oxford reading tree levels?

[lymiemum]

At age 6, yr 2, June born, ds is reading at level 4. Roughly what level should he be at? What were your little ones at?
Thanks.

ballroom
Until the start of this term he was still having salt so yeah, it was a pretty big intervention. x

He has been making progress, just slowly!
Teacher and Ta's have been great with him I just don't want to see him fall behind any further.

Check out the Oxford owl website (free ebooks online).

lymiemum I am wondering if the focus on the level he is reading at is a bit of a red herring.

I'd be interested to know how he is learning to read new words, so how sound is his phonic knowledge?

Or does he guess words or try to work them out from the pictures (just as the old style ORT books were designed to be used)?

If his phonic knowledge is really sound, and when he comes across a new word he sounds it out and blends it, and then after a few times of this learns to say it without blending then I am sure you are right, and his late talking just means that it will take him a little longer to catch up to his age appropriate level, but catch up he will.

If, however, his main strategy is to guess from pictures, or from the first letter of the word for example then I think you have a different problem that would require a different approach. In this instance ensuring he gains sound phonic knowledge will, imo, pay dividends in helping him to move on in his reading.

Regarding your view that he is surrounded by super reading children, the normal or usual range for Yr 2 would include gold, white and lime levels as well as free readers and yes these children are at a very different reading stage than a child on level 4, but, it is possible for a child (with the right support and when things click for them too) to literally start whizzing up the levels, going from red to white or let's say 8 or even more levels in a year. Children that are many levels below can and do catch up and even overtake children that were previously way ahead. Not all do however, which is why I think it's worth fully understanding whether it's a matter of his speech delay or not having all of the tools he needs to enable him to make good progress.

Super reading children's parents (of the bragging variety) are most definitely best ignored!

If he is making progress then that is good - but I would want to know what the school is doing to really help him because him being unable to read fluently will be affecting his learning in other areas.

DS1 is in Y1, and level 4 is the level that the bottom couple of tables are working at. They get extra TA sessions as a group to work on phonics and comprehension while the rest of the class are doing independent work.

The school have already voiced concerns that he is dyslexic, have been giving him some 1 on 1 times.
He knows words on sight, not just picture guessing.
His sounding out has vastly improved from yr 1.

That sounds positive - both that his sounding has improved and that the school are looking to support him.

Do you have any books at home at the right sort of level for him? The ORT Songbirds (written by Julia Donaldson) and also Read, Write, Inc are phonetic schemes. We got a few for DS1 when he was level 3/4/5 and he enjoyed them and they really helped his fluency.

My DS - may born yr 2 is also on level4 - he came late to school (half way through yr1) as we're overseas.

However - in the last couple of weeks it all seems to have 'clicked' for him.

We live in Germany and he would only just be in yr1 here (we send him to an English school in Germany) and only just starting out as they don't teach reading/writing in kindergarten and you don't start school till you're 6.

I wouldn't stress about it so long as you can see he is making progress - they all have different strengths and speeds of working.

It sounds like the school are working well with him. You cant force things to click instantly all you can do is keep plodding on and working at it. Having said that, although he does seem a liitle behind it doesnt seem that far out of the reaches of normal.

If there is dyslexia there then it is a remarkable testament to your son that he is progressing so well.

If you have any spare cash you might want to take a look at Reading Eggs

It is an online phonics-based reading course designed to be fun. I think it originated in Australia, and it is by no means perfect - but I have found it really useful for consolidating my DDs phonics knowledge.

It has the advantage that the child takes a simple test before starting, to asses their existing knowledge. The program then places them where it thinks they need to start in the scheme, and gives an approximate 'reading age.' (caveat - exactly what the reading age is based upon is not entirely transparent, and should probably be taken more as a guide than a definitive judgement). If you are after an unbias assessment then it might be worth a try.

You can do a two week free trial, so if it doesn't suit then you can ditch it without having committed any money. If you do try a free trial, leave it alone for a couple of weeks after it expires and don't pay full price - you will soon get reduced price offers arriving in your in-box, as they try and tempt you back.

The maths version of Reading Eggs, however, IMHO is rubbish

Sorry for off-topic, but can I ask, what levels of Reading Eggs did you/your child work with SpinCycle?
I'm asking because DS has loved Reading Eggs up to lesson 40 (started at lesson one as he is not yet at school) and it has basically taught him to read (as in, all sounds made by single letters, blending, CVC words and short sentences). However from 40 upwards he is finding it terribly boring - no new sounds introduced, just endless repetition of word families (think -ig: pig, big, jig, whole lessons on one such group) as well as introduction of LOTS of not-yet-decodable 'topic' words such as throne, castle etc. The word families bit involves repetitive clicking, it takes about 10 clicks to make p and ig move together to create pig, it's just a bit slow as opposed to fun and engaging, whereas the parts with the topic words are way too hard and destroy his confidence.
I'm assuming that this is meant to be a consolidation phase before new sounds are introduced, but it has put him right off, because as much as he 'gets' the CVC words, he can't progress due to not memorising the 'topic' words. Does it get better later on? Am wondering if we should drop it now or soldier on. (FWIW we've been using it since September and haven't yet paid a penny, you can find lots of codes for extended trials and such).

On the other hand, DS has absolutely loved the Mathseeds programme and just finished the last currently available level. His understanding of numeracy has come along in leaps and bounds, way beyond his age. Unlike most maths programmes I have seen, this one actually teaches, rather than simply providing exercises and/or tests. But it only goes to about age 6/y1 curriculum, so I can see that it could be of less use if your child is at that age and has been having the teaching already (at school), and what you are looking for is exercises to consolidate the teaching. I agree that here are absolutely not enough exercises per topic.

Meita - my DD started at around map 3 and worked right through to the end. She now occasionally uses the Reading Eggspress side of the site, but isn't as keen on that. I used it with her because she was a bit ahead of her cohort. She strarted reception able to blend fairly well, but for the first term no-one in the class was sent home with a reading book with words (all early stage ORT with pictures only). She was getting bored and losing interest, so I wanted something that would inspire her a bit more, but that followed a proper phonics course. I am not at all qualified to teach, and I was taught using a Look and Say approach when I was small. Whilst I was happy reading with her, I didn't have the confidence to go it alone with phonics.

I think you are right, and I do remember a patch where the lessons get repetitive. The topic words are a pain. I have to admit to occasionally 'cheating' for DD. If she was getting stuck on something that I didn't think was neccessary/quite the right level for the lesson I would occasionally do that bit for her to move things along. The tests that crop up at the end of the maps are actually a fair bit easier than the exercises, so I figured that so long as she could manage those I hadn't done too much harm . It isn't by any means perfect, and it seems to follow quite a different pattern in terms of when different sounds are introduced compared with my DDs school scheme. I have fairly limited experience, but for us it was a good thing overall.

I can't remember the exact phases, but slowly different sections of the program open as the child progresses. It is worth hanging in there if you haven't made it to Storylands yet, the Driving Test feature offers a slightly different approach, and the Story Factory (though v challenging at first) kept my DD fascinated for a fair while.

Re. Mathseeds - I think we missed the window for this. It didn't come out until a fair while after DD started school, and from what I have seen of it it only covers very basic stuff. (largely number recognition and simple sums). Good to hear that you found it useful. Perhaps I shouldn't have been so quick to condemn it completely

(Sorry for staying off-topic OP)

Usually I would say not to be concerned about what book they are on if in reception. But if reading hasn't clicked by year 2 then that is something to be concerned about and I would want to know why the school hasn't bothered to give him extra help or flag this up as a concern. Over 2 years have gone by and a lot of wasted time by the sounds of it.

My friend has a child in year 2 who has been coming home since reception with books she cannot read. My friend is convinced she has dyslexia at this point. If more had been done by the school to help her then perhaps her dd would not be so stressed by this situation at school.

I would also suggest that ORT probably does not suit your ds, OP. Neither of my younger dds would have found learning to read easy with ORT. They used phonics based books. Dandelion launchers are very good.

ORT can vary wildly depending upon the publication date, lottieandmia.

The more recent ones are very definitely phonics based. Unfortunately a lot of schools (including ours) still have a LOT of old ones, (that really really aren't phonics based) that they send home as reading books. We occasionalloy get sent home battered copies of Biff Chip and Kipper publishied pre-1985. Those don't suit anyone . Anything after about the year 2000 is fairly safe, though - and the Julia Donaldson Songbirds series from ORT is fab.

Yes that's true but a lot of schools don't have up to date books. And it sounds as if the op's ds has been allowed to drift without anyone flagging it up as a concern. If a child can't read by year 2 then it's the school's fault.

Thanks Spin very helpful!

little
The school have been giving extra support. And looking at ways to help him.

Ah, so the school are already giving him extra help. Have they suggested school action plus or anything?