Book bands

[DizzyDalek]

Ds age 5 is on a blue book band,stage 4 and has been reading really well. Came home with a new book and we settled down to do his reading. He was struggling with it more than he usually does and I thought it looked quite difficult compared to what he usually has,so I looked on the spine and it was turquoise,stage 7. Mentioned it to the TA the following day and she said they are new books ( Collins,Big Cat series ) and the turquoise is equivalent to the blue band he was normally on. So I came home and had a look at the Big Cat /Collins website and as far as I can work out the turquoise isn't equivalent to the blue,their turquoise comes after orange,green then blue! So if there are any book band experts out there who could help shed light on this? At the minute I think I'm right and the TA is wrong,so how best to handle it? Or maybe I have misunderstood it.

www.readingchest.co.uk/book-bands - is this what the colours went like in the Collins Big cats series? What series were the blue stage 4 books?

Yes exactly like that,though they start with lilac for 3-4 year olds. The last book he had was a songbirds book 'the wrong kind of knight'.they seem to read a mixture sometimes ginn 360,but mainly songbirds.

Ha!

I help w reading at ds' school and have done for 4 years.

The light I would shed on it, is that light blue (ORT 4) and Turquoise (ORT 7) bands look extremely similar and tend to get muddled up. This happens a lot at our school and there can be similar muddles b/w orange and gold.

If your ds is enjoying the book then I'd let him get through it, then carry on w blue (v demotivating to be told 'this book's too hard for you and whipping it away if you're actually enjoying it). If it is discouraging him, just explain it's the wrong band and exchange it.

The TA has it wrong, although interestingly at DDs school they have CBC, ORT and Ginn Lighthouse and in my experience the CBC are easiest, then ORT and then the Ginn Lighthouse. However this is partly due to the Lighthouse books being non-fiction with much longer and / or less phonically regular words than the ORT / CBC story books. Between CBC and ORT the CBC stories just have less text and fewer pages.

So whilst the correlation may not be precise, it isn't 3 book bands worth of difference (which you've just experienced).

As to what you do - well was the TA the one who banded these books? Usually it would be done (or at least overseen) by the literacy coordinator. I'd ask who that is in your DS's school and ask to have a quiet word, asking what evidence they've used to determine that a turquoise CBC is equal to blue in the national scheme.

I have a copy of the IOE Book Bands for Guided Reading. It is the bible of book banding so if you are happy to share the title I can let you know exactly the band it comes under (for example 2 CBC books that are labelled orange are actually banded turquoise) so this would indicate that some CBC are actually the level above the band that they've been given by Collins.

I was just about to say that it may be the book has been rebanded at a different level 'officially' like thegamesafoot says. To me it sounds like it is a mistake if he found it noticeably harder but it could be just the fact it is a new style of text has thrown him slightly. The songbirds ones are purely phonetic as far as I know so the child is able to easily break down the different words and practice the sounds covered in that book. I am not sure if Collins Big Cat ones are as phonetic so may be introducing words he isn't confident with the phonemes in (is phonemes the right word? I get confused) and if they aren't practicing particular ones in each book it will just take him a bit of adjusting.

thegamesafoot- the book is called Going Fast a non fiction title.Thank you for all your replies.

certainly looks like band 7 to me but I don't have the list thegamesafoot has.

I think the school have made a mistake.

Typically it isn't listed in the book band book, however this link seems to confirm it's colour and stage (turquoise / 7).

Also as confirmed on CBC website too:

collinsbigcat.com/search?keywords=going+fast

And finally here - the amount of pages and description also indicate it is not a blue, stage 4 book.