Ideas for improving fluency in year 3 DD and helping her move up a gear

[diplodocus]

DD1 is quite a good reader (ORT12) but has made no real progress for well over 6 months. Her understanding is excellent, she can read most words but she continues to be quite slow and hesitant. She's made marked progress in other areas of her schoolwork, but this just doesn't seem to be getting any better. She reads her school book most nights (either aloud or to herself) but has lost her earlier love of self-directed reading, which I feel quite sad about. Does anyone have any ideas of how to help her move on? She's quite demoralized as DD2 who is 2 years younger is now on the same ORT level (although to be honest while her reading is nearly as fluent her understanding / prediction / inference is no where near as good as DD1s). We've checked her sight (she now wears glasses which makes no real difference) and she did have convergence insufficiency which is pretty much resolved with exercises. Apparently her tracking is fine.
Any ideas or thoughts welcome.

do you think she is just bored of the school books?

Sorry for the delay in replying. I think that is part of it, but equally her reading hasn't actually improved since she started this level. I encourage her to read more interesting books at other times, but she just seems to have lost interest.

My DS really struggled with the ORT books after a while - they were brilliant to start with. My solution has been books and games that DO interest him. So Top Trumps was a revelation! He had to be able to read quite quickly and make a judgement call. Monopoly and children's Scrabble too. Then it was factual books from the library - anything on dinosaurs, mountains, cars etc. I am still reading a book to him everynight (David Walliams is a big hit) and have tried hard to find fiction books at his reading level that he might like (reading posts on MumsNet led me to Jake Cake for example) and that has helped. Good luck!

I would first and foremost try to find out why this might be by talking to her.

Are u still reading to her regularly? My children loved being read to until they were much older than your dd.

Taking it in turns to read a page or a paragraph might also make reading more fun to her.

Yes. I still read to her each night, which she loves and really looks forward to. It's a good idea to maybe get her to read a papagraph or two instead of her school books - the books I read to her tend to be a lot more complex than her school books so it would probably be frustrating for her to read too much. Will also try and get other stuff nearer to her level (thanks for the Jake Cake suggestion) and talk to the teacher about doing less on the ORT books.

How far up do the school ORT books go? It seems a shame that your older daughter is showing hesitancy in her current reading because past ORT 8/9/10 it's all about higher order reading skills. Maybe the hesitancy has confused the teacher/TA and they're not moving her up the levels by mistake.

And if your older daughter's higher order skills are as superior to her younger sister's as you explain then I can't understand why the two girls are reading the same level books. They shouldn't be!

Does your older daughter's teacher know that she is reading the same books as children two years below (and how does the teacher explain it?)

If this happened to me I'd just tell the teacher to sort it out yesterday. If the teacher didn't sort it out I'd go into the school and sort it out for her.

I think the problem is with the levels beyond 11 are that they don't relate (I don't think) to particular levels in the real reading world if that makes sense. They have their place in school with regards to testing comprehension and so on but the real world of books is so much more varied.

What sort of stories does she like? does she prefer non fiction? does she like poems? I don't think it matters what she reads if you can just help her regain an interest in reading something.

DD1 is currently enjoying Holly Webb books but she also still likes reading a lot of 'easier' books and perhaps your daughter might benefit from doing the same. So she gets to see reading as fun and relaxing, then once she is doing that again she could start looking at the school books again and she may make progress.

If the teacher agrees that beyond level 11 the books don't relate to real reading then the child could dispense with them altogether, surely.

There's no point in accumulating all the children in the school on level 12!

Personally I would ditch the ORT books totally and try and find books that she wants to read. I am sure her teacher would far rather she was reading something than digging her heels in over ORT (I have so been there) so therefore reading very little.

Forget the school books if they are not engaging her (seem to be echoing simpson here ). Find something she likes and she will read, enjoy and improve. Try the library. Let her choose, but maybe choose some yourself as well that she can try. Get a range, maybe some quite easy for her, and some a bit more challenging. Then she can find what suits her.

Also, as they get better they may well plateau for a while. This is normal. Just you want to keep them engaged and enjoying reading. Try some non fiction as well.

Agree with freetrait on the plateauing. DD stays at the same level for ages and then does a massive jump rather than a gradual improvement iyswim.

I would bin scheme books and go to the library.

So sorry not to get back, but thanks so much for all your replies. I think it is time to go "off piste" and get her back to reading something she enjoys rather than ORTs. Collumn - no I really don't think the two DDs should be reading the same level books but am not sure if DD2 is placed too high or DD1 too low or a bit of both. Th reading levels go up to 16 at our school but I think I'll go and have a chat about it. Her teacher is pleased with her reading and she's aiming for a 3a at the end of the year, which doesn't really equate in my mind with ORT 12? Don't want to be the pushy parent though if I can help it.
Again many thanks for your very thoughtful responses.