Reading records in Year 5/6

[AugustRose]

I'm just curious to know if your schools still using reading records for the older children or more able children.

DD2 (10) hasn't really used hers since Yr4 as she is a very able reader, doesn't read to me (although we do talk about the books she has read) and her Headteacher knew she read a lot of books at home so she wasn't bothered about it. They do guided reading at school which is recorded by the teacher.

We got a new Head last year and he was surprised that some of the older children didn't use their records and wanted them to but didn't really force it.

This year he is insisting that they use them. DD and others in her group are advanced readers and I don't understand the need for them. I know reading records are helpful for younger and reluctant readers.

Do your children still use them? I know it's a minor issue but it is one of a few and maybe I'm just nit picking.

Those of you commenting on times table practice after they are well mastered - do your children write tables squares? If I was required to make a child practice them I'd challenge them to time filling in a 12x12 square and see how quick they could get it. And when they are seriously quick at that, switch the order of numbers around. That provides useful practice that is meaningful, and if they truly know them should only take a few minutes. Hope that helps because I can also imagine how my two would have complained if required to write out tables past year 3.

DD1 stopped with hers last year in yr4. I had a chat with her teacher, told her she hated the school books but ploughed through books at home so teacher said not to worry about it, as long as she was reading it was fine and to leave her to it.

Now in yr5 they’ve reorganised the whole reading set up with new diaries and prizes and we’re back to the sodding school books 🙄

DS's yr4 teacher was honest that she had no time to look at reading record.

Huge relief b/c it's a huge struggle to get DS to read anything but The Beano.

OP, just back to your comment about keeping kids in to read.
I agree, I don't like kids being kept in a playtime for things, I see playtime as an important part of school day.
BUT some of these kids just never ever read aloud to anyone. When I went in to help, I would hear readers, and it was the only time in the week they were heard. In a good class they were also hear once a week by the TA. The system (rightly or wrongly) assumes that children are listened to at home, and that is how they improve reading. While I totally agree that reading must be for fun not punishment, kids to have to read at some point.

Some kids who didn't like being kept in, started to read at home. For those few where there was no home support, the extra attention of reading at playtime was not necessarily negative. I have just realised that the kids must have been reading to them selves and not out loud as they couldn't have heard them all read in the time.

also wrt which book, we stopped reading school books years ago. I don't think I even asked for permission, I just borrowed books they liked from the library, at the right level and filled those in their reading record. I really hate the idea of forcing a kid to read a school book if there isn't one that they like. I have also found that all my kids went through obssessions with a particular book eg Enid Blyton or the Rainbow Fairies. In me experience letting them run with this obssession means they read lots and lots of the books over a couple of months and their reading speed and fluency improves dramatically. Then later you can nudge them back onto something more challenging.

Also ours filled their own records in from beginning of KS2, but parents did have to sign.

Grass - I don't wnat to derail the thread over mental maths but I was the one commenting about times tables.

My issue with the school is that they need to learn these for mental maths. Times tables are not essentially a written skill. The had a set of practice sheets which are commonly used over KS2 in thise school.

1. sheet with one tbale on it eg 5x
2. same table but mixed up
3. sheets with 2 or 3 tables mixed up
4. large sheet with all the tables mixed up on it, the idea being to do it against the clock, four minutes allowed, so 144 facts in 4 minutes.
5. (and in year 4 only 2 kids got this far I think) the same facts as division sums - eg 12 divided by 4 =?

I found it very slow, and until we got to the timed sheet, all of my kids would simply do the sheets by adding on, because they ar equick at maths, so they would just work down the sheet adding 5 to the last answer. The mixed sheest was the same (so not mixed differently each time) and again they would jump round it so they did it in order and could add 5 on to the last answer)

I had several much more effective oral ways of learning, but I was not allowed to just sign off that we had practiced 5x table, it had to be written in their format.

Once they have them all and know them, it is better to give them a quick fire test ever morning that fill in stupid sheets

I totally agree with steppe.
We had times table sheets in Yr4.
Ds started off from mixed up 12x12 sheets or division facts. . They wanted him to complete it under certain time. Every week it got ridiculous, it was more of how fast you can write, nothing to do with mental maths.
At first, he started adding 0 to random numbers to make numbers decimals, to make it more interesting. And in the end, he started adding random numbers, so he was doing not 5 x 5 but 5.8 x 8 .4, or 4.9 x 2.3, etc.
I think they stopped giving him times table homework, since homework letter suggests completing tables, he didn't bring home anything since certain time(can't remember when).

Pizzaexpressreview yes really. I was a Y5 and then Y4 teacher and now teach across KS2. We've never had to check up on what the children are reading at home. It seems a bit mad to me. And judging by this thread the benefit of it is debatable if people are making it up. And my school is good with outstanding features. That's not to say my school isn't going to introduce it, there is a push on reading at the moment, but I'm just speaking from my own experience so far. It just sounds a bit like another thing that stresses parents and children out and another job for the teacher to fit in with a billion other things to do.

It won't stress parents and children, or the teacher if it's done right.
Children: write titles, pages, comment if they have any.
Parents: just tick or signature, and comment if they want.

Teacher: tick, comment if they want.

It keeps good relationship between home and school.
If parents have any minor things need communicating with teacher , you can add to the comment, and feel confident that she/he will see it within a weak.
Teacher can see if the children reading regularly or not, what sort of books, etc.
And it takes only few seconds to fill it in.

But if there are prizes, as mentioned in some cases, then surely there will be a lot of exaggeration or outright lying going on. And then it's pointless. I don't know. I'm all for encouraging reading at home but I just think that the families that engage with it the most are probably the ones keenest on reading anyway, and for the children whose parents don't really support them at home, then a punishment isn't really going to help...

I'm not an expert of course, just my thoughts. My DS is only four so I've got all this to come I suppose. I'm not a big fan of homework for primary kids either, but I'm probably not supposed to say that as a teacher!

I'm all for encouraging reading at home

the trouble is, in UK schools, reading at home is how they learn to read. No reading at home means the child quickly drops behind at school. I don't think most people relaise just how key this is in their child's reading journey

Yes I agree with you on that. It's incredibly important.

I can understand all the points made. I also understand the value of reading aloud but that happens throughout the school day and at home anyway, from learning new songs, practicing and giving talks, reading from magazines, etc.

As a family we are all keen readers, all 4 dc have been early/advanced readers and DD2 is probably the most advanced. She loves doing Pira tests and always scores highly so her comprehension is good. With the new SPAG curriculum she has a far better understanding than me. She has been a free reader from Yr4 and it would have been a struggle if she'd been made to continue with the reading scheme.

The TA's are very good at our school, again because it is small they can be very focussed on those who need help, although the amount of reading in school isn't much unless they have parent helpers in.

They used to have 'paired reading' once a week, where one of the older children would read with a younger child. They all seemed to enjoy that but it was dropped when the new Head came.

Now on maths, that is where they do need help. DS2 is keen on maths, although he is still only 6 so I'm hoping it continues. DD2 is not so keep but is reaching slightly above her targets. DS1 and DD1 struggled with maths. In DS1's school they practiced tables as Grass mentioned. Writing them down and being timed, with both an ordered square then a mixed up square. And actually, while he struggled with concepts/methods his mental maths was better because of this practice.

My ds is in Y6 and an advanced reader. He has s reading diary and I have to record in it at least 3 x a week what he's reading. It's get signed by the teacher or TA.

My dd was the same in Y6. Different teacher.

Although ds is reading on his own, I get a moment when I ask him where he's up to in a story etc. I don't get why it's a problem?

I have a y5 and y2 currently. School is doing a big push on getting parent comments in reading records this term. They're both great independent readers and I'm cautious not to dampen that natural tendency by making them read when they don't want to and when it's awful stage books with zero plot: thank fuck I've got another year before Biff and Chip resumes chez Hath.

They tell me what they've read and I squiggle something in the reading record. Aiming to do so every weekend even if we forget during the week. They both read daily anyway, just not necessarily school books.

I'm sure my attitude would be different if they needed more support/nagging and I'm only doing it for the stupid house points now.

Yes DD used hers in year 5 and is doing the same for year 6. They are checked once a week and they get credits for each entry.

Just to clarify, this is for reading out loud to an adult only - if she had to record every time she picked a book up, the record would be full in the first week.

We just gave to record something everyday so as long as they are reading everyday I only put one entry even if they read multiple times!

Sounds a right faff for older primary children. You'd hope that for many by Y4 reading would be a pleasure and something they would want to do anyway. Having it policed by school seems to turn it into a chore. What if a kid just wants to read comic books for a couple of months, would they be given a hard time over it?

It's not a faff. All it requires is the child to spend 10 minutes at least reading aloud to someone (possibly parent) and the listening to sign and date to say completed.

And of course chatting about what they read.

ilovesushi, no, at my ds's school, if a child decided to read comic book to parents, that's totally fine. My ds actually done that too. I think what our school wants is for child to read aloud.

Mrz

Classic teacher answer.
Whilst I agree totally with the benefits of parents hearing children read, it doesn't change the fact that it is a total faff.

1. 10-15 minutes of arguing/cajoling the child to do reading.
2. child refuses point blank to go to hall to get school bag, because it is scary and they can see 'dark'.
3. abandon what you are doing to go with child to get school bag. (Find school bag is missing, spend 15minutes hunting for car keys to go out to car to retrieve school bag) 4)sit down and read for 10 mins 5)try to find a pen or something which will write to sign reading book.
4. sign book. (Have argument with child because you have written a note to school about the child's reading and they don't want you to!)
5. spend 10 mins getting the child to put books back in bag 8)put bag away, because child is still refusing to go into the hallway alone.

X by number of children you have in primary.
Add in child who must fulfill all school rules to the letter of the law and so repeatedly tells you he must do three signed reads a week, but will only do them when he wants which is usually not when you have time.

Yes it is important, but dont tell me, it isn't a 'faff'.

It's also a classic parent answer as I'm both.

We have to complete ours otherwise there HW doesn't get signed off..

I don't think I have ever seen the point..My DS is a bookworm...However the children who don't read.I have heard just lie.. They read Friday and it is then split over 3 days so they get HW signed off. It hasn't made them read anymore.

I still listen to my DS ( year 6) read sometimes as I remember finding it very difficult reading out loud in my English Oral exam ( don't even know if they still do them for final exams) ... I also though have been reading a series of books with him over summer holidays reading a chapter each..It has become something really enjoyable and about a book we share together.