Reception Reading Level

[louisejxxx]

Shamelessly asking how your reception child is doing with their reading? Not a stealth boast - my ds is floating about between pink and red book bands (seems to get a mixture of both home) just interested really as I'm not brave enough to ask any other mum's in the playground!

I think ds is probably average but am interested to see how others are doing..

Waits for flaming - at least I'm admitting I am just being plain nosey!!

I agree the key is a good supply of high quality phonic books. Most schemes don't provide the necessary rigour so it's important to mix and match carefully.

We've come a long way in the last 10-15 years in the availability of decodable reading books, but very few have enough at each level to provide enough practice in a particular sound or variety. The various dandelion series look as though they might and perhaps phonics bug, although I'm not overly keen on some of those.

We have both and while I like individual Phonic Bug books I don't feel they provide enough breadth alone ... More books needed please!

Ah that's interesting..I was looking at a Phonics Bugs set for practice at home...appreciate though that maybe not supportive enough by themselves, but hopefully something is better than nothing.

Some of the Rigby ones read a little oddly probably because of the restricted phonics they can use in the middle stages. I don't think its too much of a problem, they're hardlyvthe sort of books children are going to read more than once or twice.

Some children whizz through reading schemes then have a halt as they have learnt to read on sight and not phonetically. Much better not to rush these things......or boast in the playground as it will come back to bite you in the arse??

Oxford owl is fantastic and free

If you are going to buy a set for home its a good bet. It's a well structured scheme. I think that version the sell for home use has fewer books than the school one. But you are right, something might is probably better than nothing.

I can't remember if you've tried the library or not. Ours has a reasonable selection of early decodeable readers. Might save you money. They are not cheap.

I prefer Songbirds as a home set for value for money from the Book People

Song bird are free on oxford owl

Only 5 of the 60 books are available on Oxford Owl unfortunately

Still, a good resource

A great resource but unfortunately a limited number of phonic readers available. MN also has free access to some of the Phonics Bug books

For a free resource it is a good resource, particularly for more advanced readers. I'm not sure its ideal in the early stages, but that might be because I'm fussy.

Book people and songbirds is a good call. They had a reasonably priced set of Floppy's phonics books on there about a month ago too.

My daughter (born in late August) was on red or pink at this time last year (reception). She's on gold book band now so doing very well. The thing that helped us was the Songbirds books that her school does not have so we had to buy them. We also have a subscription to the Reading Chest as her school does not send books home regularly enough!

I had my eye on Songbirds too Bitlost but when I asked at parents evening if the school had them they said yes so I held off getting them. Haven't had any home yet though

What books have you gad home?

had not gad

I will be the first to admit that I went through a phase of obsessing with reading levels. However, earlier this academic year I concluded that it seems completely arbitrary.

I used to come on here and see yr children reading very high levels and despair thst my dd wasn't up there yet. Her school seems to go rather slowly through the levels but as a result my dd can read. She has good comprehension, reads with expression, can predict etc. I really think that whizzing through levels doesn't necessarily guarantee that a child ends up a good reader, or that that child is somehow more intelligent. Which seems to be the correlation thst some parents seem to make.

Perhaps I am being slightly negligent as regards my dd's reading but I think the fact that I focus on her reading, rather than her reading level is actually helping her progress further.

Dd finished year 1 with a high level 2 (the highest, sorry I can't remember if that's a or c!) thst was nearly a level 3 for writing. My point is if you take the opinion that the reading level is the only indication of a child's success in school then it all might become a bit strained.

Sorry, a bit of a rant there but I feel quite strongly about this issue!

mrz it has all been the first few sets of biff chip and kipper, he is getting level 1+ books now (mix of pink and red bookband) - think the most recent "sets" have been called patterned stories and more patterned stories.

Very odd OP they gave phonic books available but use old Look & Say

I know, I find it odd too! He seems to be on the pink/red book band border so if he does appear to get moved up to red for good, I will probably buy the pink songbirds set just to consolidate everything so far and make sure he can actually blend.

I will be honest, he has a fantastic memory..so I thought he may struggle with blending and become a natural sight reader (and possibly encounter problems further down the line!) but that doesn't mean I'm not going to try my utmost to teach him to read through phonics.

Songbird, Traditional Tales and Floppy's phonics were the main things my children read at the beginning of reception.

I thought they were great, and they were both reading fluently before the end of the year.

My DD went into reception reading, was started on green and quickly moved up to Orange. She has stayed there ever since.

I am slightly frustrated as at home we have been reading Holly Webb (magic Molly) and other age appropriate chapter book together and she will read her school book in the car on the way home from school unassisted. I asked to have her reassessed but they wanted her to start reading non-fiction Orange books instead which she doesn't like at all and finds boring.

I get the feeling they don't like having readers further ahead than the average in the class, she doesn't appear to do any reading in school. I know non fiction needs to come but she isn't 5 until end Jan, all she wants to read about is magic and princesses. I am doing my own thing with her now and letting her read what she likes.