Thoughts on reading schemes - Parents what do you REALLY think about them?

[neverwithoutabook]

My DS primary school always use reading scheme books and never send home anything else, are these books actually useful for kids or are 'real books' better to help learning to read?

[GoodyGoodyGumdrops]

I honestly don't care. As long as the content of the books isn't offensive, what does it matter? There's more to learning than just school. I've always read a huge range of books with my children, not just left their reading to the school.

[Sirzy]

No I like them at home. It's a good way of supporting learning at home with suitable material.

[ilongforlustre]

The reading scheme books we had were horrifically tedious. As bad as I remember them being when I was a child. I did accept them as necessary to teach certain skills though. I think it is important to supplement with other books at home. I am an avid reader myself and there is a lot more to reading than just being able to do it.

I found the ORT read at home series in a charity shop. It was surprisingly good. A lot less dry than the scheme books.

[Tomorrowillbeachicken]

DS' one for the weekend consists only of the words no, oh and floppy.

[Caroian]

Lots of people have already said it on this thread OP, and I'm sorry, but I think you are entirely missing the point!

Reading schemes are important because they allow children to work on the phonic knowledge they are building sequentially. Proper phonics reading schemes (not older, re-categorised books, or bloody Peter and Jane) are designed so that children will have the knowledge to read the entire book when it is given to them. It is important for practising those decoding skills and boosting confidence that they can read a whole book. They are a tiny, tiny, tiny part of your child's "reading" experience though. They read them in school and then bring them home where you can add a few more minutes of this practice to supplement what they have at school. Remember that young children still learning need support to read. With 30 kids in a class there is a limited amount of 1-1 reading time in the school day. I think it is reasonable for schools to send books home for you to do a bit more. But it's not compulsory. Just like anything else, reading is a skill, and more practice will improve it, faster. So no, I'd not veer away from them.

BUT - reading scheme books are for exactly that. Practicing the skill. They should not be the only reading you do with your child. We spend a few minutes on the school book each day and then many times as long sharing other books. Some of these are also books my reception child can read (often "easier" ones than his current school reading book), but I also read lots to him. Sometimes we do read more difficult books together, where he will read a couple of pages which contain words he can manage and I fill in the gaps. But this type of reading is "for fun" as I don't expect him to be able to develop good reading skills from only reading some words - which is what happens if he has a book above the level of phonics he is currently secure on. The only book I can be sure match his phonics knowledge are... you guessed it, reading scheme books!

Yes, lots of them are dull, but that in itself is s learning experience. My son has raced on with reading because he wants to be able to read the more exciting things I currently read to him. Understanding that it's necessary to develop his reading skills using the less interesting books is a big motivator.

FWIW, we're currently on some Nelson Thornes Sound Start books from school, which I'd never heard of. Some of them are very good. My son particularly enjoyed one about a flying bed!

[Tomorrowillbeachicken]

Caroian, are these phonics based?

[neverwithoutabook]

I feel like I am being misunderstood, I do see the benefits of scheme books and I truly understand the success of using a phonics system, but once your DC's understand the basics of reading and have read through about 200 scheme books, is it really necessary to use even more up until they are year 6? AIBU?
I just want to get my DS to love reading as much as I do, but at the moment he just see's reading as a chore

[meditrina]

'until they are year 6'

This sounds really, really unusual.

Has your school held any information evenings about how they teach reading? It might be worth talking to a teacher, because what's you've said sounds more likely to be a misunderstanding than actual procedure.

(Of course, pupils who need additional support should continue on schemes for as long as they need it, right up to year 6 if necessary, and am wondering if that message has become garbled)

[Sirzy]

Love of reading comes from having access to a wide range of reading literature at home. Skills for reading come from the reading schemes which are designed to gradually build on skills in both reading and comprehension.

[catkind]

Whatever reading scheme do you have that go up to year 6? Surely there aren't enough BCK books to keep them going that long? Any schemes I've seen that have levels going up to an average year 6 ability are well into "real book" territory anyway, just packaged in a different format. They'll have set texts for as long as they study English right through secondary, and sometimes they may not be what they'd read out of choice, and sometimes they will be expected to read them as homework (if schools can still afford books to send home). Never stopped any of us enjoying reading other things.

Can't you just read the school book(s) for 5 minutes a day max? If it's taking 2 hours+ out of your week then I suspect either the books are too hard or you've got the wrong end of the stick in terms of how much is expected. Then you're not pressuring DC to read things they don't want to for hours and putting them off. And loads of time for reading other things they love. Problem fixed. How old are your DC anyway, do you have a year 6?

[sirfredfredgeorge]

I think you're being misunderstood because you appear to have a completely different experience to everyone else.

two hours a week of scheme books.
200 scheme books.
reading schemes to year 6.
etc.

No-one else does this... so you're either bring up a straw man, or have a very odd school.

[ceeveebee]

How old is your child OP, I don't think you've said yet?

[Caroian]

tomorrow the ones we have had appear to be (I'm not a teacher though!) Certainly my son has been able to decode any unfamiliar words he has met in the books we've had. (He was, however, already able to read before he started school, and knows more phonic sounds than I believe have officially been taught to the class so far. Recent books have included the -igh sound and split digraphs.)

What sirzy said is bautifully succinct

And OP - to answer your latest question - No, I would hope we won't be using reading scheme books by year 6. The vast majority of children can read by the age of ten and once they are capable of reading books of their own choosing then of course that is what they should be reading. I think you are drip feeding as there is a big difference between a school sending home reading scheme books for 5-10 minutes per day practice for reception and KS1 (common, I believe), to schools expecting 30 mins of reading per day from reading scheme books all the way up to year 6 (would be very unusual). So what is the actual picture?

[neverwithoutabook]

I'm a new mum, just looking for some advice. I'm new to mumsnet as well, and starting to get a little overwhelmed.
My DS is 8 at the moment, he is a good reader but his school keep sending home scheme books and still won't let him become a free reader.
AIBU to think that the colour coded system on reading books becomes quite stigmatised at the school gate? I constantly get asked by other mums and dad about what colour my DS is reading, like a reading competition between parents!

[neverwithoutabook]

That meant to say I'm new to mumsnet, not a new mum, I've been a mum for 8 years

[mrz]

"Whatever reading scheme do you have that go up to year 6? ". ORT, Bug Club, Rigby etc all publish scheme books up to old level 6 ...regard them as texts books with specific learning intentions beyond being able to read the words.

[Tomorrowillbeachicken]

I think some of it is curiosity. DS is in reception and I have to admit I am curious about what others in the year are on but won't ask outright.

[Sirzy]

I have never had a conversation with another parent about book levels. Can't say I care that much TBH. I know one other child's level and that is because him and ds decided to swap books (including reading records) on the carpet at home time on Friday so he came down th path with the wrong one.

[Caroian]

It sounds like your issue is less "reading schemes" and more the situation with your son not enjoying the books and hence the reading.

There are two things you can do:

1. Talk to the teacher to find out where he is at and why he isn't classed as a "free reader"
   
2. Stop reading the scheme books at home and read what he actually wants to read. Perhaps makee a note of what he has actually read and why he didn't read the school book in the reading record.
   

The latter is a bit passive aggressive though. I'd probably try to discuss with the teacher.

As for other parents... I think people get hung up on reading levels as they as something objective that they can compare to try to gauge how their child is doing. It doesn't work like that though, but I think some parents just can't stop themselves. And a bit of curiosity is a natural thing. Actually asking outright what level kids are on is a bit much though. If a parent asked me that I'd probably say something along the lines of "Oh, I don't actually know now that you mention it." Or make them squirm by saying in an innocent way "does it make a difference?"

[mrz]

We don't have free readers or book banded reading scheme books. The teacher allocates the books to match learning needs.

[catkind]

YABU to keep changing the question all the time! And probably YABU to discuss reading levels in the playground, it only encourages competitiveness.
"What level's LittleNever on?" "Oh he doesn't like the school books much, but he's really loving Harry Potter at home" or whatever it is he reads for fun. Then you can talk about actual books which is a much more interesting conversation anyway. Or just a straight "Best not to compare don't you think?" Bonus PA points if you add, "don't want the kids to get competitive about it".

[MsAwesomeDragon]

I hate to break it to anyone who thinks you'll be done with reading schemes by year 7, but lots of secondary schools now have schemes where pupils choose their library books from certain colour bands. Mine does for year 7 and 8. They have a reading test when they arrive in year 7 and are told which colour books they should be reading, and they do a quiz about each book as they finish it to test their comprehension. They are "real" books though, that have been classified into colours based on difficulty of comprehension rather than the decoding of the words (although the comprehension and the range of new vocabulary seem quite well linked).

Reading is a skill that needs to be practised. Children don't improve their reading/comprehension if they are choosing books that are too easy or too hard. Easy books don't provide enough challenge to help anybody improve, although obviously they can be fun to read as well. Difficult books are off-putting and can lead to confusion. Each child will have a range of difficulty where it's just right for them and that's where they will make the most progress.

Yes we want reading to be fun and interesting. So spend the minimum time on the reading scheme books, treat it as homework, there will be reading homework all the way through education (Even universities expect you to read books you wouldn't have chosen yourself). Then read whatever you want as the fun reading.

[Tomorrowillbeachicken]

Yikes, no wonder so many teens are deciding they don't want to read for leisure.

[MsAwesomeDragon]

Actually, since we started this scheme about 5 years ago we have had a self-reported increase in the number of teens reading for pleasure. Of course that also corresponds with an increase in reading ability when they arrived at secondary schools (because they had proper phonics teaching at primary). They aren't actually reading scheme books, they are popular novels amongst teenagers graded into colours by difficulty. Lots of my year 7 class are reading things like Girl Online (apparently this is very, very popular with the girls), Jaqueline Wilson books, Wimpy kid books, Roald Dahl, etc. Most of my form are quite enthusiastic about reading and eager to do the quizzes. Some aren't, but they had that attitude way before they reached secondary school.

[zad716]

The school DS (year 2) goes to had to replace all of their reading scheme books this year and the newer ORT books (including Project X) they have bought are actually pretty good (though anything would be an improvement on Biff, etc).