DD reading books off own back, Spiderwick, lemoney skinicket, dick king...what reading level should she be...

[rainraingoAWAYNEVERCOMEBACK]

I know its not comparable, teachers have reasons for keeping school levels, low and so on, I was just asking out of sheer interest, if anyone elses child was picking up books because they have got into reading...and what their corresponding ORT book was. My DD is year one, level 6.

Purely out of interest, I used to get worked up about ORT levels but not now.

Rabbit, despite all your protestations you seem to care very much about my thread and my posts.

Do you have something to prove, some axe to grind, its really really odd.

I am trying to find out information and your seeking to close me down for some bizarre reason.

Its really odd that your desiring to keep on telling me what I am thinking.

Some one like me posts and says they are idly wondering something, then a poster like you comes on and keeps on and and on and on about something, so I stupidly respond, rather than ignoring you, then my posts become defensive and all about something ridiculous.

I have to keep saying, I am not bothered any more about school reading levels, so it sounds like I do care, but really I am having to fight to keep my thread on topic, trying to find out information when someone out there seems determinedly on some sort of bizarre mission to prove Rain actually means something else.

Are you a teacher rabbit, I don't understand why you care so much?

This thread has really touched a bone within you!

Something about my posts are upsetting you and you are not giving me any useful information. so whats the obvious answer here

OK, girls. There's no point in getting into a ding-dong about whether rabbit has an axe to grind in this particular thread, or whether or not rain really does care about her daughter's ORT levels when she keeps saying that she doesn't.

In reality, obviously, both things are a little bit true.

But that's really a side issue. The real issue is whether or not some children's reading is in advance of their school reading books. The answer is yes they are. What's to be done about it?

Probably nothing.

Someone on another thread has just said reading is an easy ish thing for a parent to understand...

My DD reading has shot up in only a few months, but I have no idea what her actual progress is because I know the school didn't catch up with reading books when she started to fly along.

I am not blaming the school or the teacher, I mentioned her reading was flying at parents evening, she herself has told the teacher she loves to read and what books she is reading.

But Me the lay person at home, cannot get an idea of where she would be on a scheme like the ORT which is the only barometer I have.

So as she is getting quite good I have no idea what her level would be if she was on the corresponding ORT scheme,so to try and gage where she is...this is why I have asked.

ain really does care about her daughter's ORT levels when she keeps saying that she doesn't

I care about what level of reading she is now if she was on the corosponding ORT ...I do not care what books she is bringing home as part of her homework.

The ORT is not a barometer of what level of reading your child is capable of. That's where you're going wrong.

It's a barometer of which colour books she is being given by the teacher or TA

that's all it is.

If you want to measure your daughter's reading ability then you have to go to the library or local bookshop and test it yourself.

Really, so whats the point of it then? why is she on the scheme then?

How do the teachers work out which books to give her? they just pluck it out of thin air, or what colour or number they fancy that day?

Reading schemes are to teach children who can't read to read.

They're not for teaching children who can already read to read.

Why teachers insist on giving able readers stupid reading books is beyond me. But it's not really important. The most practical thing to do is ignore them.

I suppose its to keep encouraging those who do not want to pick up books by themselves to keep going.

The able readers who are being given stupid books by their teachers, you mean? I don't know, maybe.

My own suspicion is that there is a list of tests that the teachers have to be satisfied that each child has passed as she progresses through the school. And in terms of reading and comprehending, those tests are far easier for the teacher to administer if the books are simple than if she uses Dickens or Shakespeare. The child might be perfectly capable of both reading and understanding either author. But the teacher might not be able to demonstrate it sufficiently using those texts. Better then use Spot the Dog and Buffer Goes Shopping.

rainrain - it has "touched a bone with me" because you were defensive right from the start and sound deeply confused, yet when anyone tries to point out you are asking the wrong bl**dy questions if you want any help in "progressing your daughter's reading" rather than just letting her enjoy reading... you reject it all and tell the poster (not just me, anybody else who has tried to tell you exactly the same thing) that they are either wrong, or don't know what they are talking about, or aren't answering the question that you originally asked, even though finding out what other strangers' children's reading levels are quite clearly wasn't going to get you anywhere helpful.

I have suggested you talk to the school as they WILL have lists of questions that you could ask a more able reader to engage them in reading and progress and test their comprehension, if you ask for them, and that will help you at home. You, however, have had the same hissy fit with school as you are having with anyone else who doesn't just tell you their-child-is-on-ORT-level-14-so-maybe-your-dd-should-be-a-bit-higher, and complain that the school made no sense when you last spoke to them, so you can't be bothered to talk to them any more. Maybe you should try buying a comprehension book from WHSmith instead, if you're so bothered about whether your dd is not just enjoying reading, but also progressing measurable way? Or just let the poor girl progress naturally by enjoying reading voraciously and talking about the books with her in your own way?

I have suggested that some books may be more appropriate for your dd than others, but you got all defensive, because you are the expert on what your dd likes and what she doesn't, and you THINK you don't control what she reads and disapprove of that idea (but who bought her her current library of books and didn't choose to include the Kama Sutra in it?... and who might be a bit disappointed if she claimed she only liked ORT books?...).

I have suggested that you are still hung up on reading levels and progress, whilst still saying that you just like the fact that she is enjoying reading, and you have claimed this is not the case, whilst still banging on about how you don't understand all these ORT levels and why schools use them. Why should you care, if you don't really care? Why on earth ask the question?

Here we go again, girls.

Round and round...

rain, don't answer the post above. It's a rant, not a question. I can see how the rant got made. But it's still a rant.

Of course it's not a question, columngollum. I agree with you that the books read at school at that age are probably more to enable teachers to tick boxes and show progress, though, since that is what Ofsted wants to see. It is what happens when people obsess about measuring progress, even when without measuring it you can see that it is happening.

Although I would say it's not a very good school on that basis, and that is the OP's real problem.

I would worry if there was a ridiculous disjunct between the ORT level and the books my child read at home.

I would worry it was a lazy/bad/unimaginative teacher and a rule bound school.

Reading books is one of the only way I have to assess how well my children get my child or measure her progress. I can see what they are doing at home and what they are doing at school.

There is nothing magic about reading. I don't think the teacher possesses some secret skill to assess how good kids are at it. The teacher might have some skill in assessing the various stages that OFSTED require sthem to go through to get points, but for me a good reader is someone who sits down and reads enthusiastically, can compare the book to other books, discuss the story, relate it to life... and run into a bookshop or a library as if it's one of the most exciting places on earth.

In your position, OP, I would in fact be a bit peed off.

In fact, my kids school isn't great, but the one thing they do get right is a disdain for the reading scheme once kids can actually read.

As for Lemony Snikket in Y1. I haven't picked those up. But in Y1 my daughter was reading malory towers, famous five, secret seven, little house on the prairie etc. And NO WAY would I have had any respect for the school and the teacher if she was chugging away at ORT 6 at the same time in class.

OP- what does your child's teacher say when you have this conversation with him or her?

Rabitt

I have asked a simple question.

If your DC are reading this material,what ORT are they on.

I hoped people would come on and simply say, age 5 ort 5 reading same stuff.

What I also expected this being MN was that people would not answer the question and try and delve into my physe but what I didn't think would happen is that oneposter would decide to make it their mission to tell me what I am thinking, and so on and keep on coming back where they are not wanted.

Its perverse!?

How on earth is asking a question somehow all about me not making her reading enjoyable.

That's the whole point. You have your own problems which you are projecting onto me and you are not listening to me.

I could go into the school I could say, look she is reading x y and z....and they could move her up, onto longer even more tedious and boring ORT books that she has to read....that she doesn't enjoy as much but she has to read them ....longer boring and take more time,less time for far more interesting books.

I think I have already stated this, in the early days I was concerned but not overly so ..i did raise it, the teacher has moved her up to stage 6, now she is picking up books she likes...I am very happy...I do not want her to have to read long and boring ORT books.She can stay on a nice short stage 6 till she finishes school ....and keep reading her own books...but I was still interested in ORT.

coloumn thanks so much for your pointers there on rabbitt and on the books.

Its like going into a bank and something doesn't work on your card and they explain why in all their jargon and you don't understand it because you dont work for the bank you just want a working card.

curlew this has all happened quite quickly. at last parents evening she was not picking out her own books.she was however able to read and understand long passages from harder books and read 99% of a roald dhal. Gearges medicine I think. I told the teacher this and she said we need to work on expression.

We did, DD got it over night...and immediately began to read with expression and TA has noted this in her books.Then they said work on comprehension, as best I can I have asked DD questions and to me, she understands!

since then she gone to choose her own books. she has read more dhal, spiderwick chronicles, some fairy books, kitten books, and now LS.

I have suggested that some books may be more appropriate for your dd than others, but you got all defensive, because you are the expert on what your dd likes and what she doesn't

Yes rabbit, compared to some mad person on the internet yes, as it happens I am the expert on what she likes and what she deosn't.

utter maddness

On Monday, make an appointment and go and tell the teacher what you've said here.

Oh, and I would certainly read lemony snicket myself before I let a 6 year old read it. In fact, I did- and I didn't.

Do you think Curlew...

In your mind, what would I be achieving by doing that?

Because all I can see them doing is saying....either...work on comprehension and or moving her up to longer ORT books?

Rain, of course no one controls a child's reading (apart from the obvious) at home...but at school, they have to. To a degree. There are systems and schemes for a reason, and I was just trying to guess at what your dd's school reasoning might be.

I certainly don't have a problem with other people's 6 year olds reading LS or anything else, but I would have a problem with school assuming all 6 year olds would be ok with 'dark humour' books, or other books aimed by the publishers at slightly older kids. Just in case someone else's 6 year old was upset.

At the same time, as I said, holding a child back isn't ok either. Balance is all.

And I hope you're not calling me a 'mad person on the internet'

Incidentally, my 7 year old (who isn't reading LS but is reading RD, JW, etc) isn't on any ORT level. But no child in her school, at any level, is forced to stick to ORT - they use a variety of schemes, so there is choice.

I certainly don't have a problem with other people's 6 year olds reading LS or anything else, but I would have a problem with school assuming all 6 year olds would be ok with 'dark humour' books, or other books aimed by the publishers at slightly older kids. Just in case someone else's 6 year old was upset

Of course, my DD quite likes darker stuff and she has found the LS to be funny and exciting. she is not upset at all. But I will monitor as books go on.

I would be quite upset if she came home with older books from school.

some people were saying she may not comprehend the whole story and it was to this I was responding, she loves it, wont put it down, i am not going to take it off her!

elibean I dont know why you think I am responding to you there is one poster on this thread who I have upset with my subject matter and who wont leave me alone! its not YOU.