Reading levels - I know, I'm sorry! Im a newbie

[MiscellaneousAssortment]

Sooo, ds starting school in September and I just went to the parents induction session. It was really great (yay!), I am so pleased having been quite anxious about it before I met them personally.

Alot of parents seemed keen to know what reading level the children should have attained before starting (?!), and by the end of the year, what is the average level expected.

The teachers cleverly answered the first question as 'it isn't relevant at the start of their learning journey'. And the second question she also tried to hedge on but when pushes she said Level 10.

I don't even know what scheme the school is using, but wondered if someone could tell me what 'level 20' might mean? And how does that fit in with all the phonics stuff?

I'm focused on the social and emotional transition for ds, so haven't given the academic learning much thought, so I feel like I should fill myself in a bit!

Thanks and I hope reading level stuff hasn't been utterly done to death :)

Difficult to say as different schools use different schemes, and I'm not sure where 'levels' fit in. It's more usual to hear about 'book bands' where books across a range of schemes are given a colour band- it goes pink, red, yellow, blue.... Most schools seem to aim for yellow by the end of reception. Try googling 'reading chest book bands' for a really clear look at the progression of the book bands- there are examples of each band along with age expectations.

However, I would also say...you are absolutely right to focus on the social/emotional side first. Once your DS is settled and you start getting books home and soundsto learn, come back here if you need to- it will all make a lot more sense in context.

ok well levels 10 and 20 would not be the 'usual' book bands you will see mentioned on here (1-pink up to 11-lime and there are some beyond that)

If they are using a phonics scheme then it may be one with those levels, I am not very familiar with them.

they certainly shouldn't be expected to be anything when they start, some will be able to read a bit, some not at all and possibly one will read very advanced stuff but on the whole it will be assume noone can read and then they will go from there.

by the end of Reception I agree it is usually yellow schools seem to aim for but in reality the range will be pink to chapter books.

It might say on the school website which scheme they use but it SHOULD be phonics based and as the children will learn a sound a day or whatever goes with the scheme they are using they will usually very quickly make quite a bit of progress.

Agree with two other posts above - that you shouldn't be at all worried about whether your child can read before starting school - so much depends on their age - let's face it you can have anything from a new 4 year old (turned 4 in August) to a 5 year old (turns 5 in September - waited a year before starting school).

There's a huge range of ability (social, emotional, congnitive, etc...) between a new 4 year old and a new 5 year old. It's not as stark as a newborn versus a 1 year old - but you get the idea.

I found this little guide on assessment and progression through reading levels from Lancashire Grid for Learning (the Lancashire LEA's teaching resources - which I do trust): www.haslingden.lancsngfl.ac.uk/download/file/Assessing%20Reading%20-%20Full%20Booklet.pdf - there's lots of useful stuff there but if you scroll down to page 8 you can see the notional progress through reading levels by school years Year R - Y3 - and LEVEL 10 (or white band) is typically Y2/ Y3 children. So first off don't panic.

Around here end YR aim was Pink level (Level 1), end Y1 was Blue level (Level 3) or Green (Level 4), end Y2 was Turquoise (Level 7) or Purple (Level 8) and end Y3 was at least white level (Level 10) but ideally free reader.

What you can do:

1. Sometime during the first weeks at school, find out what the phonics scheme is that they are using and look into whether there are any workbooks. Jolly Phonics is very popular (we use it here for example) and has a lovely set of 7 workbooks more like colouring books which help with letter formation (traditional 3 line system so you can work out letter heights) and teaches how to join sounds (phonemes) together to make words. Other schemes will most likely have something very similar and frankly it is almost easier to start with the system the school is using and then support it strongly at home. Amazon/ Large bookstores/ news agents will have this kind of thing. It may even be that your school uses these workbooks for homeworks.

1. You can't go far wrong for early reading (including phonetics - sounding out letters) & maths skills with resources/ games/ free e-books from Oxford Owl: www.oxfordowl.co.uk/for-home - it's free you just have to register. There's lots of advice for parents on how to support early reading/ learning letter sounds/ early maths. CBEEBIES alphablocks is also brilliant with very catchy tunes (possibly too catchy - as many still play out in my head years later) that help you learn about letter sounds: www.bbc.co.uk/cbeebies/alphablocks/ - the shows can all be viewed still from this link.

1. Like the others have said Year R is as much about social development (learning to share/ wait your turn/ raise your hand/ listen/ sit still/ do as expected, help or be kind to others, etc...) as it is about educational development. Do remind yourself that in many countries children aged 4/5 are not in formal education but are still in a nursery environment. To be fair Year R (in England at least) is not hugely formal, children are usually allowed to roam about in the class or go to an enclosed outdoor play area, to go off to quiet corners & look at books/ read, even take a nap if tired.

My brother who teaches 10/11 year olds in US says the thing with primary that parents absolutely don't get is it's a marathon, not a sprint.

As someone who had a daughter seriously struggling with reading - she didn't achieve white band (level 10) until Year 4. Don't get too intimidated by children who seem incredibly good at maths/ reading/ whatever when your child isn't. Don't see that as your child not working hard enough/ not taking it seriously - rather see it as an indication of what is possible or a target but accept your child is where they are at and this is their own indvidual route up that proverbial mountain. The issues for them, how they learn, how they respond to the school environment, whether they like the teacher or respond to that teaching style will be unique to them - your job is to help gloss over bad days at school and cheer them up, encouraging them that tomorrow will be a better day and to be there proud as punch when they do achieve (winning that teacher's award, science prize, sports achievement, etc...). In short your job is to encourage a positive attitutde toward learning and help your child begin to discover what his/ her interests are.

Trust me - that will keep you busy enough in Year R. (Let alone last minute (sometimes because your child forgot to give it to you) invites to birthday parties which mean you have to source a present between 9 - 10 a.m. on a Saturday morning!).

It's a very exciting time - they're starting school and now are a proper big boy or girl.

I wish you both all the very best.

PSBD

They sound like the Reading Recovery levels.

Level 10 equates to blue book band, while level 20 to purple - see this chart for more details.

At the end of reception there is usually a huge spread, all the way from pink to white and beyond. Usually ... unless of course a school insist on making children read every book in a band/level before allowing them to move up!

diamondage - nope those are the levels round here which do reflect ORT levels - e.g. Reading Tree chart: www.readingchest.co.uk/book-bands - which has ages exactly correlating to Lancashire's grid for learning reading chart. Maybe it's a non-London thing (?thang by heck?). However, I do agree each school has different levels - I think rather than worry about what the brightest spark the school ever taught reading to achieved - worry about whether your child is demonstrating improvement.

Don't expect it to be steady and do expect there to be struggles (sometimes just not liking a book or having the same book for too long can be the problem). As long as you can see an improvement from a few months ago - you genuinely are winning and they'll get there in the end.

I will add, diamondage, our school were very much prescription reading plan and did go for reading all of something before moving you up - apparently needed to have full range of non-fiction/ poetry/ plays/ fiction (which I can kind of get) and books were working certain key words/ phonemes. [however, it just seemed like normal ORT Biff & Chip reading for that level to me]. There was so much complaint that these were mysteriously wisked away with no explanation - so sadly I never did find out what befell poor grandma after popping the bouncy castle.

One of life's mysteries I suppose....

I agree she is talking about RRL levels.

Now my DD is at the end of Y5 (equivalent) and is a fluent and able reader in both of her languages and does a lot of reading comprehension at school, I better understand why it is so important for all children to read a range of fiction/non-fiction/poetry etc at all stages of primary school. Skills such as accurate information retrieval and inferencing are greatly determined by lots of reading practice. If children only read fiction or only read non-fiction they can be very disadvantaged.

Also Rrl 10 maps to blue band (ORT 5) which according to the Lancashire grid posted above is the level secured by the majority at the end of reception.

I agree she is talking about RRL levels.

I agree she is talking about RRL levels.

Sorry past I'm a bit confused by your post?

The chart I've linked to shows the national book band colours and in the next column the Reading Recovery levels (which I think are the same as PM Benchmark number wise).

So Reading Recovery levels 9, 10 and 11 all equate to national book band colour blue. RRLs 19 and 20 equate to NBB colour purple.

I've seen this cause some confusion on other threads, where a poster says (something like) my reception DC is reading at level 11, is that good and people may initially say, ooh yes super, until it turns out the level is actually reading recovery, or pm benchmark, which equates to book band blue - which although above average is a way off being Lime, the 11th colour in the national book banding scheme.

In fact lots of ORT books do not equate to the book band colours either - for example their level 9 books cover turquoise to white, they are not all equivalent to gold.

See here for examples of PM level 9, 10, 11 blue books.

In the other thread about having to read all books in a band / not moving children up in line with their progress there is a link to an Ofsted report which highlights this method as bad practice.

However, my point was simply that if a school insists on children reading all the books then a likely consequence is a compressed spread of book band colours achieved by the end of reception. So instead of pink to white+ you get DCs only on pink to yellow.

Hope I'm making sense

agree it sounds like Reading Recovery levels which doesn't fit with phonics at all.

I'm going to go back and read in detail everyone's replies, its definitely a whole new world!

But just wanted to say thank you all so much for your replies - really really kind of you to have spent lots of time and effort trying to decode what the levels might mean. Thank you.

What about the Phonics bug levels? Level 12 would correlate with phase 4, so 10 is towards the end of phase 3 and might be about right, if not a little low. That might fit better with a teacher who was reluctant to give an answer than RR10/blue book band.

The phonics bug books we have don't have levels only phases and nook band colours - phase 4 is mainly red band (RR 5)

Can I suggest you sound like a mum doing the right thing.

Red books regularly, this is where they learn the love of books, teach games which involve taking turns.

They don't need to read or write, colouring play doh, things that strengthen fine motor skills.

Been able to follow instructions. These are the things that will help them learn and ready to learn.

These mums will be the one stressing out, comparing their child to others rather than developing their love of learning.

All I did for my DS when he started school was Jolly phonics DVD and he left year 1 in the top 3 readers.

Don't panic.

Are they using Dandelion readers Unit 20 would be right for end of reception?

Did the OP mean 10 or 20? She says the teacher said 'level 10', then asked what 'level 20' meant.

Do they not come with a phase and a set? I think some of ours had bookbands too, but I'm pretty sure they all had a set number on the back.

Like this

Thanks so much, have followed all the helpful links and names, and have come to the conclusion that I need to ask what reading scheme was talked about, as it doesn't make much sense.

No name was mentioned so from my position of ignorance I'd thought I'd be able to work it out after.

I may have wobbled slightly last night and bought alphablocks DVDs and a phonics puzzle! Ah well, it was bound to happen eventually, my relaxed and play focused attitude has wobbled at the first sight of the tiger mummy's and daddy's .

I will regain equinimity shortly I'm sure!

Ds is a gentle soul who soaks up everything like a sponge just through talking and playing and exploring. But he will withdraw and close down if he realises there's judging involved (right/ wrong), and he sees he cant do something and others can.

So I've taken that as more reason to carry on my philosophy of learning, which is that everything is learning, and children are so little when they start school that i absolutely dont have any expectations for ds from an academic standpoint.

We do playing and reading and talking, and having fun showing him how exciting the world is. I love that stuff, it's one of the best things about being a mum, feels self indulgent almost, that I get to do what I love best, and its a good thing for the child too :)

But now I'm just wondering if perhaps I should teach him some things myself so he doesn't retreat into himself when he gets into a more formal learning environment. Might give him more confidence... Or would I be joining in the rush towards formal learning and accidentally teaching him that's the stuff I value most as well?

Hummm, more thinking, and fact finding required. Night all.

Diamondage

Maybe it's my computer - but this link www.haslingden.lancsngfl.ac.uk/download/file/Assessing%20Reading%20-%20Full%20Booklet.pdf goes to a document about normal (not reading recovery) progression through levels (Band or Colour).

I'm referring to Page 8 of 34 has a table entitled:

The progression of successful text reading through Key Stage 1

And nowhere do the bands in the column at the left have a heading saying READING RECOVERY. In fact the shading under columns for indvidual school years (YR - Y3) quite clearly is described at base of table as:

light grey - majority of pupils secure in this range of achievement
dark grey - normal range of achievement.

I don't see any heading saying reading recovery - so I'm totally confused where my link directed you to.

I've used the search facility in adobe reader and nowhere does the word recovery appear - so this is very definitely a document referring to normal progression through reading bands/ levels in Lancashire which marries very nicely with what is happening here in Birmingham.

But as I said above - each school/ region has their own system it seems (helpfully?) - so this may seem way out - however it does seem to tally nicely with what the reading chest also describes: www.readingchest.co.uk/book-bands

it matches what Pearson has to say about levels through Bug Club: www.google.co.uk/url?sa=t&rct=j&q=&esrc=s&source=web&cd=6&ved=0CEcQFjAF&url=http%3A%2F%2Fassets.bugclub.co.uk%2Fdocs%

Again - as the OP's child is not in school yet and will only be starting YEAR R in September 2014 - I'm going to go out on a limb here and presume they aren't in READING RECOVERY yet (which presumably would happen Y2 (preferably) or as in DD1's case (a 'timely' intervention in Year 4) - sometime in that window depending on the school's recognition of a problem. (or do I mean willingness to help?)

I found this www.bassingbourn.cambs.sch.uk/bookbanding.pdf - which links NORMAL READING BANDS/ COLOURS with Reading Recovery scheme - BUT AGAIN FOLKS THIS KID HASN'T EVEN STARTED YEAR R YET - SO LET'S CUT THEM SOME SLACK AND PRESUME THAT THEY CAN HAVE MAYBE 1-2 YEARS OF SPACE TO GET THIS WHOLE READING THING DOWN PAT.

Hope that clears things up with Reading Recovery bandwagon - [sorry to object to even discussing this until the kid has had some time in Year R - THE OP DID POINT OUT THIS WAS CONFUSION ABOUT NORMAL PROGRESSION THROUGH READING LEVELS AS A RESULT OF SOME CONFUSING COMMENTS AT AN INITIAL MEETING ABOUT STARTING SCHOOL IN SEPTEMBER FOLKS].

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Again Miscellaneous - I wouldn't worry too much on what progress your child has made yet with reading - especially if they are closer to 4 than 5. Find out when you can what phonics system the school is teaching and once that starts up, then start supporting it at home.

However in the meantime Oxford Owl does have some good advice on how to help with early reading skills.

HTH

PSBD

www.bassingbourn.cambs.sch.uk/bookbanding.pdf think this is the link diamondage was referring to PSBD.

RafaIsTheKingOfClay as the OP says it's difficult to know from the information provided - Phonic bugs have sets , Dandelion have units RR/BM have levels

Yes - mrz - but RR levels were not in the first link - which was ye olde BAND/ COLOUR symbols from Lancashire grid for learning that most reading schemes work to and I have said repeatedly systems can vary depending on school. My later post had the link you've just cited to the bassingbourn Cambs pdf.

Again - this is my real 'issue' with teachers. So here's a brand new parent MiscellaneousAssortment and they're being inducted into the Year R class on behalf of their infant and the teacher has nothing prepared about what reading scheme they'll be using - what is expected/ what is exceptional or indeed what is slow progress during Year R. No information about phonics programme. (No idea if maths was even discussed).

On one level I get it - the first term in Year R is a busy/ tiring time of adjustment and socialising and really children need time to settle before they can get on with the business of learning. I get that some parents will obviously have walked this path before (and second time around you can ask penetrating questions of the teachers as a parent because you know the ropes).

However, and you'll forgive me for having this view, but if teacher's are truly professional (so by extension schools are professional) and given they teach 4- 5 year olds reading/ phonetics year after year - you kind of do have to wonder why a pack explaining what your child will be doing in the first term, how the day will go, what phonetics/ reading/ maths schemes you'll be following - examples of how parents can help at home during the first term. Advanced notice of workshops to help support phonetics/ reading/ maths, etc... aren't prepared in advance for parents. Indeed, once you've prepared this kind of material you need only update it the following year. Of course elements might change - Bug Club might be added or a new reading scheme purchased - but it's not onerous to incorporate new information due to that kind of change.

In short - if teachers/ schools were truly professional they might ensure new parents understood what was about to happen/ what reading schemes & phonetic scheme will be in use at the school/ how they can support reading at home and how the school will support them with this task.

Too many schools/ teachers adopt the attitude we know what we're doing and by default presume that if a parent is asking questions they want to brag or show off, they're a PITA/ Tiger Mum, rather than simply ordinary people that might want to find out how their child is doing. Willfully avoiding clear answers to such questions doesn't look professional, by the way. Indeed, it left me concerned and feeling that's odd behavior. At first it was a niggle (YR) but by Y2, having talked with primary teachers also waiting for their kids at swimming/ ballet and with friends who had similarly aged children, I became increasingly concerned about how little DD1 seemed to be able to do.

Sometimes explaining to a parent that the 'notional goal' is to get every child in the class to at least X readin band/ level does in fact ensure understanding of what you're meant to be supporting your child to do.

And mrz I do understand that you probably do explain this kind of thing repeatedly with your parents - the point is my dear that NOT EVERY school/ teacher does - and, basically, they should.

This is diamodage's first post PSBD which does have RR levels

diamondage Fri 27-Jun-14 10:53:00

They sound like the Reading Recovery levels.

Level 10 equates to blue book band, while level 20 to purple - see this chart for more details.

And PSBD I don't explain it at all to parents as we don't use book bandings my dear.

you kind of do have to wonder why a pack explaining what your child will be doing in the first term, how the day will go, what phonetics/ reading/ maths schemes you'll be following - examples of how parents can help at home during the first term. That's what our school do PSBD. It also includes 'worksheets' for the children to fill in over the holidays e.g. draw a picture of your family, favourite things etc so school can find out about the child too.

They're doing a home visit soon so I'll be able to ask then.

There was a pack, which had lots of info about their day, tfocal hook etc, but not two facts which would be useful: reading scheme being used and phonics system being used.

They did look a bit floored/ uncomfortable when the parents started asking about levels etc, and definitely wanted to hedge - I didn't mind that at the time, but it's clear from this thread that the answers were not really answers at all!

I think it was because the teachers didn't want the parents to get overly focused or pushy on the academic stuff yet, but it, that definitely fits with both the rest of the induction talk. I'm ok with that as long as its just at the beginning, whilst they focus on them settling in.