Ort levels

[101Missdaisy]

I was wondering if anybody could help. Do the expected levels for each year group on ort website match up to the new curriculum as they are now expected to be able to do more earlier?

No I don't think they do match up....Most experts will say that book band isn't particularly relevant in progress these days anyway.

Well, surely you can still use the current age-to-Tree-level tables as a lower bound on the ranges, e.g. just ignore the NC levels on charts like the one at the bottom of this page:

www.northnibley.gloucs.sch.uk/?page_id=967

Personally I will be very surprised if the new curriculum makes a lot of difference to how fast many kids read, so tables like this will still be about right even if the NC levels no longer make sense. It certainly gives the rough spread in my DD's year 2 class.

Those books wouldn't prepare children for the expecations of the reading tests or meet the expected standard (look at books for age 9 for a better idea of new standard)

The teachers I have read posts by seem to think the number of children reaching the expected standards this year will be low.

Certainly the second of the two year 2 reading papers was, in my opinion, roughly equivalent to an old 3b ( although others might disagree!) I would think reading and UNDERSTANDING a minimum of ORT stage 11 would be necessary to successfully meet the standard.

Do teachers find that over the last few years children are reaching higher book bands earlier?

So ORT level 11 by the end of year 2?

To be at "expected" level?!

I'm afraid it isn't that simple by any means.

Thanks for the replies. If it's not just about reading and understanding level 11 what else do they need to be able to do to prepare for Sats? As a parent it's hard to know how to help them at home.

I have been a volunteer reader with years one and two for over 7 years and in addition to reading and understanding I talk about/do the following with the children:
predicting what will happen next in the story
retelling the story
talking about characters and why they have acted in a certain way
asking children what they would do in the same situation
reading with expression and importance of punctuation
making sure that children understand the meaning of new words - I read with a lot of kids whose first language is not English and they can often decode, but struggle with meanings. Also look at synonyms.
Perhaps some of these ideas would be useful for reading tests.
I know some parents are keen for their children to race through the levels, but there is so much to reading than 'decoding'.

To help at home I would encourage reading for enjoyment. Asking questions to check understanding and talking about the text is useful as is biilding up to reading longer texts but my honest opinion is that reading tests can remove all the fun from reading. I have worked in Y2 and Y6 and of all the assessments children do now the reading test always gets the biggest groan.
I really struggle to stay motivated to read to the end of a Y6 paper.

My dd is in reception and a very able reader but due to various issues with the last ofsted, the reading seems to have been overlooked in favour of letters and sounds and numeracy and the school are insisting that the dc read every book in each band, she started on pink in September, then moved to red in March and is still on red and bored with the books :(
I have asked if it's a comprehension issue which it isn't, the school just seem rigid on reading every book.
She's always read at a higher level in school during guided reading so makes no sense that she's still bringing red home.
Last week alone she brought home 10 different books, 2 per night and they were changed daily.
I've started buying more challenging books for home as I don't want her to give up on reading at 5 due to lack of stimulation.

TrappedNerve, that sounds like a bit of a nightmare! So, she's having to read through 10 of these easy books per week in order to 'get through' red and move up to the next level (which might also prove to be too easy) - and she's reading at a higher level in guided reading, so presumably she's not the only one capable of reading 'ahead' of her level.

For the first term DD's school got round this by giving her the 'easy' book but also one that matched her actual reading level. The easy book had a worksheet so she got some homework. After a term they gave up on the easy book and she just goes to another class to choose her books. She does phonics with the rest of her class though.

One option for you might be to basically give up on the school reading system, let your DD read a red book once or twice a week, and supply all her other books yourselves, making a note in her reading record at every possible stage. However, it seems awful to have to do this so early on in school.

You've probably thought of this before, but if they read from a specific scheme at school, I'd make sure you don't read any scheme books at home, or else it could get even worse later on if the school force her to re--read any books in order to tick their boxes!

I guess there's always the possibility that next year the teacher will be a bit more flexible? It's only a few more weeks...