacher as it wont get you anywhere, she is a real believer that a child should be able to read their books easily so they get the most out of the story? maybe she is right. Dd1 was on stage 5 at this age (different teacher) but was definitely no better at actual reading. It really depends on the school and the teacher and you can't compare.