home readers too easy and unsophisticated

[madeitagain]

My child almost six is bringing home books that are simple in both vocabulary and story line. He was bringing home more complex and challenging books in reception. He doesn't particularly enjoy these 'easy' readers and becomes careless and unmotivated when reading them. I am fortunate in that I am a teacher and have access to guided reading books and can thus easily provide my child with more challenging and motivating books, generally one or two levels above the books he is reading at school.
My son's teacher is in her 3rd year of teaching, my son is happy at school and learning. His reading is improving, although I am not sure if this is because of the reading he does with me or at school.
I want to be diplomatic and convey my support for the teacher but at the same time convey my thoughts on his home readers. I am not 'a pushy parent' and would be more than happy with simple books if I thought they were of benefit to my son, Any ideas on how to approach the teacher?

DS uses some comic style ones which he loves the stories of. Primary purpose is still obviously to teach to read but they are entertaining to a 5 year old.

Comics for Phonics?

That sounds right.

A relatively new publication with the prime purpose of providing phonics practise. Having said that I've had parents of beginner readers complain they are too simple and not enough reading.

They used a variety of schemes. Floppy phonics, songbirds, planet x, big cat, the comics one, traditional tales. I can't remember all of them. All seemed designed to be as engaging as possible. Using lively pictures, humour, engaging topics and stories.

The most restricted in terms of phonics content were the songbirds, but don't think anyone would describe them as unengaging or text book like?? A proper writer writing proper books under constraints. I'd like to see any real books that are as engaging at the same level of reading difficulty. DD used to ask for them as bedtime stories!

Compare traditional tales to any number of non scheme fairytale, no particular merit either way. Planet X to series like Dinosaur Cove. Really very similar types of books. I believe the higher (teen number) levels of schemes that have them start actually being 'real' books or extracts of them? DS school only went to level 11.

I think there are some good entertaining scheme books, dd likes the fact-type books for example and the Rigby star ones we get are OK.

While engagement may not be the sole purpose in an ideal world it is surely a nice to have ...

The point is their prime purpose is to teach not to entertain and what one person finds engaging another may hate. I've seen posts on here complaining about all the books you mention catkind, just as I've read praise for ORT and Ginn 360

But surely to entertain is absolutely key to teaching reading?
Yes not all books will engage all children, but that's the same for non scheme too. If anything scheme books try harder to be attractive to all because they do tend to be given to all the class and not just the football or fairy-obsessed. School books shouldn't be some kind of nasty medicine we need to dose them with daily. If it's like that then something's wrong, IME often the books being sent are too hard or too easy, though it can be that a particular child doesn't engage with a particular scheme (or more often the parents don't!).

I'm not sure that they do try harder to entertain than books written specifically for that purpose?
It's true that reading scheme books are more attractive than they once were but there prime purpose remains

I mean they try harder to be suitable for all children. It's fine to have dry technical books about geography for geography obsessed kids to read, and sparkly rainbow fairy books for sparkly children to read, but neither of those would likely be included in a reading scheme because they have a very specific target audience.

Their prime purpose is surely to engage children in reading. Can't teach the child anything if the child won't read it!

It seems strange to imagine books written for beginner readers wouldn't be suitable for children however their prime purpose is to provide practise for taught skills/knowledge.

Schemes like Songbirds/Project X phonics/Phonics bugs/Comics for Phonics/Bug Cat phonics present texts containing sounds in the order they are taught in the letters and sounds programme so that children can apply what they have been taught.

Well they're hardly going to enjoy reading books they can't read are they?

Gno but they can enjoy books they share with expert readers

I thought we were discussing whether kids would rather read scheme books or library books - whether they'd rather be read to is a different question.

Of course reading to them makes much more literature accessible. Scheme or non-scheme; except I won't read them scheme books so they aren't memorised before they come up in school. Beyond DD being a very small toddler anyway.

No I was giving a possible reason why the books sent home may be viewed as easy and/or unsophisticated

Except the OP said the child can easily read more difficult/sophisticated books, and indeed was doing so two years previously. So it's not a case of preferring to be read books that are beyond their reading ability. In fact, the OP said she was giving him more sophisticated scheme books to help him.

But the more difficult, sophisticated books may not be helping her son to develop/practise the skills the teacher has identified.

My son was reading the Financial Times in nursery and was bringing home Roger Red Hat ...

That's not what you said. You said reading scheme books were different in content and format, not that the teacher might have assigned an easy book to work on specific skills. (Though if they want specific skills worked on at home it would be a lot more successful if they actually told the parents in the first place which!) Plenty of PPs already suggested asking if he should be working on something specific.

I have had this issue, and as I don't do drop off/pick up have limited opportunity to speak to the teacher. When I did bring it up I was told they don't like putting children up the levels too quickly as they finish the KS1 books too early and the KS2 books have unsuitable content. This was in reception. They then did put him up 2 levels but then sent back home books he had read fluently previously. I got really fed up about it - what was the point? Now in year 1, I have written a couple of notes in his reading record, as they said to comment on books the children have read at home, and he was reading chapter books from the library 2 levels above what the school had him on. He then got two books home that he had read before in reception, so I wrote a note saying 'xx had read these in reception, he said he had read all the books in the box before so couldn't choose a new one. Unsurprisingly, he read them fluently, just as he did the first time'. He's now been put up a level, and there are lots of factual books, introducing dates, charts, tables, glossaries, indexes etc, so some new things to talk about. Much better.

Mrz, I got a little bit confused about the purpose of school sending home books to read. I thought main purpose is to reinforce the love of books and make the children getting used to sit down and do some learning at home, which might help in the future.

If the easier books are given for specific reason, parents should be informed about it, otherwise it's no use. If the books are sent home just to enjoy reading, then books should be somewhat enjoyable for child to read.
if not, it just make the reading chore, not a pleasure.

Am I wrong?

Yes catkind that's what I said and it's a possible reason why the OP finds the books easy and unsophisticated.

Irvine if the main purpose of sending books home was to develop a live of books do you really think any school would send home Biff, Chip et al? ??

This us from a published study on the subject of reading scheme purpose

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Advantages And Disadvantages Of Reading Schemes Education Essay
Reading is an extremely important life skill, it is one of the most useful and used skills needed for everyday life. For instance, reading posters, newspapers, traffic signs, clothes labels are an everyday aspect of reading, as well as being able to read for the love and joy of reading, and to further education. As mentioned by Harrison and Coles about the education of learning to read they note, "The purpose of education is to impart skills and motivation and belief in your ability to deploy those to achieve your own goals" (Harrison and Coles, 1992:182).

Reading schemes, such as the oxford reading tree have been used for many years to help with the teaching of reading in primary schools, from the ages of around 5 years to 11 years of age (Mallet, 2005). Reading schemes mainly consist of fictional books in which progress up in stages of difficulty throughout the development of reading. However reading schemes (such as the oxford reading tree) can also incorporate word cards, context cards, core books and work books (Beard, 1990). Reading schemes are often supplemented with the use of real books to help the child develop their reading further (cited in Campbell, 1995). Some schemes focus on phonics (sounds, letters and words); whereas others focus mainly on key words (Ladybird Books, 2012). There are many requirements of reading schemes, these being; introducing books containing few words; simple and limited vocabulary; phonic regularity; word repetition; appeal to a wide audience; attention to the prevailing 'isms' of the day; a uniform appearance; and a grading system for administration (Browne, 2009). However it is hard to determine which reading scheme to use when teaching children to read, as noted by Southgate (1983), many teachers tend to ask what the best reading scheme to use is.

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There are many advantages of using reading schemes, for instance the children's development can be monitored by teachers, parents, and even the children themselves by using the schemes (Campbell, 1995). As well as another advantage being that in many schools, children themselves are allowed to choose the book in which they wish to read from a certain stage (Pearson, 1987). In order for reading schemes to help with the development of reading, teachers tend to support the schemes with their own strategies. For instance, some teachers will extend on the reading schemes by discussing the books in the classroom, whilst other teachers may use a variety of schemes with different structures to allow the needs and interests of all children to be met (Campbell, 1995; Pearson, 1987).

Although there are positives for Reading Schemes, there are a lot of criticisms about the schemes, such as their bland content, their uniform appearance (Browne, 1998) and even that they delay children's access to the real world (Browne, 2009). Meek, talked about the disconnection, emptiness and arbitrariness of reading schemes (Cited in Browne, 2009), just like Stebbing and Raban whom had similar believes in which they suggested reading schemes are rarely "an instrument for entering possible worlds of human experience" (Cited in Browne, 2009:63), as well as Campbell, who states that in all types of schemes there is neither "a flow of language with a forward moving narrative and cohesive links between the sentences" (Campbell, 1995:110). Other disadvantages of reading schemes is that they tend to make some children very competitive, for some children this can make them feel conscious and worried of the stages they are on. For other children, it excels their reading ability because of the competitive streak in them. However it can be questioned if these children are reading simply to be better than the rest, and not simply for the love and joy of reading? (Pearson, 1987).

Schemes can also mislead teachers and parents into thinking the scheme on its own will teach the child to read. As well as misleading teachers and parents into thinking that all is important is to progress through the scheme(Browne, 1998). However, teachers and parents should understand that it is the appeal of reading that children should be interested in, not the constant progression (Pearson, 1987). Schemes also make it difficult for teachers to; widen the children's reading experiences; teach children the importance of reading; and teaching the skills needed to choose what they would like to read (Browne, 1998). As mentioned by Browne (1998) about reading schemes bland content, Pearson suggests that the bland and boring content in some books puts many children off reading; they become uninterested in reading and therefore no longer want to learn. Pearson also notes that the bland and uninteresting content of books is due to the authors of reading schemes concentrating simply on how it will help the children to read rather than the story itself (Pearson, 1987). Waterland and Meek suggested moving away from reading schemes to real books (Cited in Thomas, 1998).

It could be said that the research study done by Her Majesty's Inspectors (HMI) also support the negative criticisms of reading schemes. Whereby the study researched reading for purpose and pleasure, including how reading schemes help to develop children's reading. The study by HMI concluded that reading schemes did little to encourage positive attitudes or to help develop personal interests, as well as finding that the reading schemes used by the schools were either restricted or below the ability of certain pupils. For instance, a year 3 pupil was given a book below his ability and said "What use is that? It is too easy" (Cited in Ofsted, 2004)."

I'm even more confused???
So what's the purpose? Maybe I'm missing a point here, since I didn't have to force him to read anyway?
But, if the child is not keen on reading books which they find boring, what could be the purpose of reading it?

My DS actually enjoyed Biff and Chip books... He didn't get those books for home reading, but we bought few from charity shops because he loved them when they used at school for something.