ORT level 5 - how many books are there?

[vladthedisorganised]

DD is a massively reluctant reader. She loves being read to, but will only read anything under huge duress - I can just about get her to read a few lines of a book she likes by 'buddy reading' but at a point she'll refuse, and I don't want reading to turn into another battle of wills (like homework).

She moved up to ORT level 5 quite quickly, but appears to have been on the same level for most of the year. I'm sure this is mainly down to the fact she won't practice more than the absolute bare minimum at home - at most I can get ten minutes out of her every day, and I feel (wrongly??) that pushing her any more will be counter-productive. What I am surprised at is the sheer number of books at level 5 - we must have had 20+ books home at this level. Are there really this many? We must have worked our way through all of them by now... (hopeful)

The school have made it clear that reading any other book is a nice extra but doesn't count towards 'reading practice' - her school report said she should increase the amount of time she spends reading her school books at home, which is fair enough I suppose - if difficult. Do we need to suck it up and resign ourselves to yet more ORT level 5, or is there light at the end of the tunnel?

If she reads them all and isn't ready to move up they'll just give them to her again.

Because if level 6 is too hard for her there's no point in sending them home.

Which year is she in?

Do you know why she's so reluctant?

She's in year 1 - I don't have any particular issue with her not moving up, but the length of time she's been stuck on this level does surprise me.

As to why the reluctance - I've been racking my brains to figure out why for the last year, and I'm pretty stumped. I love reading and always have; she sees me reading all the time; we have loads of books around the house and they seem to engage her, she likes picking out books at libraries but she won't read them herself. She doesn't like phonics at all and it doesn't come naturally to her, but it's been drilled in so much that she won't 'just read' without sounding everything out first.

It is quite sad - the lack of progress doesn't bother me (perhaps it should) as much as her obvious boredom with anything to do with reading, which the endless ORT books don't help - if I ever suggest reading she'll start with "but I hate reading!". Very hard to turn it around so far.

Can she read without sounding everything out? If she can you need to convince her it's okay to. If not then I can see why they don't want her beyond level 5. Even level 5 seems a bit high tbh, it's such a drag for them reading long books and sounding out everything, no wonder she's not enjoying it.
One thing that helped DS get more fluent was suggesting he look through a sentence first in his head and sound out any words he needed to, then read the whole sentence aloud. Could your DD be at a stage where that would help?

24 books according to this ......

24 books according to this ......

24 books according to this ......

Sorry for x3 post iPad said it 'wasn't successful'

And then there's the non-fiction, the Traditional Tales, probably more series, and that's assuming they don't use other schemes too. Just depends what a school has.

her school report said she should increase the amount of time she spends reading her school books at home, which is fair enough I suppose - if difficult

I think that sounds like a very poor cop out. They have a student who's added nothing in a year, for whatever reason, and their plan is "more of the same", she's already doing an hour a week at home reading these books and it's not been helping. I would be pushing the teachers for a more active plan than that, what have they been doing to improve the reading?

Along with the statement The school have made it clear that reading any other book is a nice extra but doesn't count towards 'reading practice' They seem pretty odd, what does that actually mean?

Surely stage 5 is an average place to be at this age? What phonics scheme do they use? My DS is yr1 as well. He went through a stage of not wanting to read - I told school I wasn't forcing him as he is still young and I didn't want to put him off. I read stories to him at night for a bit and he is now interested again.

Though his school focuses on them reading and recognise that a continuous diet of Biff, Chip and Kipper is tedious so we get books out the library too. They've asked for him to read one or two school books a week if poss.

Also are there any actual members of staff reading with her on a regular basis?

Surely stage 5 is an average place to be at this age? What phonics scheme do they use? My DS is yr1 as well. He went through a stage of not wanting to read - I told school I wasn't forcing him as he is still young and I didn't want to put him off. I read stories to him at night for a bit and he is now interested again.

Though his school focuses on them reading and recognise that a continuous diet of Biff, Chip and Kipper is tedious so we get books out the library too. They've asked for him to read one or two school books a week if poss.

Also are there any actual members of staff reading with her on a regular basis?

Oops sorry for double post

Perhaps it's the boring nature of the books? Can you forget the ORT for the summer and just choose some books she would enjoy reading. The library do a summer reading challenge where if kids read 6 books over the summer they get a medal and there are various stickers etc to collect. Would that motivate her? Doesn't have to be fiction how about non fiction, cookery book, joke book etc
Let her choose some fun books to enjoy and motivate her that way.
I think level 6 Orange is the minimum expected standard for end year one. It sounds like she is bored of the books to me, bring the fun back to reading forget bloody biff and kipper.

ORT have various books available :
Biff Chip etc
Snapdragons : various authors fiction
Fireflies : non fiction, various topics
Gloworms: poetry
Songbirds : phonics stories written by Julia Donaldson

They come in all the reading levels except songbirds -L6

There are loads of reading schemes. Might be worth speaking to the literacy coordinator and seeing if they have any helpful suggestions.

Try reading chest. They provide a much bigger range of scheme books than schools are likely to have, and you can also try the other levels. I think they are great for summer reading too because you get a steady supply of suitable reading material through the summer.

Personally I would ignore the focus on dull school books and find her something she enjoys reading.

There are some early reader Rainbow Fairies books that were a bit hit with dd1, do you think something like that would appeal?