Orange reading level - how much of a book should DD read at home?

[RoastieToastieReastie]

DD5 (reception) is now on orange reading books. Initially she would read a whole book at school and then the same one at home when she came home (she gets a new book every day from school) then as she progressed up she would read half a book at school and then half with us at home.

She's now on orange which have more words in than previously and the ones we've had home over the past week or so have roughly 24 pages and school seem to be doing approx 4-6 pages a day with her, leaving up to 20 pages for us. If I ask the school whether we are expected to finish the book at home every evening I get a generic 'whatever you can do at home will enhance reading' etc etc but we're struggling to keep DD motivated to finish the whole book, yet we've uo to now always had a book a day so it's in my mindset that we need to finish it. I just wondered what the actual expectation/ideal/realistic view is of this and what other people do. I'd love her to finish the books and set this as a target, but since she seems to be reading less at school this term (another issue I won't go into) I wondered at what point/level does the 'book a day' plan not become appropriate given the longer stories. For background I know some parents aren't that strict with finishing books or reading at home every day with their Dc but DD has absolutely always finished her reading book at home every day bar illness. She generally likes it and doesn't complain too much .

It's a slightly outdated method of working out whether a book is at the right level but 90+% is what is usually quoted as about right for a reading book and instructional level.

95+% would be an independent reading level.

Are they the Ginn books? They are quite old and some of the language might be an issue.

'Mirth' may be a 'random' and not widely used word, but it's phonically very straightforward.

I would focus on consolidating her phonic knowledge and comprehension, rather than worrying about how pages she's reading each day tbh.

Can you tell us what the books are OP?

Phonetically it's straighforward, but it's not necessarily a word that would be in the vocab of a 4/5 year old. Which might mean stopping to discuss word meanings frequently if a lot of other words are the same. It could well require a similar amount of effort as struggling to decode a lot of words that are already in a child's receptive vocabulary.

I think what the school are doing with her sounds about right, be guided by your dd, she needs to continue to enjoy the story. Even if reading then only takes 5 mind you can then spend time discussing the story, developing vital comprehension, recount, inference and prediction skills.

At this stage my dd loved reading her familiar picture books, much harder vocabulary but she knew them by heart anyway ;)

DD still reads the whole book each night (also orange, Reception, private school), she does so happily though as she is simply used to reading the whole book. I think they only moved them up levels when they felt they could handle the whole book at her school. Level 7 or 8 books are really not that different from level 6, the main difference tends to be the amount of sentences per page. But they have always told us no need to finish in a day, we just started like this from day 1 and as long as DD happily finishes no problem. If your daughter resists I agree with others life's too short. But see if you can change the setting, we often read the book at bedtime, so DD reads her reading book and then I read her the other bedtime stories.

Which rafal is why it's important to support a child to be secure in their phone knowledge and comprehension rather than aiming for a particular number of pages to be read each night, surely?

It is indeed ginn reading books. I'm attaching photos I've found online of ginn books that look roughly the type of thing she's reading in terms of content and word amount per page (although some pages have less). I didn't realise she was doing so well, this is encouraging and I feel like I can relax a bit about it.

I do ask her comprehension questions etc about the reading (although not always) just in a post reading chat) or we talk during the story (eg what do you think might happen next? Why do you think he's got a sad face in the picture type of thing) and she always seems to have a good understanding of the story. We've also started talking a bit about punctuation too.

But your said in your second post that you think she's doing well with her reading and the school think the same, so I don't understand why you're now saying that you 'didn't realise she was doing so well'.

Learning to read is a marathon, not a sprint. It doesn't matter whether a child 'gets through' 6, 16 or 26 pages in a sitting if they're not able to use their phonic knowledge quickly and accurately and understand what they're reading.

It sounds like you dd is doing just fine btw.

Thanks rosebud. I knew dd was getting on with reading well as school were telling me this (although they seem to be very positive with everyone about everything so it doesn't necessarily mean a lot), but having looked a bit more at reading levels etc and speaking to friends I didn't realise she was quite so ahead.

Oh gosh, those look awful, I don't think my kids would read them at all let alone a whole one. New suggestion: ditch the school books and go to the library.

Yep. There are much, much better early readers about than those, that's for sure.

I'd be pretty pissed off to be paying private school fees and be getting that sort of book home. There are much better schemes out there. So far I've liked the Big Cat ones, particularly the factual ones.

They are dire in the early levels. Some of the later levels aren't too bad.

I've used bits of them as a whole class text (especially the playscripts) and the child I used to look after preferred having having the mix of texts in one book.

I don't know if the new reprints have been updated in terms of language though.

We've finished an epic 40 pager ginn book tonight (we didn't do the whole thing tonight! It's been a two day job) so see if we get a non-ginn one tomorrow :) we haven't had a factual one for ages actually. Of the four stories in the book one really caught dds imagination and was fab for her to read because she actually wanted to. The others I think she found pretty tedious though.

Why are they using such old-fashioned books? If a state school can order in contemporary fiction, non-fiction and plays that are relevant and will appeal to children, I can't see why a private can't.

They can be a bit like that.

You have to pick and choose a bit, which isn't possible in a scheme for home use.

Mostly I think they are a sign of the time they were written. I learnt to read with those 30 years ago, and I don't think that our school copies were particularly new.

I thought those Ginn books had all been binned! Our state school is extremely high performing overall and esp in reading but uses much more fun reading books and no reception child would get to orange as they view it as too rushed. (Unless totally exceptional) They move DC slowly and steadily through books and consolidate a lot. They don't encourage racing ahead. Year one work at green / orange / turquoise level. But them our school is also massively into extra curricular and not just academics so homework is minimal... We don't read every night as the DC have loads of other activities on

I work in KS 2 but occasionally cover in Reception. We wouldn't expect a child to read the whole book in a night but over two or three nights. Preferably reading the book a second time for fluency and understanding. You don't want to turn her off. I would let her read what she wants about 7/8 pages and then read some other books together at bedtime.
Crikey I thought we had some old books! I would join the PTA and fundraiser for new books. They could sell those on eBay to collectors of vintage books.:)

Our school has some very old books still. DS was on orange level until recently and is now on turquoise. The word count seems to vary with the books and sometimes he finishes a book in one go, sometimes it takes a couple of days or so. I don't force him to read if he is tired or really not in the mood for it and I don't force it beyond the length of time he is seeming engaged with it. Usually 10-15mins is a good session but sometimes he will go for longer and we can read 2/3 books in a half hour space.

I find varying the books helps, we do the school one for a bit then he gets to choose a home book. It keeps him happy and enjoying it. I agree with smellyboot, mixing it up is the way to go, if they have fun activities the time they do spend reading it's more likely to be useful. Also we do reading where you find it - so DS will read out some words he sees on the tv, the cereal packet or a sign or out shopping. Reading is meant to be fun!

As DD moved up reading levels, her Head Teacher - who I trust implicitly - explained that it stops being about being able to 'read' the book, but about how much of the story is being understood.

I.e. word recognition isn't enough, there needs to be use of the punctuation, expression, comprehension as well. It's key to being able to 'use' the reading skill in harder texts later.

Orange was about where they started to insist that books were read more slowly, and started asking us to question DD for comprehension and understanding - so, say, stop half way through and ask what she thought would happen next, who her most/least favourite characters were, why she thought they were doing what they were.

I'll be honest, if your working with Biff and Chip etc, it's hard to get anything meaningful from the answers but there you go.

Orange (on the ORT at least) in Reception is progress ahead of expectation for her age so she's doing well.

Also have a dd5 who is on orange. Her reading is very strong but I don't force her to read the whole book (1/2 a day seems fine). They do guided reading daily at school and also read 121 every other day. I read something to her every day and I know she reads other books around the house to herself (though not to me). That is enough I think

State school by the way

I've always followed my daughters lead so some nights she will read masses and other nights a page but she is now 7 and a free reader. As the bands move it will take longer to read the book and as well as reading it it is important to allow time for discussing to ensure they have understood what they read so all in all some nights it used to be a page other nights a whole book!