Reception teacher told us not to read everyday

[TeaJunky]

Ok, so dd started bringing books home. She initially brought the purple level with no words then progressed onto pink quite quickly. She reads her school reading (phonics) book to me everyday and as the reading book is changed only once a week, she began to find this boring quite quickly.

I wrongly assumed that she is perhaps ready for something more challenging and I wrote this in her reading record.

Dd's reception teacher called me in at the end of the day and proceeded to show me the whole reading scheme on the trolley and explain that it only consisted of 500 words and the whole point of it was to achieve fluency blah blah (I already know all this). She said dd had been tried out on some 'harder' books and struggled with them hence she stayed on pink.
That was fine by me, so I suggested that she perhaps needed a new book more often as she read everyday. The teacher said 'really, don't read everyday because it can get boring really quickly'.
I pointed out that it actually wasn't me pushing dd to sit down and read, it was her bringing her book bag from her room and literally dragging me onto the sofa to read - she said 'honestly, don't let her do it everyday'

What ?!

The second thing that worried me about the whole conversation was the fact that the reading scheme only went up to level red, so the whole of the reading scheme was only three levels; purple (pre words), pink and red. She said that's the highest they can go in reception on the scheme.

Am I right to feel that this is a very limiting and pre-determined scheme with no room for differentiation or individual progression?

This is a highly thought of school and we are happy with everything else but the whole reading convo we had seems so bizarre.

thoughts ?

The reading chest is very good, I signed DD up when she was in nursery before she got books with words in (from her teacher at nursery - HT had a policy that no reading books go out till reception ).

Column- could your child read dickens at reception then? Did she understand what she was reading? I'm absolutely sure that if your child was reading Dahl that she wouldn't have been given an 8 word book- why would a teacher do this? Really? Do you honestly believe it's because the teacher liked to be in control?? To a certain extent, with some things it does have to be the teachers way, they're are running the class and the buck stops with them, they're avcountabke and cannot take into account all parents views and preferences. However, if a teacher tells a teacher the child is more able in an area I'd like to think a teacher would say they'd reassess.

Did every teacher of your child under estimate their reading ability? Did it happen each year?

• parent tells the teacher...sorry...on phone !!!!

Columngollum - did you used to post under a different name?

Do you not recognise her, Feenie?!

WTF is "leopard" doing at stage 1

Well, yes. I assume that was an ORT old-style book? Still, a lot of children, given the phonic bits of the word by an adult who can decode it, would just take it on board and go 'oh, OK, what a weird way to write it' as long as they weren't being told that it wasn't decodable and was a terribly hard way to spell this and they would be almost certain to have difficulties with it. IME.

Yes, have just twigged tonight - way after anyone else, it would seem

You're probably just nicer and less suspicious than the rest of us!

Have I missed something??

No, not really. Column posted last year quite extensively about the problems she was having with her daughter's teacher and her daughter's reading books. But there was a bit of a mismatch between what column thought reading was and what everyone else thought reading was.

Oh...I see..thank you :)

Ahhh, that's kind huitre - I would say I have just been dimmer

s long as they weren't being told that it wasn't decodable and was a terribly hard way to spell this and they would be almost certain to have difficulties with it.

Goodness, huitre. Who would possibly say a thing like that?

You are not alone, Feenie. I had no idea until I read this thread. I know who she is on NM but failed to spot the name change here. Makes a lot of sense now.

Maybe it's just me? Maybe I'm completely wrong?

I've no wish to make this conversation retrospective. But anyone has the opportunity to discuss with me today what they think reading is. That's fine.

The problem that anyone has in a forum is that they cannot test a poster's child's reading and therefore their view on how the child can read are supposition. But they can explain what they think.

The OP then is perfectly entitled to disagree with their view! That's the best you can hope for in a forum.

How bizarre. Enrol her in reading chest, read a book every day.

It's not only how often you read that's the issue. It's what you read. Reading every day, by itself isn't necessarily going to help unless it's greatly enjoyed. In the beginning the child needs to gain in ability too.

No Huitre you aren't wrong

columngollum, I have linked to videos before of DD reading a book she has never seen before, with fluency and expression. That is reading.

If it is a book a child has read before with a parent, perhaps many times, so they have had the chance to memorise it, then it may be reading, but more likely it's just memory.

That problem is easily solved by asking the child to read a different book. (Not to say that memory doesn't have its uses.)

We assess reading by listening to the child read a text they have never seen before

Of course, if the book the child had memorised was big and relatively advanced, say the collected works of Beatrix Potter, or Hans Andersen, then, (even if it had been memorised,) it's still useful reading. If a teacher replied, yes, great party trick, and handed the child a non-reading book with huge type and eight words per page the parent would have every right to be furious.

When you're saying non-reading book, what are you referring to? What's a non-reading book in your view?

But if the 'reading' is not transferrable then it doesn't matter whether the child has memorised Spot the Dog or War and Peace, it's still memory and not reading. If the teacher has to take them back to basics before the child is actually able to decode and properly read the book, then why would a parent be furious? Rather they should be grateful that the teacher has seen past the party trick and set about teaching a truly transferrable skill.

DD reads simpler school books than home books because they want to develop her comprehension skills further. Fine by me - she reads for pleasure at home and sometimes chooses easy books, sometimes harder ones.

Very odd. DS1's Reception teacher is constantly reminding parents how important it is to read at home and giving stats for how this improves reading ability. They also have a star reader scheme where children who read at home at least 5 days a week get a star sticker and their names on a star reader board. He is allowed to change his book every day if he wants but quite often he forgets. It's Sunday today and he's had his reading book since Wed. We've read it with him every day but he pretty much knows it off by heart. I know that repetition is good especially when it comes to learning high frequency words by sight but 4/5yo's get bored fast and one book a week would drive DS (and me!) crazy!! I bought a set of phonics books from the Book People which have several short stories in so he's reading those too and I've noted in his reading record that we're doing that.