Reading level tested every half term Only

[Hooliesmoolies]

My dd's current teacher/ta will only test children once every half term to see if they are on the right reading level. I'm a bit annoyed they have such a rigid policy. Part of me says that if my dd is reading the wrong level at school (hypothetically), it doesn't matter too much for 4 weeks or so, if they put her on the right level. But the other part is worried about her not really being given the opportunity to work at her level. I also am not sure about the rather rigid approach to the children's performance, I'm sure it is more practical to test them all in one go, but learning doesn't necessarily follow a neat 7-8 week pattern! And I do realise I am one of those annoying parents who questions what the teachers are doing!

Please tell me if you think it is a legitimate concern or if I should just chill out

I reckon chill out. The levels overlap anyway and tbh in many ways it sounds good - they are regularly and openly assessing it. If the level is far too low then they can always move them up 2 when they reassess.

Borrow some books from the library and read with her at home.

Half a term sounds fine to me. In most cases the gaps between levels aren't that great anyway. The fact that your child might be reading slightly easy books for a few weeks is hardly going to make a long term impact on their reading. In fact in some ways there are benefits to be had from reading slightly easy books as you can focus on comprehension.

I'd say chill out too I'm afraid. Logically that means she has the potential to move up 6 levels over the year if she is good enough...that sounds like more than adequate progress to me.

How old is your DD?

IME if you have an able read the schools books are always a bit behind what they could be reading. Unless your DD hates the books she is getting, best approach is to let her read those ones quickly and then supplement with more appropriate stuff.

And write in the reading record "DD read this all by herself quickly and then she moved on to War and Peace Little Red Riding Hood".

PS my DD (year one) is on orange books at school. At home she can easily read white/Gold books. So even if I badger them to put her up a level she will still be below where she needs to be to have any kind of challenge. So I don't bother.

My DD enjoys her orange books and it is nice for them to have something they can read easily and enjoy and feel capable about. After all we don't rate our enjoyment of a newspaper article based on how "difficult" the words were, do we? I regularly read Famous Five with my cocoa in bed even now and really enjoy it!

The main thing is that your DD enjoys reading. If that is there, everything else will follow. There is not THAT much difference between a yellow book and a green book, or a green book and a purple book, anyway.

Every half term is normal. Assessing children's levels is very time consuming - the time is better spent teaching them the reading skills. The old adage used to be that you don't make a pig fatten up by weighing it!

... children can move up more than 1 level at at time! (or they should be able to). DS moved up 9 levels in the course of Year 1, even on half termly assessment.

If your school insists that DC have to work through each level even though they can cope with a higher one, that's an entirely different issue!

Chill out and supplement from home. And they should be able to move up more than one level at a time if necessary.

My children school only assess every half term, but they are read with every week and are moved up levels as when they are ready. And it's not just about reading words it's the child's understanding and comprehension of what they are reading.

I am quite surprised by that - suppose it depends how they assess them.

my children have always read to TAs who have the ability to move them up levels when they think they are ready. Teachers rarely hear the children read (probably once a term) but the TA is more than capable of assessing reading levels as they go along.

I am not sure why it would be time consuming to assess them personally. You can usually tell pretty easily once you are experienced whether a book is too hard or too easy or if they need to work on something in particular or if they aren't secure on certain phonics.

I don't think that such a policy is a bad idea. It gives children time to develop comprehension and read a range of genres at a particular level. Progress tends to be more rapid in reception/ year 1 and then children move through reading bands at a slower pace as they go up the school.

It depends - if they can only move up by one level after assessments done half termly then IMO that is a problem. If they can skip onto their correct level, be that 1, 2 or 3 ahead of their previous level then no problem - as long as you're happy to supplement at home if she's progressing quickly.

Thanks all! I will ask the teacher if it is hypothetically possible to move up more than one level at a time. If it is, I'll stop fussing . Although I could ignore what is going on with school completely and just get on with it at home, I do want to work with the school. My dd is so quiet in class I worry about her being slightly missed. It is so helpful getting everyone's perspective. Thanks

I wonder if she implements the policy to manage parents endlessly requesting changes of band!

In our school children are allowed to pick whatever band they like apart from one banded book a week (which we often don't touch at home). They learn to read just fine and DD is an absolute bookworm now. I do understand why you worry, and it might slow her progression slightly but I do think a more relaxed pace is better for encouraging their love of reading, as bumpsadaisie says.

After all we don't rate our enjoyment of a newspaper article based on how "difficult" the words were, do we? I regularly read Famous Five with my cocoa in bed even now and really enjoy it!

^This. The main thing to encourage is reading for enjoyment.

I think if she's on completely the wrong band I think it's OK to raise it again with the teacher.

Evidently the main thing is to encourage reading for pleasure. And if there were a proven formula for teaching reading which would ensure they all also gained a lifelong passion for reading, I would be using it. But there isn't, and it is a little pointless to assume that either I am not trying to foster this, or that moving up a book band is somehow going to prevent this.

The books that my DD reads for pleasure are the Rainbow Magic early readers (with a little support) and some level 7 Biff & Chips. She spent breakfast yesterday and the day before independently reading and re-reading a level 7 biff and chip. That is what I want for her. If she ever picked up her level 6 books from school and read those for fun, I wouldn't worry. But she doesn't. She prefers other things. Even before she could read, she has always preferred quite sophisticated stories (for her age) as her bedtime story. She lost interest in having picture books read to her way before she started school (with occasional exceptions).

And yes, I can understand the teachers get peeved by parents continual questions. However, my DD gets no choice ever about her reading books at school, she does not have a reading diary in which parents are obliged (or even invited) to comment about what they read at home above and beyond the two books that are sent home every week. So, as I stated in the original post, my concern is that the school is not aware of what she can read and what she chooses to read.

I will be asking if it is possible, in principle, for them to be moved up more than one level. Just so I know .

whilst yes in some ways it is ok if she can then jump up a few levels at a time it is interesting to note out of the children I know very well, those who have steadily worked through all the levels, even if only doing a few books on each and finishing them sooner overall read much more fluently and with greater understanding than those who read LOTS of books on one level then skipped a few and so on.

nonicknameseemsavailable that would make sense if it were possible to move up whenever the child is ready, rather than only once every half term. That is what they did in my DD's reception class, but for some reason it seems to have changed in Y1. To be honest, she is reading from each level at home because we use the Reading Chest to supplement the two books a week, but if she skipped a level at school she would miss out on the group reading at that level.

I wouldn't worry about skipping the group reading at that level. many schools don't do it in yr1. in your circumstances I agree she should skip levels if she is ready to when they DO get round to assessing. what I was meaning is that really it should be continuous assessment of whether books are suitable by whoever listens to the children which should in most cases make it possible for them to make a more steady progress up the levels, sometimes more or less time on each one obviously depending on how they are doing but the time spent where it needs to be not then a jump if that makes sense.

Hoolies:

First off - with 30 pupils and a requirement to document any assessment (3 examples of work at that level kind of thing/ photographic evidence/ ability documentation) - I can assure you that once a half-term is actually not unrealistically slow - remember they also have to assess for Maths & Science/ plan lessons/ and teach a particular amount of things each day.

I also can assure you that MN primary is littered with discussion concerning reading books being too easy for DC/ DC reading at higher level than teacher has assessed/ we're reading the same books for weeks on end/ etc....

So I think as a parent - what you need to relax about is the speed of recognition (in any subject really) by the teacher of your child's ability. You clearly are supporting a lot of reading at home and encouraging regular reading. That's brilliant. Frankly keep it up and eventually the school will twig where your DD is truly out.

Because during all of this - there are various 'crunch points' for the school: Y1 phonetics testing (so energy may be expended on getting struggling students in this area to the right ability level)/ Y2 KS1 SATs - again expending energy getting as many as possible to NC L2 (and indeed in some schools lots at NC L3 is seen as important) - so the 1/2 (2/3) bounadry pupils may be monopolising teacher's attention.

I also think that some of this is that the teachers or schools themselves can be very rigid about reading bands. You have to read all the books in the series before you can move up - kind of thing.

My advice - having had concerns myself - is not to get too wrapped up in what the school/ teacher is doing concerning reading - but to ensure that through guided reading/ school library - your child is getting regular access to books. The rest will take care of itself. Genuinely.

Finally - there is always a teacher or two that isn't your cup of tea during the 7 years at primary. And this just may be that case. All you can do is weather it - do more at home - and know that next year there will be a new teacher, who hopefully willl be a better fit for you and your DC.

HTH

sorry - is truly out - should have been is truly at

Can I just also add that school will also be checking her understanding as well as her ability to 'read'.
This week at school I have had to put 2 children down a reading level. They were both ploughing along, able to decode the words but neither had any idea about what they'd read. They couldn't answer even the most basic questions about the text let alone the more difficult inference questions that are such a big part of the expectations of higher reading levels.
A formal assessment every half term sounds just fine.
I would presume that if she shows massive improvement all of a sudden then her teacher would put her up a level based on her own judgement.

What reading programme do they use for testing ? As a teacher I would consider testing every half term excessive but wouldn't see a test necessary for progressing through books