DD (age 7) has always been classed as a competent reader and finished year 2 on book band 13. She came home with her first reading book for year 3 at book band 10. It's a book she actually read at the end of year 1, so she was actually quite upset and firing questions at me I couldn't answer such as doesn't Ms X think I am as good a reader as Miss Y did?
Along with the book was an email saying the majority of the year group had come home on a lower book band than they finished year 2 because they were trialling a 'new system' based on
Bloom's Taxonomy for Reading . So in order to progress to the next book band, children will need to demonstrate that they are achieving those higher levels on their current reading band.
I went away and did some reading around critical thinking and higher order cognitive processes in children. It was very interesting. There's a lot of literature out there suggesting that we can and should be pushing critical thinking skills from a very early age, and I particularly liked this Stage Theory of Critical Thinking .
However, on the other hand you have Piaget who suggests that these skills are emerging but not fully developed until the age of 11 or so. Combine this with the knowledge that the frontal lobe and general neurological development which would enable a child to reach those higher order levels of thinking doesn't happen until the teenage years.
So after all my reading, I have come to the conclusion that I whilst wholeheartedly support the promotion of critical thinking skills from a young age, and think what they are attempting to do is exciting and progressive, I don't think it's appropriate to use the ability to think critically as a measure for determining progress in reading in 7 and 8 year olds who are not neurologically and cognitively able to do it.
I've emailed the class teacher to ask what my daughter's individual learning objectives are, in order to need her to drop back 3 whole book bands, but in the meantime, I'd be really interested to hear what other teachers and parents think.
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Critical thinking and reading development in year 3
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Whoamireally · 24/09/2016 05:36
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