Does this sound right? Year one reading

[Northlondonma]

My daughter is in year one and they read in groups once a week. She brings home her book and tells me that she gets to read one sentence out of the book each week. Does that sound right to you? She doesn't seem to do any one on one reading only in weekly group. Parents evening next week so didn't know whether to bring it up or is this just normal?

That sounds like guided reading. It's normally in ability based groups and the children get a chance to read bit individually and then talk about what they've read. It's very normal :)

It does sound like guided reading, but she should also be reading to the teacher, at or parents. I'd ask the teacher how often they plan to listen to readers, but the most important thing is to read regularly at home with your dc.

Yep, totally right. There is neither the time in the curriculum or the staff to read 1:1 with all children.

Of course she gets her daily 1:1 reading at home with you

Thanks for replies. Never heard of guided reading before. Of course we read with her at home but I'm not entirely sure how to teach her the more difficult phonics for example nice, race etc. She pronounces then nikka and rakka. Will look it up online. This is all the reading that she gets in a week so may need to up the stuff we do at home.

They will be learning phonics in school - if you find out what scheme they are using, it will help you to support her.

The words you mention use the magic e rule -. If there's a magic e at the end of a word, an a is pronounced 'ay', an I is pronounced 'eye', etc.
E.g. Face, rice

Thanks cocktail. They are using jolly phonics. Will look up the magic e rule online. Her reading is definitely improving but was just surprised at the amount of it she actually does!

there is a huge variation even within schools so there's no such thing as normal. make sure you are doing plenty of reading at home (both with you reading to her and her to you as far as she is able). By all means ask at parents evening how often there is 1:1 reading with an adult but do the teacher the courtesy of trusting that they have thought things through. It is entirely possible that your daughter may not have all the facts.

If a teacher spent 10 minutes per week listening to each child read, with 5 minute breaks between to write notes and find and settle the next child, that would be 7.5 hours. That would be 30% of the teaching week - and that would be your child spending 30% of her education time without the support of a teacher for the sake of 10 minutes per week 1:1 attention. Does that seem like a good trade-off to you?

When she mentioned it I did work out how long it would take to have all 30 kids reading one on one and realised it was unrealistic. Sorry first child so just wondered what other's experience was. She only just turned 5 so is a bit of a reluctant reader at home as she gets so tired from school and getting her to try at weekends is proving problematic! Still will keep at it and thanks for all the advice.

That's all the reading they do in a week?

Yes that's all the reading they do each week. I just asked her again and she said yes in a group on Fridays. No other time.

I am very surprised they have no 1:1 reading to an adult in school at all. I would not be happy if my DS (also Y1) did not yet know the phonics rules to decode 'nice' and 'race' correctly. What did they say about her literacy in her end of year report at end of Reception?

She had expected which I was pleased about as she is a late August birthday. She currently reading green level books and seems to read them quite easily except for the magic e words which I will work on with her.

Think this is how it works in my DD's class, but I know they also do other phonics work as a class throughout the day.

They do do phonics through out week.

I have always wondered what is normal for 1:1 reading. For my DS in year 1 and 2 reading 1:1 twice a week was normal, once with teacher, once with TA. He was a great reader so this was just a bonus really. He had two great, really organised and experienced teachers those years.

My DD in yr 1 and 2 read once a week, if that, and she could really do with the extra, so it is a shame, especially as she was getting very tired in year 1 and her reading early in the day was a lot better than what she could do after school. I would be interested to know why there was a difference. I suspect the TA in one of the classes couldn't do 1:1 reading as they were occupied with a particular child whom the inexperienced teacher couldn't deal with alongside the rest of the class and in the other class there probably wasn't time for the teacher to do the reading as they were deputy head so it was left to the TA. Which if that is true is a shame for my dd.

They definitely do some 1:1 reading at DS's school, and have done since reception. Not every week, but parents also go in to listen, so that helps a bit.

Ask, in a neutral way, at parents' evening. You could always volunteer to go in and listen to children reading too.

Our school has phonics workshops for parents, so that we know what is going on (well, a bit!).

The words you mention use the magic e rule -. If there's a magic e at the end of a word, an a is pronounced 'ay', an I is pronounced 'eye', etc.
E.g. Face, rice

Use this with caution; it doesn't apply to all words with an 'e' on the end, have, love, give.. sometimes the 'e' is part of the consonant spelling.

Also, you haven't explained why the 'c' in both those words is a /s/ sound rather than /k/. It is because in many words (not all, so be cautious) the 'e' modifies the 'c' to a /s/ sound. It also does the same with 'g', which becomes a /j/ (but not always...)

Has your DD not been taught these or has she just forgotten? Guided reading once a week doesn't provide nearly enough practice in word attack (identification) using phonic knowledge. And it's not much help the school leaving it to parents to hear sustained reading if the parents' phonic knowledge is rocky (or non-existant).

You might find this blog post interesting:

heatherfblog.wordpress.com/2014/09/13/schools-shouldnt-be-relying-on-parents-to-teach-reading/

She tells me next to nothing about school. Total amnesia outside of school gate! Will ask at parents evening which phonics they are learning so that I can help at home.
The funny thing is that this is an outstanding school with great results. I have to trust they know what they are doing!

I don't do guided reading with my Y1 class and do hear every child read a book at least once a week in addition to reading in class.

I have a DD in Reception and DS in year 1. Their school started teaching Read Write Inc last year and reading (and writing) are taught every day in groups of 6-10 children. DS did 1:1 reading with a teacher/TA/parent volunteer maybe twice in Reception and, so far, once in Year 1. It just doesn't seem to be part of how they teach it at their school. When I queried with a teacher I was told that they do lots of reading with their partners which teachers listen in on, they only do 1:1 for children who are struggling or for assessment purposes. A friend who is a parent reading volunteer backed this up (she spends most of her time with the summer-born children and those whose parents don't listen to them read at home).

I'll agree it's not ideal, but there are 30 children, 1 teacher and 1 part time TA, so their options are limited. They hold parent phonics events and send home links to RWI parent information and YouTube videos etc. I should also add that, in Reception, when we hit a brick wall with DS's letter formation, the TA sat down 1:1 with him every day for two weeks until his writing was immaculate and he was writing happily and by choice. I am happy to 'pick up the slack' at home if it means that the children who fall behind or who have parents who, for whatever reason, aren't supporting them at home, get additional support at school.

As for 'teaching' them at home, they are teaching me! When we hit a word they can't decode, I just encourage them to try a number of strategies on it (eg I might say "do these two letters make any different sounds together?" Or "does this 'e' change anything?"). If they still can't get it I tell them how it should be pronounced and we look at it again and try to work out if it's just a 'red' word or if there are any 'tricks' they've missed. I think I'm learning as much as they are!!

Maizie thanks for that link. Very interesting!

Magic 'e' is known as a split digraph here, but we have also found it helpful to think of it as the letter saying its name (ie sound it makes as a capital)

Level of reading is the same here, though not so sure about the one sentence thing. They have groups of up to about 6 and they share one book a week in a group read. One to one reading maybe twice in a year.

I used to worry that they weren't doing enough, but both DC are reading well above average despite us not pushing it massively at home so it does seem to work. The carpet work they do on phonics is a big part of their learning to read too, and they do that every day.

We have just been told its not the magic e any more - it is the naughty vowels, which had to be separated to stop them talking in class, but they still act as the ae/ie etc sound - they just shout over the consonant head.....
I may well have this wrong. It is a 5 yrs olds explanation (who is nowhere near reading green books)

How do you manage that mrz. It is v hard to fit in my P2 groups 2ce per week, never mind individuals? Something must give, surely? Not snippy, genuinely curious.

Not to hijack this thread, but could someone explain to me what exactly 'guided reading' is?

As for the OP, it doesn't sound right to me - I would expect some 1:1 reading in Y1.