year 1 having to read book twice

[musicinspring1]

Hello. DD has just gone into year 1. She made good progress in reading in year R. She was listened to regularly in class, book changed when finished, read at home a but mostly every evening, even if for 5 minutes.

She lost momentum over the summer and I didn't push it. Started year 1 on the level she finished reception in, fine. Listened to on the first day of school, no other writing from the school since.
She reluctantly reads a couple of pages every day or so, I won't push more than that. Seeing as she doesn't seem to read at school it takes a little while to finish a book . Now her teacher is saying she won't change the book until they've read it twice. Once for encoding, once for deduction. Dd is very demoralised and bored. I ask questions as we go through the book and she understands what biff is up to!!! I've asked for a meeting with the teacher as I'm not happy but before I go, is there any merit in her 'read the book twice' theory? I've not come across it before. Thanks.

DD has also just started YR1. I was very bored of chip and biff last year so went out and bought some books as well as getting some from the library. DD really liked the 'tadpoles' series as she found them quite easy and funny and this gave her a real boost. At our school they only seem to get listened to once a week and cover about 4 pages(?). At home we try to read every night and we kept this up over the holidays to maintain momentum. We read atleast 1 little book (12-15? pages) in one go which takes about 15 mins. If you are only reading 2 pages at a time this will take a long time and reading it twice even more painful so no wonder she is bored and demoralised.
I would ask the teacher how often they will be listened to at school etc so you get the full picture.
I would get some easy but fun books and explain to your daughter that the schoolteacher says she needs to read the school books twice before they will change them. We read before TV so there is an incentive to do the reading ;-). Tell her if she reads the book tonight then tomorrow night you can have a new fun book and that way it wont be so boring for her. Take her to library to choose her own books to read. I think you need to push through with the psychology here..

Thanks for the reply. I'll have a look at the tadpole series, they sound good. Does your DD read the books you've bought every night as well as her school book? Can you read your books as an alternative or does she just do both? And you think it sounds reasonable for the school to ask they read it twice? I shouldn't moan about that?
Yes, I agree I need to break through this somehow and get to the 'reading is fun,not torture' barrier!!!

If you have time get down to the library. It seems to give DD a real boost to do books which are on the easy side rather than plodding through ones where she stumbles over every word and its a struggle to get through. If we read the school book they give us another one so in theory we get 5 school books to read a week. So we can read our own books on the weekend. If you look at www.bookpeople.co.uk the songbirds books are quite fun (basically anything but chip and biff!) and cheap. Even get her to read the books she enjoys (peppa pig?). Or Usborne Very First Reading Series (we got about 30-40 books for about £15).
Last year the chip and biff books were nearly killing us with boredom and we only had our books changed twice a week. So I asked the teacher if we were meant to read the books twice(DH thought this might be the case). But the teacher said no, not necessarily. You could ask your teacher. I think your issue is more that you are only reading 2 pages a day (better than nothing :-) but its taking you days to get through a book so you are both bored and demoralised!
Try reading peppa pig or the little princess or something fun? And talk to the teacher to see if they have any tips?

I will tell you what I would tell any parent coming to me to complain about books being read twice if you told me what you have said in your OP. You need to be supporting her reading a LOT more at home. Allowing her to stop after two pages every day or so is not going to promote reading to her, and you are supporting her in thinking it is a chore. You've been lazy in letting it go for a quiet life, and you're going to have to now do some hard work to get her enthusiasm back.

Reading does not need to always be about the books the school gives her, and in fact, you need to be providing other options for her.

Try and find some good chapter books that you read to her. Harry Potter, Roald Dahl, Enid Blyton, anything that will make her want to listen to the story and want her to hear what happens next. She obviously won't be able to read them, but you need to read them to her and get her interested in finding out what happens in the story. I'm currently doing the Faraway Tree with my four year old DS and he brings the book to me every night and we read a chapter before bed. I've found him several times sitting with the book open and trying to read. He uses the pictures to try and work out what is happening in the book.

If there is a topic that she is interested in, then borrow some books of that theme, even if they aren't stories. One of my students didn't enjoy reading, but was obsessed with horses, so I got her to borrow some how to care for horses books and that encouraged her to read them which then extended to the Saddle Club books and other horsey stories.

Also, get her to read everything. Write your grocery list and have her read out the items to you when shopping. Get her to read recipes, instructions, bus signs, everything you see. It needs to stop being a chore and just be a fact of life.

There is also an excellent computer program called Reading Eggs (www.readingeggs.com.au). It is Australian based, and all of our students love it. We have weekly challenges and they get certificates for completing challenges. It all gets quite competitive at our school and we have a weekly award for the student and the class who has done the best. They currently have a five week free trial. I'm sure there is a UK equivalent, although someone there would need to let you know on that one.

Ours have to read the same story 3 times! We don't have books sent home though. I really would recommend the library l, DD2 was quite reluctant until she started getting her own books, they can choose a level that feels right for them too.

I can see what you mean by supporting reading at home, Midnite, but reading a Biff, Chip and Kipper book twice or more is nothing but a chore. The OP's question was not "what else can we do" and for all we know s/he is doing all the library stuff, bedtime Harry Potter and shopping list reading. Her question was what the merit is in reading it twice and I found the merit is they learn there is reading about dinosaurs and Harry Potter (fun) and then there is a school subject called "reading" (chore).

Dd never wanted to read biff and chip books once, never mind twice. Can't say I blamed her, they're so boring. Luckily her school had the view I do, they wanted kids to enjoy reading, rather than be coerced into reading something they don't want to at that age, and were quite happy to let them read anything they liked, as long as they were doing it often.

Mmmmmm thank you all. I do read to her at home a range from Angelina Ballerina to Matilda. We are also active members of our library. My struggle is getting her to read herself and then read the same book again!! I've always felt if I really pushed her she'd get more fed up so I've left it as little and often. Happy to admit I have left it there and maybe that is wrong. Interesting to hear others have to reread the same book too. Does it help them? I like the sound of reading eggs so I'll have a look at those now. I guess my question was.... is there any real merit to reading it twice, would I be unreasonable in requesting DD doesn't? !?!

I would talk to the teacher and see what she says. We do read the same (home) book more than once. I expect there is merit in it and hopefully the children improve a bit each time. I dont consider my daughter is 'done' with a book until she can pretty much read it fluently. But we read other books in between so she doesnt get too bored / frustrated. I expect practicing the vocabulary and if they recognise the story maybe the theory is that gives them more confidence? Ask the teacher (i had to!).

I would just get her to do it twice. At her age the books are short so I'm not sure why you would read only two pages at a time? That must take ages to finish. Her Ds also in year one has to start and finish a new book every day, each is approx 25-30 pages with 3/4 lines on each. Takes around 10 mins. So to read twice it would only take two days, or just read once in morning and once at night.
They won't progress at such a slow pace, and reading twice does make sense as first time they can understand words, second time the meaning.

is there any real merit to reading it twice

There is research that seems to indicate that re-reading a text helps to improve reading skills, but whether that really applies to the deathless prose of ORT I'm not sure. The more important point to consider is, IMO, whether she can read the books with ease or does she find them a struggle?

If she finds them perfectly easy and understands what she is reading I don't think a forced re-read will really do anything apart from put her off.

DS1's books only have about 2 sentences on each page still, so he can read them in one sitting or possibly over two evenings, so we do tend to read each book twice before changing them.

Ok. Thanks all. I know it's not AIBU but I can see I am being a bit U anyway! I will have to rethink reading and find a way to get through Biff, Chip and Kipper quicker ( and read it twice!). If I try other books/reading eggs etc we might ignite more of a love for reading... so instead of going in to the teacher to say please don't make my DD read the books twice before changing.. what should I say? Should she be reading the book that comes home in school too so we go through it a bit quicker? I will try and get through more than 2 pages a day now. Was my theory of better a little and often really bad?!?!?

Dd would read lots of stuff twice. Sometimes over and over. And yes it was beneficial. However not biff and chip because they bored her.
I'd speak to the teacher and say what she's reading instead, and explain she just isn't enjoying the biff ones, so could she possibly stick to other books because you're reluctant to make reading a dreaded chore.

OP, little and often is good, it's just that 2 pages a day is a bit too little but it is often enough. Try 10 minutes (plus to the end of the page to stop her stopping in the middle a word). 10 minutes should be plenty of time to get through most of the dreaded B,C &Ks in one go, maybe even twice (though I never did twice for truly tedious books).

In infants ds3's class worked in groups for reading. Each group got a new book on a Monday which the parents were to read to them and ask then questions about it. On Tuesday the child read the first half and on Wednesday, the other half. On Thursday they read the whole book. Class work during the week was based on the book. They then got a new book the following Monday. I often felt it was a bit slow going and wished we could move on a bit quicker but boy, can he read now. He's now in P5 (year 4) and can read out loud so fluently, even words that are long or difficult to pronounce and his spelling is better than mine. I have to conclude that the school know what they are doing.

Update: I spoke to the teacher. She thinks the book is a little tricky for DD and perhaps she has lost confidence because of this. DD read a band down last night and read half a book quite happily. We're going to keep a band down for a short while to build confidence back and then switch back without telling DD or making a big deal but the more pages expectation should be ingrained by then.
Teacher said if DD read the book once, the second time could be me reading it to her and then talking about the story. She'd like DD to practise retelling the story. .I'm happy and will raise my expectations of how much reading, and check out all of your recommendations. Thank you!

Learning to read is not just about decoding. It's also about learning to recognise common words by sight, instantly, as we all do now.
It takes quite a bit of repetition to get to that stage. Some children have to decipher some words slowly many times before they get to the stage of reading them easily.

So listening to a child read a page or two, taking note of the words that cause problems (I used to write them down), looking at them again in isolation, then asking the child to read the same page or two again (hopefully more fluently this time) has its merits.

It worked my dyslexic son.

Lot depends on what book a child is whether reading a couple of pages a night is OK. If a child is on white then there will be quite a lot of sentences on the page. If a child is on pink or red then they should easily be able to finish the book in one night.

Learning to read with expression is a good way to assess understanding. Getting children to take a breath at commas and after connectives like and, but helps understanding.

Reading to a child is really benefiical. A parent modelling good expression shows a child how a book should be read out loud. It is also a good way to develop vocabulary and above all develops an enjoyment of literacy.

I'm suspecting that your DD is struggling a bit with her reading because her phonic knowledge and skills are not adequate or secure. OR, that she is being given books full of words which she cannot decode with her current phonic knowledge. No amount of re-reading will improve her word attack skills if the knowledge base isn't there.

Can you explain what was 'tricky' about the book she struggled with?

From the National Curriculum year 1 reading

read aloud accurately books that are consistent with their developing phonic
knowledge and that do not require them to use other strategies to work out words

re-read these books to build up their fluency and confidence in word reading

There is little point in a parent re reading really basic books with sentences like "sam sat on a log" night after night. There is plenty to be gained from a parent reading a real book to a child at bed time. A child might benefit from re reading "sam sat on a log" after a few days break. In the early days of learning to read the aim is to learn to decode new words rather than memorise every word. It does not help the development of decoding skills for a parent to read "sam sat on a log".

There is the simple view of reading which is decoding print into words and there is the complex view of reading which is developing sophisicated skills like comprehension. My daughter is in year 2 and is reading a gold band book about the formation of mountains. She is reading to learn rather than learning to read. She can decode the book easily, but understand about plate techtonics is a bit more challengng.

Children learn a lot in year 1. Just think how much your child knew this time last year when the started reception. Your child will make another big leap in knowledge.

re-read these books to build up their fluency and confidence in word reading

In other words, re-reading helps children to recognise the words instantly. It gradually helps to obviate the need for decoding. This is especially important for words that are trickier to decode, such 'you, your, young' which often make children stumble and with which they are more likely to need help from adults.

They are much less likely to have decoding trouble with the likes of 'Sam sat on a log'.

The benefits of re-reading, or the need for it, of course vary enormously between children. I was first struck very forcibly by this with my own children, but even more so with my grandchildren.

I also think that we still know very little about how the best readers learn to read English (and therefore perhaps also not enough about the most efficient way of doing so), because quite a few of them can read quite well by the time they start school.

We have to read books 3 times before they are changed.

The way I tend to do it, so that it is still interesting, is that for the first reading, DS reads me the book.

The next day, we talk about the book a bit first. What things can he remember? What did he like best? Then, if it is a book with an index, we look up his favourite section and read that. If it's a fiction book, I get him to find his favourite section and read that and we talk a bit about why that is the best part.

There are often questions or suggestions for further activities at the front or back of the book, so the third time, we read the questions first and read the book to check the answers or do the activity.

I also find that reading to different people makes it more interesting, because the listener is experiencing the book for the first time.

By the time DD got on to proper chapter books, we stopped doing the reading three times and instead DD would read the book once, and do one activity that was to do with understanding the book as a whole and another that involved looking in detail at one section.

Marshall, tricky words come later. In many schools children start with simple decodable books so that they can focus on learning to blend simple three letter words. In an effective school children get introduced to more complicated phonics/ complex words when they have mastered the basics.

The teaching of reading is less overwhelming if approached in s systematic fashion. We don't know anything the op or her daughter or what phase she is at in the process of learning to read.